The Federal Reserve officials doubted they would be ready to raise short-term interest rates by midyear, according to minutes of the meeting released Wednesday.
Fed officials, along with most economists, are struggling to make sense of a first-quarter economic slowdown. The normal pattern of post-recession growth has been non-existent as job growth has been tepid to say the least. Businesses facing a sluggish economy and piles of new regulations and health care changes passed to them by Affordable Health Care (Obamacare), has many employers reluctant to add staff until the need is assured.
As for the Fed governors, many “at the April 28-29 policy meeting believed temporary factors were holding the economy back.” Before lifting rates, they want to be confident growth is on track, unemployment will keep falling and inflation will gradually rise toward their 2% goal.
I'm remembering the tight entries and snake like departures from Bermuda a few years ago … it was just a matter of time.
In this photo provided by the Royal Gazette, the Norwegian cruise ship Norwegian Dawn, lies aground near Bermuda's North Channel Tuesday, May 19, 2015. The Norwegian cruise ship Norwegian Dawn, lies aground near Bermuda's North Channel Tuesday, May 19, 2015.
People who took a single vitamin pill twice a day cut their risk of the two most common forms of skin cancer by nearly a quarter, Australian researchers reported Wednesday. (Tweet This)
The vitamin is a form of vitamin B3 called nicotinamide, and it’s sold in grocery and health food stores for just a few cents a pill. It doesn’t have some of the unpleasant side-effects of its close relative niacin and it’s considered safe to take.
The Australian researchers tested it on 386 people who had already been diagnosed with skin cancer—either squamous cell or basal cell carcinoma. These are extremely common and slow-growing cancers, much less serious than melanoma.
My “prodigal son” returned to Cincinnati Monday night. Taylor is only home for a day and we will be moving him into his own East Walnut Hills apartment as he gets ready for his new position as a Clermont County Planner. He is excited to be back in southwestern Ohio after nearly two years in North Dakota and like so many “millennials” is attracted to the urban lifestyle in the transforming and revitalized City of Cincinnati. It wouldn't be for me, but to each their own. I'm just glad his long drive from Williston ND is behind him (spoken like a dad).
EDIT: Just realized how much Taylor has matured in 2 years … I’m very proud of him.
Just a little archiving after working in the yard this past weekend … that BESIDES cleaning the swimming pool and repairing the tiles(past repairs).
Mulching this year is not going to be inexpensive since we really didn’t add any last year … but it does really improve the look of our “less than perfect” landscaping.
In the heat of a Cincinnati summer, owning a pool is great … but when closing and opening an “aging” pool that needs a bit of TLC, I begin to wonder if the extra work is worth it?
This year has been the latest we’ve ever open our pool here in Cincinnati (perhaps we were a little later when we lived in Hudson, Ohio?) Part of the delay was the extra goings-on with my dad and Brenda’s mom, part a extra couple of trips to the boat and some of it a bit of laziness mixed with rainy weather. Nevertheless, I am slow to get the pool cleaned up and opened this 2015 season as I’m just now working on a few tile repairs. These repairs are becoming far too normal as more and more rain/snow melt is seeping under the tile and freezing; the voids are noticable and pop the tiles (or break them) when the water freezes and thaws. I’m hoping to stretch these old tiles one or two more years before a full resurface and re-tile is necessary …. but we are getting close.
I’m looking for some anchor chain advice and before posting to a sailing/cruising forum and figured posting the links to my blog might be a good first start. In April I cut off a rusted link from Encore’s anchor chain and brought home a 4 foot length to measure, inspect and contemplate re-galvanizing (also to fit in a chain gypsy). My first dilemma is to decipher the imprinted code (click for larger above although I can’t read it?) and determine if it is even the correct anchor chain and worth re-galvanizing. Second, if I replace, I’d like to keep the current 75 feet of chain and 100 feet of nylon as a back-up. On previous boats we had shorter chain but twin anchors. On this boat I’d rather have a rock solid primary Rocna or Mantus and enough chain to do a 5 to 1 in 25-30 feet of water (150’ of chain) … plus snubber and extra nylon rode.
One of my sailing acquaintances, Donna Lange, is preparing to sail around the world for the second time (news story) beginning in late-July. She’ll leave Rhode Island planning to solo circumnavigate non-stop via Cape Hope (South America), the southern oceans south of New Zealand and Australia and then around Cape Horn (Africa) back to Bristol, Rhode Island. Her goal is to do this in 10 months. I’m looking forward to following and maybe “tweeting” about her trip … once again.
Some are do-ers … and some of us are dreamers (her prep video below).
