Today is the day I usually go into the office to box up all my 2024 files and get everything ready for 2025. It's a great day to do that because nobody is there to intrude and I plow through. But today, much to my surprise, people are actually working! And so I'm putting off my office clean out until Sunday.
Instead I'm cleaning out my laptop. I'm one of those messy people who just drops everything on their desktop and (wrongly) assumes I'll get to it later. Most of them are for work, so that's fairly easy to file away properly. But my personal stuff is more weird and complex. It's recipes. It's memes. It's stuff for this blog. It's photos. It's links. It's ideas. It's absolutely anything you can think of. That's not so easy to file away.
But anyway, here's some stuff that I think I collected for Blogography...
Here's an interesting land feature I found while randomly scrolling through Google Maps. It's a shockingly round island (René-Levasseur Island) inside of a shockingly round lake (Lac Manicouagan) in Canada. It's interesting enough to have its own Wikipedia page here. Long story short, an asteroid slammed into Canada 214 million years ago. And it must have hit near-perpendicular to make such a round hole. It's nicknamed "The Eye of Quebec."
Copyright Google Maps
Copyright Google Maps
Here's a video that I didn't end up using for Caturday because the camera wasn't pointed downward enough (or because YouTube made it into a reel, which displays weird). Still funny. Jenny ran around the corner at breakfast time to run upstairs. Little did she know that Jake was on his way down. She didn't even slow down or hesitate, but instead leaped right over him...
I don't know if I already shared this, but it's a cartoon that I absolutely love...
I have no idea why I saved this. It's a video from my doorbell cam showing the moon traveling across the sky in the upper-left corner there...
This is a photo that I was going to write a blog post about, but could never find a way to make it interesting. Basically, I was opening the drawers of my IKEA shoe cupboard looking for my water shoes and noticed that a shoe was missing. This makes absolutely no sense. I know it was there at one point. But now it's just... gone?!? How? Where did it go? I wouldn't have taken out just one shoe. Did somebody take it? I actually
This is a snack called "Kazbars" that looked amazing, so I took a snapshot of it to remind me to buy it. I ended up finding it (yep, delicious!), but never trashed the photo for some reason...
This is my favorite meme of 2024. It gets passed between my friends and I whenever we have a big expense pop up. It's especially apt for me going into 2025...
Oh look... it's the secret recipe for McDonald's Special Sauce that I've been meaning to try!
I ran across this "recipe" a month ago for Movie Theater Popcorn that I've been meaning to try once I get the ingredients...
And this recipe for School Cafeteria Cheese Pizza sounds amazing. I just found it a week ago and already I'm sad I haven't tried it...
And that's a sampling of what I'm having to deal with. I've got loads more just waiting to be organized and filed away. Happy New Year!
I didn't take enough vacation days, so I'm having to squeeze them in where I can. Which is to say that I have today and tomorrow off. Whee.
What I should be doing is absolutely nothing. What I'm actually doing is getting a lot of minor chores done that I've been avoiding forever. Scrubbing the kitchen. Scrubbing the toilets. Scrubbing the floors.
Pretty much just a lot of scrubbing going on today.
Which doesn't make for an exciting blog entry, but unless somebody is going to pay for a housecleaner to come take care of all this mess, it's all I've got.
My home is not very big at all, but still bigger than I need. I could get by with half the size for myself and my cats just fine. When I bought it the location was the most important factor, because I'd be taking care of a mom with dementia. Living in my old neighborhood where people know her and, more importantly, she knows them, is what mattered.
Because I'm single, I have been toying with the idea of finding something smaller. Cheaper to maintain and heat/cool (and clean!) as I get older. But something became immediately apparent as I was looking around... I wouldn't come out ahead on a downsizing deal, and it's proving really difficult to wrap my head around. Shouldn't the difference between the sale price of the bigger place and the purchase price of the smaller place be putting money in my pocket?
No. — At least not right now.
Smaller doesn't automatically equal cheaper.
Unless I gave up on home ownership completely and moved to an apartment. But given the money I've sunk into this place over the years, that's a short-term windfall that would likely cost me even more money long-term.
And so I guess I'm staying put for a while longer.
Which saves me from having to explain to my cats that they'd have to adjust their excessive lifestyle to live in less space. Something they probably wouldn't be happy about at all.
I've heard that as we get older we have a harder and harder time getting the sleep we need. It's hard to fall asleep. Waking up is what's easy. Then it's even harder to fall back asleep.
Apparently I've reached that point, because I feel lucky if I can manage to get five or six hours sleep. Most times it's less. Sometimes a lot less. As an example, here's my sleep from last night...
Three hours and nine minutes. I should have taken a nap when I got home from work, but I wasn't tired.
No idea how that was even possible.
How can I function on three hours sleep?
As I do every year, I started my day listening to Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have a Dream speech in its entirety. So many people quote snippets of it to support their personal narrative while completely ignoring the bigger picture, and that's why I listen to the whole thing every year.
I had the day off but ended up working most of it anyway. I have a dentist appointment tomorrow, so it seemed the smart thing to do.
Though now that I'm home and exhausted, perhaps it would have been smarter to stay home and zone out in front of the television? The world may never know.
UPDATE: And my blog is dead again. I don't know if it keeps getting hacked or what.
I don't know if it's Winter or Spring, but I'm setting my weather confusion aside right now... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• Snow Orleans! This should be the dead of winter where I live. But it's been sunny and warm. The snow is quickly disappearing. This will have dire consequences this Summer when we're likely facing drought conditions. But someplace that's not lacking Winter weather? NEW ORLEANS?!??
Photo taken from Louisiana Memories
Photo taken from Louisiana Memories
Photo taken from Louisiana Memories
I've been to New Orleans dozens of times in every season. I've never seen snow. It's rarely been cold, even in Winter. So I have no idea what to make of this.
• Unexpected Advice! I laughed way too hard and way too long at this. Genius...
I can't watch this enough times.
• Final Two! Aw, man. Vera has ended? I had no idea until I watched the last episodes! Brenda Blethyn is magic in the role and I will very much miss the series.
If you like British murder mystery shows, it's worth a look.
• FASTER! FASTER! If you've never worked in a restaurant, this is the kid of thing you have to deal with...
Funny if it's not you. Not so funny if you've got a customer screaming at you because you can't defy the laws of physics in your kitchen.
• Only at Night! Ya know, I was very excited for the new season of Night Agent on Netflix, but the first episode is so stupid as to be practically unwatchable. I'm no spy, yet I know not to make these many colossal mistakes he makes. It's pathetic and bad. And the main supporting character is an idiot despite being hyped up as "smart." Plus there's no Hong Chau. — The first season wasn't perfect, but it was still good television. Eventually I just skipped to the final episode and couldn't even make it through that. So disappointing.
• Transferrance! I've never been so crass as to pester my trans friends with invasive questions. It wouldn't even occur to me to do that because I wouldn't do that to any of my friends. Which is why it's a bit shocking to me how people think that trans persons are obligated to answer even the most private questions about personal aspects of their lives. A couple years ago a friend responded to a ridiculous question by a complete stranger by saying "I'm not comfortable talking about things like this, but here's somebody who is..." and dropped a link to Jamie (AKA Jammidodger). I ran across that video again today, and here it is...
I understand why people might be curious. I don't understand at all why people are invasive to ask weird shit.
• Declutter! For 2025 I've committed to tossing/donating a big chunk of my possessions. I've collected way too much stuff over the years, and my garage is packed to the rafters with things I'll likely never use. After four weekends and several carloads dispersed, I've made a noticeable dent. It's been so much work and I have a long way to go, but I will be so much happier without so much stuff cluttering my life. How did I become such a hoarder? And now that my bullets are over, guess I had better get back to it.
Now back to our regularly-scheduled Winter. Spring. Winter.
I decided to buy a freezer to stick in my garage.
Being single is incredibly expensive food-wise. It seems like absolutely everything that's affordable at the grocery store is made affordable by being sold in a huge quantities or forcing you to buy multiple packages of the same thing. But I can't do that because I don't have much freezer space. If I purchase some kind of "buy two get one free" deal for "Family Size" anything, then that's all I'm eating until it's gone so I can make room for something else in my refrigerator's freezer.
Small "garage-ready" freezers are actually fairly affordable. Unless you've just paid $1700 for plumbing work, like I have... but still... not terrible. A couple hundred bucks.
If you are happy to manually defrost it a couple times of year.
If you don't want to manually defrost the thing, then you're paying a lot more, even on sale. I bit the bullet and bought the frost-free version because I know for a fact that I won't bother to defrost anything until there's so much ice that I can't fit food into it any more.
So... a freezer will be here next week!
Which means I have to find a spot for it in my garage.
Given that my garage is full of woodworking tools that have been piled up until Spring arrives and I can start building things again (assuming I can afford to buy the wood), making space is easier said than done. I've been throwing out stuff I don't need and donating stuff I won't use in anticipation of buying a freezer since January 1st. But that's only gotten me so far. So tonight I started completely rearranging everything. Which has been quite a chore. But I think I've finally played garage Jenga enough to figure it out. I'm 85% there.
This weekend I'll take another pass and shore up that remaining 15%.
Either that or I won't, which means I'll be parking outside for a while. Which is not great because we've had some seriously cold weather here, and I don't relish the idea of scraping frost off my windows in the morning. That's the kind of freezing I don't want.
I am so tired that I think my brain is turning to mush.
I find it categorically disgusting that credit reporting companies have such absolute and total control over your ability to EXIST in this world, but have absolutely zero accountability for this power they hold over you.
Take for example, Experian. I have to create an online account with them. I fill out all the information they require, but it says they can't verify me. I try THREE TIMES, making extra careful that I was accurate in the information I provided. Won't verify. So I call the number they give you.
No person answers of course. You get some awful automated system that asks you what you want. I tell them I need to verify my account online. It doesn't understand. I try again. THE SYSTEM HANGS UP ON ME.
I go through this crap TWO MORE TIMES, trying to rephrase it in different ways. Not even saying "REPRESENTATIVE" works. So I have to Google for a different number. I call it, get connected with customer service, who proceeds to ask me numerous questions. I answer each question accurately... even looking up specific amounts online to make sure I'm correct. Doesn't matter. I'm told that I answered one of the questions wrong. EXCEPT I DIDN'T. I VERIFIED EVERY DANG ANSWER IN REAL TIME.
So what now? NOTHING! THAT'S WHAT! The rep was going to escalate my to somebody, but their manager refused to talk with me because I answered a question wrong? Again, I didn't. BUT ISN'T THAT WHY YOU TALK TO A MANAGER IN THE FIRST PLACE?!? So what now? Wait 72 hours and try again. I'm not even joking.
I've wasted 40 minutes dealing with Experian, got nowhere, and have to call back... at which point they'll likely find a way to deny verification AGAIN.
How is this legal? If this company has this kind of power over me, they shouldn't get to blow me off when I need help. When a company has this kind of power over me, they should be REQUIRED to resolve stuff like this BY LAW.
Then again, a company shouldn't have this kind of power over me in the first place.
This has been my second day of working 14 hour days. I used to do that all the time. Heck, back in 2019 I would put in 8-10 hours at the office, then go home and put in 3-5 hours doing work for the charity I volunteered with. But something has happened in the last five years that's making it a lot harder.
And, yeah, I know that part of the problem is that I'm getting older. But not really.
The problem is that the stress of everyday living has ramped up to 11, and it's been wearing me down. I spend so much energy dealing with the horrors of This American Existence that I've got precious little left to get me past a regular 8-hour work day. And believe me... I know that it's a lot worse for a lot of people, but still...
And then there's the very real possibility that Social Security is going to be gutted, which means this will never, ever end. I've been paying a huge amount of money into the system for the vast majority of my life. It's my money for my retirement. And yet I might not see a penny of it because I'm being told that it's not my money after all. It's government waste, and I'm better off working myself to death.
So great. So great.
Which is to say that even once I've got everything caught up at work, I'll likely end up working 16 hour days eventually anyway because I'll need two jobs just to get by.
While I was taking a minute to scarf a mini pizza down for lunch, I received an unknown caller. Used to be I could just ignore them and have them leave a voicemail, but I can no longer do that because of my job. I have to answer every call because it could be something vitally important for my work.
When I answered the call, it was some piece of fucking shit scammer asking for my mother!
Absolutely nothing brings me quicker to anger than this bullshit, and that's saying a lot given how much there is to be mad about in this sick, sad world.
After screaming "SHE'S DEAD! DON'T CALL HERE AGAIN!" people usually hang up. But this woman? She asked who I was. I screamed "I'M HER SON, NOW FUCK OFF!" Though I think she hung up before I got to the good part.
Odds are it was some assholes wanting to sell her an extended warranty for her car or some such crap. Because preying on older people who don't know any better is what these repugnant grifters love to do. And, hey, there's absolutely no consequences... so can you really blame them?
It took me over an hour to bleed out my rage.
Between crap like this and weekly texts telling me "YOU HAVE UNPAID TOLLS!" from scammers, I am at my absolute limit. This story from CNBC has the headline "Why the toll road text scam is out of control across the U.S., and Apple, Android can’t do anything to stop it" is such a pile of stupid as to be laughable.
I have an iPhone and Apple offers nothing to help combat text spam. Apple could provide one-touch spam reporting & blocking across devices instead of burying it. Apple could allow keyword filtering across devices. Apple could do a lot of things to make dealing with this horrendous shit easier... but they won't. Because they're focused on AI that nobody wants for some stupid reason. And then news organizations like CNBC are letting Apple off the hook by telling everybody nothing can be done when it's just not true. Why is that?
Talk about "fake news." Jesus.
Maybe I've watched The Beekeeper too many times... but it's only a matter of time before somebody goes hunting for these spammers... no matter where they're from. Somebody is going to lose all their money or have a loved one lose all their money and make it their mission in life to hunt the people responsible. I cannot condone this violence, of course. But I would understand it...
Dang that was a good movie. No idea why I love it so much. I seriously need to watch it yet again.
The thing about traveling over the mountains this time of year is that the weather is unpredictable. There have been years that late March is worse for winter storms than the dead of winter.
When I left this morning, my preferred mountain pass was "Snowing with Traction Tires Required" which was good enough for me because my winter tires are still on and I always have chains. But before I even got to the road that goes up to the pass, I was re-routed over an entirely different pass. This one ended up being "Bare and Wet with No Restrictions" which was even better (despite adding 15 minutes to my travel time).
And so I backtracked to the highway so I could be on my merry way.
The drive was far from incident-free due to heavy rains and fog.
At the base of the pass there was a bad accident in the opposite direction which had traffic backed-up for miles and miles and miles.
Then a couple miles from the top, an asshole driver was eating my bumper (even though there was nowhere for me to go), so I pulled over and let him grind on the person ahead of me. That wasn't good enough, so he cut in front of me (with very poor visibility on wet roads, I remind you) and went surging past the car that was in his way.
I didn't see the accident because I couldn't see more than a car-length ahead of me.
But I heard it.
Which meant traffic had to halt while the asshole (and the car he cut in front of that couldn't stop like I did) made their way off the road.
What the fuck is wrong with people?
The asshole was in such a massive hurry that he was driving recklessly in terrible conditions... instead of just leaving ten minutes early. So was it really worth it?
At least nobody ended up dead.
This time.
Today's my birthday!
Except I'm writing it two days later because I am (was) drunk in a casino for my birthday.
I'd say I'm one year closer to retirement, but it's looking doubtful that I'll ever be able to retire given the current plans for Social Security and the dire state of my 401K. So I guess I'll just be happy I'm one year closer to death? That sounds about right.
Happy belated birthday to me.
You know how when the end of your vacation is pending and you try to enjoy those last precious moments of your time off... but can't help but think about all the stuff that's waiting for you back at the office? That's where I'm at now. And I can't drink myself into forgetting, because driving responsibly is more important than ever given how idiots on the road are looking at their phones all the time. OR READING A BOOK... WHICH, I SHIT YOU NOT... IS SOMETHING I SAW ON SUNDAY! I was a passenger, so I could see that a woman had a literal book on top of her steering wheel. And the reason I noticed WAS BECAUSE I SAW HER TURNING THE PAGE! Gotta be super-sober when assholes like that are on the road. Which is infuriating, because I'd argue somebody who's reading is more dangerous than somebody who's had a few drinks. I wonder if she knows about audiobooks?
Anyway...
Yesterday for my birthday we left the casino to eat at a bar. It was Monday, which is apparently "Crab Night" where you can blow through as much crab as you can eat for just $39.99... and, let me tell you, there were people eating serious amounts of crab.
Being vegetarian, that wasn't for me... but I did get a kick out of the sign for it...
I think poor SpongeBob's leg got accidentally erased while they were hanging the sign. But Patrick came through with all limbs attached...
Poor Mr. Krabs!
Though if you like eating that gross stuff, I'm sure he was delicious.
Suppose I should pack my suitcase.
WAAAAAAAAHHHH!
If you aren't old enough to remember what it was like to exist before smart phones, then you have no idea how utterly bizarre the world was back then. Comparatively speaking.
I, of course, am not only familiar with the world before smart phones, I'm familiar with a world before personal computers! Yes. I am that old. And the weird thing is that I do not think about The Before Times. Like at all. I never call up Google Maps or answer a text on my iPhone and think "Gee... remember what it was life before Steve Jobs blessed humanity with this thing? As far as I'm concerned, smart phones feel like they've always existed.
No, what got me to thinking about The Before Times was this video by Eddy Burback where he gave up his mobile phone. And even then, I didn't really think about it UNTIL he got to the part where he was watching old episodes of Sex and The City at the 15-minute mark. THEN I was like "Holy crap..."
I am not to the point where I want to give up my iPhone.
Not even a little bit.
That being said, I am very, very glad that I got to experience life without smart phones. It was a very different time. And not really in a bad way.
I am a bit more mixed when it comes to personal computers. On one hand, being there at the beginning of it all was a super-exciting time to be alive. But on the other hand, it would have been nice if personal computing was a bit further along when I was younger. Particularly in high school.
Though given the horrific state of cyber-bullying, maybe I should be glad it was still in its infancy.
Twice each year my allergies return to plague me.
Once in the Fall, when everything is dying and vegetation starts to rot. Then again in the Spring, when I'm the one that's dying because the grasses and flowers return to life. It could be worse. When I was a kid that suffered year 'round and had to get three shots a week.
Spring, while being my favorite season, is also the time of year I'm my most miserable. I dope up of allergy drugs to try and push through while my body adjusts, but as I get older and older it's harder and harder for me to adapt. I used to have a runny nose, itchy eyes, and a sore throat for three days or so. Then it was a week. Then two weeks. Now it's at least three weeks. And my symptoms get worse every year as well.
On Saturday I woke up and could barely see. It felt like my eyes were swollen shot. And maybe they were. That made it real fun to crawl downstairs to feed my cats. Sunday was even worse, but I was prepared. I brought a can of cat food with me the night before so I could dish out breakfast without breaking my next.
I gave up on blogging over the weekend, and decided to try again on Monday. Then Tuesday. I was going to pass again tonight, but decided to just take a Benadryl early and see what happens. I don't know that it did a ton of good but I was able to see to type, which was good enough for me.
I have purchased so many scrub brushes, grout brushes, and an untold number of cleaners trying to get my kitchen tile and grout clean. All have been a waste of money. My kitchen floor looks filthy despite the fact that I'm always cleaning it.
I've been saving for a heavy-duty, Commercial Oreck Orbital Scrubber as a last resort. I was up to almost $100 when I decided to just put the balance on my credit card because it's hard to know if it will blow up in price due to tariffs or whatever. It could jump from $320 to $600 so better to just get it over with...
AND... boom goes the dynamite. Immediately noticed a difference. A few more scrubbings and my kitchen tile will look like new. But here's the real shocker... I bought a softer scrubber for my hardwood floors and it's amazing how good everything looks.
One of the best purchases I've made!
Cannot believe that I'm writing a blog post about a cleaning appliance. But that's my life now, apparently.
As I previously mentioned, I bought a couple Aerogardens because I wanted to grow my own herbs. The cost to have fresh herbs has escalated to unaffordability, so when Aerogarden when out of business, I bought two 6-pod units. Mostly for cilantro, rosemary, and thyme, but for fun I went ahead and planted some lettuce, tomatoes, and parsley.
Can you guess which seeds sprouted and which havent?
Here's hint one... LETTUCE...
Here's hint two... TOMATOES AND PARSLEY...
Sigh.
No cilantro. No rosemary. No thyme.
Oh... and I planted some spinach too. That also hasn't sprouted.
Guess I'll try again with the cilantro, but this time I'll soak the seeds for a few days to see if I can get them to sprout before planting.
In other news... I'll bet that butter lettuce ends up tasting delicious!
My favorite color is blue... periwinkle blue, which has a touch of purple in it.
But my mom's favorite color was red, so my kitchen appliances, tools, and cookware are all red.
My beautiful new red Le Creuset Dutch oven, which I have been dreaming of owning for decades but could never afford, is finally here. Even though I couldn't really afford it now, the price is always going up (and won't be going down any time soon if tariffs have anything to say about it), so when I saw it at a good price I just went ahead and bought it...
The first thing I'll be making in it this weekend is some SourJo bread. My (red!) potato baker doesn't get as hot as a cast-iron Dutch oven, so I haven't yet made a loaf of sourdough in real cast iron yet. But I've always wanted to, because I'm told it really improves everything.
Wish me luck.
In the 9 years I've been at my place, I've had two wasp nests.
The first one was on Year Two under the eaves of the upstairs roof outside my bedroom. The wasps weren't bothering anybody so I just left it alone. The only reason I even knew they were there was because the cats were going bananas watching them out the window. Harmless entertainment.
The second one was Year Five under the front porch. I always enter my home through the garage pass-door, so I didn't know it was there until somebody selling something mentioned it when I had to answer the door. I was so very tempted to say "Yes. I asked them to come so they can keep uninvited solicitors away from me" but held my tongue. This was clearly a problem for visitors who were invited, so I reluctantly went and bought a can of RAID wasp nest killer because there's not much else you can do. If it were bees, I could probably find some help in relocating them. But wasps? Nobody in their right mind is going to move a wasp's nest. I put on a ridiculous amount of clothing to cover every square inch of skin and some swim goggles... cracked the screen door... then unloaded the can into the nest. It was like something out of a horror movie. And, despite wasps being total bastards, I felt guilty for weeks.
Today I've been getting alerts all day that there's "somebody at my front door." But when I look...
So I guess they're back and making another nest.
Fortunately I know about it early enough that I can (hopefully) encourage them to move to another location without massive loss of life.
After the second nest I was told that peppermint oil will discourage wasps from building on your house. But the idea of my property smelling like a Christmas mint was not something I thought I could live with. Which is okay, because I'm the one paying the mortgage.
If I were to ever get COVID I have a better chance than usual of getting totally fucked, thanks to respiratory problems I have. Because of this, it's recommended that I get a COVID vaccine booster every six months instead of once a year. And so I do that. I can't say whether or not I've ever had COVID... if I did, it must have been mild enough for me not to notice (and perhaps the vaccinations had something to do with that)... so, yeah, I'll just keep on doing what I've been doing because I'm still alive to do it.
Today I received my 10th vaccination for COVID which contains all the latest strain information to teach my body how to better fight it off should I ever get exposed to it. I didn't know how many jabs it was off the top of my head, I had to count it...
And, just like every other time I get boosted and people find out about it, I'll be told that this time I'm definitely going to die. The reason for my demise seems to change every time. First it was myocarditis and pericarditis. Then it was blood clots. Then it was my DNA breaking down. Then it was cancer. Last time it was stroke. This time I'm sure it will be death by something entirely more interesting. Because they heard it from a guy who heard it from a guy who heard it from a guy they know that is a doctor or a mortician or whatever.
To which I can only say... okay. If I die in my sleep tonight, then so be it. Nothing is without risk but, for me at least, the risk is very much worth it. Yes, shit happens. Even with a vaccine that's overwhelmingly been proven safe and to help minimize how badly COVID can affect you. Smoking is far, far more dangerous, yet smokers don't seem to have to put up with as much bullshit as somebody trusting the God-given scientific miracle of RNA vaccines.
Now, my attitude towards the vaccines is my own. If somebody wants to believe misinformation, or even what their gut is telling them, then fine. I'll do what's best for me. You do what's best for you.
Except...
What if I can't do what's best for me?
As massive cuts to American health research and services continue, very soon there won't be the research to determine which strains should be targeted (let alone develop a formulation for it). So maybe I won't get to decide. Instead RFK and his brain worm get to decide for me.
Which is beyond batshit crazy because RFK Jr. doesn't know what the fuck he is doing. Some things, like restricting food additives which are so questionable that European agencies have already restricted them, I have no problem with. Yeah. That's probably a good move. But that's such a small part of what he's into as to be laughable.
Whether you like John Oliver or not, he's got an interesting rundown on it all...
The more I hear about the current administration's plans for American health, the more convinced I am that people are going to die because of it.
Maybe a lot of people.
Spending money is something that I try to avoid whenever possible. I'd much rather save it for a rainy day when something goes wrong and I really need it. Which is to say I don't have to have a bunch of luxuries because I'm a lot happier knowing that I have some savings in the bank. Which, when you think about it, is the ultimate luxury anyway. Rare though it may be.
After you get past the true luxuries needed to survive in the modern world (at least to me)... your health, clothing, a place to live, food to eat, a job, health insurance, a car, a phone, a computer, internet, a television, music, and books... most everything else is gravy. Here are my top ten unnecessary luxuries once the basic necessities have been covered...
HONERABLE MENTION: Ninja Creami — I don't eat a ton of ice cream, which means whenever I buy some means it goes bad before I can eat even a quarter of it. And the smaller containers are way too expensive. Being able to "creamify" ice cream or other frozen treats from just about anything on a small scale at any time at all is a dessert luxury! The good news is that you can often find them at a good discount. The bad news is that they release new models with added features (the latest of which can dispense soft serve!).
Not on the list as it currently stands is travel which, for most of my years, was a priority to me. Couldn't really afford to do a lot of it, and so I did volunteer work that had travel attached so I could add a few days for myself once I was sent somewhere. It's a lot cheaper to pay for a couple nights of hotel and food after the flight was covered by work! But now that I've been lucky enough to have seen a lot of the world? Not such a priority. Very happy to stay home with the cats.
Oh yeah...
I was going to say that having a voice-controlled "smart assistant" is a luxury, but here's a conversation I had with Apple's fucking useless Siri "assistant" tonight...
"Hey Siri, find my phone."At which point I had to go back upstairs and get my laptop so I could open the Find My app, locate my iPhone, tell it to play a sound, then run to back downstairs to find it before my cats freak out.
Such a luxury.
Just like I watch Once Upon a Time in Mexico every Cinco de Mayo and listen to I have a Dream every Martin Luther King Jr. Day... I've decided to watch Taking Chance every Memorial Day. It's one of those works where you can't help but tie it to an event in your mind. In the film, Kevin Bacon plays a Marine entrusted with taking the remains of a fellow Marine killed in battle to the soldier's home for burial. It's a well-made movie which isn't worried about embellishing events as much as it is telling a respectful story that's based on something which actually happened...
I knew today was Memorial Day. It was on my calendar and everything. But after my morning meeting (the rest of the world is still running), I somehow forgot. I just started in on work. Then, just before I was going to take a shower and head into the office, one of my foreign colleagues texted "Enjoy your holiday" and I remembered again.
So instead of microwaving my morning veggie burger, I took the time to fry it and harvest some lettuce to go on top. Then I set out my SourJo starter to make bread. And then I decided to play electrician and install the smart outlets I've had sitting in my garage for way too long.
Then it was time for dinner and Taking Chance and my Memorial Day holiday was over.
I only spent about three hours working, so it actually was a holiday. At least as far as I'm concerned.
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