Spring Fund Drive

Thank God no one else has thought of this.

Anyway, I wouldn't be asking for this, considering that I never got into blogging with the slightest intention of making money from all this. After all, better than four years had gone by during which I'd staunchly refused to put up a Paypal button or to take any money from anyone for any reason.

Circumstances this past spring had compelled me to change my mind.

I've been on unemployment since early last month and between a third and a half of that has been eaten up by child support since the second week. I had a parttime job that paid me cash under the table until I lost that job just an hour ago. What's coming in from unemployment would be barely sufficient to pay my rent but not my utilities or to feed myself or my cat. All in all, it's been the perfect end to a perfect week that began turning into dog shit on Sunday night.

What makes this especially galling is that I was just fired by a shitbird Republican, a 25 year-old Town Selectman whose Mussolini reincarnation of a father had made my life a living hell for eight years. I know I did nothing wrong. But despite a wealth of physical evidence proving that shortages can indeed be fictional (they took $40 out of my wages, essentially screwing me out of about 5 hours of work. They think they're legally entitled to do that there), he chose to believe that I suddenly forgot how to competently do my job. So now he's going to be working 7 day weeks starting the day after tomorrow, culminating in a 12 hour shift. We'll see how long that lasts.

But whatever little satisfaction it gives me to see him cut off his own nose to spite his face doesn't make up for the fact that it's going to be very difficult for me to get a fulltime job on the books that can replace my unemployment. Any parttime job would automatically cut into my benefits if not outright obliterate them and I don't have a helluva lot of money in the bank on which to live.

I'm on foot, unable to afford a car hence unable to look for much outside of our depressed town that seems to feature more and more empty storefronts. It's hard enough for a guy my age to find a new fulltime job. It gets exponentially harder when your striking range is basically limited to a depressed downtown in which half the people have been squeezed out and the other half aren't hiring.

With my fiancee coming up late next month, I'll need whatever help I can get from you guys to help tide me over until I can somehow get a fulltime job and to get off unemployment. If just half my average daily readership contributed just fifty cents per person, that would be over $150 a day. I'm not even asking for nearly that much. I'm not asking for any set amount, only what you think is fair, affordable and reasonable.

So anything you guys could do would be greatly appreciated by me, Popeye, Barb and her cat Sweetie. Thanks in advance.