another goodwill find

happy May Day, world! only four days to Cinco de Mayo, where we "honor our Mexican brothers" by drinking tequila and dos equis while learning or remembering nothing of Mexican culture or history. isn't it AWESOME how all holidays are really just fodder for the big corporations to sell us products? after all, we're not "customers" we're "consumers", right? consumers of, say... margarita mix and tortilla chips.

on the radio this morning they were discussing whether or not we're in a recession, which is just such a ridiculous premise. recent stats indicate that consumer spend increased last month by four-tenths of a percent (00.4%). all these jackasses are pointing to that to say "hey look everyone we're GROWing! yeah!" which is .... I mean, PR for a turd is just stupid. I don't care how much you tell me that a certain turd is awesome - my nose still works and it still smells like a turd, you know?

as it turns out, most of the increased spend last month ("growth") was due to inflation, which is caused by to the falling value of the dollar, which is hurt by the fed's continued cutting of interest rates. the actual true "growth" was only one-tenth of one percent (00.1%). the economy - I believe the technical term for it - is "in the shitter". I don't know if that translates to the dictionary definition of "recession" or not, and I don't care. it costs me "too much" for a tank of gas and it costs "more than it's supposed to" for food because it takes gas to transport food and if you need to fly somewhere then you're "screwed" because jet fuel costs have gone up faster than regular gas.

if you're responsible for the lousy state of our economy then I say "screw you".

anyhow, forget all that. this past weekend we visited the almighty Goodwill once again. it was a fairly routine visit, plenty of searching but not much buying. one thing we DID pick up, though, was this little guy:

it's as it appears, a sturdy & rustic little trunk. all the hardware on it works perfectly and it only cost us $12. it's probably due for a paint job, but will be great to store Fenix's books or toys or whatever, and since it's wood it's right up our alley for things we like.

sorry about all that rambling 'bout the economy. happy May Day!