How much is $40 to you?

I was talking with someone today about the value of money. Namely, $40.

Now if you're flush, $40 isn't all that much cash. If you're dead broke, it could keep you in gas or prevent the phone from being shut off.

Anyway, she's says that she could use $40 to buy some pot (apparently 5-6 joints worth of the good stuff). I'm like: That's funny, I was thinking $40 equals two lap dances.

I guess it's all about your personal priorities and your mindset.

When I was a smoker, that meant almost 2 cartons of the bargain-basement smokes. It means about 10 meals (2 double cheeseburgers for a buck each and a drink) at McDonald's. It's also about enough money for me to fill up the truck and get a six-pack of beer, if I were so inclined.

So, loyal blog readers (all few of you), I put the question to you:

What is $40 to you?

long road home

the long narrow road
stretches out before me.
is that a curve up ahead
or perhaps a hill's crest?

dip down, curve around
whither i go thither and yon.
pray tell me, if you know
what awaits me down the road?

on the road i'm bounded in
both from the left and the right.
tall trees, thick greenery
are both guard and prison.

and i'm bound once more
both from above and below,
by unyielding hard earth
and unreachable stretching sky.

there are only two choices:
continue forward or turn back.
the secret of the choosing
is that there really is no choice.

how long for that doggy in the window?

OK, for some reason I thought I could walk into the animal shelter and say, "Hi! I'd like to give an abandoned puppy a warm, safe, loving home so you don't have to kill him in a couple weeks" and then they'd say, "Sure! Take one home and love it!"

That's not the case. Apparently, there's an application process. And a waiting period. Like I was buying a gun. What the fuck?

What sucks is the puppy I REALLY wanted ... a cute little brown-and-tan pup with light green eyes ... was already adopted.

The one I chose is the brown one at the top of the pile in the pic below.

Ain't she a cutie? Yes, a she. I was gonna go with a boy doggie, but the only male pup still there was ... well ... ugly. *shrug*

Here's another view ... you can kinda see her cute lil puppy face a little bit.

So they're supposed to call me sometime tomorrow, but that presents a problem: I work till 5 or 5:30, and they close at 5. It's a 30-minute drive there, so even if I went during lunch it would be to drive there, grab the pup, fly back home, leave it there, then head back to work.

I think that kinda sucks.

So, I'm thinking of actually paying money for a dog. *pauses as dad and hundreds of Chamorro ancestors roll over in graves* I can get one for a few hundred bucks in the classifieds ... and I DID just win a few hundred bucks at poker.

Maybe I should just get one today. And then when the animal shelter calls tomorrow, I can say, "Sorry, but your own bureaucratic bungling means you get to keep the pup!" Heh!

What to do, what to do ...