A quiet day...

...entirely too quiet for my taste.

The good news? I guess it would have to be that I know only seven of the 651,000 people who lost their jobs last month. Bad enough to commiserate with those few; I don't do that very well, teetering on the financial brink as I am.

Somehow, none of us are too sanguine about the government's attempts to revive the economy. Some of that has to do with the bill our children and grandchildren will be paying (obviously more true of those who have -- or will have -- offspring), but more has to do with where the money is going. At least as far as anyone can determine; the "open and transparent" administration is hiding details like a mafioso concealing his ill-gotten gains.

And the talk about bolting California is growing among my friends. The greedheads in Sacramento have completely lost their collective mind; taxes are going way the hell up, and concessions made to state employee unions isolate their members from the financial reality we mortals face.

At the moment, much as I'd like to bail out, I can't. Such work as I can manage to get is centered in this area. Can't afford to stay, can't afford to leave.

On the home front, I got two calls today. One was from D. the photographer, telling me he has arranged what we need for a story I'll be paid for in three months. Maybe. He seemed puzzled by my lack of enthusiasm. But then, he has a separate income (spelled g-i-r-l-f-r-i-e-n-d) and his "cutting back" is much more limited than mine.

The other call? It was from a friend picking my brain regarding an arcane subject about which I am a (relative) expert. No money there, but it was nice of him to call....

On several occasions today, I came close to pitching my radio out the window. I know the state, like the nation, is only a few steps away from meltdown, and I don't need repetition, which more or less keeps me from "talk radio," but the commercials are beginning to bug me, too. Indian casinos talking about how much you can "win" (I learned ages ago that the house always wins), ads for law firms that can effect "loan modifications" from banks (for people who shouldn't have bought houses they can't afford in the first place), ads for the teacher's union (which says we should tell our elected "leaders" to spend more money on teachers) and "public service" ads telling us California is running out of water so we need to all stop washing and drinking beverages made with water.

I've babbled on long enough about what's making me feel like the whole mess is simply too much for me to deal with. I'll stop before start I whining about a few people who seem to have, without announcement or explanation, dropped me from their lives like the proverbial hot potato....

My neighbor's cats are sitting at my door, waiting to be let in. She must be out for the evening.

Inscribe that on my tombstone: cats liked him.