So, I have weird feet – very short and very wide.
Throughout my youth, when my parents were paying my way through life, I was forced to cram my feet in cheap shoes that never fit. Ever. I didn’t complain about it, because every shoe store I went in to had the same basic offering of shoes for the middle two or three sigma of the bell curve. Thus, I never knew there were any other options.
After college though, I managed to walk into a Red Wing shop and had fitting by someone that knew what they were doing. This is when I discovered that I had been wearing shoes two or three sizes too long just to get my foot into it. It is also when I discovered that when you have the right shoe on, the arch in the shoe lines up with the arch in your foot. This was a revelation to me.
Checking out was another revelation. Red Wings where really well-made shoes that cost a lot of money compared to what I was used to paying. I choked a bit, but coughed up the money, because this was the first time a shoe ever fit.
Over time, another lesson was slowly learned. The damn shoes lasted forever. I wore them for years before I even considered getting replacements. This was the beginning of my understand of the cost of buying stuff versus the cost of owning stuff. This would get formalized later in my engineering career as life-cycle cost analysis. But at the time it was just one of life’s little secrets that no one taught you. It was something you had to figure out.
Much later in life I would discover the books of Sir Terry Pratchett. This passage struck me deeply:
The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.
Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.
But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.
This was the Captain Samuel Vimes ‘Boots’ theory of socioeconomic unfairness.
Confirmation bias kicked in. And my bias was that this was the secret to climbing out of poverty. Spend your money wisely in the beginning to save yourself lots of money in the long term.
For me, spending decisions came down to “Am I going to use this once or forever?” If once, buy cheap and throw it away. If forever, buy the best you can get your hands on. Delay the purchase and save up if you need, but don’t waste money on cheap crap.
Over last summer, I ran across someone youngster on Facebook waxing poetically about this same passage. Except, this youngster was using the quote as justification for “eating the rich” because the rich had unfair privileges that actively kept the poor down. This can’t be right I thought. But then the same message was conveyed by the BBC’s woke-horseshit take on the Nightwatch as well. So, it appears the social justice warriors have laid claim upon Sir Terry.
A quick google search shows a lot of thought pieces based on Captain Samuel Vimes ‘Boots’ theory of socioeconomic unfairness. It seems to be an even split between articles on “here is how to get ahead life” versus “this is why the poor are trapped and we need to DO SOMETHING”.
Well, dear readers. It’s up to you.
Was Terry a proto-social-justice-warrior or not?
They should be jailed or exiled.
Hung upside down in the scorpion pits next to the mimes.
Hung up by their eyelids, and beaten until they blink.
Oooh, cruel and unusual. I like it.
Thanks for the article, kinnath.
Being poor is expensive.
I always knew this, even though I didn’t have words for it and I didn’t know how to solve it. While I can empathize with the poor and even understand the mindset keeping people poor, I never resented the haves or wanted to take their stuff. (I have, however, resented people who sold me a pig in a poke.)
There’s a delicate emotional balance to being poor and not resenting others for what they have.
My stance was always “How do I get there from here?” rather than seeking to tear them down.
Unless they were personally insufferable people, but then it was more of a part of wishing misery on awful people rather than economic jealousy.
Yes, exactly.
You are welcome
I love rich people. Because of them, I was able to retire early. People who hate the rich don’t really know any rich folk.
BTW, BDS the racist, sexist, criminal, xenophobic CCP.
^^THIS.
Although I’d modify it to “I love rich people and rich corporations. Because of them, I was able to retire early.”
By the same token, everyone should learn to cook. In the long run, it’s a lot cheaper than buying packaged meals or doing Doordash/Uber Eats/etc.
Part of what’s kept the covid madness going on so long is that you’ve got a class of people who can afford (or think they can afford) to do the Doordash thing while working from home while increasingly actively hate the class of people who largely can’t work from home and for whom a step above fast casual is a big deal when going out to eat.
The logical root starts from “You get what you pay for”, and the concept of “false economies” (or a translation of “false savings”). It predates the books in question by quite some time.
If you want to go into management speak, talk about total cost of ownership and return on investment.
Anyway, I’m blathering to avoid ranting about upper management’s cluelessness.
Good advice on buying philosophy – one I’ve used sometimes. And a few times cheaped out and regretted it.
In my DIY phase, I heard “buy once, cry one” very often in relation to tools.
That said, even expensive tools now are cheap Chinese crap and are riding on their brand (looking at you, Craftsman). I still have a 50yo corded Craftsman drill my dad had. I also have his circular saw (which I now cannot use because of my rotator cuff). That drill has the torque of a semi tranny. My husband’s gone through countless Craftsman cordless drills whose batteries die quickly and charge slowly, and the torque is nothing to write home about.
So “buy once, cry once” doesn’t really work when the quality of the expensive tools is questionable.
This is why I expend more time sussing out sources from a country of origin that isn’t already suspect, then evaluating the quality of the item(s) once found.
Estate sales! (If you can get over the “selling Scrooge’s bed linens” aspect.)
Had an uncle who was tough on his tools. I remember riding over Sears with him. He’d hand them a broken wrench and they’d hand back a new one no questions asked.
Is semi tranny one of the 57 genders?
Identifies as an 18-wheeler.
I have a Crafstman corded drill I bought in 2004.
That thing will twist you into a pretzel if you’re not careful. I love it, drilled out the 15 year old rusted exhaust bolts on my prior rusty truck like nothing.
I also have a Craftsman 2004 3 piece rolling tool box that I am outgrowing. It’s held up very well through the years.
I was happy to see a larger 2 piece Craftsman box in Lowe’s, until I checked it. The drawers are of paper thin metal and the whole thing feels chintzy.
I might buy the Milwaukee one, but definitely not Craftsman.
80% of my hand tools are Craftsman, so this hurts my feelings.
#metoo
It’s amazing how they screwed up what was arguably the best tool brand for the home mechanic.
My father (a retired mechanical engineer) still regularly uses his Milwaukee and Snap-On tools that are older than me. *
*I am a three score Eisenhower baby.
All part of the greater collapse of a once great firm. Sears sold its Craftsman and Kenmore brand names when they were about the only things of value left in the company. I too miss Craftsman and being able to walk into any Sears store and hand the salesman a broken product and have it replaced with no questions asked.
Craftsman has gone to a 3 (I think…maybe just 2) tiered quality/price system with their toolboxes.
The good stuff now is brands you’ve never heard of, and the formerly good stuff is not as expensive as it may appear when you account for inflation.
WTF is a semi tranny? Pre-op?
In case you are serious, a tractor-trailer’s transmission.
In case you are not serious, I would hate to think about the torque of a preop transwoman. In fact, ouch.
I have had wonderful luck with Milwaukee cordless, but I’ve owned them all. I think for a DIYer, they last as long as you are willing to buy batteries. Guys in the trades wreck them faster, but I still think most of the higher end stuff is really quite good.
I’ve been a DeWalt guy for 20+ years. I’ve been running 18v for however long they’ve been out and the batteries seem as good, or nearly at least, as when I bought them. The cool -and shocking- thing is they make an adapter so you can use the newer 20v batteries in your 18v tools. With a couple of those I can see me getting another decade out of my 18v tools. ??
My grandpa had a sayin too poor to buy cheap things
I worked with a guy who liked to mangle metaphors. He said he used to be so poor he couldn’t afford a pot to stand on or a window to pee out of.
Dad called it, “The price you paid for being poor.”
Buying bulk at Costco saves money over buying individual items, but you have to have the money for the bulk stuff.
And the appropriate storage space for it.
Yeah, not applicable to nomads.
No. From PTerry’s books, he believed in the nobility of the individual, the tyranny of the mob, government will always be corrupt, people can better their own position through honesty and hard work.
I agree.
Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah! No progressive would ever have authored his Discworld books.
Speaking of walking…
The appraisal for our house came in at $95k under the sales price. Both realtors are furious because he used completely wrong comps. The couple buying the house are freaked because they have to move here in February.
We have no incentive to budge on price since we haven’t even lined up a mover or rental place yet. I do hope they figure it out. If not, we’ll just try again in the spring.
I thought only black people had that problem.
Seems pretty common here – a friend just went through it and her appraisal was 30 low. Since she was about to close on a new house, they split the difference and were done with it. Ironically, her similar sized house still sold for $20k more than ours. If the appraiser had used her house as a comp and discounted for her pool, he would have landed at exactly our sales price.
Walmart’s success depends on the frivolity of the new and shiny. Quality doesn’t matter so much because we like new and shiny. That’s why I have 4-5 tackle boxes and always fish with inexpensive plastic that is more realistic than the live bait. Bass fishermen are gullible.
I had a pair of Cabela’s waders, advertised as “The Last Pair You’ll Ever Buy” . Expensive but true to their word, it was the last pair I’d buy from them. After 3-4 years a seam was leaking in the crotch and I couldn’t find it. I sent them back and told them to repair, replace or keep. They chose the last option.
“Buy cheap, buy twice” was the mantra at the Fourscores, if durability was expected
Buying in bulk is a false economy if you can’t eat it all, as is the “buy one, get one half price” business. I don’t need a second of Thing X, so whether it’s half off or not, I’m still spending money I don’t need to.
Also, I am not a hoarder, and I have a rough idea of what I own so I don’t buy duplicates. Staying organized and knowing where your stuff is also keeps you from buying duplicates.
I will eventually need to use all of the racks of toilet paper I’ve stocked up to avoid shortage shocks. Bulk buying nonperishable consumables makes perfect sense.
When you buy ammo by the case, you usually get free shipping.
“Look, the semitrailer would go over the highway weight limits if we just sent one, and there’s not enough to justify two…”
KF&G took delivery of two trailerloads of clay pigeons this year.
For the shotgunners who were raining birdshot on our meet?
Yup. They have events four days/week.
Durable goods are worth it. We go into a joint purchase if we get fresh food only after we calculate if the price point makes sense. Otherwise, it’s purchase what we need since the store is literally across the street.
I’m a sucker for a deal but Costco isn’t my bag because the quantities are too big, food products get old and I get tired of the same-o-same-o .
I am a saver, I’ve got a garage full of stuff that will never be used (again). My wife will not throw anything away, I’ll keep on wearing a t-shirt with all the holes even with a drawer full of new ones. The Depression Mentality
I’ve got a bunch of pre keto clothes way too large for me I still can’t bring myself to throw out. I’ve donated some, but a decent amount still lingers.
I finally just gave away 6 pairs of jeans, 2 were brand new. My belly has gotten bigger fairly recently and it ain’t gonna get smaller. The recipients were very grateful.
The first quality boot I ever owned was in the military. Not the Uncle Sam special, but the pair I needed to purchase once I became a certified rescue climber. Chippewa’s with 3″ heels, composite toe and comfortable to all heck (after a month break-in period).
I take that back. The first quality boot I owned was my hockey skates. Bauer Supremes, can’t remember the model. A size too small but nothing a teenaged foot couldn’t handle.
The last two pairs of boots from Uncle Sam were pretty good – a pair of cold and a pair or warm weather boots. They gave them to us right before switching to the brown boots.
The first pair I got in basic were too narrow and now I have two distinct scars on the tops of my feet where the backside of the eyelet dug into my foot on our first field exercise.
Those damn “jungle boots”?
Had a very long march wearing those where water got into the vents and bound up my socks. In information at the end of the march, there was blood seeping out of the vents. Never wore those things in the field again.
When I made PFC the Supply Sergeant gave me Master Sergeant stripes, I complained, he said “Grow into ’em, Kid”. I did what I could.
Our issue boots were decent, but not waterproof. Before we went to Hokkaido for a field op, I sprung for a pair of Matterhorns.
Those things were worth their weight in gold.
Indeed. For me it was my beloved Corcoran II Jump Boots, IIRC, $159 in 1989. They’ve been around the World and back again, resoled three times, and still shine up to a mirror finish if I spend some time on them.
The Matterhorns are great – I still have mine and wear them every hunting season. I still have my Corcorans around here some place, too. You couldn’t be high-speed, low-drag without a good pair of spit-shined jump boots.
On the topic of hockey skates, I own a great pair of CCM’s an while in the attic mouse shit in them. Any idea on a safe way to clean them? Other thtthe half-dozen of pice o mouse shit now shaken out, they are like brand new.
How old are they? Nylon & leather or newer composite?
I broke my old Tacks finally and upgraded to the fancy new ones awhile back. Worth every dime. Light, comfy and zero break in!
At least twenty-five years, but only wore them once. Dangerously sharp blades. Look showroom.
On the topic of hockey skates, I own a great pair of CCM’s and while in the attic a mouse shit in them. Any idea on a safe way to clean them? Other than the half-dozen pieces of mouse shit that shook out, they are like brand new.
And my bias was that this was the secret to climbing out of poverty. Spend your money wisely in the beginning to save yourself lots of money in the long term.
Yes.
I am a huge Redwing fan.
I bought my first pair in 2006 or so and am on my 4th pair.
I get about 5 years out of them and they fit better than any other boot I had tried before them.
My stepdad hates them, says they’re uncomfortable.
The one and only pair I owned I was able to resole them before the rest of the boot broke down. Then I think they change out their manufacturing process, or something changed cause the next pair I bought was not as quality.
Don’t know the author at all but I don’t see how anyone can read that passage and think “prog like me!”
Are they dumber than I thought?
It’s confirmation bias at work. You see things that support your worldview more readily.
These are the same people that read 1984 and think the lesson is to trust the government or we could end up in a dystopia like the book descibes.
I’m glad I didn’t read 1984 or Animal Farm until I was about 45 years old. I think high school is too early unless the teacher is really enlightened and few are.
Yes
He wrote the Discworld books, which I highly recommend. Fantasy comedy/satire with several different “series” inside of the books. The Death and Watch cycles are my favorite (Moist would be up there, but it’s only two books).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Eq8TOiqkCM
For me, spending decisions came down to “Am I going to use this once or forever?” If once, buy cheap and throw it away. If forever, buy the best you can get your hands on. Delay the purchase and save up if you need, but don’t waste money on cheap crap.
Solid advice. I would add the third question of “What is the probability this will break or become lost”?
My wife and I naively bought a very nice leather living room suite. The kids and dogs destroyed it in a few years. We bought top of the line 18/10 flatware when we got married. Over a decade later, there is one fork and one knife from the original set. I’ve started buying diner sets of flatware in bulk on Amazon and still need to replace every few years. My own particular downfall is an inability to keep up with drill bits, wrenches, pliers, and screwdrivers.
Same deal with planned obsolescence in appliances and televisions. Buying the top of the line will no longer guarantee longevity. You’ll get the same mileage out of a $800 fridge as a $5k fridge. Even a $25,000 Sub-Zero only has 5 year warranty these days.
I have duplicate tools for this reason, can’t find mine, I know I have one somewhere!, give up and buy one, find the old one weeks later.
I’ve found the best way to find a missing tool is to buy a new one. I’ve got a hardware store five minutes away, so that’s about how long I’ll give myself to look before I just ge a now one.
I have 5 tape measures. One on every floor in the house and a couple in different parts of the garage. And shockingly, I always put one back where I got it.
Mine all end up in the same place. Not where I need one at the moment.
Furniture right now is all hand me downs and what we find on the side of the road during bulk trash days. Not until the rabid beasts we call our sons are out of the house will be buy something nice.
We bought used furniture until the kids were out of the house.
One can also consider that a poor man is probably going to be harder on his boots than a rich man, for years I went through a pair of work boots every year, digging ditches, demolition , rough framing is hard on even a quality pair. I never could justify spending Redwing money when I knew I was going to beat the shit of the boots in a few months anyway. Now that I mostly do finish work and supervise orphans I spend the money on quality.
When I was a framing carpenter I bought Payless shoes once in an attempt to save money.
I slid down a rafter and dug grooves into my soles.
After that it was back to Nike.
I bought my kids Walmart tennis shoes for a while till I got tired of doing it CONTINUALLY. Over my husband’s objections, I bought them Nikes. Husband has finally come around, although he can’t stomach spending that much on his own feet.
I wear Birks. I have 3 pairs I’ve had for almost 10 years and had the resoled once. Time for another resole.
As Click and Clack used to say “It’s the cheap person that pays the most.”
First heard this after I’d just ruined $30 worth of melamine trying to do the cutting with my $10 saw blade – it chipped the hell out of the edges. $75 for a good blade and $30 for another sheet of material and I was fine.
I’ve lived by that ever since.
I’m a big believer in this principle.
My primary footwear is a pair of Justin ropers that I bought in 2008. They’re on their third set of soles, and are so comfy it’s like wearing sneakers. I figure I’ll get another ten years out of them, and I’ll buy another pair of the same boots.
Most of my outerwear is Duluth Trading. Expensive but lasts forever.
Now do fuck me pumps. I don’t own any of those. I am strictly a Chocos man when I dress slutty.
Now there’s a mental image I would have happily gone the rest of my life without.
Ha! too bad!?
Those things tend to be priced by the ounce.
Never change, sloper. Merry Christmas ya filthy animal!
You too Patzer!…..?
A friend of mine worked in Antarctica in 1987. This was when the Soviet Union was falling apart. Soviet pilots flying to Antarctica would sell everything they had for hard currency and then tell the American brass they needed new stuff. All well and good. He bought some pretty cool items including a Soviet Air Force pilot’s jacket. He left Antarctica on a Soviet icebreaker bound for New Zealand, where he bought a pair of boots off of a grizzled old sailor. He gave those boots to me. I still have them. They are some damn fine boots. You could stand on a 60 degree roof covered with ice and not slip off.
“This is when I discovered that I had been wearing shoes two or three sizes too long just to get my foot into it.”
What a let down for the ladies.
Plenty wide, just not very long.
Girth is supposedly the key.
Thanks, Kinnath. I’ve not read Terry Pratchett, but I will add him to my list.
As for shoes, it took me far too long to understand that I should spend money on quality footwear. I’m now Wolverine for work boots and Merrell for everything else.
you are welcome
Merrell for everything else.
I am currently in my day job wearing a pair of Merrell tennis/running shoes. Would recommend. Their light weight hiking shoes have failed me too many times in the past but these seem solid.
I am pretty much exclusively New Balance at this point.
They are the only shoes that really fit my feet. Even then, it’s only about 10 percent of the models that are based on shoe last #2.
However, their quality has been in decline the last 4 or 5 years, and I am getting pissed at them. I will need to find a new shoe maker pretty soon.
I have never had Doc Martens, but I bought some for my son. The quality seemed … middlin’, and certainly not what I always thought Doc Martens were.
There’s now multiple tiers of Doc’s. The (brief) For Life series was the best, but lifetime replacements for $20 is not a good long term business strategy. Now they’ve got the vegan line, the standard line, and the Made in England line. For the standard 1460 (8 eye boot) regular line – $150, vegan line – $150, Made in England line – $230.
Going back through old receipts, I paid $150 for my For Life boots back in 2011, the previous pair I had (2008) was a regular pair which cost $110.
It was all I wore in the 90s.
When they first started making them In China I accidentally bought some (thinking I was just getting a sweet deal. Those fucking things were in the Goodwill bin within a few months. Terrible.
Same. I did not know they switched to China when I bought my last pair.
I might try the “Made in Englands” again.
$100 at Famous Footwear.
Prices quoted were from Dr. Marten directly. For a while, I also used to hunt their clearance section which scored some boots and shoes for $30 or so.
My Army buddy had a nice pair of 20 eyelet steel-toes that he would often wear in uniform. Until that one rainy day when we were doing the rappelling tower and those Air-Soles could not find any purchase on the wet wooden tower face and Mike lost a tooth when his face smacked the wall.
The old ones were great, before whoever it was that bought the original company.
Man, I’ve been churning through different shoes like crazy over the last few years. His Holiness turned me on to Xero shoes, which are nice and wide at the toes, zero drop, etc, but I destroyed them in record time. Same with Merrill and Astral. I tried a pair of HOKA One and I’m ready to throw the fucking things out.
Right now I’m wearing Sanuks. Love them.
Sanuks and the Olukai tennis shoes last years. I have yet to wear out a set of Olukai slip on tennis shoes.
My two favorite YT cooks…now to decide how I am going to cook my Prime Rib.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cgtAw21MM4
Or
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJGmXfvv3kg
I’ve found absolute prime rib perfection. The RONCO Showtime Rotisserie Oven @ 13 minutes per pound. It copmes out perfect every single time. The problem is that RONCO no longer exists; Ron’s kids sold the company to some Chinese firm and the products are not the same. Original Showtime ovens are now rare and unaffordable.
Damn…that is a shame. I am going slow and low to 118, then rest for 45 minutes and then crank up the heat on the end. I will use the juices from the 118 cook for some Yorkshire pudding.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Yorkshire pudding! That’s what I need instead of taters. I’ll use buttermilk again as they came out delicious last time.
Thanks to the swamp criminals, I’m holding off buying pretty much everything that is not absolutely essential. This includes not just expensive items like a car, furniture, or a computer system, but also clothes and such. This is fine because I may sell my house and move into a rental.
I think he was a reflexible 60’s type liberal.
And I love that excerpt. I’m trying really hard to quit accumulating shit and only buying what I need and the absolute best i can afford.
I tell my kids that it’s not what you make, it’s what you don’t spend.
Thanks, kinnath. I had a pair of Irish Setters that lasted more than 20 years. Amazing.
Careful, though, because some of them are made in China now. They blow.
You are welcome
That seems like a good, long life for a large, purebred doggie. But I didn’t know China was exporting them now.
Today is a holiday. So no sitting at a computer all day. Actual physical labor planned for this afternoon.
Talk amongst yourselves.
My afternoon will involve a nap. I do physical labor when at work.✌️
Wear good boots.
“very short and very wide”
Chode.
So in the inflation front.
Slab of ribs $200 at Sam’s.
Don’t worry, it’s only “transient.”
What they mean is that soon we will all be transients.
WTF?!? Brontosaurus ribs?
Where the hell are you?
Beef ribs?!
Store-brand yogurt went up from 45 to 52 cents.
Store-brand 48 oz. ice cream went from $2.49 to $2.79.
Costco choice NY strip went from $7.99/lb to $11.99/lb.
Ribs of what?
That price, I would guess a whole rack (7 bone)
Got BBQ the other day at my favorite place. The brisket sandwich price had doubled and there was a sign up with the reason and the math to back it up. The pork sandwich hadn’t gone up at all.
That is weird because the price of brisket has not gone up at all around these parts. Still $3.99-5.99/lb for a whole packer.
Due to this comment I may be planning a drive to NV in January.
Last one I bought a month ago was 4.99/lb. The flat I bought for Christmas was $7.99 but that is a given since it is trimmed. Since I have to go to the store later anyway, I will see what they are charging today.
Even pork belly has gone up, but only $.50/lb. Still cheaper to make my own bacon.
Was it you who linked this the other day? I want to try it.
https://youtu.be/t9flFzdHB_w
Just checked the main grocery chain around here… $9/lb for brisket. I do still have half of a corned one vacuum packed and in the chest freezer.
Part of the mixed blessing that is the Internet is that I can now easily find shoes in my small-to-average but wide size that are SO CUTE!!
Except for when I am at work, or on a boat in the open ocean I wear flip-flops. (aka “slippers” in Hawaii) I have my “good” pair and my “daily” pair.
I always had good luck with the old jungle boots and disliked the all-black version. The original Nike hiking shoes, the Lava Dome, were outstanding and I wore them for years. Before that it was French mountaineering boots with “yellow dot” Vibram soles. A few years I tried on my 1978 pair and the boots were still good, but damn they are heavy compared to what is made today.
I moved to a Scarpa approach shoe for rocky hikes. They are heavier than some of the others I’ve worn, but for a rock-kicker like me the protection is excellent and they are very sure-footed.
Except for when I am at work, or on a boat in the open ocean ….
My favorite deck shoes were the old Sperry Americas Cup (circa 1980-1990-something). Loved those and they lasted for years.
The old Sperry’s were awesome. The new ones are like everything else, cheap chinese shit with no grip. I have a pair of French deck shoes for longer races/voyages but since they were so expensive I want to extend their life and don’t wear them for inshore racing. Inshore I found a chinese brand of slip on deck shoes. They grip very well but wear out after about a year-18 months. At $10 pair I can live with that life (~75-125 days of use) so I grabbed three additional pairs.
Vans, crepe soles, comfy as all get out, originally designed as deck shoes, they last forever.
Some good ones from aa different source.
https://beinglibertarian.substack.com/p/memes-of-the-week-christmas-edition
I like the E. Musk one. Quite literally that is what his taxes can buy (almost).
the Ford class is only 9 Billion, he paid 11 billion.
I can’t believe I wrote that,
It’s tough to find new furniture of good quality. We still have an old camelback couch with a slip cover until we get it reupholstered; the new couches are just not sturdy.
Same with chairs, book cases, dressers, china cabinets. All of ours are older ones that we’ve reupholstered or refinished. We got lucky with our dining table & chairs; got them from a consignment shop in California. I think they are probably less than 20 years old but are really good quality.
You can spend a lot of money on furniture from Ashley or HOM, but they are poor quality, just expensive. Kind of disappointing.
I still have a West German sofa I purchased in 1988 when I lived in Bavaria. It has survived two kids, one dog, 11 moves and shows no sign of slowing down.
Hence why I want to get better at woodworking and possibly get into upholstery. Handmade furniture of great durability is sadly becoming rare these days. Sometimes if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself. Plus, I’d imagine there may be a market for well-built furniture and it could be an extra source of income.
That’s why I’m okay with Ikea furniture. I can’t afford a semi-bespoke midcentury modern sofa or Mies van der Rohe chairs/ottomans. I can’t afford fine built-in bookcases like Agent Sloper’s and I’m not paying custom prices for stuff that looks barely better than Ikea.
Our dining room set is a 12 piece set from This End Up. It was a hand down set from my parents, who bought it under my employee discount in the early 90s.
Decidedly not fancy, but sturdy and practical. I will some day replace it, but I’m in no rush.
We spent good money where it counts – comfy leather pieces in the living room and the den.
I have my parents dining room set they bought in Italy when I was ten. It’s got some wear and damage from being moved around the country several times, but it’s a family heirloom and we’ll keep it until death or one of the kids settles down.
How’s Ikea’s quality? I was just checking out their futon mattresses for our living room futon sofa, and theirs are WAY cheaper than what I recently paid for one at a regular furniture store (which new mattress got peed upon by one of the cats, dammit! ?)
I think it varies depending on what you buy. I have a little “shoe-putting-on” stool that is sturdy as anything I could make by hand. But we got a queen-size bedframe with storage headboard (which is pretty convenient) but it’s a bit wobbly. I expect to get many years out of it, and I suppose it’s nice that it can be disassembled and moved with ease.
The Leirvik squeaks after a few years! Good for drying your smalls though.
We like La-Z-Boy reclining couches in my house.
First one was on sale as a floor model and it lasted forever considering we had 3 kids and a rottweiler.
Our next couch was a cheap one, didn’t last at all.
Now we are back with the La-Z-Boy, which is good since I am still stuck to it.
There is (regional?) chain here called Bob’s Discount Furniture. The furniture is run-of-the-mill stapled pressboard and laminates but they have a Goof-Proof Guarantee which provides no questions asked replacement for 5 years. When you get your broken item replaced, you can purchase the Goof-Proof policy on it and keep the process going for another 5 years. We’ve gotten 2 sectionals, 3 recliners, and 2 ottomans under this plan (kids and cats are hard on furniture).
We’ve been furnishing with Stickley, a few pieces a year. Ay caramba, it costs.
But that Sam Vimes quote is absolutely in my mind whenever we hit one of their sales. This is the last furniture I will buy.
I had kinda been figuring it out when I read that quote years ago, but it crystallized it for me.
Yea. The dining room set I bough a year ago will outlast my grandchildren. Something for the family to fight over when my demise comes.
Well, I might have Lil’ Rona.
On Wednesday, I took a home test before visiting my Dad, which came back negative. I went over there, felt fine, then some time after coming home I started feeling dizzy. I took another home test Thursday, which came up positive. I went to an urgent care and got an actual test done today since I’m not sure how accurate those home tests are. We’ll see. We notified everyone we’ve been around for the past week.
I feel completely fine now, although my girlfriend is in bed with cold-like symptoms and having a miserable time.
I know some family members of mine are bantering right now about how this should be my wake-up call to get the vaccine. But to me, this highlights how foolish it was to think that this virus could be eradicated. The CDC director already stated that the vaccines cannot prevent transmission, only lessen the symptoms, and it may not even show up on tests. The best we can do is “pause” the virus with draconian lockdowns, which has a massive human cost that probably overshadows any lives saved.
If you got it, I hope it goes like my bout rather then Tres Cool’s bout.
Thanks bruh. Seems like I’m already on the mend. My job is fully remote now, so no problem there. I’ve just been sleeping as much as I can, eating plenty of food, and (regrettably) laying off the weightlifting and running until this is completely over.
I slept for a day when I first got it. Then had three decent days then got progressively more tired for about 4 days. Now finally feel like I’m on the upswing . That said, not as bad as Tres had it.
Well, I might have Lil’ Rona.
#metoo.
this should be my wake-up call to get the vaccine.
Why? Even if I believed the vaccine had any benefits, once I actually got the vid, there’s no point. Should I get vaccinated against measles, mumps, chicken pox, and rubella?
Yea, I’m beyond fed up with the vaccine propaganda at this point.
“Once there’s a vaccine, we can get rid of masks and distancing”
“We won’t see surges in cases once we reach 50% vaccination”
“Vaccinated people will almost never catch the virus, and they likely won’t have any symptoms if they do”
Tired of the fucking lies.
Upbeat, highly skilled, CGI free, and totally beyond my limited skills.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rLhJZTHYo4&list=RDMM&index=15
And another.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVuIVP6Pef8
My grandkids love these.
Those are great! The first clip from the second video is from Sweet Charity. The Summer I got out of Army, I was in the Venice Little Theater production as Big Daddy (Sammi Davis Jr’s role in the film adaptation). Here is the whole song because it was my big number and I love it. Have very Merry Christmas in your island paradise.
https://youtu.be/xKSA049xkiU
And to you!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii1yC40fVeM
I saw a lot of familiar faces
That was fun. And sexy without being vulgar.
Hey now, what’s wrong with vulgarity?
My favorite classical station is doing 48 hours of Christmas music, Enjoy!
https://www.kusc.org/radio/how-to-listen/
OT: Any one up early tomorrow and up for a non-Elon launch – JWST is going up tomorrow – at least everything is “go” as of now for a 7:20AM EST launch. Hopefully it won’t go boom before we find out if the universe is accelerating or not.
From TARDis on the Morning Lynx, this is rather amusing:
https://calcsd.info/full.html
Is this real?
https://twitter.com/i/status/1474447451243298818
Whoever said that needs to watch his back, He’ll be Epsteined for sure,
O/T, but seasonal – the topic: wrapping gifts. I think somehow I inadvertently developed some sort of weird ethos or personal moral code with respect to gift wrapping. Even though, being a pack rat, I have a ridiculously large collection of used-but-perfectly-good gift bags, if the gift is rectangular – say, a book or something in a non-weirdly-shaped box – I insist on wrapping it in pretty paper. I don’t do bows or ribbons any more, but by golly that gift is WRAPPED! Just sticking it in a gift bag – even if I stick in a bunch of tissue paper around it – feels like cheating.
Look, it’s box-shaped, it’s supposed to be wrapped.
If it’s not box-shaped, find a box.
If it came in a bag, put the bag in a box.
Happily, we have a LOT of boxes! ?
You’ll have to fight the cats for them. 😛
I have gotten over gift wrap. I know it is part of the experience, but meh. It is wasteful unless you are using old newspapers, and just makes more mess.
OK , Mr. Grinch.
Ain’t stopping anyone else from doing it.
Funny pages!
Aww, someone must be chopping onions nearby. That just reminded me of when I was wee and my grandfather and I would make kites out of the newspaper comics.
Weirdest pickup line I ever heard (not addressed at me, but I suspect that’s just as well): “Hey, baby – you, me, some baby oil and the Sunday funnies.”
Gift bags are my friends. Gift boxes are also usable.
Small squares/rectangles get wrapped.
Even gift bags get bows though.
I love wrapping presents and doing curly bows so much I have wrapped boxes to put u der the tree for decoration.
Big bear fight in Finland.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BPrNRd5KmRw
Neat! And, another,closer to home.
Roast is resting, cauliflower is almost sufficiently browned.
Excellent….excellent
Lily is taking food off the table.
Pic of her from this morning in Sunday’s IFLA.
She stole the cauliflower stalk out of the trash. Hopefully the farts come overnight.
Our dogs get all the veggie scraps…they love when I cook.
I love this when ideas turn so damn big. Here is Gordan Ramsey back on Hot Ones.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJlNvSC5v6s Its a holiday special, so GR starts at 23 minutes or so.
Hey! And George Motz with a yummy looking New Mexico tortilla burger.
Grandpa Tres had a brother, Uncle Estol that would always say “we were so poor growing up, I had to jack-off the dog just to feed the cat”.
I just bought some steel toes from a Red Wing store a few months ago. They look great and feel great. They are half leather and half synthetic material so they look like really sexy moon boots. And really the cost wasn’t insane (even ignoring how long they will almost certainly last), I paid more for some Timberland pros a few years ago.
Put the boot in
With take-home tests hard to find and testing demands creating long lines nationwide, other safety measures such as wearing N95 or KN95 masks while traveling for the holidays will be critical, said Dr. Esther Choo, associate professor at Oregon Health and Science University.
Flying has an increased risk due to a lack of vaccine requirement and an inconsistent adherence by some to fully keeping on their masks, such that “this could be a much safer activity than it currently is,” Choo told CNN’s Laura Coates on Thursday.
“Speak up when you see those around you not wearing masks. This is not a time to be polite and let people do what they feel like doing. It’s really about keeping everyone safe,” she said.
Okay, Karen. See something, say something. Those people are murderers. After all, everybody who flew without a mask a year ago died a horrible death.
Demonize those who do not agree with you. Punish them for their sins.
“This is not a time to be polite and let people do what they feel like doing.”
So i can groundswat the next busybody cunt who gives me shit?