Giving up what You Think is Important

Why is it that a weather change from warm to cool temperatures makes a person so sleepy?

I love autumn; it’s my favorite time of year, but those first two or three weeks of cooler temps keep me drained and wanting a nap. That’s especially hard to cope with on days like today where I’m out on the porch using the wringer washer. It’s just chilly enough that we have to keep a fire in the woodstove, but also chilly enough that said woodstove runs us out of the house, too, LOL.

And what’s worse is when I take my hands out of the water and the cool air freezes my fingers. I bet I’ll be bitching tonight when my joints start thumping. Oh, well. One does what one has to in order to get by. The hubby and I joke that if this country would ever go into an honest-to-God depression, it would be folks like us who would survive because we already do just that.

I ponder those sorts of things. I can only image what the rich would do if their money ran out. Or what about a depression and some sort of magnetic pulse that renders all technology useless? Oh, the horrible effect it would have on national security and the medical professions, let alone everything else! Imagine the hysteria if Mr. Rich’s latest version of an iPhone no longer worked, if he couldn’t access his funds in Switzerland, and once all the money is gone, then what?

Thoughts like this spiral through my head when I think of some of my story ideas. But I know a lot of wealthy people—and those who live above and beyond their means—who would be devastated if they had to survive, had to wash their bodies and clothes in a creek or ride a bike or horse to the neighboring town.

I’m not officially into my  middle-age years, but I’m not a spring chicken anymore either; however, I remember the many times that my mother and I had no transportation and we’d walk to church together. Autumn always brings those memories to the forefront of my mind because one fall we walked to Sunday evening and Wednesday evening services quite often. My dad was working in West Virginia and had our only vehicle. Those autumn nights were balmy, the dried leaves skittered across the hardtop road, reminding me of every horror movie I’d ever watched, and the spicy aroma of the leaves mixed with that crisp tang in the air only those who live where there is a true winter can understand.

I was about 13 or 14 at the time, but although times were hard then, too, the memories are fond ones.

This economy has everyone up in arms with worry. I worry too. My husband’s hours have been cut back from the normal five days a week to four. That will hurt us tremendously, but somehow we always manage to get by.
Yet how will others cope? I see houses closed upon, cars repo’ed, credit cards being maxed out and folks filing for bankruptcy…but here, we raise a huge garden, we eat venison, squirrel, rabbit and grouse, thus saving on the biggest expense of groceries: meat. I buy cheapie pop instead of name brands—if I even buy it because we drink a lot of Flavor-Aid and ice tea. I bake from scratch or buy a 79-cent box cake for snacking instead of a $15 cake out of the bakery.

And yet I get these comments from various souls who say, “But you write for men’s magazines and have pen names, so you should be rolling in the dough.”

Well, let me clarify this. A) yes, I do write for men’s mags and various epublishers, B) men’s mags pay well and my pen names are doing well, but C) I have four kids, two who are teenagers, and one thing that most non-writers don’t realize is that epublishers pay quarterly, so you’re waiting four months for your checks; magazines are usually payment on publication, so it can be six months to a year before you get your money. That said, when bills pile up and things get behind, what checks do you think go to playing catch up and paying off things? Hmm?

Besides, the American dollar is worth what now? About three cents? I’m off, I know, but I don’t think I’m that far off with the new regime in town. Heh.

There are so many ways to cut costs, but as I talk to people about such things, I realize something that’s a major problem—people often don’t want to give up their amenities or work harder to do what’s necessary to get by.

If it wasn’t for settlers in various countries, none of us would even be here. Look at what they went through to survive. When you stop and think about what they did, isn’t dropping all the movie channels and going back to basic satellite worth it?

Besides, all those latest films on the movie channels will end up on basic eventually.

So dear reader, I ask you this: what one thing do you feel you couldn’t live without? For me, it would be my laptop/Internet. I do 90% of my writing on my laptop and my Internet is my connection to my best friends. Oh I could use an electric typewriter, but I hate them and the features available on a laptop, pc, or mac aren’t on a typewriter, so I imagine I’d do a lot of cussing, LOL.

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~ by bicknellbrown on October 1, 2009.