Sad kitties

I admire the great artist, or at least the real artist, who can take a thing and then present it, so that a viewer can overlay any emotional state onto that thing. Put a hat on a Weimaraner? Somehow that’s completely relatable. Misty cathedral? Exactly encapsulates my own feelings about the Big Questions. Man on the street looking into the distance? Why, he must feel just like I felt that one time!

Without for a second putting myself in that class of storyteller, I’ll say that these bungalow kitties have become my muse of the moment. And today, since at my level of photo artistry an explanation is still needed, I’ll explain that the kitties are sad cause they can’t go inside.

Today, I was especially excited about my morning swim. It’s the first day of my new membership at the Birkenhead pool that I have been visiting on a pay-as-you-go basis the last few weeks. But when I got to the pool, it was closed… not enough lifeguards showed up this morning. And so my excitement turned to sadness… just like the kitties.

We’re getting close to national elections, and the contest is pretty hot (at least by New Zealand standards). The party in power, Labour, wants to stay in power, and they’ve rolled out a bunch of tax breaks and benefits and policies designed to show how well they are taking care of us all. They’re also tacking hard to the middle… trying to show us that they’re not actually going to do the things that they have notionally stood for over the past hundred years or so. For example, they’ve already ruled out a capital gains tax and rolled out a really weak plan for better control of commercial fishing. The other guys, National, are telling us that all the current policies have failed, and the country is dangerously close to sinking into the ocean under the weight of all the terrible things the current government either has or hasn’t done. Both major parties are turning off their base voters, so the minor parties are picking up support in the polls. One of the little guys will almost certainly get to play kingmaker since neither of the main parties will win a majority.

Not enough lifeguards at 6 AM on a Tuesday morning is obviously a small thing, but it does feel symptomatic of a larger problem. I notice it mostly in city services, like canceled buses. There just aren’t enough people willing to do the work at the price that the city is willing to pay them. Raise wages? Allow in more immigrants from cheaper countries? Just give up on these public services and expect people to get their transportation, recreation, and so on from the private sector? All valid options, but all with costs of their own.

I don’t think that either party has a particular lock on what to do, and luckily, they are relatively small problems. But the next few months, and the next three years of whatever government ends up in power, will be interesting, at least.

So, the pool’s closed, and the cats are still waiting for their breakfast. I turned around, came home, and rode my bike on the patio. Not what I was planning, but it turned out fine. Here’s hoping the bigger stuff sorts itself out just as easily.