The Roof Project: Update...

Well, we're a few days into the project now, and we're still very pleased with progress.  The old roof is now entirely gone; we've got bare wood exposed to the elements.  With the old roofing material gone, some problem areas were exposed (mainly some deteriorated wood toward the bottom of the roof), and these will need to be fixed.  Some of the fascia boards are warped, and Chris (the roofing contractor) is going to fix those as well. 

One piece of the red metal fascia cover is now in place – a bright red horizontal stripe that looks very colorful indeed, given the large area of surrounding white or dull colors.  Debbie is very happy with the color.  Let's hope that continues when the entire roof is covered.

I'm thinking that this red is so bright that we'll easily be able to spot our house when we fly into or out of San Diego (nearly all flights pass with 10 miles or so, high overhead).  Our roof will look like a multi-megawatt beacon.  It might even be visible from space!

Another View of the Manipulated Jobless Number...

This time from the WSJ.  There's a lot of interesting material at the link, but to my point in a previous post:

If people without jobs become discouraged and stop seeking work, the unemployment rate will decline (other things being equal). On the other hand, if people become hopeful about future employment, job seeking will go up—as will the unemployment rate.

This way of measuring job availability is clearly flawed. One simple alternative would be to measure the labor force as the number of people with jobs. Unemployment would be determined based on increases or decreases in the number of people employed relative to historic job growth.

Sounds right to me...

BS Removal Kit...

The web site really exists, though it redirects to a T-shirt store...