Packing up to move all alone is a daunting task. We’ve given away Snowy and Echo (fortunately to the same household, so they can remain together) and Bunny. We now have to place Marlon – whom shelters say is unadoptable and should be put down. I can’t do that. It looks like Marlon will have a happy ending with a friend of mine from the Intertubes as of this weekend. I pray.
So, the Republican neighbor has put a bid on my house – lowball, capitalization on someone else’s misery, dontcha know – but it could be worse. It could still go to foreclosure, if the lender doesn’t allow the short sale. At this point, I’m rather beyond caring. I’ve lost over $20,000 in real equity in the house, and perhaps another $10-15 thousand it would have sold for in the artificially inflated market of 2005. And all because I listened to my dad, rather than my instincts. That’s a lesson learned.
So many people have lost their jobs and houses. It’s so sad to have seen this coming and be able to do nothing about it, this economy built on tons of paper that’s all coming crashing down around us. Nothing but illusion – no manufacturing base. What happens to a consumer-driven economy when people can no longer afford to consume? When their two biggest assets – house and 401K – aren’t worth what they paid into them?
We’re all finding out, and we’re nowhere near the bottom, yet. I wonder if in six months my neighbor will still be able to afford his house, let alone mine. I hear people say Obama is the answer, and to that I say – he is just a man, not a miracle worker. With the gutting of the economy, the robbery of the treasury by the Bush administration, the offshoring of jobs. . .it will take a miracle to right the ship that is America. This is not your grandparents’ Depression. It’s going to be far worse, due to globalization. May God (or whatever you believe in) protect us all.
So, where to from here, you might wonder? I’m not certain. Just know that I’m on my way to a new and different life after a decade of false security. And whether you know it or not, so are you.
Take care on your path.
