Well, here it is - the long awaited conclusion to my rant on local politics. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go read January's diary. Thanks to my friend Jenny for statistics I'm going to quote herein. Jenny is a farmer in New Mexico, and they don't grow wheat on their farm (partly because of its crappy financial returns), but they do bail it for other people. Please keep in mind that I am completely oversimplifying farming, just to make a point.
Jenny agrees with me that farm subsidies won't make your average farmer rich, and she quoted me some numbers. She says that wheat in her area is going for $2.87/bushel (that was on January 26th). I recently heard the grain market report for our area - it's about $3.66/bushel here. Now, Jenny tells me that one acre of unirrigated land will produce 15-20 bushels of wheat. So say you have 1,000 acres of land. That's about 17,500 bushels of "haul" per season. At $3.66/bushel, that's $64,050, not counting government subsidies. Let's assume 25% right off the top for taxes, which leaves about $48,000. Now, ignoring the fact that you have to buy seed, fertilizer, equipment, tools, and pay for labor, storage and transport, $48,000 is pretty damn pitiful as an income these days, wouldn't you say? Not exactly knocking down the doors of the Fortune 500 club. Farmers make an honest, decent, difficult living, and the government is right to support them in times of low prices. If they didn't, they'd have to support the rest of us. 'Nuff said.
Adam is sick. He's been vomiting and having diarrhea for 2 days, along with a fever and general crankiness. Mike's still congested and feeling crappy, and I'm dehydrated and fatigued. Cheerful bunch, ain't we? I'll spare you the gory details of yesterday's outing to Spokane. Suffice to say, it's not an experience I care to repeat. Ever.
Two weeks... let's see... *referring to Day-timer* .. ah, yes.. Wednesday night was the La Leche meeting. I must admit, I get very little out of these meetings anymore - the questions are the same, the answers are the same, the books are the same - but Adam enjoys interacting with the other children, and frankly, I felt he hadn't been getting enough of that lately, so we went. The next day was errands into town; nothing to report. Friday began the county basketball championships that were, coincidentally, held in Endicott. Adam and I went to a fair bit of it on Friday, Saturday, and Monday (recovered on Sunday), and I discovered several things: (1) Adam adores the game (yay!), (2) Adam adores popcorn, (3) Adam adores suckers (he found this one out, too), (4) some insignificant gossip about the Rosalia team that kept them out of playoffs, and (5) pregnant, I do not have the same stamina as when unoccupied.
Monday was also my guild's monthly meeting, so I left Adam home in the morning to go to that. It was inspiring, as usual, and I got a few details cleared up before next month (I'm set to deliver the program in March). Then I raced home, watched over a sleeping Adam while Mike did chores, and went to basketball. I came home between the third and fourth games to fetch Adam, for which he was very grateful (he got another sucker out of the deal). Tuesday was mostly a recovery day, then Wednesday we went in for another OB check. They did an ultrasound again, and theoretically I'm far enough along to see the gender by u/s, but the child was all curled up on itself, and we couldn't even get good body measurements, let alone see if it was an innie or an outtie. We did see enough to know that the baby is healthy and that I'm doing ok as an incubator, though.
After the doctor's appointment, we went to the furniture store. We've decided to start transitioning Adam to his own bed, so we picked out and paid for a little twin mattress before going home.
Thursday was Valentine's Day, and as usual, we played it pretty low-key. Mike made us a yummy steak dinner, and we had sparkling grape juice (much-appreciated by Adam), and we ate lots of goodies. I don't remember much of the weekend, so I don't know if there's anything to report (Day-timer is silent on the matter). Monday Adam and I drove into Pullman for more playoff action. We watched four games (with a three-hour break in between), during which (among other things) we saw the St. John-Endicott girls lose by one point, and the boys win by an embarrassingly big margin. During the break, I drove around to get Adam to sleep and we had pizza after he woke up.
Yesterday I went back into Pullman (on my own this time) to attend the Needlers meeting. It was fun, and I'm glad I went. Ran a couple of errands and come home. Today I considered taking Adam to Pullman for more playoffs, but I announced I was taking sign-ups for shops for the next Mall Crawl and ended up spending the better part of the day processing orders. A good thing! Maybe we'll get to go tomorrow.
Last Thursday was chores, again. Nothing much to report there. That night, my back went out, so I spent the whole evening in the tub and lying on a heating pad in bed. Friday was more of the same. Since the Mall Crawl ended, I've been spending some time every day drawing prize winners. There is a total of 838 prizes, so it's taking a LONG time. I can usually do 100-150 a day.
Saturday I got a horrible migraine headache. It actually started out as a regular headache, but we had no Tylenol on hand, so it escalated. I ended the day by throwing up my dinner. I only *thought* I was out of the woods with the nausea. Sunday was another so-so day with regard to pregnancy/health.
Yesterday was much better. Maybe the best I've felt in months. I went to a meeting of the Needlers and helped settle some details about an upcoming project. Before the meeting, I stopped at Basilio's and had lunch (I had won a free coupon from a radio trivia contest - do YOU know who delivered an original poem at Clinton's 1993 inauguration?). After the meeting, I made a couple of deposits at the bank, got Tylenol and milk from the grocery store, and came home.