Rambling Rhodes

Caution, meet wind. Wind. Caution.

I've always been a rather deliberate individual, with only occasional sojourns into the world of the unexpected. I'm not boring, just. . . cautious.

This has been particularly true when it comes to my finances. I considered it a badge of honor to have saved enough money to last over two years in the event of an employment/income emergency, and I can count on one hand the number of considerably big purchases I've made in my lifetime. I usually have to sacrifice a chicken and a goat, and then read their entrails before I'll put more than $1,000 towards anything. That alone could become expensive, because goats just don't come cheap.

That was before the waning days of 2010, when the fecal excrement came into contact with the oscillating air circulation machine. This last month and a half, I've regarded my savings as something that's just not all that important right now, so I tend to look at certain purchases in a different light.

For example, our digital camera just up and stopped working Sunday night. Ordinarily, I'd hem and haw and dither about what to do, but because we wanted photos of our daughter on Valentine's Day, I just up and went to Best Buy and bought a new camera. The precarious nature of Zoey's day-to-day existence just trumps any financial considerations.

If, tomorrow, a specialist were to tell me to pay him $5,000 to perform an immediate procedure that could improve her chances by one percent, I wouldn't be able to write a check fast enough.

Of course, all of this NICU care is going to cost astronomically more than $5,000, but I'm trying to stay within my own current financial reality to make a fairly sappy point.