Are you full and overflowing with bad news about subprime mortgages, greedy investors, failing lenders, falling stock and investment accounts (this weekend's mailed report showed a $9000 loss in one of ours)?

Not to mention government bailouts for the bad guys (at taxpayer expense) while the honest and stalwart march straight on, regrouping after several years of competing head-to-head with fraudulent lenders and brokers, participating Realtors and greed, greed, greed all around. (Even the honest ones charged the average homeowner 15 times what they thought they were contracting for.)

What about all the good people, the honest people, the people whose eyes are not bigger than their wallet, who pay their mortgages month-by-month. Mortgage interest and principal?

Then there are the folks who don't have a mortgage. I'm not talking about homeless drifters or busy professionals who like the conveniences of renting. I'm talking about the one-third of homeowners whose houses are paid for, owned free and clear. Check any city in the United States on city-data.com and you'll see. They're all within a couple points of 1/3 paid for!

Hence the picture of my cottontail friend on his (or her) debut day into the big, wide, wonderful world. Having matured underground for a few weeks, it gets its first look at daylight right now, as mom has pulled away the gravel and straw. This is right below the exterior wall to our kitchen. Bunny sitting slightly on a sibling. (One is always adventurous, one reluctant.)

"They toil not neither do they spin." Okay, so that was the "lilies of the field." Rabbits and birds toil a bit building nests. For their young. The maternal cottontail pulls fur from her own hide to lay a downy blanket over the leaves and straw she's poked into the underground nest, to make sure it's soft enough for her naked and blind live-born young. All of that done while she's "heavy with child." A real amazon wilderness woman.

Isn't it great to take a break from mortgage fraud, subprime crisis and stock market disaster to think about these creatures less involved in having a bigger house, or producing more babies, mortgaging their homes to pay off credit card debt, then buying a Winnebago?

You can pay off your house early and save bundles on interest charges. Some methods quite painless. (Face it: you won't do the hard ones any way!) Investigate. You might enjoy the extra pocket change.