Miscellaneous ramblings

[chicken]

I hardly ever do any posts at all these days, let alone random rambling disjointed ones, but this is one of those.

1. Cat food! The last three times I've gone to buy kibble, Pearl's favorite brand in the small bag size was consistently out of code, so I had to buy the bigger bags. I like the smaller bags better because although they are not as much value monetarily for how much you get, they stay fresh longer. These bags had a 2009 date on them, woo hoo! Also she actually enjoyed the catnip toy I got her -- she's really picky about toys.

2. Gas -- how much are you all paying for your nefarious gasoline/petrol substance for your motorized vehicles, if any?

I was shocked to pay $40.09 to fill up my tank. This is more than I have ever paid. That's $3.20/gallon to fill up a 12-14 gallon tank in a mid-sized sedan.

I hate to bring up "I remember when"s, but seriously, it was as low as 99 cents/gallon during the Clinton administration. Inflation cannot account for this discrepancy. *eyes oilmen in the White House with great suspicion*


3. Canvas shopping bags -- I've always hated these because they were always white, showed dirt, and were too large and therefore too heavy with groceries. In addition, they always seemed to have rounded, seamed bottoms that didn't hold the food well. Net bags had many of the same problems, but with the added negative of letting stuff fall through the holes.

However, the local supermarket (Publix) has recently introduced a new kind that is not too big or too small, square-bottomed, strong, sturdy, light, and foldable, with a simple hard plastic insert in the square bottom which holds up again heavy orange juice-type objects. They come in green and black as well as white. I now own five of these, and have finally stopped using so many plastic bags.

4. There was a fourth thing, but now I don't remember what it was. :(

Comments

[bunnyohare.livejournal.com]

The fourth thing is that you've had a sick rabbit for a week and a half, and that is very not-happy making.

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

Oh my poor dear bunny -- you will get well! I promise! *huggles*

[tx-cronopio.livejournal.com]

Poor bunny! *pets you, gently*

[felisblanco.livejournal.com]

The price of gas just went above 140 ISK/liter for the first time ever a few days ago. It's expected to go even higher, closer to 150 ISK/liter soon. Filling our tank (A Mitsubishi Galant) costs about 8000 ISK, which is approx. $116.

And this is why I need to buy a new bus pass.

[tx-cronopio.livejournal.com]

$116 to fill your tank? Jeez, no wonder you take the bus!

We are whining loudly over here, but it's good for us to remember that lots of countries have had it lots worse for a while in terms of gas.

[felisblanco.livejournal.com]

I remember when it went up to 4000 ISK ($58) a tank and was considered outrageously expensive. That was 15 years ago. *sighs*

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

You poor dear! That's very expensive.

I almost wish it would go up that high here, it might get some of those asshats who own unnecessarily enormous SUVs to trade their stupid vehicles in for smaller, more gas-efficient cars.

[tx-cronopio.livejournal.com]

Gas here is 3.09, which pisses me off mightily, and also makes me glad I bought that Corolla :)

Riley is very picky and won't eat food once it gets stale, so I do buy the small bags. The things I do for this mutt...

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

It was 3.09 here last week. Now it's 3.19. (At the really expensive station two blocks up, it's as much as 3.29).

I talked to a woman in the supermarket who just moved here from Connecticut and she said it was $3.45/gallon in her hometown.

I'm glad Pearl isn't the only picky eater!

I like your icon, it looks like a still from "Magnificent Obsession" or some such Rock Hudson or Cary Grant film.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Those new reusable bags are great--Stop & Shop is hawking them and we have many. I have no idea whether they are environmentally beneficial, but I use them because they are superior to both paper and disposable plastic bags in every way. They hold a lot, they don't tear, they stand up by themselves, and they have handles that don't bite into your hand when you carry them.

I'm not sure Bush is entirely to blame for high gas prices; his foreign policy hasn't helped, but some of it is just that we're really truly entering the peak-oil regime. It's hovering around $3.00 out here, but I don't expect it to ever go much lower again. The good news is that demand elasticity is higher than some people think: mass-transit system ridership is actually booming. Now if we can only make the MBTA not suck.

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

I have no idea whether they are environmentally beneficial

I have no idea either -- they seem like they must be, just based on the number of reuses, but since I have little idea what materials go into making them or whether the manufacturing process may be more or less bad for the environment than the manufacture of plastic bags, I suppose this "feeling" is just a feeling.

You are right, though -- they are the first non-paper, non-plastic bags that are actually superior in performance. I really like your point about them not biting into your hand when you carry them. That's one of my main complaints about every other bag type I have tried (including old-style canvas bags circa 1988-200x). I can't believe I forgot to mention it.

The ability to truly stand up by themselves is also really important because every other bag type tends to roll around in your trunk when you take a corner, spilling produce everywhere. With plastic bags you can overcome this by tying the handles together in a knot, which if it is only one knot, often breaks, and if it is doubled, renders the bag difficult to open later on, and therefore difficult to re-use (as the bag must be torn to gain access to the contents). Also, tying the top reduces the amount of items you can store in the bag.

Paper bags stand up by themselves, but are larger, taller and unwieldy and therefore have a higher center of gravity, which means they fall over more easily during transit. Plus nothing bites into one's hand hard than the handles on a paper bag (and half of them don't even have handles -- the ones from Whole Foods were the only ones that had handles that I can recall).

It's very clear to me that these new bags must have gone through quite a lot of field testing/QA.

...mass-transit system ridership is actually booming. Now if we can only make the MBTA not suck.

It is so good to hear that mass-transit ridership is booming in cities where such a thing actually exists.

I wonder if this is true in cities with insufficient mass-transit infrastructure -- that is, the majority of American cities (Orlando is a prime case in point, having an even worse system than Providence). The MBTA may suck compared to superior systems in bigger and/or European cities (and I rode it for three years in graduate school, so I do know what you mean). However, it is stellar compared to what exists in most cities.

As you probably know, in most American cities, the only mass transit is a lackadaisical bus system, which usually suffers from insufficient service per hour (i.e. one or two per hour at any given stop), routes that require multiple transfers and ridiculous time to destination (e.g. hub-based transfers that require one to travel way out of the way to get from point A to point B via central point C, etc). In such cities, governments consider the prospect of building up a light rail/commuter/subway/L-train system to be unnecessarily expensive and pointless.

I don't understand how our local governments can escape the vicious cycle of this "pointlessness"/expense excuse -- no one will ride it, they all use cars, so let's not build it. But people will keep on using cars because of a lack of good public transport. Very few local governments have the funding to just say, what the hell, the only way to break this cycle is to spend a ton of money building an infrastructure anyway and hope that people will then start using it. In fact, probably none of them have such funding.

[kerri9494.livejournal.com]

I don't understand what you mean by 'peak-oil regime'...unless you mean that it's Exxon-Mobil that now runs the country. Which I think is probably true.

Another terrible part of this, though, is that food prices, prices of construction materials, and basically anything else that's shipped around are going up up up, as well. I am VERY MUCH looking forward to the re-start of farmers' market season. Even their costs will have gone up, but to a much smaller degree, plus EAT LOCAL.

Which will also mean that Carole will have to send me citrus fruit on the QT once in a while. Or I'll need to plant some lemon trees in the basement.

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

I can't send you any citrus fruit.

Do you know the SICK thing? What's wrong with our national economy and food prices and not eating locally?

Most of the oranges available down here in Florida? Are grown in CALIFORNIA.

Apparently, most of the oranges available in California ... grown in Florida.

WTF WTF WTF?

I've heard some people excuse this by claiming that Florida grows mostly juicing oranges, and California grows mostly navel/eating oranges.

However, yesterday I checked some random oranges at Publix and they weren't even from California or Florida, they were from somewhere in South America.

ARGH.

Half the produce even at the Winter Park Farmer's Market is from effing South America. Things like leafy greens and corn and bell peppers and eggplants are from local Florida farms, but things like apples and peaches and oranges are all marked "grown in Chile".

The Farmer's Market is open all year around here, which is nice, but they just don't have enough local stuff.

Next week I'm going to check out the other farmer's market down by Lake Eola, where I am hoping things will be more local.

[kerri9494.livejournal.com]

Oooh ooh ooh but! There are some!

My mom has these people send me a batch of tangelos every winter.

http://shop.honeybell.com/cushman-honeybells.htm

Also, I've heard that Indian River is pretty good, too. If you google Florida Honeybells, you'll find lots, although admittedly, more southern than you for the most part.

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

Oh, those sound good. I'll ask around a bit at the farmer's market. You are right, there's more stuff further south.

[viciouswishes.livejournal.com]

Gas here is $3.45/gallon. My car also cost $40 last time I filled and the most I've ever paid. I'm glad that Exxon Mobile once again made even more money this past quarter than they've ever before.

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

I'm glad that Exxon Mobile once again made even more money this past quarter than they've ever before.

Oh yes, you are very glad! BWAHAHAHA. ;-) Oh, the evil.

3.45/gal. Damn. I do wonder if it will keep going up or if it will plateau.

[anelith.livejournal.com]

I love those canvas bags. Now if only I can just remember to bring them into the store 100% of the time...

Gas prices are v. high. What is insidious about this is not just the price at the gas tank. It's that everything else is affected. Our grocery bill is truly skyrocketing. According to an article in the Globe that is mostly due to the high cost of oil.

Things are getting rather depressing. I told Ron this morning that I think I'm going to limit myself to reading only the funnies in the paper every morning.

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

I agree -- the price of shipping any kind of goods at all is dependent on oil prices, so everything else does go up as well. It's real sticker shock.

Heh, I never read the paper at all. I get all my news via the internet or via NPR on the way home from work. I hate the paper. *head in sand*

[zandra-x.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to use the bags I bought at Trader Joe's. The big hurdle is remembering to put them back in the car. Of course, in Calif. nobody blinks twice at my bringing my own bag, no matter what store I go to; is it common enough where you are that people 'get' it?

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

Actually in New England people never blink twice over people bringing their own bags. Around here, people still do at certain stores (say at the Pet store) but at the grocery store people take it without a thought. That's encouraging.

I forget to put them back in the car, too. This is especially bad here because it gets so darn hot in the summer (and even the winter, yesterday it was 72 degrees which meant the trunk was over 90 at least), I really need those three special "cold" bags (the ones that claim to keep the food cold or hot for up to three hours) or else stuff goes bad in the trunk on the way home. Effing Florida.

As a result, I've bought two or three extra bags just because the original ones were still in the house.

[kaydee23.livejournal.com]

I'm paying $3.15 in Houston. Thank god I'm only 3 miles from work.