wanna talk about inflation?

I sure don’t, but hell, today I went and filled the tank on Buffalo, and inflation sure as shit hit my wallet.    12 gallons. $3.699 each.   $45 buck fill up. (just last week, it was still closer to $3/gal. Up $.60 in 3 days) Just glad as hell I don’t have anywhere pressing to be for another week.  (first week of the month, guess when most of my bills are due,,, Bills paid, but damn, that pay went FAST!!!)

Been having a couple good weeks the last two, am hoping that this trend continues since everything is going up in price.   Sadly, I have had some foreshadowing of a dire nature the last week.   Nothing specific said, but the tone and language suggested that Bossman is considering closing shop.   One of our jobs was a wooden privacy fence and the cost of materials had doubled since he had placed the bid.   If we made anything on that job, I would be surprised.   I know that when we shipped out to do it, his words “Stay there till its done, we will NOT be going back” tells me that his labor costs were eating into whatever was left of any profit that was left after materials purchase.   and now, the client is playing games of “it doesn’t look right,,,” and that is something that has been happening frequently enough the last year or so.  (not trying to quibble or make rude remarks, but 1) its most often a single Woman, usually widow. 2) always a Democrat voter. ) Bossman and Son will jump through hoops to make it right, UP TO A POINT, but I has a feeling, this time around, with materials going through the roof, fuel costs doing same, (labor is the same, for now,,,,) Those hoops are going to be few and very small.  (and this job site is over an hour away from our shop: sending two or three ‘hicles with Crew gets costly.)

Now, if the foreshadowing I picked up on becomes a reality, Well, Dio has all sorts of skills to fall back on, that are still in demand.  My only fear is my age.  I am 53 heading to 4 and I know there have been situations where that has effected someones hiring decisions, usually to the negative.  Us longtooth Greybeards tend to want above average pay, may need medical care more often, and while treasure troves of experience, may not mesh well with younger management (we’ve been down this road, and some young punk thinking he knows a better way (that we have tried several times) tend to rub us wrong.). 

I think it may be about time to go full independent.  I have the tools, just not the shop, and that is something that can be rectified in short order with summer months coming on.  I can build the walls later when things start moving.   

OR,,,

I can take that dip and go full bore writing and hope for something better than tuna fish dinners in my future.  LOL.  (seen the price on Tuna lately, WTF?) (and if I go that route, I always have poaching to help out the meat issues, and Unc was tilling for his beans and greens patch this eve.  I won’t say it couldn’t happen, but I don’t think that scenario is in my future.)

But thats the personal side of Inflation for me:  the international side of it is looking dire indeed.   Seems that the EU cut off Russia from using Swift to settle debts.   Now this seems like it makes some sense as a way to curb “Those Empirialist Ruskies”, but what does it really do?   Makes it so that Russia gives places like Germany the big FU and shuts off the gas.  That shuts off the electric and heat and while it is warming up, we are NOT out of winter periods YET.   People die when it gets witches teat cold out.   In some cases, desperate people will (accidentally) burn down entire sections of town in an attempt to keep warm, when the t-stat no longer works: ie More deaths.   I like the last line of that article in this link, which has more information about ‘sanctions’ against Russia, and how they are likely to backfire in spectacular ways. 

Oh, and Taking Russia off Swift?   Guess what that does to fuel costs here in the US? (since we allowed a dementia patient to shutter our energy independence for a pipe-dream of “Green” (read KICKBACKS from charlatans))  

I don’t think I need to expand on that, do I?   

Buckle up kiddies, the road is about to get more than a little bumpy.    My only question becomes, Who Blinks FIrst?   And somehow, no matter who blinks, I see Russia coming out on top of the snafu, no matter how it blows up.   They’ve been put to the wall since 91, they know how to deal with it.  WE DON’T. (and our elders from pre-WWII could teach us a thing about that, but most are long gone physically.). 

(note, I am not worried about Nuclear war. I can’t let that shit get to me. If the big boys start tossing bombs with abandon, the escalation will be swift, and shit will be ugly. I get that. I also get that I have very small likelihood of making it past the second wave. (my location is not a high priority area, but there are several locations upwind of me that ARE, and fall out is just as bad or worse than the blast Zone.)