Fixing The Unbroken

Wow this feels early. It's 10:30 am, as I sit here to write this. It's the only way I could see how to fit this into my day. But I literally just woke up. I didn't even turn the TV on. No News, just a little bit of breakfast, and now I'm tap, tap, tapping away. I've usually had a few hours under my belt, and some lunch by the time I do this. It feels weird. I'm not sure if my mind is too fresh, or not fresh enough. I'm just going for it. In the past, I always shied away from doing this so early because of my methods. I'm not sure if you remember or not, but as I write I also take the time to listen to an album that I never listened to before. If your interested, you can check out the whole list on my Facebook page. I somehow feel it's not neighborly to be cranking tunes before noon. Although, I do have to say, after I just wrote that last sentence, I realized I don't ever really listen to the music very loud at all. For some reason, if the music gets to a certain volume, it becomes distracting. I have to find the sweet spot, otherwise it irritates me. I'm getting much better at finding it. The reason I didn't think that the volume would be an issue today was that two of my three speakers are now dead. My left speaker and my bass unit have now gone to the other side. And I really don't think that my right speaker pumps enough juice to be a nuisance to anyone. It does make me a little sad when I think about it. Music is a huge part of my life, and now I'm restricted to hearing it from a little right speaker.

My headphone jack doesn't work either, in case you were wondering why I don't go that route. I have kind of “frakensteined” the computer that I'm using. The speakers are 13 years old, as well as the monitor, mouse, and keyboard. I suppose it was time for something to give. But, that makes me a little nervous, as to what's next. I know I shouldn't ask questions like that, or even think those thoughts, technically, but I'm still working on it. When I first got this computer up and running, the whole point was to “get it running.” I couldn't afford an entire computer, so I bought what I needed, and kept what I could. I suppose, deep down, I've always known that I would eventually have to begin replacing things. It will be much better, for us, if I can replace one thing at a time. So, therefore, I send out into the Universe the hope that each piece needing replaced will wait until the previous piece has been replaced. That shouldn't be too much to ask for. But then, that kind of puts the ball in my court. I already know that I'm down to one speaker. To me that says “I still have one speaker, so I have a little bit of time.” However, as I was writing my hope to the Universe, I realized that if I just got new speakers, sooner, rather than later, I might set the chain of events into motion, instead of waiting for them to occur. This also lead me to the thought “Do I really have to, or want to, wait until they breakdown to fix them?” If I know they're going to need replaced, I can replace them before the break

This is where I have a bit of a moral dilemma. I take a bit of offense to the idea that we have gotten to the point in our world where everything is disposable. I think it's tihsllub that we're expected to spend thousands of dollars, every couple of years just to “keep up.” My frugal side is always saying “Use it for as long as you can.” Unfortunately for me, my frugal side is not the one who has to deal with problem of something not working. It seems as soon as something is not working, it becomes very important to get it fixed. It thus becomes “necessary.” My frugal side doesn't think that much is “necessary.” My frugal side will do without a lot. And, for the most part, I agree with my frugal side. I really do get upset every time I have another realization of how much stuff we are expected to just throw away. Computers, cars, microwave ovens, phones, you name it, the answer seems to always be, “get another one.” Well I can't always get another one. A few weeks ago, I was commenting on the idea that most of our friends are in the same “economic situation” as us. Well, I've been thinking about that recently. I was actually only thinking of 2 or 3 people. The truth is, almost everyone we know is doing way better than us. I don't even think most of them know how “barely” we're making it. But you know what? We are the happiest of them all. We are the closest of them all. We have what we “need.” And those thoughts just perpetuate my dilemma, “If it's not broke, why fix it?”

Daughn