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May 17, 2005

Rampant Consumerism

Warning: This post contains content that may prove to be offensive to Wal-Mart shoppers.

En route from IKEA Mall of America to REI Bloomington:
—I hate Walmart.
—I like Target.
—I like Target and I hate Wal-Mart and I like Home Depot and I hate Menard's.
—I bet that some people just swear by Menard's and Wal-Mart.
—Yeah, they are called idiots.

I hate the star between the "Wal" and the "Mart." I hate their use of the American flag, when everything you see there comes from China. Just saying is all.

OK, maybe it is impossible for me to go to REI for just a little collar to replace a missing one from a hoopty tent stake, one of the set that saved our bacon (or at least our tarp) at Tettegouche. Of course, the real fun is finding stuff you did not know you needed, like titanium cookware. I had heard the hype, but had not experienced it. It is so lightweight the boxes feel empty. Really. Even Roomie was impressed. Titanium is also horribly expensive. But if we find ourselves shaving ounces in order to single portage this summer, some titanium may be in our future. (How far Roomie has come, from being reluctant to go to REI to discovering new lightweight thingies before I do. She is almost a camping-goods accomplice at this point!) Alas, they did not have the hoopty stakes, much less spare parts for them. Trying to find them there was a longshot at best. But we had arrived at the tent stakes carousel.

It may be recalled that I have a somewhat unusual fascination with fancy aluminum tent stakes. And they had quite a selection: two colors of the 6" stakes that normally come with tarps and tents, aluminum snow stakes (basically a piece of perforated L-channel), and even a snow/sand cleat thingie, which was too complicated for me to understand. I reckon that those cleats are the kind of thing you buy when you realize that you cannot get your stakes to stay put no matter what. And they had thick stakes, which resembled the galvanized hoopties but were just a tad shorter. And shinier. And lighter. I wrestled over the decision to purchase new tent stakes to replace the perfectly good (but heavy) ones at home for at least five minutes, long enough for Roomie to go over and discover a new kind of underwear that you wash each night and it will dry overnight, obviating the need to pack multiple pairs. Of course, I gave in.

We both held the line (though Roomie gave me that look that said it would really cheer her up to have it) on the pup tent, which Selkye would not want to use camping, but would love at home. "Maybe for her birthday" I said. Now is not the time to buy something we would have to break down each time someone came to look at the house.

On the way out to the car, I asked Roomie how much lighter the new stakes would be than the old ones. "I bet they are a LOT lighter." How wise she is. The weight-difference between old and new may be visible in the pictures. And I was pleasantly surprised to find that the old stakes were only a half inch longer than the new ones. And these have a nice little cord by which one can pull them up.

Posted by Underblog at 6:59 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

May 1, 2005

Ugliness in Paradise

An unfortunately ugly racist comment marked my day today.

A neighbor's son recently returned home. The father remarked to me how much his boy's dog had grown. "Now she scares the shit out of me. [My son] brings her to work at the store. Some people are real scared of the dog. Especially some of the blacks. [Now things are getting uncomfortable for me.] They make you bring the bottles to them at the door. The boss would just as soon she was there all the time."

Now I am wondering where else I will be taking my irregular business. And damn me if that store is not the most conveniently placed liquor store ever.

I really like the Twin Cities, but this is the third incident of someone approaching me with their racism. The first two were taxi drivers. Believe it or not, I never encountered this sort of upfront racism in DC or in California. I wish I could blow off my neighbor as an idiot and a jerk. The thing is that he and his wife (well especially his wife) have been really sweet to us and are good neighbors. Why is it possible for otherwise sweet people to have irrational prejudices? Can't they simply keep that offensive nonsense to themselves? How do other people deal with this problem?

Posted by Underblog at 10:06 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack