Friday Fluff & Fold Report
Part of me is disappointed. Part of me is relieved. The Iris Dement concert at the Ark is sold out. We didn't get tickets. On the other hand, our budget really can't afford even tickets to the Ark right now. It's to the point that even affording the gas to get out to the East Lansing Art Festival next weekend to see Billy Jonas and Steppin' In It (and The Chenille Sisters, The Raisin Pickers, Freshwater and The Duhks) for free is really, really pushing it.
So, yeah, that means another pay period has come and gone, and the promised raise has not materialized. The most frustrating thing is the feeling that there is little we can do to encourage them to make good. The old "I'm gonna walk" bluff isn't worth much when there aren't a lot of other jobs whether to go to or just to bluff with. Paul's vision problems only complicate things further.
A very teeny, tiny part of me even wishes his vision would worsen so that he could qualify for disability. We're talking the barest of glimmers there. Paul is not the kind of person who could kick back on disability. He needs to have something to do. He'd go stark mad shortly. I'd go stark mad shortly after that.
Paul's job means more than just a paycheck. Our home is tied to this, too. Not that anyone else's home isn't tied to their job. Get laid off. Miss a couple payments, and you risk foreclosure or eviction. I realize that. We're just linked a little more closely and directly. Leave this job and we have two weeks to vacate or start paying rent that is more than twice the average rent anywhere else in the county and probably more than 3 times (or better) what we can afford.
Then there's my job. What there is of it. Twelve hours is getting to be a really good work week. I don't know how Jerry even manages to justify keeping both Becky and me on anymore. There's a lot of loyalty that works both ways at our shop. It feels very much like we're all in this together, and nobody's quitting nobody. I've got to do something, though. I have to find some part time hours to pick up somewhere.
And all around me I can hear the voices saying, "oh stop whining, Woman! At least you have jobs. This is Michigan, afterall. You're luckier than you think." Okay, that's the voices in my head. Nobody guilts me more effectively than I do.
We know more and more people who are leaving this area entirely. Strangely, they aren't heading for places like the oh-so-trendy Southwest. They're headed for places like Kentucky and Tennessee, places not necessarily where there are more job opportunities, but places where the cost of living is lower. In some less material ways they also see the standard of living as being higher. I can understand that. I think Kentucky is just beautiful. I've always found the people to be wonderfully friendly, and more cultured than the picture of Kentucky that many folks have in their head. It does rank up there as one of my preferred places to visit. I don't know if I could pick up and leave, though. My roots grow deep in Michigan earth. They've been growing for generations.
Paul's roots extend to Kentucky, though, and Indiana. I don't imagine there's anyone who doesn't know that Honda is building a new factory in Greensburg. That's where Paul's brother George is. And Greensburg is already starting to really bustle. New factory means new work force and new housing for that work force. That could mean opportunities for Paul. But Indiana. Yuck. Aside from people we love there really isn't anything to make you want to be there. That part of Indiana is as flat, featureless and ugly as most of Ohio. And there's not nearly enough water for a girl who grew up surrounded by the Great Lakes.
Enough about that.
My dad lost one of his horses this week. Lisa was a favorite in their stable. Everybody is devastated. It was very sudden. Acute Renal Failure. You know, the tainted feed nightmare has reached beyond pet foods into both pig and chicken feed---that we know of. Who's to say, at this point, if it didn't get into horse feed, too. An autopsy is being done, but it will be a bit before we hear anything.
It's funny. Even cutting back on sodium a little resensitizes your taste buds to salt quickly. It's very obvious in commercially processed foods, but I even noticed it in my home-canned tomatoes. I'm going to have to double check to see if the amount of salt used in canning tomatoes is a taste thing or if it is important to the quality and safety of home-canned tomatoes before I can any this year. I don't think I want to try to eliminate the salt entirely, but I'll reduce the amount if I can safely.
I do wish my oatmeal this morning had had a little more salt in it, though. I suppose I'll get used to it eventually. I did discover that black pepper does just as yummy a thing for fresh pineapple as it does for strawberries (which still amazes me). I had mixed the two together for breakfast this morning. It's become almost automatic to put black pepper on strawberries so I didn't think twice before I added it to the mixture. Very nice contrast to the sweetness of a really good pineapple.
With the weather getting so nice I went to dig out a pair of shorts last night. I could only find one pair. I don't have a clue where the others could be.
We've watched some really good DVDs lately. "Freedom Writers" was awesome. I wouldn't mind owning a copy of that one. "The Last King of Scotland" had a couple of the most horrific scenes I've seen in movies in a long time, but wow! Very good. I watched "The Queen" last night. I think it humanized the British Royal Family. We forget that under their priveledge they are really just people. If I were adjust my opinions of each of them based on that movie I'd have to say it severly lessened my opinion of Prince Phillip, but improved my opinion of both Queen Elizabeth and, marginally, of Prince Charles.
Time to get off my tuckus and go get something accomplished.