March Ain't So Hot Either, T.S.

By now, nearly three years after I put up my Paypal button, you've all had your fill of my bellyaching about my inability to find a job and begging for donations. As Obama says to shut us up, I get it. And I'm not gonna piss and moan about how scummy temp agencies are and how they're metastasized across what's left of the manufacturing landscape that hasn't been moved overseas. Every time I do so, I think that line from Gavin Rossdale and Bush in "Come Down": "When you beg, you just complain."

This is about survival. On top of getting hit almost all at once with annual excise taxes, a large gas bill and registration renewal, what was once a (pun unintended) pipe dream of making the rent in March is now an impossibility, especially with another exhaust job on the horizon (intermediary pipe, the most expensive part of the exhaust system) and after Mrs. JP's return to Florida to see family last month.

These are just some of the economic challenges facing us in the coming weeks. I've been forced into a situation in which I had to choose between a legal car and a roof over our heads. No one should have to make that choice (for the 5 1/2 years I was at my last job, I had to make a choice between food for my family & mandated health care and food won every week). But that's the reality of this right wing serfdom into which the United States has descended.

Many of us are in this position and many are even worse off than us. Momentarily, we have a roof over our heads, the gas is still on and, thank goodness, Mrs. JP and I suffer few physical ailments despite a complete lack of health coverage. Many of us are struggling against much greater adversity.

But as I've stated before, when the chips are down, eventually our concerns turn parochial. If I alone won that huge Powerball jackpot, you can rest assured many people would be happy and none of my loved ones would live in want or worry or fear of an uncertain future. But until that day comes, I'm obliged to at least try to get some much-needed money in the coffers for the day when Mrs. JP's unemployment ceases permanently (next April, perhaps).

So whatever you guys could do would be immensely appreciated.