Can't Win for Losing

In light of the cold snap we've been experiencing lately, the utility companies around these parts are threatening to shut off services to hundreds (probably closer to thousands) of customers who can't pay or haven't paid their bills.  Meanwhile, those who are fortunate enough to be able to pay will have to foot the bill with higher rate increases (that seem to occur every quarter).

What, are they just going to let people freeze to death?  People stand in long ass lines at one non profit agency to get help with their heating bills and then run across town to another agency to get food vouchers to keep from starving.  Further still, they have to back track to yet another agency to get help with the rent just so they'll have a place to stay for another month. 

Aid to non profits is down, demand is way up and disproportionately high. All this running around for naught.

Too many people in need + not enough money to go around = a recipe for disaster. 

This thing is about to blow, for real.

The hawk is here to stay.
  
Bipartisanship be damned.  If they don't get it together, and soon, civil unrest is right around the corner.

Call of Duty Too

What's up with absentee fathers forging a relationship way past the diapers, formula, first words, first steps, first day of school?  Like, maybe he can relate to him/her now and explain his absence. Why punish the child because you didn't want to be responsible?  I'm not just talking about the no-job-havin-multiple-baby-mama knuckleheads either.
 
Moving cross country or halfway 'round the world is a piss poor excuse for being MIA;  too many forms of communication exist.  Those formative years can be hell on a single mama (cue all things teenager-y).  Kids need more than financial support, especially the males.  They have more than their fair share of strikes just for being who they are.

I have a friend whose son's father has four kids with four different women.  Her child is the oldest, and they were together-together for a couple of years after his birth.  He's probably seen this child a total of three times in the ten years since they split up.  She had to go through hell and high water to get c.s. (and boy did he cut.the.fool when he got that next paycheck, tehehe). 

Still, when he comes home on leave, he finds time to visit every child except my friend's, but he (the child) loves him in spite of the random contact.  Imagine that?   Meanwhile, she's worried about her child's timidity, his lack of interest in sports, will history repeat itself, will he even like girls. WTF?  What does all that have to do with his deadbeat daddy?  He could be in that boy's life and it wouldn't change a thing other than he'd be in his life. I think she's a tad bit confused about what a dad is/supposed to be. From the outside looking in, her son seems to be better off without him.  He's a great kid with exceptional manners and he makes good grades. She's done an amazing job raising him to be a man, and as long as she does what she's supposed to do, he'll be fine.

The Man Your Man Could Smell Like

(the title of this post was taken from THAT Ol.d Spi.ce commercial)

Is it a wife's job to support her husband and not fight against him?  I heard a pastor say once that if the husband's final decision is wrong, she should stand by him (or his decision) and not criticize.

Mmhmm.....


A nurse I worked with refused to 'let' her husband, an unemployed engineer, work at a burger joint for $300 a week.  He couldn't find anything else and hated being a 'house husband' (his words).  He felt guilty seeing her go off to work everyday while he sat at home. She said no husband of hers would ever take a job flippin' burgers for that lil bit of chump change.  She would rather work 16 hour days, 7 days a week.  And no, they were not downsizing from their $2800/mth McMansion, selling any of the 3 cars (that all have notes and full coverage), and the kids were not coming out of their $800/mth private preschool/grade school to free up some money.  What was he thinking?

"She could be an anchor in stormy seas or she could let him drift onto the rocks.."

She'd rather work like a dog herself to keep up a lifestyle they obviously couldn't afford.  She was more concerned about what the neighbors thought if they saw him in uniform at the fast food joint.  Besides, he'll come home smellin' like grease everyday.  He barely saw her anymore, and when he did, she was too tired to (in no particular order) cook, talk or make love.  He was used to being the provider and he wanted to work, no matter what.  He wanted to feel 'like a man'.


In this age of  I-gotta-degree-or-two-and-he-better-have-a-white-collar-job-too-cause-I-got-standards, would I have a problem with this?  Nope, 'cause $300/wk is $1200/mth and that's better than $0 any day of the week.  How do I know he won't become the manager/regional manager/v.p. of sales/el presidente/franchisee/or-whatever else comes after that?  Has the potential to smell like success.  Sure, it'll take a lil' time, but he may have just found his niche, I dunno. 

"A woman could be the wind beneath a man's sails or a gale to send him into uncharted waters.."

Hmmm...