You might recall a bit earlier in the summer my wife and I hired a young man to take care of the rocks that were in our front yard flower bed. The plan was for him to remove the rocks, then I would get some dirt and throw it in the space before planting some grass seed. No surprise, life got busy, and the area just lay dormant for most of the summer. Now that things are finally starting to slow down for 
$16.00 USD. That's the price of dirt these days. At least half a cubic yard of it. I actually didn't feel like that was too bad of a price, but with the cost of everything else going up these days, you can't help but wonder what that same amount of dirt would have cost ten years ago. Five dollars? Ten? It's hard to say. The truth is, $15 hardly gets you a meal at a fast food restaurant these days. It's pathetic.
I was driving to work today and I noticed that the price of gas was finally getting close to touching that $5 mark per gallon. I know it has been there and well beyond across the country, but where I live we have been "lucky" enough to not go much past $4.50 per gallon throughout the Summer. It's beyond comprehension for me that people are still able to function. Knowing the dire financial straits that many people are in, how can they even hope to live? They are treading water. All of us are treading water. Even people who don't feel like they are, and that feels even more dangerous.
I stopped to get the oil changed in my truck the other day... $130 USD... No extras, just six quarts of oil and a filter. I makes me wonder if I should go back to doing it myself. I know not everyone has that option though.
It's nuts!
It's nice to see the price of BTC finally making a bit of a recovery. The consensus seems to be that it will be relatively short-lived, but I guess time will tell. Unfortunately, a pump to $71,000 or even $80,000 isn't enough to offset the cost of the home repairs I am still in the process of getting quotes for. We finally got the quote for replacing our seven windows and two doors the other day. $38,500 USD. That's for replacement windows too, which 
Needless to say, we will be getting another quote. It's sad because my father in law used to work with a guy who did all kinds of stuff like this. Unfortunately, he passed away a few years ago and it's times like these that we really wish he was still around. Of course, the family probably wishes that all the time, and I know my father in law misses his friend dearly.
However, by some stroke of luck, my other friends son is dating a girl whose dad does home repairs and he is interested in giving us a quote for the windows. I haven't scheduled anything yet, but I am looking forward to that.
It's interesting to see how my close friend (the first one I mentioned) has gone from being a handyman to a business owner, and how his prices have changed accordingly. Of course, I know some of it is due to the area where he largely does business, and I know another part of it has to do with the rising costs of pretty much everything these days.
It's just sad that I am forced to look at other options.
Speaking of the price of everything going up... My wife and I decided to try out a new restaurant near us the other day at the end of July. It's owned by a family that runs two other restaurants in a three city area. They do a really good job with the other two, so we expected nothing less when they bought this new place.
We started our meal with a couple of drinks. Bourbon on a rock for me, Tito's and lemonade for my wife. We also shared their dill pickle rangoons which were pretty phenomenal.
Instead of getting two separate main dishes, we decided to share the chicken picatta. They were nice enough to separate it onto two plates for us that you see in the photos above. It was quite delicious, though the asparagus got a little stringy and was hard to eat. The flavors on everything were pretty amazing and I would definitely get this dish again.
The sad thing is, even though we shared an appetizer and the main dish, with our drinks, our bill still came close to $60 after tip. Was the trip to Mid & Main worth it? Yes, but I don't think it is a place we would be going to all the time. We don't eat out as much as I make it look like here on HIVE anyway!
If the recent increase in BTC price has you excited and you are looking for a way to get your hands on some more of it, you should check out GoMining. This platform allows you to buy virtual miners that you can resell in the future to weekly earn Satoshi's and the native GMT token. I've started to move a portion of my monthly HIVE earnings into my virtual miner. It has proven to be quite lucrative for me and if the price of BTC ever fully recovers, it will be a nice windfall.
As for HIVE, although I am moving some of my earnings off the chain, I still have never nor do I plan to power down in the foreseeable future. I'm here for the long haul even as the price continues to drop. I should hit 150K HP staked by the end of the year if not more. That's an exciting goal for me. One that I have been working on for quite some time now.
Or Check out my Grilling and Smoking Community on HIVE
All pictures/screenshots taken by myself or
