Random Blurb in Book Four: Ichi-no-Tani 2017

Last week was tough.
Thursday was a 15 hour day. I had to work all day Saturday. And… Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were… dead days. Thursday: 15 hours on one client. Friday and Saturday: all day at China Festival trying to get clients for the firm. So… like… 35 (ish) hours worked in 3 days. Though… 35 hours billable for the entire week. So hooray. More Insane Hours for Little Money.

But what’s more? There are at least 8 or 9 cases I have work to do for. Sunday… I NEEDED to sleep, so I slept. Monday, I honestly considered coming in to work but… damn. After a long 6 day week; I was going to take advantage of Memorial Day.

Today? I was in the office by 7:30. 23 Billable actions so far today. For a grand total of… 4.4 (or more). So many clients. So much work to do. So sleepy. So… looking forward to the weekend already.

MBFITWW is coming to visit on Friday. Then on Saturday, I’m introducing him to some other friends and we are going to try to hit up some restaurants and escape rooms and stuff. Then Sunday… day of rest.

Week after that? I have minor back surgery that Friday. They are cutting into my left flank and removing two alleged hardened fat nodules that are causing some minor pain. That will take me out of commission that Friday and Saturday.

Weekend after that is my Wife’s 37th birthday and her parents should be coming down to visit.

And in the mean time? Work. So… weekends… things to look forward to, if only rest. Week? Less so. More and more days that look like 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

I’m not lazy. I’m not. But… I was thinking this the other day.... (and want to at least leave something here that is interesting or inspires conversation)

You know how so many people say, “Remember the 50s!” all nostalgically? And how, when you call them out on it, they are quick to say that it has nothing to do with race. Okay… why were the 50s awesome from a purely racially neutral perspective? Paranoid threat of communism? No. Financial markets that don’t require two adults work full time to afford a reasonable lifestyle? THAT ONE! When a family of four could survive comfortably on ONE adult’s salary… and that adult didn’t have to work 70 hour minimums to make it happen. THAT is the thing to miss. And how do we get there? Well… the people that most miss the 1950s, it seems, are the people that are least likely to complain about Income Inequality and Wage Disparity. When you say, “I miss the 1950s” and then yell at “a burger flipper” who wants to get paid a living wage… that is an inconsistency. When you lament that kids are growing up without parents in the home that can take care of them… and yet, petition against affordable housing… that is an inconsistency. And these political inconsistencies are what we need to examine. The solution to the disappearing Middle Class is not tax cuts for the rich. Because that has been tried… a lot. And the middle class is still disappearing. But likewise… the solution to the disappearing Middle Class is also not ballooning entitlements. Because borrowing from the future to pay for the now also doesn’t work well.

Problem is… I am far too tired, too drained, and too mentally incapable to innovate a solution. I hope someone can, though.