Blog Rating

Mingle² - Online Dating

This rating was due to the fact that my blog contains the words: pain (8x) death (3x) fuck (2x) and sex (1x).

The words! First off, only one of those words can't be said on public radio. Looking at the rest of them, we have some serious R-Rated news every day. Also, people under the age of 17 should be protected from the realities of pain and death in society, and 1 yr from being legal, they shouldn't know about sex either.

I know this is one of those goofy badge things, but the pain and death comments in particular were part of legitemate conversations about the loss of a loved one. This thing goes and looks for words. I don't think pain and death are ones it should be looking for.

That's just my thought on this silly little blog thing. Feel free to continue on to my other post from today directly following this one, or return to your life, or something close to it.

Prosperity

I have spent my entire life just scraping by in regards to money. One of the lessons I have learned along the way is that this is a relative term, as time has led to me making significantly less money now than when I was "just scraping by" in the past. If I lived as close to the vest as I do now back then, I would be in a whole different financial picture now.

I know a number of people who make more money than I do who are "just scraping by." Everyone I know says money is tight. When we get more money, we acquire larger debts, get bigger things that we want. The larger mortgage gives the same hit to the larger paycheck as the smaller one does to the smaller paycheck, and everyone has some toy, vacation, something that they just want to scrape the money together to afford some day.

This being the case, when is there enough money? Do we have to look at the top end of it? Do we not have enough money until we are the Trumps of the world and really can afford whatever we want? Or is there something in the middle? Some element along the way that says we are doing alright for ourselves?

Most of the people I know that are fairly well off have a couch in the middle of their living room. (Yes, MC, I know corrolation does not equal causality, but I am going to run with it anyway.) This circumstance is also common on various television shows as well. I have never had a couch in the middle of my living room. I have never had a living room large enough that the couch wouldn't be in the way if it was.

So that it going to be one of my goals. One of my benchmarks. To have a couch in the middle of my living room one day. So I can walk around behind it when my wife is watching television and put my hands on her shoulders. So my daughter can sneak around behind it and jump up and surprise me.

Paying off my debts and having a couch in the middle of the living room will be enough for me for now. Maybe I will look further when I get there.

There is another significant aspect to using this couch as a benchmark, though. As Jamesomeone would have put it, it is all a matter of perspective. How well off I am is largely going to be based on how well off I think I am. As such, I can earn the money to fit the world I try to create, or I can bend my world somewhat around the money I make. After all, I don't need to afford the larger living room to achieve my goal. I could instead opt for a smaller couch. Or I could do as I did today. The debts are still there, but for ten minutes, I was half way to well off.

Then I put my couch back and went on with my life, or something close to it.

Priorities

A fight broke out on a lawn up the street several weeks ago at about 11pm. The police were called. I saw the cops swing by for a moment around 3am, after the neighborhood had long since policed itself.

A woman smashed a lamp on the hood of another person's SUV and that person called the police. 8am the following day the police came around to ask me what I knew about the altercation.

A dog attacked my father and his dog around 5pm yesterday. I had to chase it away multiple times until my father finally got his dog home. During this time the dog also bit someone who called the police. When they showed up around 10, nobody knew where the dog was.

The kids in the neighborhood play basketball in the street, using a hoop that sits against the curb. When cars come, the kids get out of the way and let them pass. A driver today stopped even though they were out of his way and yelled at the kids who told him to get a life. The cops showed up within the hour to deal with this neighborhood menace.

It kinda has me confused about the priorities in life, or something close to it.