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A profane rant and a tiny leap of joy
THE PROFANE RANT:
It always makes me apeshit when the price of gas goes up beyond the ability of people to, oh, afford to go to a job not near public transport in their reasonable-mileage cars, and someone starts snotting about how "You don't bitch about the price of milk or bottled water and they're even more expensive."
Of course I don't. I don't need the latter at all, and I don't need to buy 10 gallons of the former every week just to go to work.
So when I click a link about "if you use these oil-based products you are partially culpable for the BP spill" and read "sweaters, dresses, clothes" on it and I'm sitting here in second-hand all-cotton clothing, my immediate reaction is "you can back that bullshit down several notches right fucking now, mmmkay?"
Acrylic and polyester clothing are made of oil. That's only one of the reasons why they're not your best choice, another being that they don't breathe and thus will kill you the hell dead if you wear them for long outside in a Southern summer.
On the other hand, second-hand clothing businesses are thriving in this economy, and you can get some really good stuff for prices that match or are lower than the budget "straight from the Third-world sweatshop to you!" chain stores. And the quality is often better because it has *survived* to be sold for a second time. I'm just sayin'.
And that's before I get to the rant about how there's plenty of excellent old wood furniture and not-plastic tools out there.
THE TINY LEAP OF JOY
For once, a home improvement possibility that doesn't cost me lots of extra time and money! Long story short, the smallest sheet of linoleum I could buy for the 3 x 6 pantry was 6 x 9. Rather than spend the time and $$ refinishing (or hiring someone to refinish) the coat closet floor, I'm going to have plenty of leftover lino to put down there as well. And then I won't have to worry about the carpet cleaner leaking onto wood or the vacuum cleaner scuffing up the finish. I doubt I'm even going to glue it down; just use vinyl tape to make sure it doesn't crawl.
It always makes me apeshit when the price of gas goes up beyond the ability of people to, oh, afford to go to a job not near public transport in their reasonable-mileage cars, and someone starts snotting about how "You don't bitch about the price of milk or bottled water and they're even more expensive."
Of course I don't. I don't need the latter at all, and I don't need to buy 10 gallons of the former every week just to go to work.
So when I click a link about "if you use these oil-based products you are partially culpable for the BP spill" and read "sweaters, dresses, clothes" on it and I'm sitting here in second-hand all-cotton clothing, my immediate reaction is "you can back that bullshit down several notches right fucking now, mmmkay?"
Acrylic and polyester clothing are made of oil. That's only one of the reasons why they're not your best choice, another being that they don't breathe and thus will kill you the hell dead if you wear them for long outside in a Southern summer.
On the other hand, second-hand clothing businesses are thriving in this economy, and you can get some really good stuff for prices that match or are lower than the budget "straight from the Third-world sweatshop to you!" chain stores. And the quality is often better because it has *survived* to be sold for a second time. I'm just sayin'.
And that's before I get to the rant about how there's plenty of excellent old wood furniture and not-plastic tools out there.
THE TINY LEAP OF JOY
For once, a home improvement possibility that doesn't cost me lots of extra time and money! Long story short, the smallest sheet of linoleum I could buy for the 3 x 6 pantry was 6 x 9. Rather than spend the time and $$ refinishing (or hiring someone to refinish) the coat closet floor, I'm going to have plenty of leftover lino to put down there as well. And then I won't have to worry about the carpet cleaner leaking onto wood or the vacuum cleaner scuffing up the finish. I doubt I'm even going to glue it down; just use vinyl tape to make sure it doesn't crawl.
no subject
i keep hearing "but its USED. someone else put it on!" and "OMG, what if they had lice?" when i talk about Goodwill.
they dont seem to GET that the shiny stuff in the mega mart there has been tried on, and on, by a lot of people.... and having read the customer suckage posted by people who work in chain clothing stores..... (shudder) well apparently the clothes in my local thrift store are probably cleaner.
Polyester will indeed kill you ded in hot weather.
no subject
It makes my mother nuts that I wash new clothing before I wear it. She's seriously suggested that it's a sign of mental illness on my part. The problem, of course, is that I know MUCH more about where that clothing has been, how it's been shipped, and the odds of other people being in it than she does.
As for the stuff from the thrift stores - well, it goes in the wash first thing too, and never a problem.