Thank you read.cash community!

I have been and still am a poor pauper!

As some of you might know my financial situation has been miserable for some time now. And though things are looking better (the total debt amount is no longer growing, indeed frozen, and there's a chance it might be taken over by and paid for by the IRS, ie the government, sometime this year) I have had, have and will continue to have a weekly budget to live from of 50 euro.

Inflation goes up, budget buys less.

From this, I have to pay for everything from food to laundry detergent and from drinks to underwear and beyond. Basically, everything that's not a utility bill or rent or insurance policy and the like, I have to fit into that 50 euro budget. It was hard in the beginning and, with the inflation raging like madness to make everything in the supermarket more expensive it isn't getting any easier.

My Son's visits aren't budgeted for

So when my son's here I simply don't have the budget to buy things like lemonade or candy or snacks so make our time a little bit more comfortable and enjoyable. Or at least I didn't until about a year ago when I got rewards from readers and tips from Randy. At first, it was something I could do maybe once a month or once every three weeks, but when I could the smile on my son's face gave me so much energy the Fusion power plant scientists would be jealous of me.

Crypto ups and downs, not in sync with the markets

And over time I've had some crypto ups (still immensely grateful to @MarcDeMesel for his rewards back then) and some crypto downs (just last week I lost $20,= worth of BCH when the file holding my recovery phrase was encrypted by a ransomware attack) but overall I've come out gaining more than I lost. I've been able to get myself a scooter, greatly increasing my mobility and with it my social circle, from Mr. DeMesel's reward and it was the basis for the computer I'm now sitting at and working on. It's the second greatest love of my life to be honest, right after my son!

The greatest gift y'all give me and my son.

But the greatest thing is that the rewards and tips from reading cash have fueled and made possible the development of a Father-Son tradition here in Casa van Silfhout that brings both me and my son joy and happiness, and also helps us to create father-son memories, having something that is uniquely ours, something we do together. You see one of the first things my son does when he's not here is keep track of the tips my articles get and send me a WhatsApp message when those tips have added up to our target amount.

Grogu cheering with hands in the air...

I would put that gif animation in here if it wasn't so heavily copyrighted by Disney and Lucasfilm. I might LINK it here from the source but I don't know if that's allowed. I'll look it up later. (linked it to the source, and it has the Disney logo in it, I think we're good)

When I get that WhatsApp it means we can go to the supermarket and get the following:

Then, Saturday or Sunday (depending on if he has to play Tennis) at around 16:30 we both go to the kitchen and get out these ingredients. We take out the 4 kazen pizza (Quattro frommagi pizza, the cheapest kind there is) and lay it out on the roster for the oven, turn up the oven to preheat it, and then my son opens up the bag of smoked bacon strips.

Coördinated and practiced procedure

We both, with hands, washed, of course, take a hand full of bacon and spread it across the pizza, until all the bacon is evenly spread across the surface. Then we each take a bag of the cheese grates and spread the cheese from the bags onto the pizza, covering all the bacon.

Then we take "The Pletter" (a wooden spatula) with which we slap the top of the pizza until it is just flat enough and low enough to fit into our oven. I then take the pizza and put it into the oven, at 200 degrees celsius and we wait for 10, 11, or 12 minutes.

The smell of the cheese and the bacon... aaaaah incredible!

I then take out the pizza, take our USS Enterprise pizza cutter, and slice the pizza into 8 points, before putting it on the table in the living room. We then smile at each other smelling the cheese and bacon, and then turn on the tv, and start an episode of Rick&Morty which we then watch eating our "Pizza Loca" and hanging against one another on the couch.

That whole process, from keeping track of my articles tips, the WhatsApp message all the way through to sitting on the couch and eating the pizza while watching a cartoon together, every bit of it.

THAT is what constitutes true happiness for me.

THAT is what keeps me going, keeps me alive even.

All thanks to all of you!

And it wouldn't be possible without Simon's creation of read.cash, @MarcDeMesel generosity in donating the funds for Randy, and the wonderful community here on read.cash. (YES! That means YOU!)

And I wanted to express the gratitude I feel for all of you for the joy and happiness and the father-son memories, that you made possible.

Thank you.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart, and from my Son, Arend.

Thank you for reading this

Stay safe, and stay happy!

@AnonSunamun