Being Alone

Being alone by yourself is so much better than being alone together with someone else. In the first situation you're physically isolated, while in the second you're actively ignored. The first situation is lonely. The second is painful. 

Where's the Inflation?

I keep reading about economists predicting out of control inflation in the US.  They've been predicting it for 4-5 years now.  Mathematically, they have reason for concern.  To stem the bleeding of the 2008 financial collapse, the US government "printed" enormous sums of money.  Ordinarily, that would result in out of control inflation. Except it is now 6 years later and it still hasn't happened.  Why?  The government didn't actually print anything.  They made a few computer keystrokes and created and transferred money that didn't exist before .  They did this to balance the books of over-leveraged under-capitalized companies.  This new money never actually went into circulation.  As of yet, it hasn't touched the hands of the average American.  Instead, it went into the coffers of corporations and the fantastically wealthy.  For them (the 1% folks), it didn't really change anything.  When you have a net worth of Billions of dollars, a few hundred million here and there doesn't really change anything.  They weren't forced to sell a home, or a fleet of expensive cars.  That money was fictitious for all intents and purposes.  Eventually, that money will leak into the public stream and it will cause problems though.  Until then, the poor are still poor, the rich are richer, and everyone in between is still in between.

2 Days in the Valley

I spent 2 days alone with Ender this weekend.  It was bitter cold one day, and then we had 12" of snow the next.  On the first day it was too cold to leave the house except to run to the car.  On the second day we almost couldn't leave the house.  We managed to make it to the movie theater two days in a row and watched Frozen on Saturday and The Lego Movie on Sunday.  Frozen was good, but it could have been great if they'd just left out the song and dance numbers.  The Lego Movie was just plain fantastic.  I strongly recommend it.  We spent almost all of the rest of our time making things with Legos.

I'm feeling a bit isolated recently.  I don't really get out much and I don't really have any close friends to do much of anything with.  Everything that I want to do seems to be scheduled specifically to coincide with every single thing that my wife has scheduled for several months in advance.  Hockey on Monday?  Wife has a poetry group.  Hockey on Thursday?  Wife has a book club.  Hockey on Sunday?  Wife has weekend away / some writing workshop / some random thing that has her out of town until just after I need to leave to get to hockey on time.  Beer and Science Night?  There's always something that keeps me from going.  It's getting really frustrating.