It can only get better. I'm looking at working until I'm 80 because my 401Ks have bit the dust (who thought that was a good idea, anyway?) Tuition at the University of Minnesota is pushing $11,000 a year -- something that a single mom making $40,000 a year can not afford. Everytime I cross the Mississippi, I hold my breath, waiting for the bridge to collapse because we just couldn't afford the one million dollars required to shore it up.
The public sector has taken some awful hits in the past eight years. The notion of public good seems to have disappeared. The notion that the government is responsible for domestic tranquility, whatever that means, seems to have disappeared. The concept that we are all in this together seems to have disappeared.
Maybe Barak can reconstitute our commitment to each other. Maybe he can direct funds toward bridge projects. Maybe he can ensure that all children have a true opportunityto learn. But he can't do it by himself, and the wolves are out there ready to pounce on January 21. Let's hope that we support his efforts with the same fervor that we had before the election. Otherwise 2009 will be even more depressing than 2008.
Thursday, January 01, 2009
New Car
Joe College bought a car. Or rather, he acquired a car -- it's a long story. He and OLGS drove a car to Chicago for a friend who had purchased it on EBay. The friend, an excellent mechanic who had kept his 1992 Toyota Corolla running, insisted that Joe College would be doing a favor by taking the old car off his hands. His wife and kids, he said, cringed when they had to ride in it. And one can see why. 
It is now parked in front of the house, but, as OLGS pointed out, on the other side of the street so that it isn't associated with us. It has lots of rust and a wonderful jerry-rigged taillight that is an invitation to any aggressive police officer. The Volvos and new Hondas also parked in our neighborhood are looking down their hoods, or noses.
Joe College is in hog heaven over his first car, at least the first that he actually owns himself. Tomorrow he goes to the DMV to make it his officially. And it gets 32 MPG highway and burns only a little oil (less in the winter, according to our friend). And the price was right -- free, with a beautiful rug from Afghanistan thrown in to pacify yours truly.
I'm happy for Joe. I remember my first car -- a 1960's slantback Volvo that I bought with help from my dad. It was blue (just like Joe's new car), and when I see one on the street (which still occasionally happens), I feel a twinge. There's nothing like first love.
It is now parked in front of the house, but, as OLGS pointed out, on the other side of the street so that it isn't associated with us. It has lots of rust and a wonderful jerry-rigged taillight that is an invitation to any aggressive police officer. The Volvos and new Hondas also parked in our neighborhood are looking down their hoods, or noses.
Joe College is in hog heaven over his first car, at least the first that he actually owns himself. Tomorrow he goes to the DMV to make it his officially. And it gets 32 MPG highway and burns only a little oil (less in the winter, according to our friend). And the price was right -- free, with a beautiful rug from Afghanistan thrown in to pacify yours truly.
I'm happy for Joe. I remember my first car -- a 1960's slantback Volvo that I bought with help from my dad. It was blue (just like Joe's new car), and when I see one on the street (which still occasionally happens), I feel a twinge. There's nothing like first love.
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