You Didn't Just Say That?!

Yesterday morning, Irish had the local morning news on and I was watching it while eating breakfast. I heard two separate statements that just made me drop my jaw. Really, do people on tv pay no attention at all to what they're saying/how they're saying it? (Of course it's easy for me to criticize; I'm not on tv!) Anyway, South Bend's mayor (SB is the next town over from me) was on the news talking about the new nanotech park (?) and a contest the city is having to determine the name. It's in an area currently known as The Studebaker Corridor. If you know South Bend and/or classic cars, you know this area is famous for the Studebaker. I figured they want some new name, modern and highlighting technology. Not so; the mayor told the reporter just what kind of name they're looking for - basically, concise - three words or less - and having something to do with local history. Hello! That's exactly what you have now! What's the deal? (It turns out that whoever owns the rights to "Studebaker" will no longer permit the city to use the name, so they have to rename the area. But you'd think he'd make that clear before telling everyone they're looking for a name that conveys pretty much exactly what the current name does.)

But the one that really made me laugh was the weatherman. We've had some cold days recently - hovering around freezing and even dipping below. We've seen snow in the air and had a lot of cold rain. Today it started to warm up a bit and will continue to stay warm ("warm" being a relative term, in this case meaning mid-40s to low-50s F) through the weekend. His lead-in to yesterday's weather story? "When will this cold weather end?" All I could think was, "Dude, it's the 11th of freakin' November in northern Indiana! It is way too soon to start asking that question!" At this time of year, that's the kind of question that'll earn you a funny look and the response, "You're not from around here, are you?" (Seriously, we're less than 10 miles from the Michigan state line and 45 minutes from Lake Michigan - lake effect blizzards are definitely not unknown here and neither is snow in April. Last year, the last day of snow, as I recall, was April 14.)

In Other News -

Irish was awarded disability from Social Security on the first go-around. Whoo hoo! That takes so much mental and emotional pressure off him (he's felt, since he first became unable to work, that taking care of the house and cooking, etc., wasn't enough - felt he had to contribute financially somehow to be a good husband) and it's taken a load of pressure off me, as well. What I earn does stretch to cover our expenses, but it's definitely a stretch and leaves little room for extras. Irish won't be getting a ton of money a month by any means, but it's enough to let us keep up with our bills, put a bit aside every week (I get paid weekly), and not have to make such choices as "Hmm. Pay my school bill on time or live on rice and pasta this week?" (Which doesn't sound like such a big deal, but I'm much healthier and feel better when I'm not consuming large amounts of carbohydrates. Irish's doctor has also advised him to eat more protein and vegetables and less starch. Hard to do if you don't have a halfway decent grocery budget.)

Also, he got a bit of retroactive pay. We put aside a chunk of it so a friend and I can fly out to Las Vegas in April, rent a truck, unload our storage unit, and finally have all our possessions in one place. That'll be wonderful. I can have my piano back! Also, the money we pay each month for the storage unit will be welcome in our bank account. (You might wonder why we paid for a storage unit when we were so broke for the last year. Good question, and more than once I was tempted just to quit paying the rent and let the company get rid of our stuff. But there are things in there it would still break my heart to part with - milk glass that belonged to my dad's mom, things Aunt Lizzie gave me, things my dad gave me. If I'd have had to let them go, I'd have dealt with it - they're just things, in the end. Right now, though, I glad I held out.)

We got some things we need - clothes for Irish, whose old clothes are getting shabby; a futon for the living room (I'd have liked to have a sofa but Irish has been set on a futon almost since we got married and you know, it looks fine and it's comfortable, so why not?); a tuneup for the car, which was jumping and stuttering at every stoplight. (And I love not seeing the gas gauge drop to 1/4 tank after just 20 or 30 miles - having a tuneup when you need one really does help with gas mileage.) We'd been thinking about getting a new car - ours is 12 years old - but after further thought, we decided to put it off for another year or two. Ours is really in pretty good condition and while I wouldn't try driving it across the country again - that's a lot of wear in a short time - it's good for what we need and I certainly don't miss having a car payment.

We also splurged a bit: bought a computer and got Internet access, which was installed today. So I'm typing this at home. Can I even convey how excited I am?! We haven't had Internet access at home in about five years. This is living in the lap of luxury. *g*

On a related note, now that I'm putting money in savings every week and not having to touch it, I'm beginning to understand the thrill some people get with just watching that balance grow. It is definitely a nice feeling.