Waiting to go south

 

 

Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009

 

            We watch the weather like hawks, worrying over the potential storm or sudden drop of temperature.

            This is so much a ritual that we do it instinctive. Now with ten days out from our leaving for Cape May, we begin to wonder – will it be too cold or too rain?

            Fate has been kind to us over the years in that only one year was the weather unbearable, and only twice did the temperature drop to the point where we could not do much out of doors.

            Last year, fate was even kinder by ruining our car’s tire the day before we were scheduled to leave, and allowing us to make other arrangements. We might have been on the road with our trunk filled when the tire blew.

            This year the car conked out after I did laundry. I thought I had purchased bad gasoline because the car stalled just after I left the station. I got a whole trip south on Monday without it stalling again. But today, just as we reached the borders of Bayonne the car conked out. I didn’t see the temperature gauge until my third attempt at putting in dry gas.

            By this time, I needed a tow because I wasn’t going to get the car to the Ford repair place – if it even exists since no one answered the phone.

            Fortunately, I still had a charge in my cell phone, which I wondered about since I hadn’t put it to charge in two days. This allowed me to call back to the office to ask about a good place to service the vehicle and then to call a tow truck.

            The tow truck firm, however, would only take cash, so I had to hike to the nearby bank to take out the needed amount.

            I walked to the office from the repair shop with the full expectation that I won’t see the car until tomorrow.

            But again, this breakdown is fortunate since this could easily have happened a week from now while we were on the way south.

 

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            I emailed one of my old friends yesterday. He has been out of work for more ten months, yet another victim of the insane greed the banks displayed when they set the economic world on fire.

            My friend worked hard to get his house and then saw other people getting their houses without a down payment or even good credit. Yet when their inability to pay began the great landslide in the economy, my friend fell with it, despite being prudent.

            This has led us to fear that we may fall victim to other people’s greed.

            Another friend, who worked with me on two newspapers, decided to play it safe by going back to school to become a teacher. He worked hard and eventually got the certification he needed, and got a good, safe job at a local high school. On the side, he also taught social studies and such as the local orthodox Jewish school.

            Two months short of his getting tenure, the public school decided to cut back on account of the economy and laid him off. The Jewish school did likewise when their enrollment fell. He grabbed up a data processing job that lasted two months before they laid him and others off. He was so broke last time I saw him, he couldn’t even pay rent and had to move out of state with his family to get back on his feet.

            These are ordinary people, working people, who tried to play the game the way it is supposed to be played and burned their fingers in the attempt.

            So we worry that perhaps, we might be next.