(snore)
No, really. I play this solitaire game on the computer. It's called Miss Milligan. I've noticed something annoying. If I clear the stats back to 0 and play one game, I score 100%. Play two, win two - 100%. Play three, win three - same. Play four, win four - same.
With me?
Good.
Then I play the fifth game and lose. My stats drop to 80%. Fair enough. One game is worth 20%. Got it.
But then the weirdness kicks in. I win the sixth game. My stats only jump to 83%.
This seems grossly unfair. One lost game loses me 20, and one win only gets me 3.***
I've got several friends who depend on government cheques to survive. Cheques come at the same time every month, usually around the last Thursday. When they come, groceries and luxuries get bought, rent gets paid, debts get settled. As long as the cheques keep coming on time with no hiccups, they survive.
Once in a while something goes wrong. Either the mail doesn't get through or they've missed jumping through a hoop, didn't respond in time to a deadline, forgot to get a signature, couldn't get to the office on time, filled in the wrong form, whatever.
And the cheque doesn't come.
This happened to one friend recently, so having been confronted by the landlord, she called the office in question and got the problem settled. She was promised that the cheque would be written and left at the reception desk for her to pick up by 11:00 the next day.
The office she needed to go to is in another town. So she could either a.) spend the whole day walking to the bus stop, catching the bus that runs between towns, walk a few blocks to the office, get the cheque, walk a few blocks back to the bus stop, wait an hour for the next bus going the other way, transfer to another bus that would take her to her bank, then walk a couple of miles home, or b.) she could spend $20 on a taxi, or c.) she could get a lift from a friend.
Enter me. I had business in that town, so we went together to the office, waited politely for the receptionist to get off the phone and asked for the cheque only to be told it wouldn't be ready until 2:00 that afternoon. Devastation.
I had to go back to work and she had an appointment, so we couldn't wait around for 3 hours. I dropped her off back at home, sans cheque.
She called the office later that day, after 2:00, only to be told that the cheque had been sitting there on the receptionist's desk the whole time, waiting for someone's signature to "release it".
So my friend, having no money, having once that day been within inches of the cheque she desperately needed to keep the landlord off her back, went into debt for $20 to get someone to drive her over there.
Not fair. She started the month already in a deficit position.
Cheques are hugely important. We have Breakfast once a month, on the Sunday on or after the 15th, because by then cheques are running out and a hot breakfast is appreciated.
In December, cheques come early, partly so people can buy holiday supplies and partly because goverment offices are closed for so much of the month later on. Which is nice at the time, but it means that there are 6 weeks until the cheque comes in January. And once you've bought a few little gifts and a treat or two for Christmas, even with the Sally Ann hamper, what's left runs out pretty quickly.
We were talking this morning at Breakfast about that and one of the guys who lives there suggested having an extra Breakfast in January to help tide everyone over.
So, following on the good response we got over the summer, we're going to ask the local church community if someone will step up to a Breakfast in January. Of course it means asking church folks to do something pretty unconventional on a Sunday morning, but I'm not entirely pessimistic.
Watch this space.
r
***(P.S. Please don't write explaining the math to me. I actually understand it. It's just a metaphor.)
No, really. I play this solitaire game on the computer. It's called Miss Milligan. I've noticed something annoying. If I clear the stats back to 0 and play one game, I score 100%. Play two, win two - 100%. Play three, win three - same. Play four, win four - same.
With me?
Good.
Then I play the fifth game and lose. My stats drop to 80%. Fair enough. One game is worth 20%. Got it.
But then the weirdness kicks in. I win the sixth game. My stats only jump to 83%.
This seems grossly unfair. One lost game loses me 20, and one win only gets me 3.***
I've got several friends who depend on government cheques to survive. Cheques come at the same time every month, usually around the last Thursday. When they come, groceries and luxuries get bought, rent gets paid, debts get settled. As long as the cheques keep coming on time with no hiccups, they survive.
Once in a while something goes wrong. Either the mail doesn't get through or they've missed jumping through a hoop, didn't respond in time to a deadline, forgot to get a signature, couldn't get to the office on time, filled in the wrong form, whatever.
And the cheque doesn't come.
This happened to one friend recently, so having been confronted by the landlord, she called the office in question and got the problem settled. She was promised that the cheque would be written and left at the reception desk for her to pick up by 11:00 the next day.
The office she needed to go to is in another town. So she could either a.) spend the whole day walking to the bus stop, catching the bus that runs between towns, walk a few blocks to the office, get the cheque, walk a few blocks back to the bus stop, wait an hour for the next bus going the other way, transfer to another bus that would take her to her bank, then walk a couple of miles home, or b.) she could spend $20 on a taxi, or c.) she could get a lift from a friend.
Enter me. I had business in that town, so we went together to the office, waited politely for the receptionist to get off the phone and asked for the cheque only to be told it wouldn't be ready until 2:00 that afternoon. Devastation.
I had to go back to work and she had an appointment, so we couldn't wait around for 3 hours. I dropped her off back at home, sans cheque.
She called the office later that day, after 2:00, only to be told that the cheque had been sitting there on the receptionist's desk the whole time, waiting for someone's signature to "release it".
So my friend, having no money, having once that day been within inches of the cheque she desperately needed to keep the landlord off her back, went into debt for $20 to get someone to drive her over there.
Not fair. She started the month already in a deficit position.
Cheques are hugely important. We have Breakfast once a month, on the Sunday on or after the 15th, because by then cheques are running out and a hot breakfast is appreciated.
In December, cheques come early, partly so people can buy holiday supplies and partly because goverment offices are closed for so much of the month later on. Which is nice at the time, but it means that there are 6 weeks until the cheque comes in January. And once you've bought a few little gifts and a treat or two for Christmas, even with the Sally Ann hamper, what's left runs out pretty quickly.
We were talking this morning at Breakfast about that and one of the guys who lives there suggested having an extra Breakfast in January to help tide everyone over.
So, following on the good response we got over the summer, we're going to ask the local church community if someone will step up to a Breakfast in January. Of course it means asking church folks to do something pretty unconventional on a Sunday morning, but I'm not entirely pessimistic.
Watch this space.
r
***(P.S. Please don't write explaining the math to me. I actually understand it. It's just a metaphor.)
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