So Predictable

I knew it would happen. I hoped fervently that it wouldn't, but when it came time, the Republicans just had to show the world exactly where their loyalties lay. And it certainly isn't with the workers who keep the factories, banks and other facilities running.

Well, why would it be? First of all, we're a dime a dozen to them. If we refuse to work, or demand a paycheck that reflects our contribution, well, they'll just hire someone with less gall, maybe send the factory or whatever to another country.

Secondly, we can't line their pockets with lots of folding green stuff. How can they get re-elected without plenty of that?

And suddenly, to do anything to show that we are unhappy with the way things are going at this point – for instance, to protest on Wall Street – is to be un-American! Apparently, the only American way to think is the Republican way!

The only thing I can hope for is that they over-play their hand so badly that others begin to see them the way they really are, too.

Spread the Sickness

I have a friend who retired from her job a couple years ago and now works as a temp. She loves it except for one thing – the guilt the temp agency tries to lay on her every time she has to call in sick. As she thinks back through her employed life, she realizes that several employers pulled that guilt card on all their employees over the years.

She remembers at least once when she and the other employees that could drag themselves to work were trapped for 8 hours a day in an office where every second employee was coughing his/her head off. She remembers that particular winter because one employee took it upon herself to make the rounds of the entire office area every couple of hours, spraying the air with antibacterial aerosol, in an effort to keep the relatively healthy employees ... relatively healthy. It was, she says, a very long winter.

Every so often, you hear about a study about lost productivity due to illness. Every time I hear about that, I wonder how much time and productivity would be lost if a sick person wasn't guilted into coming to work when they should be home, taking care of themselves. If the sick employee stayed home for a couple days, and was actually well when s/he went back to work, how long would it take for that person to get caught up? How much extra would the other employees have to take on to muddle through those 2 days?

On the other hand, Employee A isn't feeling well, but comes to work anyway. Because A doesn't get the rest s/he needs, s/he is sick at work for 3 days. During that time, A is lucky to be working at half capacity, is prone to make mistakes, and infects a number of co-workers. So, let's see, 3 days of work is half done, so A is 'only' 1 ½ days behind, except for going back and correcting mistakes that were made. Sound like an even trade to you? Does it stay 'even' when you start counting in all those other employees who caught that same sickness and continued to spread it to other employees? And some of them are sure to seek a doctor's advice, so it seems to me that tips the scales a bit further.

Doctors want you to stay home and take care of yourself when you're sick, and they make their money on people being sick. Employers, apparently, want employees to spread the sickness.

Retirement Finances

Hubby and I went to talk to a financial adviser about our retirement plan. Seemed a little late to be talking about it, since I'm already retired, but Hubby isn't, and he is a worrier. So we went.

Hubby had a 401K from a previous employer that had been losing ground in the stock market. Well, three quarters of that account was invested in the stock of that former employer, and we knew that wasn't very good, wasn't ... 'balanced'. Hubby had also heard that a couple needed to have a $1 million retirement account in order to provide a 'comfortable' living for however long you live. (Never touch the principle, just use the interest.)

Hubby also revealed he doesn't believe social security will be there when we are old enough to claim it, because the Republicans would have dismantled it by then. And even though I'm currently getting a pension, and he is working for the same government entity I worked for and should therefore get one, too, he doesn't believe those pensions will last, either, since ALL government entities are experiencing hard financial times, and the pension plan we've been paying into is underfunded. The workers have been paying into it, but our employer hasn't matched our dollars as fully as it should have. So he figures it won't be there. And I've never had a 401K. So he figures the only thing we could count on was that account of his.

He's just a little bit too much of a pessimist.

And I might be a little bit too much of an optimist, because I always figured I'd get by ... somehow.

We had our meeting, started working out a plan, and came away with some sense of relief. You know what? This is one instance when I'm glad I married a worrier.

This is Math

In response to President Obama's adoption of Warren Buffet's suggestion that millionaires should pay a higher rate in taxes – perhaps the same percentage as middle-class workers – the Republicans were quick to call it 'Class Warfare'. I found that an entertaining comment, since I have felt for many years that we were in a type of class warfare, and that the rich people were winning. I and most of the middle class people I know have been slipping further and further down the societal ladder toward poverty. And though we might complain, for the most part, WE do not object to paying our 'fair share' of taxes.

They also quickly figured out that 'it wouldn't work'. If they raised the rate of taxes on millionaires, well there aren't that many of them, and the results would be a mere fraction of what's needed to balance the budget.

Obviously, they are far too rich to have any idea how to make a real budget work. Maybe we need a few middle-class (sliding towards poverty) housewives to work on the national budget. They're the ones who know that if you have a big bill that absolutely must be covered right away, you aren't likely to find that much money in any one place. They know you have to look for that money a nickel at a time. If you can find a way to bring in even just one more dollar to help pay that bill, then that makes it that much easier. If I have an unexpected bill of $500, and I'm trying to get it paid by looking for nickels... Don't tell me a 'mere fraction' won't do any good.

Keeping Track of TV

Back when I was a kid, you knew what to expect on TV. You quickly figured out what channel had a good show on what day, and at what time. Things got a bit dicey around Christmas, when half the shows skipped a week so the other shows could have a Christmas show twice as long as normal, but otherwise, the day, time and channel for all the shows you liked remained the same from the start of school until school let out. Then, us kids didn't care if the summer was full of re-runs, because we were probably outside, playing kick the can or chasing fireflies.

Of course, back then we only got the 3 national channels, and maybe – if the wind was right – a snowy rendition of the closest public broadcast station. Remembering your TV schedule was simple.

Well, leave it to the suits in charge of the tv stations to make it impossible!
These days, a 'season' might be as little as 9 weeks long. And if you're really, really lucky, they might make 2 of these 'seasons' in any one year. Even then, that’s 18 weeks, out of 52. That leaves 34 weeks for them to show re-runs. But apparently, that isn't enough for them. I've discovered that if I miss an 'all new' episode at 8 or 9 PM, it will be shown again at 11 or midnight. Not only that, it will be shown a couple times (at least) the next day, and the next day ... a couple dozen times before the next 'all new' episode is shown the next week. After seeing the same show 3 or 4 times, I grab the remote in sheer desperation to see what's on the cooking channel. I hate cooking.

I've made notes about when and on what channel my favorite shows appear. But many times, I've turned to that channel at that time, and my show isn't on. Hope I can catch it tomorrow, I guess.

Why I Don't Believe Politicians

The City of Omaha, Nebraska, has been saying for about 15 years that it is on the verge of financial ruin. I have listened to (civilian) friends who worked for the city complain that after the union negotiated a 3-year contract with the city (which included miniscule 'cost of living' raises that came nowhere near the actual cost of living, and paying ever more and more in insurance premiums), they might get that tiny increase in pay the first year, but not the following two years. The city was too broke! The workers complained so much that the City Council took the unprecedented step of freezing their own pay! "You see?" they were saying. "The situation is so bad, we are forgoing a raise ourselves to help keep the city afloat!"

The following year, they told the civilians once again the city could not honor the contract by giving them their miniscule pay raises. One of those civilians went to the weekly city council meeting to protest, and suggested if things were all that bad, then the council should also forego their raises. "Oh, no!" was the response. "You can't expect the City Council to not get a raise two years in a row!"

Apparently, what was good for the goose was NOT good enough for the gander, for that was exactly what they were expecting from the civilian employees, and had already expected of them several times.

In the meantime, the city hired experts and department heads from outside the city and paid them exorbitant salaries, because "We have to pay (them) the amount they could get in the public sector!" After renovating the Rosenblatt Stadium, home of the Omaha Royals, the city decided to abandon it and has built a NEW stadium in the heart of downtown, eliminating a large parking lot for the Quest Center. The Rosenblatt – still in good shape after having all that work done to it – will be torn down and made into a parking lot, while the Royals have moved south and adopted a new name. So much for having a team in Omaha.

And now they tell me one of the newest libraries in Omaha is closed for renovations. Once again I wonder, "Where did that money come from?" I know better than to ask the politicians.