This Could Be the Opportunity for Change That We’ve Been Waiting For!

Big Willie’s hours have been reduced - along with his pay, of course - from 40 a week to 32.

There is hope for a return to the full 40 in October.

Having recently taken a pay cut myself, this was upsetting to me. Poverty and I have issues – frankly, the little bastard owes me money.

And this both angers and frightens me.

But that was just how I felt initially. With the space of 24 hours between the bad news and today, I think all I need to do is look at it differently, don’t you?

For example…

1. Willie has every Friday off, starting next week. Yea! Not only does this free up more time for him to, say, make me caramels, but it looks like someone’s bed is getting made on Friday! Lucky me!
2. There will be someone home on Fridays: UPS deliveries, Seventh Day Adventists, Stephanie Face-Tattoo looking for a hand-out? Lucky Willie!
3. Less money doesn’t have to mean less fun – different fun, maybe, but not less! Remember running through the sprinkler, drinking straight from the garden hose, and drawing your name in the dirt? This just might be an opportunity to re-live those simpler, dirtier times… Only maybe I should use the neighbor’s hose – no point in running that water bill up.
4. Like the untapped potential of Wienie Water Soup, think of the goodies that have been under my nose and not utilized under the Two-Full-Time-Jobs regime. For example, friends’ parties. After 11:00 p.m. , odds are good that they're soused enough to not notice that I’ve lined my pockets with plastic bags and am shoveling their party snacks into my pants. (Come to think of it, doesn’t that sound like an excellent party game: Guess What’s In My Pants? Might be a subject for a different post, however…) Note to Self: After a couple excursions of this sort, I may no longer be welcomed... Must explore other options - and make more friends.
5. In the same vein, time for a foray into the cheap meats! Would you believe I grew up with the joys of pickled pork hocks? You would? Oh. But what about the dinner possibilities of necks, tongues, lungs – ah, crap. No. I can’t do it. Seriously, I can handle the necks, but tongues and lungs? I'm going to need recipes.
6. Reduce! Re-use! Recycle! Do we really need our own toothbrushes? Handkerchiefs versus paper tissues? How much lint do you have to gather before you can make a quilt?

There’s more, I’m sure, things that will come to me as we get further into the summer.

I think this has all the makings of a real character builder.