Not so with the economy. This time it may be broken so bad it cannot be fixed. On other occasions, the US job market was not as meshed with the world. Politicians could tweak the troubles away by shunting the backlash onto the follow-up administration. I think even if they somehow pull that stunt again, there are several factors this time that ensure the damage will be permanent. The entire “middle class” that I grew up around could be equally described as “working class idiots with access to credit cards”.
There was a man at the shop today talking about Detroit. He said he just came back from driving there. He found streets barricaded by the police who said if you are white, don’t drive down this or that road. Some say it is a result of joblessness, others say Detroit is no different than any other area of the world where the non-whites take over. And if you look at Africa or the Caribbean, they have a strong argument—every black government in the world is an oppressive regime. That’s today’s controversy.
Could you use an extra $500? Not right now, I mean, but over your lifetime in general? I can help out there. What is the first thing you do when somebody hands you a blank piece of paper? Wrong. The first thing is you write today’s date in the upper right hand corner. Even if you intend to crumple the paper and throw it away, you write the date. Try it, it is worth the $500.
The tonneau cover had to be largely redone. The price shows the different world I’ve moved into over the past six and a half years. To me, $100 is a decision to spend for something I don’t necessarily use every day. To Alfredo (the shoemaker), a hundred bucks is one tank of gas and a little chump change. The situation is getting to be like the phone company again. Those who make two and three times more money are actually worse off than I am. I drove a Caddy and jetted overseas for short holidays while my phone supervisors drove second-hand junkers and lived paycheck to paycheck.
I stopped at Jimbos after Zumba. Why not, I had worn off the calories. There is an old biker guy there, Skip, who once drove 5,000 in seven days. I don’t do that. But he is an experienced long-distance rider. He regularly moves along at 80 mph and says 70 mph is like crawling. My camper has a name. Like, hey, people name their boats, do they not? My camper is called “Livin’ the Dream”. While you think that over, ponder also that 75% of the clientele at Jimbos wear glasses.
Skip is from Gainesville, were I’ve only been once. I only stopped for gas on the way to Denver last year. But I did like the look of the place. A college town right out of a storybook. But their website sucks. People want to see pictures, not read political articles. Also, they publish the mug shots of people arrested. That act alone is not conducive with the presumption of innocence. Merely being in trouble with the police is enough to tarnish one’s reputation for life. And the county police seem to arrest 225 people every week.
Appearances do deceive. Gainesville is ranked the 5th meanest city in the world for homeless people. There is even a city ordinance limiting soup kitchens to 130 meals per day. There are large numbers of homeless blacks in the 64 square mile city limits and no real job market. But, as I said, with all those civil war era buildings and such, it is pretty to look at.
Crossword puzzles. I love them and can write them. There are still goofs out there who haven’t the brains to omit foreign words, colloquial spellings, and proper names (such as references to obscure TV actors), so I mean I can write real crosswords. But my favorites in the local newspapers have undergone changes beginning a few years ago. Weird as it seems, you not only have to speak perfect English, you now have to have spoken perfect English at specific times in the past. Does that sound like a description you’ve never heard before? Go do a week of crosswords and then tell me I’m wrong.
Guess what I found out today. I am so tone deaf that all these years I’ve been tuning my guitar by the tension on the pegs rather than the sound. I found this out almost by accident when I was able to tune up with normally distracting music blaring in the background. Yes folks, I am tone deaf. I can guess at certain notes but playing “by ear” for me is largely trial and error.
Next, I sat down and gave four tunes my special “bass solo” treatment. This is the technique I developed over the years to capture the essence of the song so that people know what I am playing without hearing the guitar parts, which in itself is a pretty phenomenal skill. This technique is not to be confused with what other people call a bass solo or what in our troubled times passes for one. This is tough material but you know what? These new tunes chosen by the band and not by me are precisely right for my style. If I stand out on stage, it was not me that made the changes. Is what I'm sayin'.
ADDENDUM
I contacted the phlebotomy school and I like the concept. However, let’s clear up any potential misunderstandings before I make any decisions. First, I am not interested in phlebotomy, but I am interested lab work. I am not looking for a phlebotomy job and I know the majority of my blood samples have been not been taken by phlebotomists, but RNs.
The down payment is $300 and $75 per class totaling $1200 ($100 interest over paying the $1100 up front). The class dropout rate is “high” but there is no stigma attached to stopping. That is, they don’t publish on the Internet that you are a failure and a dropout. Like some places I could name.
Who remembers that computer school? That blacklist didn’t work. Because I didn’t give them my real name. I ain’t that dumb. My system works for me, not for the public at large. George Carlin said it right. Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize that half of them are even stupider than that.
Next, I looked at wages. Beginner phlebotomists can make as little as $8.28 per hour on rotating shifts. Ugh. Experienced people pull in $18.73 and I’d work for that these days. It’s not what I used to make, but would be fair for the amount of effort I can manage. I was not impressed by the requirement for phlebotomists to answer the phones. You want a secretary, you hire a secretary. But anyway, I’m only looking.
