Here’s a [now] familiar pattern, me giving an explanation of a previous post in response to inquiries. When y’day I mentioned “spending money, afternoon movies, appearances” that was not to convey I’m idling away my days in pursuit of comfort. Heaven’s no, I don’t work for the phone company any more. That’s a little joke, there. Oddly, my austerity program of several years has changed my habits.
For example, I came back home last day with the same $92 in my pocket as I left. While I would normally have spent some money just to do so, that jolt only made sense when I worked for it. These days I am far more likely to pause and ask if I really need something, like the 1,000 sheets of printer paper for $2.49. Nine years ago, I would have bought three packs.So that’s my official stance. My habits have changed, not my priorities. Here’s the $92, you figure out why so much of it is in one-dollar bills. I didn’t go to the movies because the weather was so nice, where in 2003 I would not even have considered fine weather as alternative entertainment. Maybe I’m catching on to this retirement thing long before I have to.
My ad at Guitar Center has been removed, but also have around ¾ of all the rest. Lori says there’s been no change of policy. Therefore I am suspicious of the people whose ads remained. I was checking on mixers after noting all the more advanced units approach software-like performance. Such a situation spells use a laptop on stage, but I consider that overkill. Not only are laptops finicky and power hungry, they get stolen. One does not need program-capable decks on stage, just a playback unit.
An article on rental housing reveals what I’ve said for years. Rents will become impossible even as house prices drop. The national highest rent burden at 43% of the average family’s take-home pay is right here in Broward county. Gee, maybe them high rollers should consider moving to a trailer park, d’y’think? That statistic is similar to my “Degree of Suffering” ratio, where from 1980 to 2010 I compared the number of days that must be worked per month to afford things. I quit my fancy job over it. Why work for nothing? My ratio is less harsh than the government because I use my wage, not the prevailing minimum wage.
I pointed out in 2000 how the difference between owning and renting in Florida had dropped to less than $100 per month. Former good jobs no longer allow people to pay the national average rent of $950 monthly. I used to put in 3.5 days per month to pay my rent. Within the year, my rent may actually become negative. The same ratio was influential in my decision not to move to Colorado, but to stay in Florida in a mobile home. I did the math on some 30 properties before I recommended the old place to Wallace.
The problem of orphaned Wiki accounts is back in focus. If you don’t know, an orphan is any post that is not linked to by another Wiki post. It’s their way of internally networking, but it means a lot of posts on a solitary subject, like your own autobiography, are never found by related searches. I don’t have a Wiki biography because my life accomplishments don’t match any of the criteria afforded by a head start. However, now I am toying with the concept of a post anyway, just to see how much heat is generated.
In that vein, I ran the names of all 74 people I went to school with through Wiki, and not one of them has a biography. Even those who became doctors and lawyers are not listed. I’m tempted to present myself as an American diarist/musician/humorist and social commentator. It would not be the first time I was first at being first. What the hell?
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