I guess I need a new refrigerator

which sucks. But what are you going to do?

Actually unlike a lot of people that go off without thinking I have looked at it philosophically. It's run for about 15 years and doesn't really owe us anything at this point. It has kept the beer cold for over a decade and a half.

It's also overcast today and will likely rain soon. It has been a rainy week and slowed down my project of cleaning the way-back up. Still, I've been able to chip away at it and it looks pretty good now. All I have to do is rake things up and that's just a couple of hours if that.

Yesterday I mentioned telling a little old lady to tell her grandson that she's pregnant and couldn't afford to loan him any money to buy a new car with.

It irks me seeing grandchildren try and get grandma to support them. As a general rule, if a kid can't get credit on his own it's likely because he isn't a very good risk. In that case it makes no sense to loan the kid any money because it is likely not going to get paid back to begin with.

A lot of older people are on fixed incomes and have to dip into savings just to make ends meet. Inflation digs into savings, too in an insidious way. Retirement is not as secure as it once was.

A lot of the elderly think with their emotions and not their calculators and in addition to this they are often manipulated emotionally with threats of not being able to see their grandchildren and the like.

I'll admit that I was the first grandchild and my grandparents doted on me and bought me toys and clothes but you have to remember that both grandfathers were still working. They hadn't pulled the pin and retired.

Both grandfathers also dies early and my grandmother on my father's side went shortly afterwards. My maternal grandmother lasted a long time and while I have no clue as to the family financial situation, I'm fairly sure that she didn't leave a fortune behind.

As a general rule, grandchildren that need help generally are not too likely to make good on their end. If they were likely to make good it is also likely they wouldn't need help from parents or grandparents. They'd establish their own credit and not require help from the grandparents.

Of course, the Catch-22 here is that those that can take care of themselves and are good credit risks are the ones grandparents can generally trust to make a loan to.

It's a hard thing for the elderly to tell their kids and grandkids that they can't afford to loan them money but sometimes it has to be done.

As for the grandkids that feel that grandma and grandpa owes them something, they can guess again. 






To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY