There was a maddening story the other day in the WSJ (it’s paywalled) about how desperate businesses and many communities are for workers, but how they absolutely refuse to even consider migrant labor/immigrant labor. People dying while on wait lists for home health care, restaurants no longer serving breakfast or opening on weekends, etc.
There’s a whole lot of reasons for where we are now as a state, including years of mismanagement, emigration, focusing on keeping us a resource extraction based economy, lack of investment in education and people, refusing to raise the minimum wage, pushing the jeebus agenda on everyone, and on and on and on. As I have said before, no one in their right mind is going to come here to work a shit job cleaning grease traps for 8 bucks and hour so they can be tailgated by a jacked up pickup truck with Punisher and Trump stickers on it back to the apartment they can’t afford to pay for to sit and do nothing because there are no entertainment options. So don’t expect a youth revival.
I’ve spent the last few days trying to find a part time job for the summer because I have to fix the ac in my car, get a new roof on the house, fix the water line into my house, as well as pay the bills and eat, so I can’t afford to not find work, but let me tell you, the opportunities are GRIM. Especially if you have some sense of self-worth, because I find my time to be worth more than 9 bucks an hour. It’s quite dispiriting, especially if you contrast it with the job market in the Phoenix area.
It was Maxwell’s birthday this week, and he celebrated by absolutely massacring a bird in the foyer overnight. I heard him making weird sounds in the middle of the night, yelled at him, and he quieted down, so I did not investigate. This morning when I went downstairs there was a headless bird with a chewed on body and thousands of feathers all over the place. I have yet to find the head.
I don’t know what kind of bird it was or how he caught one at night, but I don’t have any feeders out back to attract them, so I guess there is not much I can do. He even has a bell on his collar, the murderous fucker.
Also yesterday, my stainless steel hose apparently burst, and my water outside the house was running for about 5 hours before I noticed, which was long enough for it to flood the basement. It’s mostly cleaned up and the dehumidifier is running, so I can add putting up a new coat of drylock on the walls to my summer agenda. It never fucking ends.
In other news, it is rainy and cold, I am unmotivated, there are no video games or tv shows or books catching my interest, and I am not getting enough sunshine. Blerg.
Fuck Donald Trump