Stress Out

 Sometimes I have a bad night.

Last night was one of them.  I couldn't sleep.   Financial issues played through my mind.  Different scenarios.  How to survive on almost nothing in world getting more expensive by the day.

This was prompted by discovery that the park in Waterloo is now going to charge $9 just to enter.  My sense of justice came pouring out.  Injustice really.

They're doing this to most of the parks they have with access to the river or the reservoir.  They don't own the reservoir.   And Oregon waterways are supposed to be open for public use.   Denying access to people by controlling all access points then charging to use them seems just so wrong.   

It affects those of us who live on very little the most.  We have the same desire for recreation as those who are better off.   

It wasn't that part of it though.  I've done thousands upon thousands of volunteer hours catching cats in many of our county parks.  But the Waterloo one stands above, in that regard and sometimes its been the camp hosts themselves breeding the cats.   Omg, the horror that's gone on for animals in that park alone over the years.

I have not kept count but I've probably caught about 200 cats there.   More every year.  I have six Waterloo Park cats here in fact.  A friend in Lebanon has six or seven.  All abandoned there.

I took it personally when I read about the new fee, that I can't afford along with all the other price increases and fees and utility hikes.  After all the volunteer time and money spent there, to help the cats, but also make it better by helping the cats, feels like being gut punched, betrayed somehow.   Those Quartzville road cats too were in a county park.

The photo is from several years back.  I left this note for two camp hosts who when they left, left several dozen cats behind between the two of them.  It was a terrible thing to do to those cats.   I spent the next year trying to recatch and rehome them.   Then helped care for two of them for the next many years.  The last of those originals vanished this winter.  There have been plenty others abandoned there since then.

I know there are no rewards in volunteering, particularly to help animals.   But I can't shake the injustice thoughts of now being unable to afford entry into a park where I've spent so many hours upon hours and dollars in volunteer time.  It doesn't feel right.   But in this world, a lot of things don't feel quite right.

$9 day use fee is excessive in a county where many people live way under the poverty level.  Feels like catering to the well offs and fuck those who are not well off.

It wasn't just the finances that kept me awake.   My light projecting wifi music projector gadget failed, refusing to remain wifi connected last night.   I had to dig up a charging cable that fit another ancient wifi speaker but it wasn't charged and may not charge at its age.  I lay in my bed thinking the tech revolution is insane.  I have no access to music in hand, for instance, am completely dependent on gadgets and cloud storage.   Cloud storage takes miles of server warehouses, that eat up massive amounts of energy and water.    Not to mention all the rare minerals needed to build the servers and all the gadgets and the lack of safe disposal when they no longer function.   I thought WTF are we doing, this is insanity.  

Today I was told they are not immediatley implementing the day use fee at the park, since there's no pay booth and they don't really know how to effectively enforce it fairly.   I was informed its still in the thinking stage.   But they list it on their website as a pay day use already.