Another year is winding down. Overall, from my POV, this year (2015) sucked. Worst year ever. 2014 was bad. 2013 was very bad, but this year was the worst. As I get older, it appears each year becomes more disappointing than the last. My girlfriend said to me after hearing my remark, "but you have me." My reply to her was, "Yes, and you're the reason why I'm not on a slab in the morgue or having a wardrobe of prison orange." There is always a little sunshine peeking through life's cloudy sky.Quick recap. My sister passed away. (Months of depression. Still not over it.) I hated my job. Pot of gold at the end of the rainbow: My company finally dispelled my arch nemesis. Pot of Gold turns out to be a bucket of horseshit: I'm out three months later. This in itself was not necessarily a bad thing, until I found that I carried no value in the job market. I was either overqualified or under qualified. Between a rock and a hard place? After nearly six months absence from the work force collecting a pittance below my pay scale from the state, I have landed albeit a contracting-temporary position also below my pay scale (but twice what the government is paying) in NEW JERSEY. I live in Philly for those who didn't know. Include the $3 a day bridge toll. I still may need to dip into my meager savings to keep up with my daily and monthly debts. I also hoped that I could start the first of the year, but they wanted me for the last two work days of the year. Great. Now that screws up my one week or last week of unemployment. You know UC will adjust it down. I'll probably net less than had I not worked at all this week. And! I will now have another W-2 to contend with come tax time. I use H&R Block's Tax software program to file. It comes down to a lot of additional data input. And to boot, they didn't have much for me to do these past two days. I got paid 2-1/2 hours sitting at a desk staring blankly at a computer screen or into space this morning. I couldn't get up enough times to stroll to the bathroom to kill some of the boredom. Of the two days, I may have actually only worked 5 hours. And they let everybody leave at 3 pm today. Does that mean I'm only getting paid 14 or 16 hours? Who knows? Who cares?
Enough about me, even though we know this is always about ME. Let's discuss the horrors that looms ahead in 2016. Trump. Cruz. Clinton and Sanders. Oh, my. It's like a twisted scene out of the Wizard of Oz. As Paul Simon once wrote in the song, Mrs. Robinson, "Going to the candidates' debate. Laugh about it, shout about it, When you've got to choose, Every way you look at it you lose." The political front is scary. And everything is a hot topic (Black Lives Matter, Police Lives Matter, ISIS matters, Mexican border crossings to take jobs that no American wants in the first place matters, etc.). As both parties scramble for the issue that will send their candidate to the White House, you have to wonder what is anybody doing for the victims and people involved with these issues?
Now I broach the subject of "Only in America".
Only in America:
- We have laser Christmas lights that we place on our lawns, aim at our houses to join in the colorful festive celebration of the holidays and find them gone the next morning. That's the Christmas Spirit. People will steal anything even if it's nailed down or just stuck in the ground.
- We have robotic hover drones that people use to spy on their neighbors and interfere with 747s at airports placing crew and passengers in danger. Nice. More ways to be irresponsible and cause death. Also, some asshole on the Temple University campus was using a laser light pointer and taking aim at hovering police helicopters this past fall. Now that's Mom and Dad's money being well spent. What degree is that jerk-stain obtaining? Throw a uniform on him and send his ass to the Middle East, if he wants to play with lasers. They're using them there in night commando activities.
- While we are talking hover. Hoverboards. Our very own Mission Impossible self-destruct device. Now that's a toy I want under my Christmas tree. You don't have to do anything. It will self-immolate within hours after unwrapping, sort of like a protesting Tibetan.
- Mass shootings. The only way to fight is...wait for it...BUY MORE GUNS. Arm everyone. That'll stop the killing, right? When everyone is carrying a "piece", no one will ever be shot again. That's the opinions of the NRA, gun manufacturers, sellers and their supporters. And you wonder why I don't want to leave the house or open the front door.
- Terrorists. This piggybacks on the above note. Sometimes it's not always a terror attack, but most likely it is or could be. Keeping people out is not going to stop them, Donald. No matter how many eyes in the sky you have. No matter how many doors you kick in. The bad guys will find a way to get in. Education and cooperation is what is needed. If we're dealing with extreme Muslim ideology, we need to get into their heads first and then reach out to the normal Muslim community for their help. These people have to know who is in and who is not. Same as your Christian communities. Somebody had to know this nut job who shot up the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood. No man, even a WHITE one, is an island. The continuing apathy and lack of "doing the right thing" is part of the reason a lot of this exists. The fear of retribution or the snitch labeling mentality has allowed career criminals and whackadoos to ride roughshod over our country and countrymen. We have got to do better. Turn the bastards in if you know them. Do the right thing. Dang it all!!
- Kids. More specifically, teens up to twenty-somethings. I was visiting with the parents of my oldest childhood friend. In our conversations we came to the realization that the youth of today get into as much mischief and trouble as we (myself and their daughter, but not necessarily together) did as youth. The difference is they can now do it faster with more precision and devastating results. When I was in that age bracket, we did not have social media, cell/smart phones that could record all the dumb ass illegal things we were doing and airing it to the world. For could cause. We were doing dumb ass illegal things and didn't want to get caught. Today's youth by far are either naive, stupid, both or just totally reckless and careless. Prime example: That dumb ass (and his mother) known as the "affluenza" teen. He's on probation when he should have been in jail in the first place. He's videoed on someone's smart phone which is posted and goes viral doing something that breaks his probation and will land him in jail. He and his mom fled the country to Mexico. Great parenting skills. Kids are as how they are reared. This woman should be spayed so as to never bring forth a brood ever again. Now they've been caught and are both in prison. A great waste of tax payers' money.
I could go on but I won't. The nut jobs in my neighborhood have started to blast their illegally obtained fireworks. With just under 3 hours left to this train wreck of a year, I want to take a moment to wish everyone a happy holiday and a very safe, sober New Year. Please be responsible. Don't be another New Year's Eve statistic. I'm staying home in front of the TV with my head and my cat under a blanket. See you next year.
Comments
Post a Comment