A Carol and A Petition

Christmas is on its way!  Here’s today’s earworm:

This is just your periodic humble reminder that Steel Magnificat is my family’s only income right now, and the vast majority of that comes from gratuities. We are beyond grateful that we’ve made it all the way into December without a disaster or a shutoff. Heck, I haven’t even had to go downtown to beg agencies for utility assistance since March.  I feel like the queen of Sheba.

Spring and Fall are relatively easy seasons because there aren’t high heating or cooling bills to pay. We’re going into one of the expensive seasons now. First snow was today; it’ll be Christmas in just over two weeks with all the random expenses that always entails. And we’re still stuck in the charming rental house in Steubenville, paying rent every month, instead of safely across the river with Mom-in-Law like we planned to do twice over by now. With luck we’ll be out of here by the end of winter, but I haven’t had luck yet so I couldn’t say. I’ll sure keep you posted. Michael still works round the clock as a homemaker, de facto nurse, Rose-minder and the one who runs all the errands on the notorious Steubenville buses because of my on-and-off disabling autoimmune illnesses. I prop myself on the sofa or bed and work full time here with my writing. Rosie provides inspiration.

So as always, I ask you: if you like what you read, give me a tip. If you don’t like what you read but want to be nice anyway, give me a tip. If you want the opportunity to cuss me out for being on the dole, I’m told there’s a comment box on Paypal you can fill in when you give a tip and it’s way more private and intimate than cussing me out here in the Disqus combox. Lots of people give five or ten or twenty-dollar tips, some people give much bigger tips, some give now and then and some subscribe to tip at the same time every month. We greatly appreciate all of those.  If you can’t afford to tip now, no problem at all, just keep me in your prayers and keep reading.

How do you tip? It’s pretty easy. Go to the top of my page, under the now-much-smaller Steel Magnificat banner. Click on the “donate” tab. Click on the white rectangle with a yellow oval in it that says “Donate.”  You’ll be taken to a page that says “Donate to the Little Portion,” which is the name I call my house when I don’t call it the Death Trap, and so I named my PayPal account that too. PayPal will walk you through everything else.

Thank you again so much. And now, back to your regularly scheduled blogging!

(image via Pixabay)