Next Steps [NOT 6/11/24]

6/11/24 brightersideoflife 39

Ok so today sucks and things will keep sucking. French Revolution analogy and all that from last night.

I think it’s important to start thinking about our next steps for preparation in our own lives. The boring practical shit. I know we all joke about emigrating to New Zealand or wherever, but for most of us, the likelihood of finding a solid country to move to where we actually had the assets to be accepted, eh it’s not good odds.

So right off the bat for me, I keep thinking about my mortgage. So far I’ve tried to be really smart and pay a bit extra every month to knock the principle down faster. I probably should stop doing that because of the economic realities of the dumb shit we’re gonna live in the next administration. Having that extra money in the bank is a smarter choice.

The other thing I’ve been percolating on today is weight loss meds. I binge eat, it’s not good. Stress makes it worse. Stress outside of things in my own control has the same impact as dumb shit I cause for myself. I probably should have the talk with my doctor about going on some weight loss meds. I am at the point of acceptance with it that I don’t think I’ll have both hands on the wheel (or even 1 hand on the wheel) with my stress with the incoming administration.

I’m also going to expand my garden. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to add another raised bed, I’m running out of space for it. And they’re expensive to set up that first year. However, it’s so fucking good for my mental health when I’m out there picking green beans or whatever, that it would be a smart investment. Also, food is going to get more expensive so can’t hurt to offset that potentially.

How about you? What are the practicalities you’re starting to mull over?

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39 Comments

  2. oligarchs don’t care if your money is in your bank or in your house…it’s theirs.

    i’m going to keep fighting the good fight but i’m also going to be more like the old me…and a lot of people irl and online might not like him so much.

    we’ll see.

      • if you only knew how much your support lifts me and how much “cassandra” motivates me.

        the only way to lose is to quit. i understand that now. we all learn, grow, and progress.

        part of me is ready to give up… but i have to stay true to myself – not just for me, but for the 17-year-old girl i’m responsible for… and fighting for…

        because my two-foot-planted stance will always be firm on this: ketchup is not a vegetable!

        • 😁💖💝

           

          This is the season for all of us to hone our various skills, take stock of where we need to build or strengthen ourselves, and we *need* to check our safety-nets for holes, mending those, and *also* begin to follow the old Spider/Weaver fables, and “Weave our webs,” so that were tied strongly to our various communities, and anchored in well enough to make it through the coming storms.

          All of us here have *some* types of skills–we need to refine ’em, learn new things to add on to ’em, and be ready to teach the folks we come across who want to learn (because–as you know, redundancies, backups, and workaround options are *good* to have, when the shit flies *everywhere*😉).

          Hell, heathen-y little old me even went to frickin’ *CHURCH* tonight!

          Because there’s a church I’ve been meaning to reach out to, about volunteering/ community building–because they do a LOT of that sort of thing in my neighborhood–they do multiple food shelf days, do a prison book program, have a low-cost thrift store, they do community meals and they’ve got lots of other great programs.

          As I looked at their sign tonight, riding the bus, I noticed they were having a service this evening–and when I looked it up on my phone, I realized it had just started a bit before…

          So I hopped off the bus, figured out where the door was, went in, and sat down at the service, knowing that *at some point*, I’d find *whoever* it was i was supposed to find.

          He’s one of the Reverends there–and *YEP*, he gets it–and is concerned about the *exact* types of things we all are talking about here.

          So now I have his card, and am going to start weaving my web *here* a lot stronger, and help to build up some strength & redundancy to help my neighbors weather our way through.

          Because we *are* all in this together–and that’s the *only* way to get through to wherever & whenever the other side, and safety finallllllly happens.

          There *are* kids in nearly all of our lives who are depending on us to right the ship, and hand them *something* other than a smoldering damn crater.

          So it’s time to start that net weaving💖

  3. My wife and I already had a meeting set up with a financial planner, and let’s say my questions are going to be a lot more focused on things like liquidity and protection of assets.

    I’ve heard really good things about modern weight maintenance meds, by the way. They’re not miracle drugs, but they go a long way toward feeling satisfied with less. I’ve heard about people who feel guilty about using them, but my feeling is whatever works. If I had really itchy skin, would I feel guilty about something that took the itch away?

  4. Today I did some retail therapy at Goodwill. Got the kids a bunch of cold weather clothes and some Xmas gifts. I’ve been curbing our consumerism since last year. Mostly motivated by spite for companies and in solidarity with humanity and the environment (cut way back on buying shit from Amazon and other big name stores). I don’t kid myself and believe that makes any difference at all in the grand scheme of things. But it does feel good.

    • conflicted here…..no amazon is good

      but if you ordered online elsewhere,,,,you are still killing local shops

      yes you get value for money and a better deal

      buuuut theres a reason town centres are food and fucking barbers now

      and i really dont know where i stand on that either……on the one hand i love shopping in town….on the other…yeah but shits cheaper online?

      • The other problem is it’s hard to shop local if they don’t carry things you can use. There’s little cute shops near me and none of them carry shoes that are supportive enough for my feet nor clothes big enough for my body. So, not shopping there.

      • I don’t live in a big retail city but it seems like prices and quality are actually pretty competitive with Amazon. They sell so much garbage the convenience factor has kind of gone away for so much too.

        I pretty much treat them as the option of last resort, and I don’t end up going to them for so much.

  6. Well, I’m very close to paying off my mortgage by the end of the year, so I’m proceeding as planned. Of course, I do have some excess funds saved up from the side hustle, so I’m planning on stashing those, although that prticular bounty has been slowing to a trickle of late.

    As for the internal intricacies, I’m not particularly inclined to try to match the rage of the assholes who got us to this point because they’re no different now than they ever were (even in numbers, really), and all that got me anyway was arrested the one time I lashed out about seven years ago and keyed a truck with a Trump/Pence sticker — while the occupants were still inside. (The charges were dropped once I agreed to pay restitution. The owner of the truck died during the pandemic, apparently peacefully, at a hospital close to me here but that happened to be about an hour’s drive from his home.) But I’m thinking that I should probably at least try to stick up for the ones who are getting fucked even worse than I am, which may be even harder to do because it actually requires things like courage, righteousness and real patriotism.

  7. We are probably the only state that got more democratic but I still feel a level of anxiety today I don’t think I ever had.  Having daughter’s just starting their careers in the environment & education both feeling doomed is not a good place to be.  I don’t think I will turn on the TV on my trip & try to drown out the noise in my head with the ocean, family & memories of my parents.

  8. I know that moving out of the country isn’t really feasible or practical(but good for fantasizing and keeping the mind off the horror) – but my plan was always to buy a farm for retirement. It was going to be for rescuing animals and gardening so this still fits the original plan. I bought my house for basically nothing and have plenty of room for a nice size garden. My biggest worry is what is going to happen when Elmo and our old nemesis Pete Thiel crash the economy. Anyway – like I said in an earlier post – when I find a farm somewhere – anyone is welcome to come there.

    And, I think we should have more zoom calls. I won’t say that one was fun because of the outcome but I think it might help everyone’s mental health to meet together more often. Just a thought.

     

  9. Hey, for those of us who got the Zoom info from Meg, is that like a chat room that we can use whenever we’re feeling fanciful (after passing along the info, of course, to others who happened not to be there, if applicable), or does she have to be there to let us in?

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