This is a Thing
So one of my coworkers, who came in to work at noon, wandered by my desk today and asked, "Did you know that both of your rear tires are flat?"
Why no, I did not know that. Thanks, I guess.
I did know that all four tires were pushing a hundred thousand miles, and really needed to be replaced, but I was hoping to wait until after the first of the year, when I hoped to have a) no more holiday expenses and b) the end of the year bonus traditionally provided by our awesome Friends.
But even I am not cheap and/or stupid enough to try to make to forty-five minute commute home on two flat tires, so I started calling around the local tire places until I found one that had a set physically on the shelf that would fit my car. Then I called AAA to arrange towing of said car to said tire place. Then I checked with my boss to make sure it was okay that I took off for a couple of hours to have said tires installed on said car at said tire place. (She said "Fine".)
So here I am, nearly six hundred bucks poorer, but surely infinitely more safer. But that's not the point.
The point is, this was Very Irritating, but that's all it was. I had the six hundred bucks on hand to spend. I would have preferred to spend it later, or on something else, but I'm not going to have to skip grocery shopping this month. I'm not going to have to cancel the phone or the heat. The kids aren't even going to have to miss a single Christmas present.
And I had AAA service. I could afford to spend a hundred bucks or so every year, just to make sure that I would get emergency assistance without additional charge, on the off chance I would happen to need it.
And I had a job where I could tell my supervisor that I needed to take off for a couple of hours without any repercussions whatsoever. I don't even need officially to make the time up -- "I trust you to come in early and stay a little late on your own schedule."
And I refuse to think of myself as phenomenally "lucky." Not because I'm not swimming in privilege; Heaven knows that I reap the benefits of all sorts of class and racial and national structures that are none of my doing or desert. But because to call myself "lucky" would be to suggest that not EVERYONE deserves the basic minimum of financial and job security to deal with all the Things that normal life chooses to throw at us.
I may be the 99%. But some of us are more 99 than others, I think.
Why no, I did not know that. Thanks, I guess.
I did know that all four tires were pushing a hundred thousand miles, and really needed to be replaced, but I was hoping to wait until after the first of the year, when I hoped to have a) no more holiday expenses and b) the end of the year bonus traditionally provided by our awesome Friends.
But even I am not cheap and/or stupid enough to try to make to forty-five minute commute home on two flat tires, so I started calling around the local tire places until I found one that had a set physically on the shelf that would fit my car. Then I called AAA to arrange towing of said car to said tire place. Then I checked with my boss to make sure it was okay that I took off for a couple of hours to have said tires installed on said car at said tire place. (She said "Fine".)
So here I am, nearly six hundred bucks poorer, but surely infinitely more safer. But that's not the point.
The point is, this was Very Irritating, but that's all it was. I had the six hundred bucks on hand to spend. I would have preferred to spend it later, or on something else, but I'm not going to have to skip grocery shopping this month. I'm not going to have to cancel the phone or the heat. The kids aren't even going to have to miss a single Christmas present.
And I had AAA service. I could afford to spend a hundred bucks or so every year, just to make sure that I would get emergency assistance without additional charge, on the off chance I would happen to need it.
And I had a job where I could tell my supervisor that I needed to take off for a couple of hours without any repercussions whatsoever. I don't even need officially to make the time up -- "I trust you to come in early and stay a little late on your own schedule."
And I refuse to think of myself as phenomenally "lucky." Not because I'm not swimming in privilege; Heaven knows that I reap the benefits of all sorts of class and racial and national structures that are none of my doing or desert. But because to call myself "lucky" would be to suggest that not EVERYONE deserves the basic minimum of financial and job security to deal with all the Things that normal life chooses to throw at us.
I may be the 99%. But some of us are more 99 than others, I think.