Gas is up and the economy's down...

and all you hear in the news is how the middle class is struggling. That made me reflect on being a lifelong member of the middle class. Things have changed, folks, for the middle class. When I was a middle class kid (yeah, in 1959), life was hard, our toys were smaller, and my parents lived a very graceful and joyful life with much less. So in this seemingly hard time year, I'm going to use this blog as a way of honoring that simpler time and see if this spoiled adult I've become can learn something about living in hard times by considering the lessons learned from my own family. A daily log, if you will, intent on wrestling the good out of life while paying $4-5 for gas and facing a rice shortage!

Some of my experiments will doubtless fail but I am excited about seeing how I can manage to still party like it's 1959. Join me in my journey as I make 2008-2009 a new beginning.