Oh noes

 People are showing up on the news crying they are starving after one day without SNAP benefits. 

The government has warned for weeks that if the Democrats do not vote to reopen the government then this would happen. Did any of those people set aside money or food to get through the temporary shut off?

Look, a few years ago I found myself out of work. Unemployment was a fraction of my previous salary. My mortgage and car payments and other bills were at a level to match my previous take home pay. Things were tough. 

What did we do? We ate pancakes. We ate biscuits and gravy. We ate frozen pizza. We ate grilled cheese or peanut butter. Is that what I wanted for dinner? Nope, but it is what we could afford. We cancelled every streaming subscription we cancelled cable. No more beer. No movies. No more visits to the expensive hair salon. 

If you need food then sell your designer purse. Pawn your tools. Sell your cell phone. Do what I did, go get a job, even a crappy one in retail. 

Loss of your SNAP benefits doesn’t mean you are starving. It means you need to change your taxpayer supported life style. 

Can we just stop with the clock changes already?

 Here we are on a Sunday morning. I don't know what time it is. I haven't finished the stupid change the clocks routine (I deleted a 500 word rant on that subject here).

You are welcome.

I stayed up on watched last night's MLB game seven. What an epic baseball game. I did not care if Toronto won, but I sure was rooting against the Dodgers. The pitcher Yamamoto was the man. He went out there after pitching the day before and threw another couple of innings to close out the game. His arm had to feel like a painful wet rag but he got the job done. The dude truly was the MVP.

Saturday Musings

A glance out the window shows the neighborhood trees awash in russets and golds. It is a little late, but leaf raking season is upon us. As my wife frequently reminds me, I wanted all of those trees. 

In other news, I am recovered from my long road trip this week. All went well. I even managed to catch up on my work emails yesterday and my sleep last night. 

Our attention will now shift to Thanksgiving then Christmas. As the Starks frequently told us, winter is coming.

A Halloween Joke

 An old couple who hadn't celebrated Halloween in a long time decided to dress up and go out.

The old woman went into her bedroom, stripped naked and tied a lemon between her legs.

When she came out, the old man cried, "You can't go out like that!"

She said, "I can go anyway I like and so can you."

Whereupon he retired to the bedroom and came out stark raving naked with a potato tied to his tallywhacker.

The old woman says, you're going out like that?"

And he replies, "Yep, if you can go as a sour-puss, I can go as a dick-tator.

Ahhh-ooo

 

Fears are nothing more than a State of mind ``

 

Nevermore

 

Seeing America through a cracked windshield

 I’m off today to do my Willy Loman thing. I have a long road trip in front of me as I travel east, east into the sun. Columbus, Cleveland (hola Cappy), Akron (hey Jean), Scranton, and Hartford will all be waypoints on the omnipresent GPS as early morning turns to afternoon to night with me behind the wheel. I get to spend all day tomorrow with Corporate bigwigs in interminable meetings along with other important suppliers as we are exhorted to lower costs and give them more, more. 

A short meeting with my main contact follows Thursday morning then I’m back on the road to repeat the long, long hiway back home. 

I have music and audiobooks and podcasts to accompany me. I’ll be fine, but my butt and bad foot will scream for relief hours before the trip is complete in either direction. 

So it goes. It’s a couple of days and such trips are why I get the big bucks (ha!). I look at the bright side. My boss is off to China in a few weeks and I get to skip that trip this year. I went twice in 2024, and I’m fine spending a few days in Connecticut as opposed to China.