Seeking opinions from Central Illinoisians regarding the middle class, I decided to bring my questions to local coffee shops.

Have you read about “frosting shots”?

Apparently it’s no longer decadent enough to eat a piece of frosted cake. Now you can order plain old frosting by itself.

I had to use a credit card the other day.

This isn’t big news; people use credit cards all the time. I’m just not one of them.

There are few things more despicable than a government that worries more about what it can do than what it should do. The rights of governance must be tempered by the responsibility to rule adequately.

Silence is golden, they say, and I tend to agree. Sunday the power was out for three hours, and the tapping of the rain on various surfaces sent my mind adrift. With no television, radio or computer to occupy my time, it was quite pleasant to sit and really relax.

While in a state of no electricity, national news drifted into my thoughts. A news outlet reported that 22 children across America have died because their parent or parents left them in an automobile in the heat.

You know, I’m not sure if what we’re in right now can officially be called a recession, but I do know one thing.

We’re hurting, and it’s getting worse. Gas prices are on the rise. People are spending more for groceries than ever before.

That means tourism’s down, luxury item purchases are down, even food purchases are down. People are switching from steak to chicken, chicken to eggs, and eggs to rice and beans.