Black Friday

In my callous and misspent youth I did, on at least one occasion, go to a mall on Black Friday.  Well, I wasn’t really that young, but it was done just for the fun of it and as a lark so it was at least in the spirit of youth.

I never had gone out on Black Friday to shop.  Not, that is, until this Black Friday.  Dum dum dummmmmmmmm.

It was the first and most likely the last time that I will do such a thing.  I did, however, have an excellent reason.

We have a land-line phone at home.  It’s there for several reasons, not just because I am old, and on the line we had two cordless phones.  You will note, please, the use of the past tense.  This past week both phones decided to break on the same day.  It may have even been at the same time.  It was certainly noticed at the same time.  So there we were without fully functioning phones.

Now this had been anticipated, since neither phone was new and both were showing signs of impending trouble.  So we had actually looked at the options available for a replacement phone.

As luck would have it that very phone was on sale on Friday.

So early in the morning we went to the store, conveniently located less than a mile from home, and bought the phone.

I realize that that is not exciting.  It was in fact a calm and quiet shopping experience without stress or crowds.  So it was not a Black Friday shopping spectacle such as those you may have seen on TV.  However, that was my Black Friday shopping experience and it was just the way that we wanted it to be.

I have now shopped on Black Friday.  I was even drawn to the store by an advertised sale.  However, unless a similar circumstance occurs, I will not be doing so again intentionally.

As far as I’m concerned, Black Friday shopping is a spectator sport.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am, again this year, thankful for being alive.  I am also thankful for my family and friends, but I have to play favorites and say that I am most thankful for my wife.  She is my reason for living.

I hope that everyone has something to be thankful for and also that everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving.

I forgot one thing

The water heater might be the next thing to go.  I certainly hope not, but since it would be more inconvenient than the dishwasher breaking it just might be.

Of course now that we have the new range the countdown must begin on when the clock will stop working.

Yes, I know that it is a new, 21^st Century kitchen appliance with a fancy digital clock that does not fall into the same category as range clocks of the past so it will probably not break with amazing speed.  However, that was always something people of my generation expected to happen so it still crossed my mind.

Needless to say

But I’m saying it anyway.  All of this spending on the dentist, the car and the new oven is going on plastic.

What’s a little more debt, right?

Things could be worse, this just bugs me

Damn.  I just found out that I lost four boxes of books to water damage.

Before I got sick I had boxed up some things to put in a storage unit to make room to clean up the house.  So I had four cardboard boxes filled and taped shut and ready to go but they never went anywhere.  They were in a dry spot, protected from damp but not protected from the more than foot of water that resulted from the sump pump burning out.

It’s not that serious a thing.  I mean it’s nothing life threatening – been there, done that.  It’s just very annoying because of the circumstances, since it was stuff I was trying to save and now it’s trash.  I just feel like complaining about it.

I lost 3 – 4 years’ worth of National Geographic magazines, some fiction, some reference and text books from college and some worthless – not priceless – first editions.

I had forgotten this stuff was there.  I only found it today because I had to make room to get to the gas shut off valve, which I need to get to for when we have our new range delivered/installed.  Yeah, that broke, too.  First the car with the rack and pinion and now the oven won’t light.  I give the dishwasher about 7 weeks.

The garbage disposal will last forever because I hate it.

You might think

I’m foolish, or maybe it’s untrue

Ahem.  Yes.  Well.

You might think, based on a cursory reading of this blog, that I am excited, enthused and ecstatic about the results of the election.

You might think that, but I’m not.  I’m somewhat relieved, not more but not less nervous and moderately happy but probably not for the reasons you think.

I thought that Romney would not have been good for the country and bad for a lot of people.  But I’m not jumping for joy that Obama was reelected.  I’m just not as worried as I would have been if Romney had won.

If Romney had won I would be very worried about what would happen next year but now I feel like I have some breathing room.  Not much, but some and that’s still at risk, but it may be enough.  I am also relieved that the candidate who brought lying in a campaign to new heights did not win because of that.  That’s the part I’m happy about.  All politicians stretch the truth and make promises they may never try to keep.  This guy lied about hard facts and showed no reluctance to keep lying after the facts were reported.

So I’m glad that the candidate who wasn’t as bad won and the one who looked really bad lost.

Excited, no, but I am somewhat relieved and that’s a good thing.

Maybe that is what you thought.

To paraphrase myself

When you win the election you’ve only just started.

Now it’s time to do the things that need to be done.  It’s time to overcome obstruction.  It’s time to help the poor and the middle class.

It’s also time to reject the concept of a grand bargain and instead strengthen Social Security and Medicare.  Don’t cut them, fix what needs fixing and increase the benefits.

It’s time to improve economic chances for everyone; make the tax system fair – and remember that fair does not always mean equal; control spending but also remember that not all spending is wasteful and debt is not necessarily evil.

Notice that none of this is partisan.  This is what every president needs to do.  The hard work is helping the most people possible and that is what needs to be done.  When there is a strong middle class everyone prospers – just look at the numbers and look at the history of this country.

Congratulations to all the winners.  Enjoy the victory.  Then get to work, fix this mess and help people.  That’s the job you just fought so hard to get, so do it.

Awareness

I just wanted to say, for posterity and whatever part of the world reads this, that I am extremely grateful that we, here, are back into a more or less normal routine.

There are parts of my life that suck – a new rack and pinion?  Really?  I need that money for new struts, not to mention more dental work.  Oh well.

But that is part of the normal routine.  Stuff happens and you deal with it.  But I am dealing with normal stuff.

We never lost power.  Apparently there was only minor wind damage in this area.  The basement didn’t flood, it just got a little water and is already drying out.  We were not injured, nor were our family, friends or neighbors.

A freaking enormous storm passed right overhead with winds I’ve never seen the like of around here before and we came through it OK.  We were worried, but the worst did not happen.  It didn’t even come close.

So I am grateful.  There are people not that far from where I live who literally lost everything but the clothes on their backs.  People in those same areas died.

We were very fortunate.  Life sucks, but it could have been so much worse right now.  I know that.  Whatever I say on here, whatever I may rant about, I do know that a few days ago we came very close to a very bad situation.  We were fortunate enough to make it through so well that we could go on with our lives with no need to deal with the real aftermath of what just happened.

I am very grateful.

It’s not all about me

I use my family as an example because I know the details about us, but this isn’t all about us, it’s about anyone and everyone who is in similar circumstances for whatever reasons.

Our specific situation is unusual, but there are other people who are in bad shape financially because of disability as well.  We’re a minority, there are millions of us, but we’re a small percentage of the population.  So if anyone has a threshold of suffering that needs to be crossed before they can’t sleep at night, rest easy.

Except the disabled aren’t the only ones who will need a social safety net.  My wife and I would have been OK if we had been able to keep working.  We can’t save for retirement now because of health issues.  But there are a lot of people who don’t get sick, work their whole lives and still aren’t able to save for retirement because they just don’t earn enough.  It isn’t just when things go wrong that people need help.  This may be the richest country in the world but that doesn’t make everyone rich.  If you’re doing fine financially, good for you, but there are people who need help. 

They don’t need help because they did something wrong or because they’re lazy, they need help because the poor and working class live paycheck to paycheck and wages for the middle class have been stagnant.  Sometimes there just isn’t enough left over to save enough to retire, or save anything at all.  Even with the programs we have now some people will keep working until they die.

We should be talking about improving what we have, not trying to cut it because it’s expensive.  What’s a human life worth, anyway?  What’s a little dignity worth?  Why is compassion not worth the expense?

I’d like to think we’re better than this.  Maybe it’s time we showed it.

Of course I worry about my wife and myself, but we’re not alone.  We help others when we can.  I don’t understand why we can’t do that as a nation.  We’re not just individuals, we’re a community.  When did we forget that? 

Maybe Sandy can remind everyone.

Crushing the future

Let me see if I understand this.

Obama is entirely responsible for the current state of the economy, including all of the debt, which will crush all the grandchildren of America.

Bush didn’t leave any debt for anyone, not even Obama, to deal with and no grandchildren will be crushed by Republican debt because, um, Republican debt magically evaporates?

Have I got that right?  Because that’s what some of the campaign commercials are telling me.

The $800 billion question

Why do people want to get rid of Social Security?  Why would anyone spend decades of their lives and tens of millions of dollars to get rid of Social Security?

If we eliminate ignorance or stupidity, sheer evil or a desperate need for someone to suffer so you can feel better about being rich, what could be the answer?

After all, Social Security is a very successful program that helps millions of people, is guaranteed for principal and interest, and has never added, and never will add, a cent to the debt.

The answer is simple - money.

How much money are we talking about here?  Well, more than $800 billion was put into the Social Security Trust Fund in 2012.

So the plan is to give your Social Security money to Wall Street.  That gives you increased administrative costs plus fees for managing your retirement money.  That money will be put into risky investments where you can lose everything and have no money left for retirement.  But don’t worry.

Wall Street bankers will get an extra $800 billion a year, so everything will be OK.

Optionally disastrous

I mentioned the proposed changes to Social Security and Medicare, and you might be thinking that these changes won’t hurt them because it’s just a way to offer people options of how to save for retirement.

First of all, even if the proposed changes worked, my wife and I are both under 55 and can’t work.  There’s no way we can save enough for retirement.  If you’re 54 years old could you save enough for retirement in 10, or even 15 or 20 years?  If you can, good for you, but most people in the country can’t.

Social Security and Medicare weren’t created because everything was working great for seniors.  Seniors were sick and living in poverty, that’s why those social service programs were created.

But the changes would destroy these programs.  They work as they were designed, with some minor adjustments, but these changes will push millions of people out of them.  Reducing the base of people paying into them will run Social Security and Medicare into the ground very quickly.

Social services aren’t there just for the fun of it, they exist because it’s simple human decency to make sure that people don’t die sick, in pain, and starving.

Any talk of a grand bargain is talk of abandoning seniors because they just aren’t worth it to the people who run the country.  It’s just profit over compassion.

Honest fears

I wonder if my wife and I can survive a Romney administration.

Being a Wall Street supporting right of center corporatist, I expect Obama to slowly destroy the programs that my wife and I depend on, but we might have a chance.  Romney will kill them quickly.

If the private insurance we have can be made to honor their contracts we can manage for a while, but when we hit so-called retirement age we’ll be sunk.

Disability and medical expenses have destroyed our savings and put us in major debt.  I’ve already cashed in and exhausted one 401(k) and a pension is about to go the same way.  Even with insurance our medical expenses are over $20k a year.  Without Social Security and Medicare we won’t be able to survive.

I am voting for the lesser of two evils, to be sure, but I am doing it in the hopes that we have some chance of survival.

If the typically lying CEO wins, I can only hope that both Houses of Congress have sane Democratic majorities.  I know, that’s a pretty thin hope however you look at it.

If I weren’t disabled I would still worry about the future of this country, but as things are now, I worry about next year.

Career dissembler

I do have to admit that Romney is campaigning like a corporate CEO.  Not that that’s a good thing, mind you, but he is doing it.

NaNoWriMo

In case you were wondering, I am doing NaNoWriMo this year.

I have no firm story idea.  Well, nothing well developed that I feel strongly about doing at the moment.  Writing is work, but NaNo should be fun so I prefer doing fun things, not dark stories I mean, for NaNo.  So of course all the things poking at my brain at the moment are on the darker side of things.

Oh well, I’ll think of something.