White Rabbit Day Challenge

For some reason for many years, more than twenty, I've tried to say "white rabbit" the first thing when I wake up in the morning on the first day of the month. The trick is to say white rabbit before I say anything else. It isn't an easy thing to remember to do. I don't try to say white rabbit every month, only some times, perhaps about half the time. I made the white rabbit tile above in honor of white rabbit day.

Now why do I do this? Why would I want to try to say white rabbit the first day of the month? It's supposed to bring me good luck for the whole month. I'm not particularly superstitious, and I'm not sure I believe this, but I figure why not, what does it hurt. Plus there's the power of positive thinking. If I think I'm going to have good luck, then maybe I will.

Sometimes I tell people this story and they look at me like I'm silly believing that. Other times people ask me if I really think it's true. Still others say they are going to try it and when I ask them the next day if they succeeded, they most often say they forgot. Of course I've got Gary trying to remember to do this too. Sometimes we surprise ourselves and we each remember, other times we remember after we've said something else so it doesn't count. Other times we forget completely.

Before I posted this I thought I'd look up to see if anyone else has posted a topic about a white rabbit. Much to my surprise, there's a long standing superstition of saying Rabbit Rabbit or White Rabbit just as I've described. So I think someone must have told me this and I incorporated it into my life somehow.

So I challenge you to say white rabbit on March 1st. See if you can remember to say white rabbit the first thing in the morning when you wake up. And please let me know if you succeed or not. Even if you think it's silly just try it, it's fun and harmless, so why not? Remember now, this is a short month, and tomorrow is March 1st, so don't forget.

Polished Kiln

Here's a textured tile I did the other day on my black clay. The top is a textured bag some shrimp came in and the bottom one is a brass sprocket. Metal is bringing top dollar at the scrap yards, especially brass or copper.


I've been looking and looking for some metal pieces to use and they are hard to come by. The scrap yard only had huge ones, the rest they pile in bins and won't let the public rummage through. Some old clock works would be ideal for impressing in clay.


This one I'm experimenting from a video by Curt Benzle on ceramic arts daily tip of the day for layered colored slip. I think the slip was too wet and I didn't get all the colors to show. I have six layers of slip of white, green, lavender, blue, chartreuse and peach, but it looks like only the green and blue are showing. I've let the tile dry a bit more and will try more sgraffito through the layers to see what I get.


Here's the raku kiln set up with one section left out. Gary cleaned it all up, connected the wire to the pyrometer and polished the metal. There's nothing prettier than a polished kiln. Thanks Gary. He says putting the polish on the metal keeps it from rusting. Gary likes shiny metal. When Gary was driving trucks he said he didn't care what the rest of the truck looked like, but he wanted to look out over a shiny hood as he drove down the road. I think Gary is looking forward to seeing some shiny raku pieces come out of the kiln.

There was one short red wire under the kiln we're not sure where it goes? Any idea? The burners were filled with black soot and a bunch of it is all over the inside my car, not sure how it floated around in there, but it did. Perhaps because I had the air on that afternoon. A good reason to wear a mask when dealing with raku.

I woke up early with an idea for two series of pieces I can make for raku and I can't wait to get started on them. If I wake up with an idea I have to get up and jot down a memory sketch, otherwise I may forget about the idea. I think I'll check the tide tables and maybe we can go down and put our fishing lines in the water today and see what we can come up with.

Raku Kiln

I thank my lucky stars today; I found a used Olympic torchbearer kiln for a very reasonable price. The propane fueled raku/reduction kiln is about 18 x 27 inches with two burners. It came with the shelves, the tongs, the pyrometer, and a rolling stand. Not only that I now have a renewed energy for clay to boot. Even Gary is excited. He didn't even balk when I ran into the garage and said hurry, let's get going, we're going to look at a raku kiln.


The purchase of the kiln was bittersweet because the person I got the kiln from, Gary Finfrock, lost his vision in 2004. He said he can no longer safely do reduction and raku. But Gary is an inspiration because he still makes pottery on his wheel and fires in an electric kiln and sells his work in local art fairs. The kiln is still in the back of my car. We'll unload it today, and prepare for a firing very soon. I have a few little plates in the drying cabinet I can use for a test firing, so stay tuned.

Spare Change

This past summer we were driving to Ocala for some reason or another and drove by the intersection of Highway 200 at Interstate 75. There's always a myriad of traffic, people, congestion and the like and one has to be careful to avoid all the snarls and distractions. On the side of the road I saw several people panhandling. I started to look away thinking most of them had a social resource for sustenance.

Oh, you've probably heard the story of the guy in San Francisco who made 40k a year panhandling for spare change and drove away each day in his fancy SUV parked around the corner. Just a week ago the news in Tampa said they were going to ban panhandlers in the city. Sure some people asking for spare change on street corners aren't legitimate, but some of them are. How can a person tell which cry for help is legitimate and which isn't?

As I turned away that day, I saw her in the crowd of others who were begging. A young woman dressed in clean, well worn clothes with a baseball cap shielding her face from the 96F noon day temperatures. She held a sign which read, "Please help, mother of 3, laid off, needs work".

I turned to Gary and said, she needs work, we could hire her to do some painting or weeding at our house. Gary said she lives too far from our house and it wouldn't be cost effective for her to come to our home. Gary said how do you know you can trust her. I said I just know I can trust her. If she is out there begging in this heat, she is desperate and she needs help.

For weeks I couldn't get the picture of the woman who was begging out of my mind. I wanted to go back there and help her. I want to help all the folks I see by the side of the road and I know I can't. What can I do, what can I do? I hired a 70 year old painter to paint the outside of my house; I hired an out of work tile person, but somehow nothing seems to be enough. I thought to make something in art. Something to bring attention to the fact there are thousands, even millions of people in our country out of work and needing help.

I came home and made the sketch above for a piece I planned to make in clay, but it went no further. It was too painful for me to make that piece in clay, and I figured it wouldn't do any good anyway. I try to gather my strength, but sometimes I feel like I'm not doing enough for others.

I debated whether to publish this post today, I've had it in the cue for months, but then I read the post Learn to Be Present by Paul at Quoteflections and I decided to go ahead and publish this. A 17 year old boy came and bought our bed (see the previous post) with money given to him by a volunteer for habitat for humanity. He was so happy he was going to sleep in his own bed in his new house tonight. And we were happy to sell the bed, not to mention it isn't taking up space in the garage.

Knee Hole Desk

It's out with the old and in with the new this week. New to me anyway. I love the mid century modern style of this knee hole desk. I love all the drawer space and the flare of the legs. The desk is painted and has a wood grain Formica top. I'm not sure it orginally was painted, I'll have to do some investigation. Perhaps I need a lava lamp to sit on the desk. I hope to find a similar style chair to go with the desk. Since I have a laptop, a regular desk is more functional than my computer desk pictured below.


We're selling the double size iron guest bed because we have a queen sized bed in the guest room. Gary touched up the paint and we set it up in the front yard to get a good photo.


Everyone has a bed in their front yard, don't they? I'll bet the neighbors are shaking their heads. I thought you'd get a kick out of seeing the bed in our front yard. Comments are welcome.

Three In One Day

My work was featured in three in one day, three different Etsy treasuries that is. My pale yellow shell vase was featured in Mellow Yellow by Kelly Sanford Studios.


My swirling leaves plate was featured in And The Wind Comes Whispering Lightly by Peggy of Into the Light Creations.


And my orange alphabet vase was featured in Orange You Glad To See Orange by 2B Wendy Bee.

Thanks so much to each of you for featuring my work in these treasuries. If you get a chance please take a look by clicking on the links, Etsy treasuries are works of art in their own right. Artists, just for the fun of it, creatively feature sixteen different items in a themed treasury.

Always Wondering

I'm always wondering. Today I was wondering how the thin, frail looking legs of a bird can keep him up. Here's a link about bird feet and legs that's very interesting.

Mardi Gras Colors

My latest Etsy treasury, Mardi Gras Colors, because they are two of my favorite colors, turquoise and purple, aqua and lavender, whatever you want to call them. Some wonderfully colorful art work here.

What can I say I am html challenged and can't figure out how to get direct link here so I took a photo of it. So to see the items you have to click on the internal link and go to that etsy page to see each item. There's one more row of art with a beautiful glass bowl plus others in that row, so check it out.

Twangy Broccoli Slaw

This is the salad I mixed up yesterday to take to the Daytona 500 party. I'm calling it Twangy Broccoli Slaw. It's quick and easy and everyone liked it. It looks festive, which is perfect for a party. Oh and it's good for you too. You can see a better view of my bowl in my Etsy store here. There's a pair of them there.

2 packages of shredded broccoli
about 20 firm strawberries
2/3 cup of mayonnaise, more or less
1/8 cup (or less) of fresh pineapple juice
generous pinch of extra fine cane sugar
1-1/2 tsp celery seed
1-1/2 tsp mustard seed
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
salt and black pepper to taste


Put the broccoli slaw mix in a extra large bowl and set aside. Slice the strawberries crosswise and set aside. Put the mayonnaise in a separate smaller mixing bowl, add the spices, sugar, and the pineapple juice. By a generous pinch of sugar, I mean you take the ends of your four fingers and thumb and grab some sugar. A regular pinch is two fingers and your thumb. A tiny pinch is one finger and a thumb. Ha. Hope you're laughing at my pinch measurements.


Don't leave out the red pepper flakes, please just trust me on this, even if you don't like hot food. The pepper flakes don't make the slaw hot, they just add the twang, which is what you want. Something a little different, it enhances the flavor. That's where folks say, this is good, what did you put in it? The pineapple juice makes the mayonnaise mix up in the salad easier and prevents breaking down the texture of the slaw. Don't make the mayonnaise too runny; to me there's nothing worse than runny slaw.


I mix up the slaw in a larger bowl and then transfer it to a bowl just the right size, that way you don't have mayonnaise on the sides of the bowl and it looks pretty for the guests. Save a couple of the sliced strawberries for a top garnish. I debated whether I would add some pineapple in the salad but decided I wouldn't this time. But that's another option for this Twangy Broccoli Slaw. Enjoy.

Daytona 500

Very soon I'll run out of this black clay. Even though it comes from the West coast, I'm going to have to find a way to spring for the shipping to get more.


One of the reasons I like working with this clay is because of the high contrast. Since I only have about ten pounds left I thought I'd make some wall tiles emphasizing contrast. these wall tiles are about six inches square. Right now the clay is a dark brown, but when it fires it will turn an ebony black.


At the last minute I decided to poise the pink flower up above the black clay tile, rather than adhering it flat to the surface like the daisy. Here's a side view. The pea pods also extend out half an inch but the bottom of the pod is flat on the tile. I can't wait to see how these will look hung on a wall.


I'd like to try more of these more three dimensional type tiles. I thought about making the pieces more intricate and detailed, but I tend toward a more simplistic style. If you know me, you know I'll be putting some geometric shapes on these tiles too. I'm also making high contrast pendants with the leftover pieces of clay. That way I use every bit of my precious black clay.

This afternoon we're going to a Daytona 500 party. Hey Nascar's a Southern thing. Drink a little bootleg moonshine, make a few bets, drive fast and furious. The party's right across the street, I may sneak back over here and make some more tiles. I'm on a roll right now and I just can't help myself. Comments are welcome.

Pinball Machine

Gary and I went to a one person show for the work of Sharon Harris, potter and painter, at the local college this evening. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera upstairs. On the way out near my car I saw this magnolia flower and got my camera and took a photo; it was so beautiful. Recently I've been trying to decide whether to take an acrylic or watercolor class at the local art center. I have an urge to do painting with color in a medium other than clay slip or glaze.

Before our wine tasting party I quickly covered two canvases with a contemporary design and hung them to fill out the art on a blank wall in our home. Much to my dismay someone at the party asked where I'd gotten the two matching paintings because he liked them. One person labelled them with the title 'pinball machine' which is a actually a great name.

I'm too shy to show the twin paintings here, but I thought I might as well encourage myself along those lines and see what happens. I've actually been thinking about painting on canvas since before we left California, but never had the time or materials to purse it. I did my first acrylic painting back then and it was so large (50 x 60 inches) it wouldn't fit in our packing without damage, so I left it on the wall. Gary and I have missed that painting ever since. Now I'm thinking I might devote a bit of time to some painting to see what happens.

Mark Twain Spring Fever

The weather has slowly been turning warmer, and I found myself with a bit of Spring fever. I wanted to get out of the house, to take a drive in the country, or a walk in a park. And then, as I often do, I wondered where the phrase, Spring Fever, came from. I found out it's from Mark Twain. Photo courtesy of Library of Congress.

“Don’t you know what that is? It’s spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you’ve got it, you want–oh, you don’t quite know what it is you DO want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so! It seems to you that mainly what you want is to get away; get away from the same old tedious things you’re so used to seeing and so tired of, and set something new. That is the idea; you want to go and be a wanderer; you want to go wandering far away to strange countries where everything is mysterious and wonderful and romantic. And if you can’t do that, you’ll put up with considerable less; you’ll go anywhere you CAN go, just so as to get away, and be thankful of the chance, too.”

So I put together an Mark Twain Spring Fever Etsy treasury in his honor. Today I'll go anywhere I can, and be thankful of the chance to.

Broken

Yesterday I was showing a friend some of my pottery and a platter slipped down and knocked these two pieces off the shelf. At least I have photographs of them. Which is a good reason to take photos right after items come out of the kiln.


Although with barrel fired pieces, they have to be cleaned and then waxed before they're complete. I'll have to do another barrel firing to replace my examples. Which means I better get busy making a few pieces to fire. Back to work.

Happy Valentines

As promised, here's the table I painted and the seats Gary helped me recover. An air staple gun makes short work of attaching the seat cover material. Look here to see the before photos. There's still a couple of paint spots I need to touch up. When painting a dark color over a light, it definitely takes more than one coat.


We finally got our house together enough to have a valentine's wine tasting party here Saturday night. If you didn't see my previous post be sure to read below, the strawberries weren't perfect looking, but their taste made up for it. I've always wanted to make them and they were fairly easy to make. But what's old is new again.

I put together a 'Key to Spring Green' Etsy treasury to hopefully encourage Spring to come along quickly. Check it out, seems as though keys are popular motifs nowadays. It's been 27 over night here the last two nights, one of coldest winters in Florida. I'm hoping the weather will warm up, how about you?

My green bowls were also featured in a 'Shades of the Ocean' Etsy treasury, thanks to WandringMinstral. For some names on Etsy you may think they're a misspelling, but may purposely be that way and may not come up in a search unless they're misspelled.

Hope you have a happy, healthy, and love filled Valentines Day.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

These are heaven. Actually they were heaven, they're all gone. But now I know why folks go to cooking school; to make food look as good as it tastes. I am sure there are tricks to making food picture perfect. But, no matter, these chocolate covered strawberries were a really big hit at our party last night so at least I know they tasted good to someone else besides me. So you have that for a recommendation.


I was going to post the chocolate covered strawberries tomorrow for Valentines day, but I figured if I posted today you might have time to get the ingredients and make them for someone special. Heck just make them for yourself, you deserve it. If you like chocolate you won't be disappointed. Strawberries, semi sweet chocolate chips, and white chocolate is all you need. Glad I used semi sweet, they were sweet enough.


I took the stems and leaves off as they weren't in very good condition. All the frosty weather we've had here made the leaves shrivel up. I melted semi sweet chocolate morsels in a glass bowl set in a pan of water on low heat. I did the same for white chocolate. When the semi sweet chocolate was melted I stirred it up well. Below is a photo before the guests arrived. You can see the reflection of my pottery shelves in the window of the lanai, strange. I'll post more in focus photos tomorrow.


I took a wooden skewer inserted it in the end of the strawberry and dipped it in the chocolate on an angle to coat the strawberry turning it fast. I set it on parchment paper to firm up. Keeping the chocolate warm helps. After the chocolate firmed up I drizzled the white chocolate over the top with a fork. Refrigerate them to firm the chocolate then transfer them to a decorative plate. In this case I used a paper doily on a plate to display them. Everyone raved about them last night. Even if the strawberries aren't perfectly ripe, dipping them in warm chocolate does something to their taste. OMG, they are so good. Enjoy!

Two Treasuries

It's too early in the morning and I haven't had my coffee yet. I'm trying to figure out the html code to embed two recent Etsy treasuries featuring my work. I tried using craft cult widget and still couldn't get it to work. Anyone know the actual code for embedding a static web page? Here's my rosey pinch bowl which is featured in Spring Sunset treasury.


Here's my shell vase which is featured in Febuary Fest treasury. Thanks so much for the features. Have a great weekend.

Marvelously Mauve and Black

Several folks told me how good roasted parsnips are, so I decided to try them.


I drizzled a little olive oil in a baking dish, chopped up the parsnips, sprinkled some dried garlic, thyme, rosemary, and savory over the top. I cooked them in a 400 F oven for about half an hour. There weren't any leftover, not even one.


A pair of these high fired, white stoneware bowls are in my Etsy shop. The kiln gods were extremely happy and offered up this wonderful mauve color emphasizing the Victorian lace pattern.

For your viewing pleasure I created this Marvelously Mauve and Black Etsy treasury. For those of you unfamiliar with treasuries, the idea is to put together something beautiful, diverse, with a theme, and not to use your own art. There are several artists in this group I am happy I discovered, check it out.

Who am I ?

Having been given the Stylish Blog Award by Julia, of Henhouse Pottery, I'm supposed to tell seven things about myself which most people wouldn't know. I've been thinking about that but didn't know what to write. Oh sure there's lots of stuff, some too silly, some too insignificant, some too personal.

Then I came across this wire sculpture in the bottom of my pen holder cup on my desk. It stands only one inch tall and a little more in width. I worked as a waitress to put myself through college and one of my customers made this sculpture for me in about two seconds. And it balances, kind of cool. This little wire sculpture will be part of another post coming soon.

My very first job, besides lots of babysitting jobs, I worked at Kentucky Fried Chicken. I've never eaten there since. I also once worked at Denny's, same thing, I haven't eaten there since. I once got a 15 cent tip from a customer and was pretty perturbed. Then I picked up the coins and one of them was an Indian head nickel. I'm sorry I don't have that nickel any longer.

When I was in college I was offered a job as a model for Macy's department store. I couldn't believe they chose me since I was only 5 ft 2 in and most models were tall. But the woman doing the hundreds of interviews said I could wear really tall heels. After much consideration, I told them I couldn't take the job because it would interfere with my college classes. I wonder where I'd be now if I'd taken the job?

When I got out of college I decided I needed to reward myself for paying my own way and graduating, so with the little money I saved I hitch hiked through Mexico for three or four months. All the way down the Baja and all the way up the mainland. It was the trip of a lifetime.

I'm usually pretty good at diagnosing car problems. Gary's sister and brother-in-law moved to Australia and we sold their jeep for them. Gary detailed it readlly well and we sold it to the local sheriff. We didn't really want to sell it to him, in case something went wrong with it, but he wanted it. So what could we do? He came back two days later and said something was wrong. I was standing on the upper deck of our home and he left the engine running so I could hear it. It sounded terrible. Gary was at work and I was in a quandary. All of a sudden I said, "I know what's wrong, the fan has a crack in it". I came down the stairs, and he stopped the engine. We looked and sure enough it had a crack and a piece missing which threw the engine off balance. He got it fixed and it ran fine after that. Whew, thank goodness.

I gave up eating beef over ten years ago and I've slowly been eating less and less animal products over the years, although I do like seafood, prawns, lobster, sushi, Yum.

I love all living things and even carry spiders outside on the end of a broom stick so I don't have to kill them. Lately, though, we've had a few silverfish and I've stepped on them. I'd try to catch them, but have you ever tried to catch a silverfish? Even stepping on them isn't easy, they run fast, and in random directions. Sorry little guys.

I guess this wasn't so difficult to write, just had to sit down and do it. As usual, such is life. Thanks Julia.

Pleasant Surprise

I've been searching high and low for the few remaining barrel fired pendants I made back at my lavender farm and can't find them any where. Maybe I sold all of them; I thought I had a couple left.


But I did find these two sushi plates I didn't even remember making. They're made of white stoneware with a lucious green glaze which breaks with golden hues. I call them sushi plates, but you could put a bar of soap on them and no one would be the wiser. The pair will be in my Etsy shop as soon as I take a few more photos.


I also put together an Etsy Treasury this morning and featured a Jenny Mendes sculpture along with an eclectic grouping of other items, so be sure to check it out. Well I'm back to searching for those pendants. Have a great day.

Hope Springs Eternal

Here's a second moon bowl I made with a small pedestal and a flared rim. I'll have to make these really thick in order to get the deeper crevices I want. Not sure about the rim, oh I just had an idea, maybe it's not too dry to do what I'm thinking. I think I'll try some more rough terrain on a free form piece next time.


Earlier in the day I set out to make another moon bowl but this sort of offering bowl sprang forth instead.


I've been thinking about the state of our country and the world, and most importantly the people within. Sometimes I have a hard time thinking positively in light of what's happening around me. People loosing their jobs, their homes, their health, people's salaries being cut, people scraping to make ends meet, to feed their families, and themselves.


I've been thinking about that and today this sculpture, Hope Springs Eternal, evolved from that. It's perhaps primitive but contains so much of my feelings I can't begin to tell you of those thoughts. There's some realistic and surrealistic symbolism contained within this piece. Seeing the photo, I think I can extrapolate to more defined processes.


Did I know I was going to make this piece when I wrote the post about robins, not at all. That's the thing about me, my words, my art; sometimes things just well up from within. I feel deeply, and I'm hoping our country, and the world, and I, can climb up, up to hope, and, to hoping that hope springs eternal.

Fifteen Stylish Blogs

In keeping with my stylish blog award, here are fifteen stylish blogs to enjoy, please check them out, you won't be disappointed. I've included architecture, art, design, food, meditation, music, poetry, just about all one needs to round out their day, except I left out clay:

Architecture Tourist, Terry takes his readers on a tour of architecture with a fresh eye.

Beach Vintgage, Simone is thinking of others in their time of need, check it out, a happy spot to visit.

Belle Island Home, the beauty of Detroit is revealed.

Cajun Delights, Marguerite brings style to food, song and dance in a delightful way you are sure to enjoy.

Hollywood Forever, Kevin obviously loves where he lives and draws you into that beauty.

Joanne Mattera tells it like it is in the world of art from her perspective, lots to be gleaned here.

Life at Willow Manor, Tess has her way with words like no other.

One Perfect Bite, Mary has already found the perfect bite many times over.

Ronna has a corner on cats and birds and cake decorating and do you know what poutine is, have a peek.

Synchronicity is the topic at hand for Rob and Trish in their daily delvings into the world of the not so coincidental.

Teresa's blog can only be described as positive deep thinking, stop in to see.

The Block, Kitty weaves a tale of her roots and thoughts about life as no one else can, a must read.

The New Sixty, Patti once said she was taking a break from blogging because she didn't have any more stories, I didn't believe it and I was right, thank goodness, I'd missed those few weeks without her humorous stories.

Kelley is reusing and repurposing the simple things in life in a very fresh, beachy kind of way.

The End of History, Daniel and Stephen's shop is chock full of style, I could live in that store and never be bored.

Words to Live By, Turqoisemoon gets to the meat of the matter in a very thoughtful and creative way.


Here's your blog award to copy to your blogs. No obligation, but you can nominate fifteen blogs and tell us seven things about yourself no one knows. Happy Monday.

Monies Worth & Stylish

My blogging friend, Julia, of Henhouse Pottery, has given me the Stylish Blogger Award. If you haven't visited Julia's blog, you're in for a real treat. Humor and sensibility meet hometown values and living off the land in what can only be described as Julia's own special way. So go have a good read.

For the award, I must tell seven things about myself which you may not know and give the award to fifteen people. I'll have to break up the post into several if I may. Today I've tucked in a few things you may not know. Later I'll get around to more about me and fifteen bloggers to spread some style.

My gut told me I was richer in 1974 than now. According to the Federal Minimum Wage statistics my money was worth more then than now. That was the year I graduated from college. But the year I graduated from high school, 1968, was even better. Here are the facts from infoplease.com.

Column one and four are years, column two and five are the minimum wage at the time, column three and six is what the wage was worth at the time. I found these statistics, along with others I perused, very enlightening.

1955 0.75 4.39 1983 3.35 5.28
1956 1.00 5.77 1984 3.35 5.06
1957 1.00 5.58 1985 3.35 4.88
1958 1.00 5.43 1986 3.35 4.80
1959 1.00 5.39 1987 3.35 4.63
1960 1.00 5.30 1988 3.35 4.44
1961 1.15 6.03 1989 3.35 4.24
1962 1.15 5.97 1990 3.80 4.56
1963 1.25 6.41 1991 4.25 4.90
1964 1.25 6.33 1992 4.25 4.75
1965 1.25 6.23 1993 4.25 4.61
1966 1.25 6.05 1994 4.25 4.50
1967 1.40 6.58 1995 4.25 4.38
1968 1.60 7.21 1996 4.75 4.75
1969 1.60 6.84 1997 5.15 5.03
1970 1.60 6.47 1998 5.15 4.96
1971 1.60 6.20 1999 5.15 4.85
1972 1.60 6.01 2000 5.15 4.69
1973 1.60 5.65 2001 5.15 4.56
1974 2.00 6.37 2002 5.15 4.49
1975 2.10 6.12 2003 5.15 4.39
1976 2.30 6.34 2004 5.15 4.28
1977 2.30 5.95 2005 5.15 4.14
1978 2.65 6.38 2006 5.15 4.04
1979 2.90 6.27 2007 5.85 4.41
1980 3.10 5.90 2008 6.55
1981 3.35 5.78 2009 7.25
1982 3.35 5.78

Most jobs available now pay minimum wage. Wonder what 2008 forward will be? There are many more statistics available on the Internet, not sure what good they do me, or if validating my feelings about present day monetary circumstances is beneficial, but in life today for so many people, these are, unfortunately, the facts. I'm just saying.

For the record, so far I'm not a pessimist, used to be an optimist, but am now a realist who wavers between optimism and pessimism. Stay tuned for more tidbits about me, some stylish blogs, and some real positives. Comments welcome.