As Normal Can Be At $7.25 Per Hour

From For Ellipsis

"Money will buy you a fine dog, but only love will make it wag it's tail."

-Richard Friedman

Back to normal. Alan just finished the second of two vacation stretches and now things are back to normal. Well, as normal can be, given that Governor Schwarzenegger has just signed an order lowing Alan's pay to $7.25 per hour! Frankly, while my schedule might be back to what it was a couple week's ago, my life really isn't. We are being legally robbed! Wrap your brain around that. The Governor, and the state legislators, can't do their jobs, and state workers are being held captive!

Alan and I might... just might... be able to keep our cottage. It will depend on if the owner will work with us. We have lived her nearly a decade, and she has been pretty easy to work with, but let's face it, she has bills to pay also. If she won't budge on the rent, we will lose both cars. We have stocked up on food, so we will be able to eat for a few months, and we have the cats well stocked on their needs as well. The phones will be shut off sometime around Thanksgiving, but for now the we have a few luxuries covered.

It's simple really. Don't you think?

What isn't simple is the way other families of state workers in California will handle things. Families with children and elderly to care for. Families that have suffered through the 3 days a month furloughs over the last couple years. Most of those families have had to use whatever savings they had, just to keep their heads above water. They don't have the money to sustain themselves at this point. Schwarzenegger and his Republican cohorts had driven this state to the brink, but hey, the bright side is that this is an election year, and I think most folks know what the right move will be. Can you say JERRY BROWN FOR GOVERNOR? Although, to be honest, in a lot of ways, he isn't any great prize.

Sigh.

He's better then the alternative, which I suppose makes him the man for the job! I don't think he will be able to clean up the mess Schwarzenegger has left for him. I hold little hope about that. Actually, I hold NO HOPE AT ALL.

Let's face it. With Republicans on the federal level, determined to stop every move that will help America recover, and Republicans on the state level, determined to steamroll over any state level recovery, what hope do we have as a nation? If average every day republicans don't wake up and see that their representatives only have the interests of the wealthy and big business as their first priority, then they get what they deserve come the fall!

It's really very simple.

Don't you think?

-Carly