neonleonb

Never has this user icon, of Terry Pratchett's Death, been quite so appropriate. As Death says in one of Pratchett's books, "There is no justice. There's just me." That's ironic, since one of the great joys I find in Pratchett's books is that his characters do meet their just rewards.

But today, I am an arbiter of life and death, and money. Louis, my 5.5-year-old guinea pig, has a kidney stone and will die without surgery that will cost $600-900. If it was several thousand dollars, it would be right out, and if it was a couple hundred, I'd do it without hesitation. But he's a middle-aged pig, and I'm not sure I can justify spending a month's rent on him, and frankly I don't even want to have guinea pigs when I graduate. That's a lot of cold reasoning, and I know I'm kind of horrible for it, but I think I've made up my mind to not get the surgery. It's hard to look at him and know that I've sold him out for 1 month's rent, that I have held his little life in my hands and cast it aside, that he would live, but for me.

In general, I believe that if you can't afford to care for your pet, you can't afford to get a pet, and I've been good about taking care of them. But there's obviously a line somewhere, and this surgery is in a terrible gray area, and I think I've chosen the heartless but reasonable option.

Edit: the proper quote is, "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds," from the Bhagavad Gita, brought to me by Oppenheimer's statement at the first nuclear test. In this case, the proper modification is, "I am become Death, destroyer of pigs."

Someone at ICSI just bought a bike. She was on a budget, so she only got a $500 bike. Now, when I was in middle school my parents bought me a bike. They splurged and got me a $200 Schwinn, which I thought was about the fanciest bike available. I have to say, this woman's bike doesn't look any nicer than what I had, and it's not any lighter either (which is an invisible but useful feature). It doesn't have shock absorbers or anything. So I ask, what did she gain for all that extra money?

I'd just like to express my astonishment at the cost of bicycles, or at least at some people's high willingness to pay.

And yes, I am indeed turning into a crotchety old man. What's it to you?

A few weeks ago, the stock market dropped precipitously; almost everything went down by several percent.  I said to Kate, now's the time to buy!  So we did, and in the past week our new purchases have all gone up at least 3%.  They say that average investors shouldn't try to time the market, because they don't understand the forces as well, but I did it successfully.  Boo-yah!