Is it over yet?

Forgive my silence of the past few days, it's just that this really was a bah, humbug Christmas.

We tried, we really did try, in the days leading up to it. I put on Christmas music (I have a cd of classical music about Christmas that I like a lot), we had some egg nog, we watched two versions of "A Christmas Carol" and watched "A Christmas Story" twice. I even put up some decorations. My wife made lasagna and her great fudge.

But the spirit just wasn't there. We've been hit with thousands of dollars in unanticipated expenses since October, piling up just as my job - which is tourist-based - was winding down until the spring. Checking the local papers gets the response "Excuse me? What is this 'job' thing of which you speak?" When my wife got told on Christmas Eve that her hours were being cut by about 20% as of January 1, well, that just kinda did it.

Yeah, it's a sob story but I wanted to dump it on someone and you folks are the easiest. And no, I'm not asking for anything; there is no tip jar or such, I just wanted to "say" it "out loud." As long as this thing doesn't cost me anything other than my time and the electricity to run the computer, I don't intend to ask for anything.

Except readers. That would be nice.

Footnote, Of Course: I understand why a lot of things like wage cuts take place around this time; a lot of businesses have fiscal years that coincide with the calendar year so what would be the first pay period of the new year would be the first one under the new budget.

What I can't understand is why people have to be told at this time of year. We know goddam well that the decision to make these cuts in hours (my wife is not the only one affected) was made at least weeks ago, when the budget for the new year was set, not just a day or two ago. So why in heaven's name can't people be told about this when the decision is made so they'll have time to prepare for the cut in income?

I've only been able to come up with one possibility: Management is afraid people will use the lead time to find other work and quit before the cuts go into effect and this way they're hoping for "shock and awe" to keep that from happening. In other words, it's just another example of fucking selfishness.

Oh, one last thing: It appears that the managers at my wife's workplace are not having their pay cut. There was some talk that they were going to have to forego their bonuses, but since by definition a bonus is not part of base pay and so should not be something you count on, I say BFD.