You Got Your Garbage in My Almond Butter!

Just one more example of sliding backwards. One step forward, two steps back. I would be wholeheartedly for this product. In fact, I'm sure it's an awesome healthy thing. Almond butter instead of peanut butter. Yum, good, fine, wonderful. Whatev's. But please sell it in a wonderful glass jar, you know, the way peanut butter used to be sold before greed and convenience really caught hold?

But, alas, no. We need even more convenience than plastic jars. We need on-the-go, super-spiffy wonderfully convenient, single-serve SQUEEZE packs. I wish I was kidding. Can someone please explain this to me? Can someone let me know why this is even a product we "need" in our lives? Is it so much to have to think ahead and pack a little cup of this stuff from the larger jar at home? Are we so far gone we can't think around THIS? Do we really need to add this kind of trash to the mounds out there? Do we need to applaud the amount of resources it takes to manufacture and fill these stupid little things? Do we have to be able to whip our almond butter out of a cute little pocket? Do we need to teach our kids to get used to these things?

Apparently.

I got nuthin' for this one. Just... and I know, I am the one introducing them to y'all... boo for me, I really did wrestle with that one, but I feel the evils of the world need to be seen so we can recognize them for what they are. "It's just a little thing.. no big deal, G-Dub." (my new nick-name!) But, these are ALL little things that add up in a big way. But back to the "just..." Just DON'T buy them. And when you see these things, maybe take some names and maybe spend a few minutes a week tossing off an e-mail to these companies, saying, "We don't care for these irresponsible products." It could help.

Maybe not. Sometimes, I think we are too far gone. Give me some hope, someone. I'm fresh out and they don't put that in a super-slick squeezee-pouch.

Friends Don't Let Friends be Un-Green

I have a lot of green friends, 'natch. Well, acquaintances. My circle of "friends" is really small... you know, those people who visit you after surgery or that chick you can call to hit the mall with you or some peeps to grab drinks with after work... those people? Not so much around me. I'm a loner. Ask anyone: I don't really like "people". It's true. Which is weird, because quite honestly, I am unfailingly gosh-darn pleasant to everyone. It's kind of sick how nice I am in person. Sick. Nauseating. But I digress.

Back to it: I am lucky to know so many green and aware and awake people. VERY lucky, and I treasure them all. But what about if you have a friend who doesn't so much share your brand of awareness? You may have them in your life... those who just will NOT stop using plastic bags or single-use bottles... those maybe even in your family who think you're a little cray-cray and don't listen to anything you say because they already wrote you off as a tree-hugging Birkenstock-wearing Patchouli-smelling non-showering non-flushing hippie, even though you're really not? Hell, you don't even own a pair of Birkenstocks. Do you keep patient and keep trying? Do you shut down and shut up (funny how those are two such different things, isn't it? LOL)? Do you just not see those people anymore, gently excise them from your life?

Or, let's go even a step further, since we ALL know people who think we're a little over-the-top. Say you have a friend who has a job or business that is completely non-green. Like... bottled-water delivery. Plastic diaper seller. A catering business that uses plastic utensils and Styrofoam. A salon that goes through crazy chemicals or - gods forbid - Brazilian blowouts. What do you do? This is their money, their success, their livelihood... what to do? Stop being friends with them, because they can't/won't change, and you simply can't associate with them any longer? Or do you gently urge them to mend their ways? Or do you nag them enough that they finally shut YOU out?

Some people that know me will actually be afraid to do things around me or will hide something from me that they know I will frown upon. And, you know, I'll take that... because at least they are thinking about it. They are more aware. But, again, I don't have a lot of people like that in my life, because... well, I guess I just don't. Do you? I'm really curious about this one. There can't just be "Us" and "Them". There has to be a "We", right? Apparently, I am the one people just humor if they don't share my concerns. Or they tune me out. That's disheartening. But I know it's true. I can only hope to just be like that tiny, irritating little piece of sand in the oyster, and maybe pearls will follow.

It's all I got.

What say you?

So, My Steamer Breaks...

...no big deal, right? It's just a steamer. They're relatively cheap; I can get another one.
After all, clothing steamers are great. Easier than ironing, keeps clothes from needing to be dry-cleaned as often... and heck, it lasted a few years. Great.

No, not great. It's a GIANT hunk'a'plastic that is now good for NOTHING. A few years??? C'mon!! And I know what's wrong with it - it's not boiling water anymore! This is a quick fix, right?? WRONG! These days, stuff is made so damn cheap that it's far easier - AND less expensive, even - to just junk it and get a new one. I can't even figure out what to do to repurpose it!

Well, woo-hoo, that's good for the economy, right? WRONG! It's good for some 3rd world economy somewhere (not even, really) where the stupid things are made. Cuz they ain't made here in the US. So please tell me what economy we are helping. Bed Bath & Beyond's CEO's personal economy? Here's an idea: how about jobs we used to have, you know, actually FIXING stuff?? Appliances lasted a long time. Decades, even. And if something twitched in them, we took them to the local guy who could fix pretty much anything. Toasters, sewing machines, mixers, vacuums... or when the bigger things went down, he came to the house to fix it. And we kept it. Now, you don't even keep a microwave. Too cheap and easy to get another one. Hand mixers? Like Kleenex. Blenders? Pfft.

 We cry out about jobs all the time. So someone please explain to me how this Planned Obsolescence things is good for our economy. I don't think it's working so well. Could be just me. Can't we just go back to making quality products, and to fixing them and keeping them around? Isn't that better?

In the meantime, forgive my wrinkled clothes. My steamer broke and I haven't been out to replace it with another. Maybe I'll buy two for when the next one breaks. Yeah. That's it.

Just doing my share for the economy.