Since late Spring up until now I am seeing a lot of whining from some of my more than privileged friends. Everything from travel to restaurants has been beaten up by some of you, who are so frankly spoiled and not impacted by inflation and the fallout of two years of COVID that I kind of feel a reminder is in order.

Travel

Travel right now sucks. Airlines are backed up, luggage is lost, flights are being cancelled and do you know why? COVID ain’t over and there are knock on effects from the two years prior. The travel industry had not been able to hire the number of people to meet the demand of travellers. It’s that simple. Most of the service industry is in that same predicament and they are having to increase wages and benefits to attract employees. The result is fewer flights, fewer ground crew, fewer pilots, flight attendants and all the support online and over the phone to make stuff happen. These people are fried. If you are going to travel, expect problems and if you don’t have any good for you. They are doing the best they can, back off. Also, plan accordingly, get your passports, visas and all the other stuff taken care of well in advance. There WILL BE DELAYS. Travel is a privilege, not a right. Got it? Good.

The Service Industry

This is a bit more general but not sure if you paid any attention but restaurants closed down on and off for two years and did what they could to survive. They literally bled employees who they had to let go, and those people took those two years to retrain so that they could find better jobs that could be less impacted by the pandemic and wouldn’t have to deal with the public because face of it many people are demanding spoiled asshats. Once again in order to attract employees some things have had to change; for instance the industry has had to increase wages and benefits. That is across the board for restaurants, retail, hotels…just about everything. After coming off of two years of just trying to stay alive, these business owners are now faced with a shallow pool to hire from and employees that want more. Couple that with their cost to operate have gone up recently due to record inflation, supply chain issues and all the other fallout of the past two years. Dining rooms can’t be sat at capacity as there are not enough staff to cover the floor, hours are limited because of staffing but by all means bitch about the prices. If it is a place you are fond of and frequent talk to them, find out why it is the way it is and do what you can to support them. Don’t go on Facebook and blast them. Hotels can’t find front desk and housekeeping staff, retailers can’t find floor and sales staff. Everywhere you go that I have been recently (from Minnesota to Quebec by car) there are help wanted signs EVERYWHERE! I have not seen it like this in ages.

I really feel like many of you have expected life to go back to what it was 30 months ago, it’s not. It won’t for awhile yet so if you can afford to travel and eat out and attempt to go back to the life you had, be grateful but be understanding of those who are trying to make it work still. There are a lot more than you know. Don’t be an asshat.

I created this blog as a way to express myself and what I have discovered is that it’s hard to find words and put them down to describe exactly how I feel.

These are the things that roll through my head on any given day; my 15 year old dog and her failing health but not failing so fast or consistently that I know what to do, turning 55 this year is weird and I don’t know what to do with it, retirement is not that far off and I am actually afraid if I am ready for it after years of struggling from paycheque to paycheque, Russia invades Ukraine and the world is really good with tut tutting Russia but nothing is being done to provide help to actually change the outcome I think it is just prolonging it, SCOTUS, the US as a whole and it’s love of populism, populism coming to Canada, my health and that’s just what is there right now.

I am not writing this for sympathy but looking for order, commonalities that maybe run through these things so I can try to understand it. I think the thing that bothers me about all of this is the fact none of it is under my control. Sure there are things I can do to try and help by donating, volunteering, giving the dog what she needs right now in the moment, planning for retirement as best I can, making changes to my life to improve my overall health, voting and a myriad of other things, but on the larger scale things we need decision makers to make the move, make the right decision and be bold and I just don’t have faith that happens anymore.

When I was younger I loved the Christmas season. I loved the lights, the music the snow, the decorations and I did for a long time. My Mom loved it and so did I. After she died in 2005 a lot of that started to wane. My family kind of fell apart, especially after my father fell ill with dementia. After he died in 2014 it really felt like I had no family anymore and that made it even harder. Family fights and everything else, just makes me not want to go back there. Today I like to put on a good face and I SAY I like Christmas but in reality I just don’t care. The pandemic didn’t help. Decorating is a hassle, and my husband is not someone who is into Christmas like I was so that has an impact too. What I really want is just to be left alone sometimes but that’s not really on option, is it? Anyway. There, it’s out there.

I’ve been looking for a way to express myself in a different way. Writing is something I have always done but I have found Facebook and Twitter and all the other social media sites just don’t really work for me. This was something I have thought about so I am going to give this a shot. Stay tuned.