“Downtown where all the lights are bright…”

Photos: Kim Nixon
Post Processing: Lightroom
Location: Downtown, Marquette Michigan

I needed color on a gray day. I needed a gentle camera walk. And I needed not to feel overwhelmed by finances or holidaze. So I headed downtown!

Fragility and the Economy

Here I am today, side-lined. Some undiagnosed injury has me calling into work.  I am angry at my injured body, my fragile body. I worry that I am jeopardizing my job and my immediate finances. I have to pull money from a vacation fund that took me all last year to save. A simple doctor’s office visit $78.00.

At times, I think I should be employed in a job that is not so hard on my body. But my job is pretty much recession-proof. Best to stay put, go with longevity, and the fact my employer has sent me to training and invested monies in making me a skilled-employee. Besides, I have the best boss. I have looked at classifieds continually over the past year, and I keep coming back to the fact my boss is fantastic. I like the people I work with, too!

I sit waiting for a call back from my boss. Worried. At 7:30 this morning I called my doctor and got the last open appointment today-3:30 p.m. Still no word from my boss. I think this is a work injury. But I called my fantastic boss on Friday evening, Sunday, and this morning. The silence is scary. I have trust issues.

I got off work at Friday 5pm. Drove home. Stepped out of my car and went Ooooooooooooow!

I had not worked-out since Wednesday morning and had had no weakness, soreness. I had done nothing new or challenging on Wednesday. Just a short 20-minute run.

At work, assisting on stairs, that is when I felt strain. I thought not much about this. I just re-positioned my foot to line with knee and kept assisting someone with their ascend(s) and descend(s) of a staircase. I just keep assisting someone from floor to standing. (Home Health Respite)

We are all fragile. Some jobs put constant strain on our body parts. I think we should all have AFLAC or some other supplemental insurance to protect us. But the thing is, when you make under the EIC how do you begin to afford such things. Uninsured. In an accident prone world. This equals fragile.

So many of us turn our lives over to our jobs, trusting everything will be okay. Heck, we walk out the door each day hoping everything will be okay. We get out of bed hoping everything will be okay.

Lose a day’s work and pay. Spend more than a day’s pay at doctor office. Dig, dig, dig your hole. Just do not listen to the news (it won’t help you feel secure–trust me on this). Look to the sunrise. Grasp at hope. Trust you are making the right decisions. Carefully put foot on floor, walk lightly, hold railings, brace knee. Look for silver linings. Hope they rain some abundance. Have the best day you can.

  *Update–whew! heard from Boss :-) and I am going into the work clinic at 1:45 and seeing the same doctor I saw last time I strained my knee! Whew! Sigh! Some semblance of peace arises on this sunny morning.

(Later today I will write on my expereince in driving a motorized shopping-cart/wheel-chair while grocery shopping on Sunday)

Is it a repression?

“Stocks on Wall Street have tumbled this week amid the worst financial meltdown in the United States since the Great Depression.” (source: http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/18/markets/bc.mccain.ap/index.htm?postversion=2008091813)

Okay. So I am no financial expert. In fact, I am only a poverty-level earner that invests, doing what I ought to according to book advice from the likes of Suze Orman. Yes, I am in the “Save Yourself Plan” and I have a 401K that has lost moola and a few stocks that decline daily.  As I watch the Market fall, and my very hard earned money decline, I cringe.

I have listened to George W. Bush say we are not in a crisis, until today? Finally the President of our great country stayed home to think this out. Times aren’t just hard. Time’s are the worst since the 1920s.

Good Morning George Bush. I am glad you are putting on your thinking cap. I hope many of the trusted and elected government officials are searching for answers.

I know people losing homes. I know people with no jobs and no unemployment bennies. I count myself as blessed as I work in an underpaid job that has high turnover and I am reliable and needed. But I am also on a teeter-totter as all my savings have been depleted to pay medical costs. My credit card debt is higher than it ought to be. I have no buffer savings if things go wrong, or worse.

For months those who ought to have been in control, or in the know, said we were not in a recession. Now are we in a depression? Or will we just continue to be in a repression? Stick our heads in the sand. Let major banks and insurers hit the brink, and bail, bail, bail, like hell.