It's Springtime and the nuts are falling!

[Rider Haggard]

Happy first day of spring, readers. Hopefully many of you are seeing buds on your trees and hearing frisky birds. Buds and birds. Sounds good to me.

On the other hand, many American's lives have been turned upside down. Mine has. I'm going back to a car dealer today where I bought a car that I can no longer afford due to the recent changes in the economy. When I bought it, I had enough cash in stocks to have paid it off but made much more on dividends and trades so I financed it. Lesson learned.

Thank god my house is paid for.

Now I will be relegated to using a 300cc motorscooter for transportation which will prove fun in transporting a 50 lb. bag of dog food home from Costco. I also acknowledge that my situation is so much better than so many and I try not to bitch about it. Things could be so much worse for me, a "typical" American in a pinch.

BUT, folks at Citi and AIG cope with things in a different way. The folks with the million dollar bonuses are bitching and suing over the 90% tax which will only leave them with essentially a $100K bonus. That's a lot more than I made last year. The folks at Citi gave up a new jet for the current crisis and are using the salve of a $10 million upgrade to the executive offices to ease the pain. Christ, have these people any idea of the way the rest of America lives?

And I hear people making excuses for this kind of crap on the cable news networks???

Yeah. The nuts are falling. People are starting to pay attention and I'm starting to hear that "Main Street" is getting pissed at Wall Street. Many folks have had their world turned upside down and the nuts such as Madoff are falling and I hope others will fall as well.

Now, go out and check for new growth. New life.

Winter is over and a new year of new growth begins.


Sign this Chauncy Gardner

[DCKit]

1. When I was your age, we had to WALK to the CostCo - uphill, both ways, in the snow, with no shoes.

Seriously, someone posted about saving aluminum foil earlier, and, I have to admit, I do. I also rinse out and re-use a lot of my zip-lock bags and a roll of paper towels lasts me two months. A good rinse and minute in the microwave keeps dish towels and sponges (fifteen seconds) fresh as long as they last.

I grew up with people who survived the depression and certain habits I learned from spending so much time with them are ingrained. I had a recent conversation with someone (who is old enough to know better) who claimed they couldn't live on a penny less than $6K/month and thought I was having a stroke. $6K pays my bills for a year and I can't even conceive of spending that much money every month. I'd be freaking out.

You are a very rare minority - a realist. The yuppies with 2.3 kids, three vehicles and a lifestyle built around conspicuous consumption are going to take this economy far harder than you or I. Their entire belief system is going up in smoke, and it's not going to be pretty.

[Rider Haggard]

2. Oh yeah? Well, when I was a kid, my entire family lived in a shoe box.

And we would have to live on a single lima bean per week. :)

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank.

[Rider Haggard]

4. At least you had water.

We had to get ours from a mop bucket outside the restrooms of a cheap bar.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. You must be from Yorkshire too.

:rofl: :rofl:

[LeftinOH]

5. I thought this was going to be about "tea-bagging"....oh, well.

[Rider Haggard]

7. Oooooh! It took me a moment. But I got it!

LOL! :)