Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

[Getting health-whininess (seems whiny to my own ear because it's been going on so bloody long) out of the way first: Got more sleep last night than I've been getting lately. Helps. Still feel a little wobbly when I stand up, still coughing (but less today than yesterday); think this afternoon's headache was sinus-related rather than migraine-ish because it was in the front of my face and we've had a bit of a weather shift here lately -- still makes BOOM BOOM BOOM car stereos twice as painful though. Still planning to go to HCB rehearsal tonight and from there to Arlington, but it's all going to come down to how I feel when it's time to get in the car. If things are flexing in unnatural ways in my peripheral vision like they were before lunch-and-a-cup-of-tea, I'll be hesitant about driving. Hmm. Need to get around to writing that entry about when I do/don't feel safe to drive, that's been bouncing around my skull for a couple months.]

Anyhow, assorted randomness that's been dripping out of my brain:

Gas prices have, unsurprisingly, gotten scary. I'm looking at nearly seven dollars to attend band rehearsal for either group (more when HCB rehearsal is in Gaithersburg). Given my income, that adds up. But since all of my income that isn't utility-bill bailouts from Mom comes from performing, and I do need to rehearse (and a group needs to rehearse as a group), it's not like I can just casually say, "Oh, I can't afford to go to rehearsals." OTOH, it means that it doesn't take many weeks of rehearsals between gigs to cancel out a good chunk of the money I get from playing a gig.

I need guitar students. Ideally, ones who come to my house for their lessons. And I need to win the lottery so I can buy a car that gets 50+ miles per gallon. (I'd thought about carrying a guitar on a motorcycle before, but I'm pretty sure that won't be practical with a double bass.) Of course, since I don't play the lottery ...

I was reading wicked_wish's socioeconomic analysis of the folks who stayed in New Orleans, and the comments thereto, and realized that on purely economic gounds, I would have been one of the people who couldn't afford to evacuate. Without financial support from my mother, I wouldn't have a car, and in any case I wouldn't have the resources to stay anywhere else or to really prepare for evacuation. But what I do have is a lot of friends who are better off, and a non-geographically-based community of friendly acquaintences and helpful strangers who would help. So with a car and a tank of gas, I could get out of town and find a couch to crash on in some other city, where I'd quickly start feeling guilty for imposing, but I'd be alive. Without the car, things would be a lot less certain, but there'd still be a chance that a local friend with a car could squeeze me in (though I'd have to leave a lot more behind). If my only community were my traditional local community -- my neighbours -- if I didn't have kin able to lend support from a distance, if all of my friends were in the same economic class as myself, then I'd be as thoroughly screwed in the face of a huge disaster aimed at my city as the poor people stuck in New Orleans.

What does this say about me? It says that despite all the things I have to legitimately complain about (and, of course, the things I merely whine about), in very important respects I am extremely lucky.

Can Pastafarians who are computer programmers use their religion as an excuse to write "spaghetti code"? I hope not ...