I would imagine a lot of readers of this newspaper watched the first Presidential debate – most of us didn’t have much choice outside of watching the debate because there wasn’t much else on the local channels.
As I watched I wondered why in the world the voters in the United States of America don’t have better options than a current President who, at times, doesn’t seem to know where he is and often stumbles through sentences when he appears to have forgotten what he intended to say, and a former President who has recently been found guilty of many felony counts – which are being appealed.
I feel ashamed that I must choose between the two and question why voters couldn’t have younger, or better, options.
In my opinion, a change is clearly needed. We’re told the economy is strong and still rebounding, but none of us have lived in a time when things cost as much as they do now. As I compose this week’s column I can’t think of many things that haven’t risen in cost since 2020. I suppose it’s “natural” that prices rise, but I can’t remember a time when prices have risen so high and so fast.
Just last week, after receiving my insurance policy renewal notices, I sat down with an insurance agent and found myself forced to lower the limits and raise the deductibles of my policies so the increase in cost was somewhat less than the current levels. Cost is forcing a lot of people to reconsider the risks they are willing to take to keep costs from destroying their budgets.
I’m not sure what could happen during the next four months to change how I feel about the upcoming election. I do intend to vote, but I also know I’ll be forced to vote for the lesser of two evils. A sad situation to be placed in.
*****
One day last week, early in the morning, I woke up and heard some strange sounds coming out of the attic of our home. It didn’t last long, but I am assuming I must have slept through more noises. A day later my wife told me she heard a critter running around in the attic a lot of the nighttime hours.
I placed a call to a couple of pest control companies right away to get quotes. A gentleman came to our home Sunday morning, did an inspection, and told us there was no doubt at least one squirrel was making a mess in our attic.
Guess what? Squirrels cost the most to get rid of, but there’s a lot more to do than simply trap the animal and remove it (or them). There’s a chance this squirrel decided to use our attic to birth several young squirrels and there is a lot of cleaning up to do, including disinfecting anywhere the squirrel(s) decided to relieve themselves. Not only does the animal need to be removed and the soiled insulation removed, but where they gained access to the attic has to be repaired. This is another situation where we find ourselves without much choice, so we’ll be paying almost $3,000 to get our uninvited guests out of our home and hope they can’t find another access point in the future. This, of course, comes about a year after we spent several thousand dollars to add better insulation to our attic.
Sometimes it feels like you just can’t win.
Have A Good Week!
