The Panda Bear is a humble office worker who lives in the Boston area; she is the voice of those who want more from life than work and household chores.
The end of the year is when the Panda Bear and Mr. Panda focus on household repairs because at the end of the year Mr. Panda can take more time off from his work to have people come in to do household repairs. . After some very intense negotiations between the Panda Bear and Mr. Panda, the Pandas finally hired an electrician who changed some fixtures and replaced the outlets. Tomorrow, someone will come in to fix their heater. The Pandas will also be getting some estimates on some repairs to the bathroom and some furniture. Though the Panda Bear is glad people will be coming in to do some estimates she is also in a panic about getting the apartment in order for the repair people.While some people say the American dream is to own one’s own home, the Panda Bear’s dream is to be free of all home responsibilities. She finds home chores very stressful. The Panda Bear feels home repairs an unwanted intrusion into her free time. When the Panda Bear bought her condo it was a big surprise and disappointment to find out how much more time consuming owning was than renting. Sometimes several of Panda Bear’s limited vacation days in a year had to be spent on home repairs that were needed to be done because of home ownership.
The Panda Bear feels very fortunate that Mr. Panda has more vacation time available to him and he can take off time for repairs. The Panda Bear would find it very hard to be single, work and own property because of the maintenance time demands.
The US government has pushed homeownership on its citizens which has contributed to the US housing bubble. The Panda Bear feels it is wrong for the US government to push homeownership for these reasons:
1. The decision to own versus to rent is a personal decision. The US government should not get involved in its citizen’s personal decisions.
2. The US government encouraging people to buy housing (or other products) increases the price of the product because of the increased demand. The US government playing in encouraging people to go college is playing a similar role in driving up the cost of higher education.
3. They are probably many busy working people who don’t have the time available for home maintenance. For some people who are very busy with work, there probably are advantages to having a landlord who handles repairs.
The short days are depressing the Panda Bear. When she goes to work it is dark and when she leaves work it is dark. She feels that between home repairs and work she is not getting much recreation. While the Panda Bear and Mr. Pandas are getting some needed repairs done, it is at the expense of some social activity.
The Panda Bear has noticed that she is feeling more isolated at work. About a year ago, the Panda Bear moved to a smaller office. Right now even though the Panda Bear works for a large organization, it feels to the Panda Bear as though it is a very small organization. Her social interaction is really limited to about three or four people a day. The Panda Bear thinks that probably many people who work for organization nowadays may feel l that modern organizations offer very little social benefit and support.
The Panda Bear is looking forward to the end of home repair seasoning ending and being able to socialize more with her friends.
Thank you for the tip.
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