What If An Unexpected Upset Snatched Half Your Annual Income?

Six thousand dollars may not seem like much to you, but let's put it in perspective:  what would you do if a major home repair or doctor's bill suddenly required half of your annual income?  A $25, $50 or $100,000 bill at one time, boom.  Happy Birthday.

I'm still wrapping my head around it.  I rationalized how I'd prefer the bill over a 3-year car payment, imagining how to get along without my own transportation.  A friend offered to buy me an adult tricycle, but even with 3 wheels my balance wouldn't master the challenge.  And besides, there aren't bike paths around here.

So I tighten my belt even more by not going anywhere, not doing anything, not volunteering anyplace because of gas prices (over $5 here) plus fear of more repairs.  Someone else might have to give up a child's Summer Camp; yank out teeth instead of repairing them; move.

You have my sympathies, but not the President's.  $2.2 billion is what DJT is estimated to have made last year alone.  He wants to be the richest man on the planet or at the very least the United States; but he's got a long way to go to match Elon so I don't know about you, but I'm preparing for even higher prices.

Like everyone else I'm trying to keep my spirits up in these crazy times.  Fractured families; continuing inflation; stripping away people's rights; wars, plural; he's not finished yet.  I don't care about guilded statues, ballrooms and arches - I'd rather have a bit more SNAP benefits because of increasing food prices.  Consider this assumption:  unhealthy eating leads to increased health costs, so it would be cheaper to feed us than to nurse us.

I'm on the tail-end of my 70th year, which has caused much contemplation over the  past months.  Not in a morbid way, but my time left doesn't seem as lengthy as it used to; acknowledging I could get hit by a bus tomorrow.  So I'm re-watching favorite movies, for it may be the last time I watch it; that kind of thing.

All of the aforementioned has converged at this moment to cause what I'm hoping will be a permanent mental shift.  Recently, after spending way too much time and energy being annoyed by some young Gen-whatever with a 'tude, reliving the gripe over and over, I considered,

"If this was my last day on Earth, do I want to think that I spent it contemplating revenge on someone who, in the grand scheme of things, matters to me not-in-the-least?"

Do I want my final thoughts to be worrying about what some schmuck in the Oval Office is up to, or how well I spent the day; it's up to me. I choose the latter; but I'll have to make that same decision every single morning for the rest of my life; or until it becomes a habit, which Mom always said took 6 weeks. That's a big change that will only be accomplished through work and discipline.

Which is how I managed to change my thinking over my $6,000 car repairs.  Yesterday I bitch-slapped myself by reminding Me that if I was still in my old place - paying rent parked on someone's property or in a Section 8 shithole, scraping together every cent to make the rent Slumlords demand - I could not have surmounted the car repairs. But fortunately I cleaned up my credit rating after Bankruptcy and the IRS were finished with me, so I was able to charge a good portion on credit cards, which I didn't have back then.  There's an example of why, "People are charging more," as if it's all on frills.

Considering my situation right now, I'm MUCH better off.

So I don't live in a house with solid walls.  So I don't get to take a vacation until 2028 (I'm hoping).  So I'm back to Iceberg instead of Romaine and only eat two eggs on special occasions.  So I won't get another dog for companionship out of fear of added expenses. So I am forgotten by my own government.

What the hell, I've still got me, and that'll be good enough.

PS:  On a separate note, the 90,000 acre Grashopper Fire in eastern Oregon is starting to blow into Canada, so does that mean they can charge us like Trump said we could charge them because of smoke in America? Ahhh...I just heard the President is pausing tariffs on Canada...

"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."