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September 19, 2009

Easy Come, Easy Go on Saturdays

Justin Katz

Working periodic Saturdays has its good points and its bad points. On the one hand, it provides earned income beyond what's accounted in one's long-term budget. On the other hand, it takes away time on which one comes to rely for other purposes.

With those mixed feelings, I worked my way to the jobsite on which I'd planned to spend the next five or six Saturdays, picking up lumber and other materials as I went. The sinking feeling was, however, unmitigated when it turned out that the client had changed his mind. The long-term budget had absorbed the additional money, you see, and it turns out that we'll remain a month behind on our mortgage payments. For now.

Thus do we all trudge on. With so much to do, the time will not be wasted, and it's not as if living on the economic edge is anything new. Adjust and find the positive. Find another perk that had heretofore seemed a necessity. (Some might call it "nonessential.") Get comfortable in a naked state, and the clothes matter little. And if they chafe, there's experience to be gained from the feeling.

Besides, there were dishes to be done, today, and children's bicycles with chains to be re-geared. I think I'll hold off for a few decades before I hand the kids the bill. With interest.

Comments

Hang in there.

Posted by: David at September 20, 2009 9:51 AM

"before I hand the kids the bill. With interest."

Hey, why not? It's what Bush, Obama and two Congresses have done.

Posted by: Monique at September 20, 2009 11:00 PM

The "David" who penned the words of encouragement cannot be the one who has written here before. I cannot imagine the original David siding with one who would complain about working on a weekend or not working on a weekend. Also I cannot imagine David wishing any young person well who is contemplating sticking his kids with a bill with or without interest.

Posted by: Phil at September 21, 2009 5:07 AM

But the Phil who usually posts here would definitely disregard the fact that working on weekends isn't, for me, a question of whether, but what, elide the difference between a complaint and a contemplation, and entirely miss the fact that the notion of charging my children for fixing the gears on their bicycles was a joke.

Posted by: Justin Katz at September 21, 2009 5:14 AM