I hate it when I'm singing a song and the artist gets the words wrong.

The establishment, including govt. officials all the way to the top, told us that every student in America should have a college degree. Their career success requires it. In order for this to happen student loans were made readily available to basically all college students at rates well below market levels and with payoff terms more than liberal. This, in turn, changed the landscape on campus where once almost all students had a part time (or full time) job in addition to their class load. Now the student with an off-campus job is the exception. Why work when student loans are easy to come by?

Not surprisingly, the result is a crisis that has present and former college students, many of whom never graduated and others who have an unmarketable degree that won't get them a job, with a crippling educational debt. So today the President announced new regulations that limit the amount one has to pay on that debt to 10% of their annual income, and any educational debt older than 20 years gets forgiven. (Does this seem like an automatic FAIL to anyone else?) This plan does nothing to fix the real problems with the system, but it sounds compassionate and like the only "fair" thing for those strapped with a debt they don't see themselves every being able to pay off.

Meanwhile, the manufacturing sector begs for well trained tradesmen to weld, wire, and machine.

GM hasn't had a model recall in days.

Pam had her first job interview today, and then got sent home early because 5C only has 13 patients. The interview was done on her lunch hour and is for a HUC position in the ER, a pretty high stress environment. The manager will make a decision the end of next week after conducting several more interviews.
She also talked to one of the guys in HR who's submitting her name and resume to other managers within the system. Pam said he was really helpful.

Last week I wrote about the two bodies discovered in the back yard of a house a few blocks away. They'd been there for days, like Lazarus had taken on quite an odor, and were found fully clothed and partially covered with a blanket.
The Sheriff's Dept. (because Sun City is unincorporated we're served by the county sheriff) issued a statement  a few days later that the deaths looked to be from natural causes.

I've watched just enough CSI to be shaking my head at that one. How do two people just happen to die at the same time, in their back yard, covered by a blanket?? In triple digit weather?!

Sheriff Joe isn't known for strict adherence to best practices in the law enforcement endeavor, and I can't help but wonder if this press release wasn't intended to calm the nerves of a neighborhood of octogenarians who easily imagine serial killers lurking behind their barrel cactus.

On my way to the gym this afternoon I stopped by the library and checked out three books on CD. I'll rip them to my laptop, and from there to the iPad. Four weeks from yesterday I'll start the 20-hour drive from here to Portland, OR, and I pass the time listening to books. (There isn't any scenery for the first 16 of those hours, through the desert and then up the central CA valley.) After our two weeks of camping (WOOT!!) I'll make the 12-hour drive from SFO home, more listening time.

Grisham, Christie, and Clark.
Summer is for mysteries.

LATE BREAKING NEWS:
Pam just got a call from that guy in HR who is setting her up for a meeting with the two managers of the PT department across the street from the hospital, sometime tomorrow afternoon. That's where Pam went for her post-knee replacement PT and it's a really nice work environment. (I drove her to her appt.s and sat in their lobby area while she was getting treatment.) Very pleasant people who seem to enjoy their jobs.
T'ank you, Fadder!