Affordabilty

Felon47 wants us all to think there's no such thing as "affordability," and increasingly he's right. Not in the way that he wants us to think, of course; his schtick is to claim that talk of things being unaffordable is another "hoax." Given how real all of his other alleged hoaxes are, it's pretty easy to tell he's full of shit (again), but the way he goes about delivering his schtick is kind of funny. He says, “The word ‘affordability’ is a con job by the Democrats,” as if his opponents made up a word to denigrate him with. "The word affordability is a Democrat scam." (Yet  in the same breath he'll tell you you can get by without buying pencils. This man is the president, for fuck's sake.)

You'd think if there was one guy in the world who knew what a scam was, it'd be him, since he's lived his whole life scamming one group after another. But in addition to being a scammer and a fraud, Felon47 is also an idiot who maintains that the word is the scam. Turns out, of course, that the word is just a word. It applies to things in context and not to other things in other contexts. I guess Felon47 just doesn't like that word, it's not one of "the best words."

One context the word does apply to is the Christmas budgets of countless Americans, including me. Thanks in large part to Felon47’s policies and general fuck-you-ness, money is tight. I paid my January health insurance premium yesterday and it's twice what the December premium was. I went grocery shopping last night and spent $100 on what I'd have expected not that long ago to cost $70-$75. I also went Christmas shopping.

Christmas shopping is rarely an efficient way to spend my time, as usually I have no idea what I'm looking for and wait for something to grab me off the shelves or the racks. I did get a couple of things, but after this little mini-spree it's become clear that it's going to be a minimalist Christmas for those on the StarshipTim gift list. Sorry, gang. Better luck next year.

The one bit of sticker shock that for whatever reason sticks with me—even though it's not really "shock," it's less a surprise issue than a scale issue—is that a new paperback book, what used to be classified as a "mass-market" paperback, costs $20+ now. Seems like not that long ago it hit $10 and that seemed steep. But it's not just books, it's everything, and even though I'm a lot more comfortable now than I was in the many years I was straddling the poverty line I am still conditioned in my mind as someone straddling the poverty line. So a paperback with a cover price of $20 hits more than the $45 tag on a pair of jeans.

Anyway, Christmas is a drag for me regardless of the health of my bank account, so whatever. Just a matter of  getting through the month.

Tagged Republicans, Christmas, Money, Posted on December 14, 2025 at 1:01AM   |   Permalink   |     |  

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Holiday hibernation

Howdy, Internet. I hope all had a nice Christmas. Well, hang on—I hope most had a nice Christmas. There are some people involved in and responsible for the incoming governmental hellscape that frankly should have had a miserable time, just karmically.

Anyway, mine was OK; I'd done my celebrating the week before with friends, so Christmas day proper was just me cooking holiday food and watching bad Christmas movies and also, as a palate cleanser, the Hawkeye series, which is really good and all takes place during Christmastime.

But I also started to feel under the weather that evening, with a sore throat coming on, which history has shown is the first stage of at least a cold of not something more. Yesterday and today have been basically sick days; holed up with soup and lozenges and sleep and comic books. The cats are rather antsy, they've got a lot more energy than I do right now and I've not given them proper play time.

Anyway, I'm popping throat drops and full of snot and generally foggy in the head in a not-the-usual-depressive-way-but-in-a-crap-in-my-sinuses way, biding some of my awake time playing OOTP computer baseball and managing the 2021 Mariners to a 94-loss season, which wasn't supposed to happen. I'll have to rebuild a little for AU-2022.

This cold/whatever needs to run its course in a few days' time, as I'm scheduled to start umpiring again next week, and winter league is not going to do a cold any favors. It's kind of brutal, winter league, but I know only the die-hards tend to sign up for it and they're generally people I've come to know a little and it's generally the case that they don't give me any real problems, so it can be fun despite the cold/rain/snow/sleet/etc. we end up playing in.

Tagged Christmas, Posted on December 27, 2024 at 4:40PM   |   Permalink   |     |  

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Holiday "Cheer"

Oh, hey, Internetizens. It's been a minute, as they say. I guess I just haven't had much of anything I felt was blog-worthy going on.

Plus, you know, holiday-times. Which in my case doesn't necessarily mean super-busy and overscheduled, but it does suggest bad moods—cloudy, overcast with a reasonable chance of black-hole episodes and brain fog. (Also, I sprained my arm pretty badly last week during our oh-my-god-it's-fucking-cold-out winter storm when I tried to take the trash out and slid on the ice-covered asphalt. It's considerably better now, but for the first few days I could basically do nothing with the left arm, including type. You ever try brushing your teeth or cutting food with your off-hand? It's more problematic than you might think, at least at first.)

I don't remember the last time I actually enjoyed Christmas. Not like I hate it now, or anything like that. It's not the Most Depressing Day of the Year, as I know it can be for a lot of folks. As a concept, I still like the whole thing, I want to do well by my friends and relations with appropriate giftage (budget permitting) and appreciate the festive trappings of the season and all. But let's face it, Christmas as we know it is not meant for single people.

The last several years I've either spent Christmas with one of my two also-single pretty good friends or gone to California to hang out at my sister's place with the remaining fam. No shade to the fam, but I don't enjoy those trips; holidays as the fifth wheel tend to reinforce the fact that I'm sick and goddamn tired of being the fifth wheel. Just low-key hanging out with a pal and watching movies while we eat pie was better. This year, my go-to single pal wasn't an option, she's fled the big city for a return to small-town Midwest life, and the other single pal has his own stuff happening. So on the 25th I just flew solo and read some comics and watched some Buffy the Vampire Slayer and a couple of romcoms. Which was fine, because I knew I had a delayed-Christmas dinner to attend with my favorite lady gays a couple nights later. I enjoyed that too, though the gifting portion of the evening was really the only thing to differentiate it from any other hang-out-with-K-&-E time. Which is not a complaint, because I love those times and I wish there were more of them.

Anyway, all of which is to say that I miss Christmas being something I looked forward to and/or something to be enjoyed. Not necessarily the kind of fun it is as a kid; that's neat and all, but I'm more thinking about how it has been, on rare occasion, an either romantic or otherwise meaningful bonding time with someone. Maybe it'll be that again someday, but I'm not counting on it. See above, re: overcast with black-hole episodes. Feeling a bit cynical right now.

Humbug.

Tagged The Black Hole, Christmas, Posted on December 29, 2022 at 3:40AM   |   Permalink   |     |  

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