I have offered some random thought blog posts in the past. Here is a list of some of the latest. See what you think about them.
-For the fourth time in about ten years, I’ve gotten metal embedded in my tire. Our streets used to be free of such nuisances, but it seems that metal objects are on the loose out there. To my way of thinking, this could happen in only a few different ways: one is that construction vehicles and job sites, and the people working at them, inadvertently bring loose metal away with them, either rolling and sliding about their pickups’ beds or left by accident on any flat surface, and they’re forgotten. Workers may have nails in their pockets which can fall out. This is something which should be checked before leaving the work site. It might also be helpful if our municipal vehicles contained some type of magnetic device which could be used to pick up loose metal from the streets. I know that some construction jobs utilize a roller magnet to pick up debris, such as after installing roofing or siding. A thinner version could be mounted on the front of a truck or van much like a snow plow and simply be kept close enough to the ground to do the work. I’ll leave the invention of such an item to the pros.
-It’s a general consensus that something which is created should also have a method of being destroyed. Normally this duty falls to the creator of the thing. So why aren’t we holding the plastics industry responsible for coming up with ways to eliminate the growing mountain of waste which will soon overwhelm us all, including their own future generations? Politicians are not scientists, after all. The inventors of plastic may go down in history as blameless nihilists who ruined Earth if they don’t take up the task and start doing something. The next time I throw out a container, I want to know it will be part of a wall for a temporary shelter when storm damage levels entire villages. I want to see laundry detergent bottles being refilled at the grocer via large tanks provided by the manufacturers; a QR or barcode would determine the amount of liquid to fill the bottle, and multiple refills, at reduced cost, are possible. A second Earth is not possible.
-I’m waiting to see which side will win the water wars: the “I’ll put water in an insulated bottle” people or the “I’ll buy a case and bring a bottle with me.” I don’t know how people survived without constantly carrying water with them all these years. And now you need to add flavor because water tastes like. . .well, water. Oh yeah, that’s right: we had water fountains, often in public parks with plaques of dedication on them, and offices had water coolers and cone-shaped paper cups. We didn’t gulp 32 ounces, and we were still a healthy generation. When did that change?
-America is ranked last in many aspects of education. This means we’re cranking out young citizens who actually know nothing. They can’t make change, read an analog clock or understand package directions. They don’t know who fought in the Civil War (the North/Union and South/Confederacy); even Black Americans aren’t learning this, which is flummoxing. Our teachers don’t make enough money to support their own children. Parents are fighting the system and actually advocating for just pushing those kids who fall behind through the system for the sake of vanity. Our school system should be year-round (with breaks in winter and summer and holidays, of course), should not simply mass promote anybody, and include remediation and alternative paths to learning, so that every child has learned the most they can from twelve years to find productive futures in society.
-I haven’t gone to Target in a while, because over the summer a store near me fired an employee who tried to get some bike-riding kids out of the store and was assaulted. If a good deed is punished, and bad deed-doers are not, I can’t support a place that practices such backward philosophy.
-I ordered a house number from the “sells everything website.” You know the one. I thought I was buying a single number, because the other numbers I had bought at deep discount were cleared out at the local hardware store and I was just missing the fourth. Heck, some numbers are more common and go out of stock faster, meaning the availability and price goes up, right? The quantity said just one, but had I clicked on the “More” carat, I would have seen that it was one set of five. Anybody want some numbers?
-It was announced on social media that meatloaf will be going out of favor and probably won’t be seen at restaurants in the future, along with ambrosia salad and baked Alaska. Meatloaf is one of those polarizing foods which you either enjoy because you like the way it’s prepared, or loathed because you prefer your ground meats in buns with fries. My mother made a great meatloaf using onions, eggs, bread crumbs, and tomato sauce on top. That loaf went into Sunday dinner, then leftovers and at least one sandwich between two slices of bread with horseradish. I never had either of the desserts, but I will make meatloaf until I can no longer cook.
-The weather is changing, and with it, the pajama wars are on. This week it may be heavy long sleeves, and next week it’s shorts and tank tops. So do we call this Indian Summer or early Autumn? Whatever it is, it’s hard to get good sleep when you sweat one night and freeze the next. The prepared sleeper carries two types of bedding and changes them as the need arises. I did find a nice cooling blanket that really works, and the warm quilts are on standby. Mother Nature, let me know when you break out your parka.
I’ll show myself out and take the soapbox with me.
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