Here I am back. I have decided. I am like the mule racked with indecision. The mule sits between two bales of hay and starves because he can't decide. Well, maybe I'm not totally like the mule. I can't decide. I'm more like the mule stuck between two ROWS of bales of hay. I move toward one, then meander to the other side before being distracted to move on to the next. Then I turn around and start over. Yeh. That's it. Of course it's not flattering to be the mule. But I digress.
So....here it is, Saturday morning. A day off for me. We sit and drink coffee and watch the birds at the feeders frantically eating, getting ready for the next snow storm. I'm referring here to the BIRDS frantcially eating and not US. We were just eating in a normal Saturday morning fashion. A little toast and juice. But I digress.
I need to shovel the driveway before the next storm. But it's so cold out there and all the previous snow has turned hard and can't be shoveled anyway. So, thoughts turn to money. The household cash flow. Sure. We watch endless news reports of lay-offs and pay cuts and economic decline. We see each story filled with b-roll shots of sheets of money at the printing press...this to symbolize what is about to be infused into the economy by the man who will be President. But we all know that money will not be arriving here. It will be sent out to all of us in such small amounts that we'll not notice and life will go on as usual. That's partly because here in Maine, the ups and downs of the economy don't matter much...we're accustomed to being one of the lowest per capita income states in the nation anyhow. So, the big ups and downs of America don't matter all that much, especially when, as Lou Rawls used to sing, "It's an uphill climb to the bottom." We'll get by, just fine, I figure, since we both run our own businesses and can push them hard enough to put money in our pockets that will far excede the imaginary money we see being printed on TV. Our money will be real. That money on the government printing presses is just stuff we'll have to mail off to China anyhow.
But all that aside... It's Saturday and we're cutting back on our lavish lifestyle because that's just the right thing to do after a Christmas in which we overspent. (Although, according to all the TV news reports, we didn't spend enough and now the makers of junk nobody wants are singing the blues.) Now we need to tighten belts, get into fiscal and physical shape and blah, blah, blah. So, Saturday, with our new fiscal austerity, we'll pool our resources, buy a tank of cheap gas and go out to see the grandson...take him sledding...yeh, that's it.
But first, I should find the gift certificate for the tickets to the movie theater so we can go on the cheap tonight. I look for it right where I put it and of course it's not there. I look again. Still not there. I pull the drawer out to look and find 2008 tax information I need to file in the pile that I'll no doubt misplace later. So, off I go to file it. Oh, and I need to shred that other stuff I found. Oh, and pay the bills I left in the mail pile..or at least schedule them to be paid. But first, above all else, I need to check my e-mail. And in so doing, decide, en route, that that poor plant needs water and fertilizer. I prepare the water with liquid fertilizer and remember the plants I have cowering in the basement...they need water, too. So, down I go, wondering, when I get there, if the bigger of the two plants is really dead or just pretending to be frost-bitten from having been left in the garage until Christmas. Both get water and I figure I'll check them again sometime in the spring.
You see what I'm getting at, I imagine? I am the mule musing about stuff I need to do and nibbling at the hay, but still being hungry. OY.
So I must focus. Perhaps this can be my blog? Writing about something that surely everyone experiences when they are highly disorganized and confronted with a day filled with luxurious time.
But for now, I'm off. Perhaps I'll call the guy who gave me the tickets... But first I have to check my VISA bill and while I'm at it, figure out when the cable bill is due and see if I scheduled it to be paid by the bank and see if Discover is also due and how I'll pay it if it's due at the same time as the mortgage. Or maybe we'll just go sledding and not worry about the bales of hay that litter my life. HEE HAW. Great idea.
So....here it is, Saturday morning. A day off for me. We sit and drink coffee and watch the birds at the feeders frantically eating, getting ready for the next snow storm. I'm referring here to the BIRDS frantcially eating and not US. We were just eating in a normal Saturday morning fashion. A little toast and juice. But I digress.
I need to shovel the driveway before the next storm. But it's so cold out there and all the previous snow has turned hard and can't be shoveled anyway. So, thoughts turn to money. The household cash flow. Sure. We watch endless news reports of lay-offs and pay cuts and economic decline. We see each story filled with b-roll shots of sheets of money at the printing press...this to symbolize what is about to be infused into the economy by the man who will be President. But we all know that money will not be arriving here. It will be sent out to all of us in such small amounts that we'll not notice and life will go on as usual. That's partly because here in Maine, the ups and downs of the economy don't matter much...we're accustomed to being one of the lowest per capita income states in the nation anyhow. So, the big ups and downs of America don't matter all that much, especially when, as Lou Rawls used to sing, "It's an uphill climb to the bottom." We'll get by, just fine, I figure, since we both run our own businesses and can push them hard enough to put money in our pockets that will far excede the imaginary money we see being printed on TV. Our money will be real. That money on the government printing presses is just stuff we'll have to mail off to China anyhow.
But all that aside... It's Saturday and we're cutting back on our lavish lifestyle because that's just the right thing to do after a Christmas in which we overspent. (Although, according to all the TV news reports, we didn't spend enough and now the makers of junk nobody wants are singing the blues.) Now we need to tighten belts, get into fiscal and physical shape and blah, blah, blah. So, Saturday, with our new fiscal austerity, we'll pool our resources, buy a tank of cheap gas and go out to see the grandson...take him sledding...yeh, that's it.
But first, I should find the gift certificate for the tickets to the movie theater so we can go on the cheap tonight. I look for it right where I put it and of course it's not there. I look again. Still not there. I pull the drawer out to look and find 2008 tax information I need to file in the pile that I'll no doubt misplace later. So, off I go to file it. Oh, and I need to shred that other stuff I found. Oh, and pay the bills I left in the mail pile..or at least schedule them to be paid. But first, above all else, I need to check my e-mail. And in so doing, decide, en route, that that poor plant needs water and fertilizer. I prepare the water with liquid fertilizer and remember the plants I have cowering in the basement...they need water, too. So, down I go, wondering, when I get there, if the bigger of the two plants is really dead or just pretending to be frost-bitten from having been left in the garage until Christmas. Both get water and I figure I'll check them again sometime in the spring.
You see what I'm getting at, I imagine? I am the mule musing about stuff I need to do and nibbling at the hay, but still being hungry. OY.
So I must focus. Perhaps this can be my blog? Writing about something that surely everyone experiences when they are highly disorganized and confronted with a day filled with luxurious time.
But for now, I'm off. Perhaps I'll call the guy who gave me the tickets... But first I have to check my VISA bill and while I'm at it, figure out when the cable bill is due and see if I scheduled it to be paid by the bank and see if Discover is also due and how I'll pay it if it's due at the same time as the mortgage. Or maybe we'll just go sledding and not worry about the bales of hay that litter my life. HEE HAW. Great idea.
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