Economy

The Albany business that has had kittens born in walls trapped another male last night. The vet agreed to neuter him today, thankfully. I don't like holding big males here long. The smell upsets my own cats, even if they're in the garage.

My brother left a message last night, so, overjoyed, I called him back. He was tired, still at work and it was after 6:00. He works long long hours, usually six days a week, doing work at home nights too. I worry about his health but he's tough.

I asked about his business in these tough times. He wouldn't say much except he doesn't know how long he'll hold on, without making layoffs. His small company is working two projects currently, one as a subcontractor, which isn't his usual way, but when work is hard to come by, you take what you can get. He has a few projects he says he can bid on in the upcoming months but it is very very tight.

I saw on the news my older brothers' boss, who also owns a restaurant, is losing that restaurant due to hard times. My older brother's company has gone through multiple rounds of layoffs. Besides that, his daughter has extreme health problems that has to be laying them low financially. I worry about him, too.

None of us three are spring chickens anymore. Tough to make a new start when you're halfway through your fifties. I told my older brother once, in one of our short e-mail exchanges, that if worse came to worse, the three of them could take over this house. I could live in the garage room just fine.

I've been homeless a couple of times. But I would never in a million years want my brothers to struggle as I have, to even have a place to live.

They're survivors and I bet they'll come through these rough times.

I know my younger brother desires to have enough money so he could pay off all his faithful employees mortgages. I think that is very sweet. I wonder if they know he thinks about that. He would love to be able to do that. I wish I could win a lottery so he could.

I asked about his kids, when we talked last night. He said sometimes he thinks they'll be in school forever. His son only has one more year, but will be 25 years old this Friday. His daughter, just younger, is in her fourth year, and wants to go to medical school. To pay for it, if she gets a good MCAT score, she intends to enlist in the military. Then her medical school would be paid for. She'd have to sign on for four years active duty afterwards, then four years inactive. Be worth it not to be paying off medical school bills forever, she thinks and he agrees.

She needs to get going on it. I think the cut off age might be 31 for active duty enlistees, and if that means she has to be out of school before 31 to serve her active duty time, she'll be cutting it close. I think she is 23 or 24. She's going to take a full year of physics this summer, before she can even try to take the MCATS and apply for medical school. I don't know how it works, really.

I told my brother for his son, he should look into Americorps or the Peace Corps. I think working a year in Americorps you can earn off college debt or get an amount of tuition forgiven that way up to a certain amount. I don't know how that works either, but it's a good deal for young folks trying to make it through college which is getting more and more costly to do.

Their other daughter breezed through law school and has been working for several years. She is a practising attorney in Arizona and has been for some time. He told me, however, even attorney jobs are getting scarce out there. She worked in the Public Defender's office for several years and made a name for herself there, as an agressive smart defense attorney. But the money was lousy. She then got a job in a very very small firm and now she is one of the only lawyers not let go, my brother said, with some pride. Tight job market out there for everybody.