There’s a new country song, a young woman plaintively singing, dear Mom and Dad, please send money, I’m so broke that it’s not funny. I sympathize with the poor dear. I got spoiled last year. While I was in the hospital, all those SocSec checks just stacked up so I coasted through almost the entire year without even having to think about money. Definitely my favorite relationship with the stuff. Now it’s back to living within my monthly income and as another song says, it’s not easy.

That happy condition last year accounts, of course, for the arrival of Game Boys in my life. I would have been happy anyway, but because of games I was even more happier with the news that the Senate had added us old folks to the upcoming handout and Bush2 signed it. That’s one of the few things he’s done in his unfortunate presidency which I thoroughly approved.

Afraid I won’t be doing much to achieve the intended purpose, though. I’ll be contributing more to the Japanese economy than the American one since a Sony PSP is at the top of my list. Final Fantasy I and II are available for it, hurrah.

I played (and finished) IV and V for the PC so was quick to grab III and VI for the Game Boy. These games keep track of the number of hours played and when I finally saw The End on the VI screen, I had clocked up over NINETY HOURS. Ye gods.

Alas, I am stuck in III, just can’t defeat the final monster (“We are the Dark Cloud”). It’s a very very long lead-up to the final encounter and you have to defeat four major critters on the way. After their defeat they agree to join you and although they don’t seem to be much help, without them absolutely nothing hits that damned Cloud. Ridiculously, there’s no save point anywhere in the final scenario, unlike earlier in the game where there was one before each major encounter.

I haven’t totally given up, even after numerous attempts, but if I manage to get XII next month that should keep me busy until the handout, and the PSP, arrive, expected sometime in May. So who knows if I’ll ever get back to III. And just think, I’ll only have 7-8-9-10-11 to go!

By the way, that song ends with the singer becoming a star and writing again to Mom and Dad, this time sending them money. I doubt my own script has such an ending.