Hello everyone! The former intro for this diary is now below the fold.
I had a financial reversal when I lost my job three weeks ago, since which time I've gotten a look at what the job market looks like for 50-year-olds. So, I posted this diary twp hours ago (it's now 4 PDT) to sell my Netroots Nation ticket. It sold. I also wanted to explain why I was selling it, because it really killed me to do so. People here are so nice that even when you ask them not to put something like this on the Rec List, they just might. I've asked for it to be unrecommended, but it's still up there, so I surrender to your collective niceness.
I received an e-mail saying that at least one other person has a ticket to sale. So, let's have a ticket exchange -- and, hell, a rideboard too, if you want. Go ahead and have any logistical discussions you'd like. Also, if people want to volunteer for discounted registration, I understand that there may be some slots. Write me and I'll forward any such offers.
Thanks to you lovely people.
I'm going to note tickets for sale as people post them: here's one! And there's two here! I also have an e-mail from someone who is also selling an early bird ticket, so write me and I'll pass on your info.
I am selling my Netroots Nation registration even though it breaks my heart, because this convention will be reasonably near Los Angeles and I would dearly love to see my friends old and new. Even though I haven't been posting as much recently due to problems I won't discuss here, y'all are still my people. But you can only do what you can afford, and right now my going isn't wise.
(I was an early bird registrant and am hoping to recoup my $195 + $3.50 fee. You know where to find my e-mail address.)
Here's my story.
It's a Recession when your neighbor loses his job;
it's a Depression when you lose yours.
Harry S Truman, in Observer, April 13, 1958
I guess that the quote gives it away. My household has left the Recession behind and entered the Depression, and with a wife and two kids in the household to support I'm going to have to learn to live like circumstances demand. So, no NN'10 for me.
[Original intro ends here]
I had started composing a short history of how I came to the point where I did not feel that I could afford even the expenditure of time and gas money to get from Orange County to Vegas. I've drafted my story three times and deleted all three versions. I'm not ready for that yet. Any detailed discussion of all that will have to wait -- if I ever write about it at all. I'm also not ready to figure out how to survive an economic Depression honorably, but clamping down a bit seems like a good start. For now, I simply announce that this supposedly not-even-still-a-Recession-let-alone-a-Depression has claimed another person that many of you know. Barring unexpected good news, or my inability to sell the ticket and my deciding "what the hell" and going anyway, I will miss seeing you all at Netroots Nation very much. I'm glad that so many others here will be able to make it.