Well, I finally did it.  
I brought some sort of legitimacy to my blog.  
I actually paid for a two year subscription at 40% off, of course.   

I am now unofficially and officially a paying customer and part of the WordPress community.  

What is so frustrating is the process. 
I started this blog when I got out of the House.  It’s more or less been a diary of a sort from a great life reboot.  
Actually, this blog is kind of important to me.   I hope that it’ll help me reconnect to a more confident time in my life – when I wanted to be a writer.  

This blog has over 300 hundred entries and over thirty in draft.  
I’m not consistent.   Sometimes, I hit it hard and sometimes not at all.   I guess it’s one of the non-consistent consistent things in my life.  

Over the years, I have consistently wanted to buy into this.   Not just for non-existent readers, but it shows a type of dedication.   Money where my mouth is type of thing.  Last night, with help, I finally pulled the trigger and punched in that payment number.  

At the point of check-out, I had to get Jason to nudge me into it.   
Spending money on myself with no pliable benefit — unthinkable.  
Then, I had to reason it out.   What could I cut to convince myself that I can afford this?   

–  I came up with a couple ideas.   Haven’t acted on them yet, but they’re lurking in back.   
One of them I’m pretty fond of as it could save a lot of holiday drama.  

What else —  
Hoping to get the car back today.   It’s been gone for nearly three weeks. 
One of the last hurricanes of the season smashed the back window and crumbled the trunk.  It’s a lease.   It needed to be fixed and fixed right.   That’s quite unlike the cars I grew up with that where held together with glue and hope.  In another time, I’d just duct tape some plastic to the back and went with it.   

Can’t happen with a lease.  
Just got a call.   It’s finally coming  back.   Be here in about an hour. 
I absorbed the deductible. Since I’m here, I know the water and electric bills are going up in addition to the food bill.    Maybe this makes me even a little? 

See… I’m balanced when I’m not in balance.  
It’s complicated and frustrating.  

Anyways, now that we will have the car back, I can’t help wonder if Darrell will want some attention.   She and Robert have been far more interactive this trip than any in the past.   Although it’s mainly been helpful, I can’t help be suspicious.  As you can guess, I have to wonder about motive.    No-one and I mean no-one does things out of charity.   Even the bell ringers are trying to make themselves feel better about themselves.   There’s always, even a little, selfishness. 

Quid pro quo is embedded in our genes.   
It goes way beyond culture, location, and age.    It’s genetics. 

I can’t help wonder what her reason is. 

Yes, it kind of sucks going through life thinking that everyone is a bastard.  But, it saves a lot of heartache and self-disillusionment.   

In the future, I’m writing this in the living room. 
Every time Jason stands up, I think he’s going to look over my shoulder.   
Which is silly.  He knows that I keep this blog.  He can read it anytime he wants.   I just don’t like the idea of someone standing behind me, even if he isn’t.  

No rhyme or reason. 
Yep.   That’s me.  

I don’t know.  Now that my URL isn’t all gobble gook, maybe I’ll share with my mom.   
I’ve shared with my sister and Becca, but I don’t think either read any more for a long time.  
So, it’s jus you and me, dear reader, as long as you’re not right behind me. 

Word of the day: 

 servitisation


This word is so new that it isn’t in the dictionary yet.  
It will be, soon enough.   

Servitsation means renting services.  

This is already in American culture, to a degree.  

We rent houses.  We lease cars.   We stream shows to watch although we don’t own the rights.   We’re paying rent to get to these services.   Ever work in an office?  If there’s a printer, there’s probably a pay-by-page feature.  Water is free but most pay for the convenience to have it pumped to the home.  

These services are taken for granted.   We pay to use them but really don’t get anything in return when the contract is done.   

The Great Reset is a reimaging of life with an attempt to save the environment.

People are messy.   
Generally, we’re pretty stupid and do stupid stuff all the time.    
We can be wasteful.   Absolutely.  I don’t deny that.  

So, the Great Reset is going to employ servitisation to correct our ways. 

We won’t own air conditioners or water heaters.  
Rather, we’d pay for the right to use them.  People would pay a fixed price per month – just another bill – to have the ability to use them.  

In a way, I can see that this is kind of what’s going on now.  
As soon as something is paid off, it’s designed to break again.   It’s a great way (but only one of several) that keep Americans in debt.    There’s perpetual bills.  

—  But —   there’s always the hope that it won’t break.   Preventative maintenance can extend the life of the item.   We might be able to fix it ourselves.    There are options.   They may not be very good options, but they’re options.   We are accountable for what we get because there is a feeling of ownership.   People own cars.  Owns the house.  Owns the conditioned air. 

That’s part of individualism. 
It’s also where accountability really comes in — an ethic that is becoming more scare by the news program. 

If we’re (or someone) is paying for all this all the time, what’s the difference if we own it or not, right?  It sounds almost like a relief not to have that sort of responsibility any more.    If it’s broke, someone fixes it.  We got ours. 

Part of the Great Reset is environmental protection.  

All of our air conditioners will be replaced with cheap solar panels.  
I’m guessing that the water heater would be solar as well.   

To mass produce this type of “new” technology, remove the old devices, and properly dispose of them in an environmentally friendly way is going to cost a lot.    A lot. A lot.  Which will be billed to the consumers with at least 100% upcharge with monthly payments that would probably pay for the old devices three times over – if not more.  

But, since the services are owned by the feds, state, or huge company, they can depict who gets what.   

A household of two people only needs a certain amount of water per month to cook and shower.   It doesn’t matter if the person wants to wash their car or have a swimming pool.   Anything use besides that limited amount of water hurts the environment.  It takes resources away from other people who need them.  

It’ll be morally unethical and societally damming to take more that what has been allotted.   

People will pay for the right to use what is allowed to them.  Our rights to over run the heater in the winter will be stripped from us. 

Government dependency will define our lives.  

Sure, it’s a small thing.  
If you really think about it, it does kind of make since.  But, that’s how it starts.  

Little liberties are extracted for the bigger ones, like lack of car ownership, will come later. 
Accept the little pills before the big ones.   

It’s like removing pebbles to topple a mountain.   

Just watch.