SoCS: producing products

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “product/produce.” Use one, use them both, use them any way you’d like. Bonus points if you use both.

I agree with Linda; June went very fast! Maybe because we are out with people again there seems to be so much to do!

Producing products is is destroying our planet. In order for companies to grow we have to keep making stuff and throwing out stuff. There is constant traffic of barges of stuff coming to North America and sending more stuff back. We keep buying and throwing away so much clothing the third world doesn’t even want it anymore! There are mountains of clothing we have ‘donated’; for some reason we feel OK about it if we ‘donate’. There are women perusing the mall to buy some clothing they don’t need to make them feel better for one moment. They can donate garbage bags full of hardly worn clothing to the ‘poor’ and feel good about themselves.

Then there are the dollar stores. Of course I use them! I’ll try there first to get a product at half the price I’d pay at Superstore. But I feel guilty about it. Barges of crap coming over from China carrying what is basically garbage in the making. Remember Fidget Spinners? Holy crap you couldn’t go anywhere without seeing Fidget Spinners at the cash desk. How many of them are in landfill sites? And they will last forever.

Balloon releases: stop sending plastic garbage out into the air! It lands somewhere: many times in lakes and oceans where people like to release them.

Glitter and microplastics are in us! They have permeated the water systems and are everywhere. Stop using anything with glitter NOW! Try to not buy any skin or body products with microplastics. Its not easy: they are in so many things. I bought sunscreen a few years ago and was horrified when I saw all the glitter in it when the sun shone on me! I don’t want that! And where do I get rid of it? Landfill.

I know I’m barking on my old bandwagon but I don’t see people changing their habits to try and lessen their carbon footprint. O, they post about it on social media to show how woke they are. Oh yeah, big fan of Greta Thunberg! Now let’s go to the mall and look for something cute to wear tonight and maybe a couple more times until it goes off to clothing mountain at Goodwill.

How about making it a status symbol to keep your car on the road for as long as possible? They used to be much easier to fix but now its all computerized. Same with products like refrigerators, washing machines . . . they don’t last anymore so we keep buying new ones because one part is too expensive to replace! Its insanity!

I know I’ve said it before but we are like the Wendigo chewing off its own lips in hunger! Social media is turning the young people into mindless consumers. For every Greta Thunberg there are 1000 social media influencer wannabees.

Excuse me for saying so but I think we are fucked. This is not sustainable.

https://lindaghill.com/2022/06/24/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-june-25-2022/

SoCS: scent

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “cent/scent/sent.” Use them in any form you like. Use one, use two or use them all. Bonus points if you use all three, and Cheryl will put your next drink on David’s tab. I know, you used to get bonus points for two, but inflation…

I did something stupid; I bought two scented things. They said ‘lavender’. I blame it on low blood sugar and driving around a city on a hot day.

The first was my pillow; I can’t remember if I wrote about the mattress not getting delivered? Well, I said I wanted a free pillow for my troubles. But they didn’t bring me a free pillow, they gave me a voucher so I could pick it out next time I was in town.

Big trip into the city; I had a list of little things I have needed for a long time. I almost forgot to go to Sleep Country to get my pillow. The sales guy took me on a tour of pillows and think he really wanted me to notice his red nail polish because he put both hands spread out on every pillow. Or maybe he was just admiring his nail polish.

Well, the lavender one looked so pretty. I bent over and got a vague whiff of lavender. “You had me at lavender” I said. He didn’t even smile. Bitch. He said the smell might wear off after a few months.

The next thing was dryer sheets. I don’t know what I was thinking! I usually buy these dryer sheets that are made with paper so better for the environment and they are lightly scented. I don’t know if my brain was fogged because I hadn’t eaten and I was getting tired driving around to different stores and didn’t want to go to yet another store to get the paper dryer sheets . . . I bought lavender and vanilla dryer sheets. They stink to high heaven! WTF was I thinking? They will be good for scaring mice away.

My pillow sat in the box until the next day. I ripped open the plastic bag and the smell assaulted my nose and brain. I aired it outside for most of the day and now its sitting on the bed in the guest room. A very large air freshener. I think I’ll be able use it in a week or two.

I’m still pissed off at myself for buying those awful dryer sheets. I can smell them when I pass my laundry room which is OK because my laundry room is 20+ years old and has a funky smell anyway. I’ll use them then chastise myself every time.

Its been almost a week now: the scent of fake lavender is subsiding.

https://lindaghill.com/2022/06/17/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-june-18-2022/

SoCS: wandering eyes

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “a picture from wherever.” When you sit down to write your post, find a picture, whether in a magazine, newspaper, or even product packaging. Write whatever thought or emotion the picture provokes.

Is it supposed to be the first thing we look at? My eyeballs are still adjusting to being awake as I’m still on my second coffee so I’ll take you on a short tour of anything on the other side of my laptop.

The Kleenex box. It isn’t brand name Kleenex but we call them all Kleenex now; its Compliments tissues. The box shows a range of mountain tops, jagged and snowy. Maybe the Rockies but could be the Himalayans: who knows? It looks cold and harsh. It invokes no emotion.

I work my way up and there is a photo of my mom and dad. He has his arm around her and she is nestled into his shoulder. They are both smiling. Now that invokes emotion I can’t put into words, at least not this early. It sounds something like; “mmeeeyyyaawwww!”

Then there is a tiny framed watercolour of two bunnies talking to a robin sitting on a Hawthorn branch. Actually it could be a tiny pencil drawing. It has all the qualities of an English children’s book illustration like Enid Blyton. It looks like innocence. It might even be worth something. It belonged to my great aunt who did collect some nice art that may be originals. I would have to wait for Antiques Road Show to find out if I have anything of worth.

Well that’s the pictures that are straight ahead and I don’t have to turn my head to look for anything else. I would like to include my globe beachball I won at exercise bingo which is on the chair next to me. It has all the countries and borderlines on it! I use it for my newest favourite game: Worldle. Not wordle which is my first favourite, this shows you a country’s outline which most times is impossible to guess so you try something random; then it tells you how many kilometres and what direction the right country is. You get 6 tries. I’ve learned where so many countries are!

Now I have 4 games; Wordle, Canuckle, Quordle and Worldle.

Re-reading the prompt I may have wandered off topic; off the kleenex box with snowy mountaintops. It just doesn’t do anything for me.

https://lindaghill.com/2022/06/10/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-june-11-2022/

SoCS: irony/iron

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “iron(y).” Use “iron,” use “irony,” or use both. Use them any way you’d like. Bonus points if you use both.

Maybe I better stick to ironing cotton. Irony is not easy to come up with! Certainly can’t think of anything ironic with stream of consciousness, early in the morning.

Alanis Morrisette got in trouble for making a whole song about irony then was told it wasn’t really irony. I guess its just ‘you know it when you hear it’? I may even say things that are ironic when I think I’m merely being sarcastic, which I am a lot.

So, yeah, I iron. If you love cotton, you have to have an iron. I’m an old lady: I have an iron and an ironing board I can set up in my storage room. Its adjacent to my sewing room. When you sew, you need an iron.

“Good Morning, Beautiful!” Is that ironic?

I had a friend come and stay with me because “its so beautiful here” then spent hours on her phone and on Facebook. I could hardly get her out to the back yard. Is that ironic?

I’m going to a birthday party for my grandniece today. I’m the only vegetarian but they go out their way to make vegetarian options so I end up with too much to eat. ironic?

“There’s nothing to eat!” If I said that, would that be ironic?

How about having 500 channels and “there’s nothing to watch!”.

Is that irony?

Last week I told you I was painting my front doors and was asked for photos so here we are.

I took out the window when I painted it last time and didn’t this time. SoB.

I was proud of this! Not supposed to paint in full sun so I rigged this up!

I haven’t finished those flower/herb pots by the door because I painted this door then had company. Today I’m back to planting before I leave for the birthday party. I’m leading two exercise classes this coming week and in between my ex is visiting me. Not only that, I haven’t mown my lawn yet and its LONG. So long it has to be done in sessions, over days.

I’m really trying to think of something ironic to say about that. Life of leisure?

https://lindaghill.com/2022/06/03/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-june-4-2022/