Happy Things- day 3

I gotta tell you that today, I am having a hard time coming up with things that make me happy. Not that a bunch of things don't make me happy--they do--I have just had a rough day.

I usually do not get too worried about it when the state does not have a budget by July 1, when the fiscal year starts. Every year, they warn us that there may be a paycheck problem--but then they show up. This year, there has been no warning at all, and the legislature is not even meeting again until well after the checks have to be made. When we asked admin of our agency, we were told they know no more than they do. That is pretty frightening.

I am starting to think we might really be screwed this time.

And that makes me ANGRY. Illinois is something like $11 billion in the hole. We have already lost one long-held job in this house due to the State's failure to pay the bills, when Barry's work went kaput in May. Finally, we see some potential relief from that situation with his new job, and now there is concern that I won't get paid.

This is simply a pissing match between the governor and the legislature, and it sucks that so many people are paying the price for it. I serve on the board of a service agency, and unless money is restored, hundreds of people are not going to receive services they need to get by. The agency functions on grants from the state, and they are 100% gone. The reserves will hold them enough to get by for a few months while hopefully this shakes out--but every day some child does not have medical services because of this is one day too many.

The governor wants an income tax increase from 3 to 5 %. No one wants that, but we want the cuts far less than that--at least everyone I know does. The legislature shot that down, and the governor won't sign anything the legislature puts in front of him.

Someone out there is forgetting there are people in the middle of this conflict, and that makes me angry.

Ah, I just thought of something good that happened today--AmyB called about a potential trip for us to take. We want to do a long weekend in the fall somewhere, just the two of us, since Barry will likely be unable to take time off yet. She somehow got hooked up with someone who can take us to see tiger sharks, I think in the Bahamas. Big scary sharks. Now that is exciting.

These people can also hook us up to do the cage diving with the great whites. I have to admit that starting with tiger sharks is a good idea, so I will gain some guts from that before they chuck me in a damn cage and let the sharks beat the hell out of me. Barry would HATE THIS, so I do not think he will mind a bit to miss it (not that he can dive again until he gets his ears re-surgicated, and he hardly has time for that any time soon).

I knew I would come up with a happy thing. I need to have a trip to look forward to. Now lets hope that the State can keep paying us, so that it is not off the table before it is all the way on.

As I type this, all the Michael Jackson footage is on. It is so sad. And if I see that child Paris and her heart-breaking good bye to her father again, I am gonna cry. Those poor children. We forget that he was part of a family, the father of children, the brother to many and someone's son. The world has lost a musical genius, an icon, and amazing man--but they have lost their family members. Seeing that poor little girl speak in front of all those people chokes me up. What a horrible life their father had, and what will come of those children in the coming years is anyone's guess. Such a horrible thing.

Now I need another happy thing. The best I can come up with is that I finished weed-eating the house--well all but the back yard. I even round-uped the barn and the fence line down there, and part of the fence line in the back yard, behind the pool. Then I ran out of round-up. But it is a start. Then I mowed on the inside of the pasture along the fence line so it will look pretty. I even got almost the whole front yard done before the same part that crapped out last week did it again. I will have to get Barry to explain it to me how he fixed it over the weekend.

With all of that done, I can spend tomorrow after work in the pool and enjoy myself for a few hours before I have to move hay and mow pastures at the farm. I need some down time to just chill out and relax. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a little less stressful so I am not jumping out of my skin by the time I get home. I am finally seeing the end of a reply brief I have been working on that is so complicated, I thought I would never get through. If I can finish that tomorrow, I will really be able to enjoy a rare night off.

And I will make time to find something to photograph that makes me happy. This post is pretty boring without a picture or two