// Comfortably Numb//
A little prick (no pun intended) of the conscience this morning as I took care of a little online bill paying. Usually just a monthly chore I try to blow through ASAP, it’s easy to overlook the fact that our two main credit cards (Mrs. Sobriety & myself) each routinely run over 4 digits. Sometimes (like today) the monthly damage runs to 5 digits. Since neither of us has a Getty or Rockefeller in the family tree, that’s a definite WTF moment. And when I finish tallying up all the routine costs of modern living (mortgage, cell phones, internet bundle, alarm company etc., etc., etc.), the realization quickly dawns that I’d better quit all that bitching about the demands of my career.
It also makes me wonder what all these resources we expend are really buying us. As I sit typing this, one of my kids sits nearby engrossed in Social Media on her iMac 27. I sit tapping on my Macbook and watching football on the 60” flatscreen. My son’s fully engaged in his XBox 360 in the other room. My wife’s ensconced in our newly remodeled sunroom, reading on her iPad. As far as I can tell, no one has exchanged a syllable since Mom was preparing lunch a couple of hours ago. About an hour ago, the wild turkeys shown above invaded our front yard – 50+ beautiful wild birds, very skittish. I grabbed my camera, and announced to the house that I was going going out to try and sneak up on them & shoot some photos. No reaction.
Well, I guess I could console myself with the knowledge that we’re not wasting this precious downtime racing from box store to box store chasing “bargains”. Of course that would offer a bit more comfort if I didn’t know that it has more to do with not putting up with that hassle than it does with cherishing family time.
Fuck it – grab the kids, the shotguns and the trap and we’ll spend some quality time blasting clays out of the sky, then go out for pizza later… if you can’t beat em’, join ‘em.
