Flipped off by a bridge troll, Neo american retail FAIL, Sears sucks

Completely off topic:  So  yesterday Jimmy and I went on the hunt  for  a pepper mill.   And experienced our usual   neo american retail fail.  Started at Sears because Jimmy thinks its funny now; to walk in, ask for an item, be told "no we don't have that"  and then walk out empty handed.  But forward, During our pepper mill death march I was  stopped  in the lane waiting for traffic to pass so I could cross over the parking lot to P 1 imports (also  a fail).  One of the cars I was waiting to pass by,  turned on its signal to turn down the lane I was stopped in.   The guy must have thought I was hogging the road  (even though he had plenty of room to turn in)  because as he drove past me he  honked his horn to get my attention and then flipped me off.  Normally this kind of behavior would ruin my day.   But this guy was a bridge troll..... I swear.....  An honest to god.. bridge troll.   He was very  stout and hunched over. His head was the same height as the steering  wheel and enormous.  His car was ancient and rusty. Nothing on him was NOT wrinkled.   He lifted an enormous fist and then flipped me the bird  with the fattest, stubbiest finger I have ever seen.  All the time growling and  gnashing his teeth at me.  He was being as angry and intimidating as he could  be  and all I could do was.... laugh.  I mean...... I was just flipped off by  a grimms fairy tale character!  Instead of ruining my day, it turned the whole pepper mill quest  into a surreal adventure that included  angry bridge trolls.
Too many mushrooms in College? Maybe.  But I think the moral of the story is..... If you look and act  like something from  'Three Billy Goats Gruff', NO ONE is going to take you  seriously.... so, be nice.

Spring cleaning, cold frames, Sears Sucks, "Joe sent me" Neo American secret underground shopping

Yesterdays spotty sunshine and almost warm weather came with the usual dose of frenzied  labor.  Jimmy got the yard completely cleaned up and edged. I don't know about the rest of the urban farmers in the area but over the winter our little back yard utopia gets pretty  scruffy. Lots of extraneous items laying around: buckets, sticks, neighbors coffee cups (really people... take your crap home) small mason jars ( we hang them around the trees to put tea lights in in the summer), stems of long ago tomatoes and other and sundry  leavings. And every spring it all gets raked up, swept and  polished.  It looks really pretty back there this morning.  Jimmy also put up the skeleton frames for his cold frames. I stayed in the house, opened all the windows and doors and cleaned in preparation for some painting. The back of my car is filled with stuff for goodwill. (anyone who wants a box of video tapes I found at the bottom of a closet should come get them today) (note to beloved daughter: I found your levis with the holes in the knees  wadded up in the  fold out sofa bed).  Many things were dusted and vacuumed. Some things were repaired, some were not. The 'not' being the freezer which I completely emptied and  scrubbed out. (who knew how many  ice cream containers with  a half a scoop of ice cream a  freezer could handle before there is no more room  for  anything else).
One of the shelf clips  broke at some time since the last cleaning and I thought i would just go to sears and get a replacement clip ..... or a package of clips but surely no more than $5  dollars would be spent on  this itty bitty item.  I decided to call first since Sears has a history of  not wanting to sell me anything.  Good thing I did cuz if I had driven there with expectations  someone would have gotten hurt. As it was, I was transferred many times to the  'right' person, wound up with a parts 'specialist' who was the most unhelpful ass I have dealt with in a while. I'm not even going to go into the details because they are tedious. 6 phone calls later which included everyone within driving distance that sells whirlpool I found myself talking to a local used appliance   guy who said , "yes ma'am I have those but they are only sold in a repair kit  for $26". He apologized very nicely for the shortcomings of Sears and their ilk and validated my frustration at  the  corporate  arrogance of pushing an overpriced 'kit'  to replace a  five cent part.   When I got off the phone with him I chose to finish my little chore  and that particular shelf is now being held up by frozen orange juice.   And Sears? Well they are woefully inadequate at meeting my consumer needs.  They have, in the last few years, become nothing more than an overpriced walmart. As our economy sinks deeper into the abyss of  outsourced manufacturing and imported low quality goods and ever increasing poor customer service from corporations, there seems to be a barely visible  light  in darkness...... local small business owners.  Folks who are working out of their garages and might not even have a  business license.   Locally owned B&M's who are seeing  the  exodus away from  warehousey corporate stores and who are listening to what people need and attempting to meet those needs.  And of course the internet which gives  us easy access to companies in other states  like  Wigwam ( high quality made in USA ) socks. But it is still a sad commentary of corporate and bureaucratic  fascism when shopping for a durable quality product with good cusomer service occurs in a back alley with a knock on door and a 'Joe sent me' conspiratorial whisper. And so goes the Neo American super secret underground shopping experience. How long before it becomes mainstream?

Artisan Lifestyle, Astrology, MRX, Buy American Made, Bruce Springsteen , sears sucks, BOYCOTT

I almost hesitate to write this blog cuz Mercury is retrograde and everything I do is like slogging through mud up to my knees. But it was requested that I do so... so here I am. I expect typos and I will read and reread this before posting to check my facts. Mercury is all about communication and all that entails... travel,computers,phones,feet,neighbors, friends, tv's, conveyances etc. this one happened in Libra (relationships) and moved backwards in Virgo (mudane and health, especially the stomach and when retro.. the throat,mouth and so forth.) If you are having a rough time the last couple of weeks its probably been related to one of these issues. (personally... my computer keeps crashing and I seem to have a permanent belly ache). That all said, Saturday night/Sunday morning was the Mercury RX conjunct Sun. The peak point if you will. I'm getting lots of reports of high weirdness, general dysfunction, small accidental injuries, stomach flu symptoms and miscommunication. All I can really say here is just.... clean up the mess,take a nap and be patient until the 29th when it is over. Around the 30th or so things will start to look brighter.... or at least less murky. I expect the 29th or 30th will bring evidence that the summer is gone and fall is truly upon us.
On a very personal note this retrograde has brought to the forefront what I believe is going to be a new obsession. "Buying American Made" I realised that with 50% of the people I know out of work right now I cant, in all good conscience, buy crap made in china. To that end I need new boots, a couple of sweaters, some new jeans and socks. So I went to sears yesterday to search for the above mentioned items. Sears is an American tradition right? Well not anymore. I checked every single tag on every sweater,pair of jeans,shoes, socks and even wife beaters for Jimmy. I was prepared to put 2 or 3 hundred dollars on my Sears card! I was even ok with the idea that when I was done I would look like something off a 1980's Bruce Springsteen album cover. Not so.... I found some Hanes socks for men that were made in the US. So a big 'ole thank you to Hanes for keeping my neighbors working.!
The Ladies and Misses department was NOTHING but poorly made acrylic sweaters and stretch jeans all made in china and Indochina. Even the Levis were made in Bangladesh. So, no joy there. So... I thought to myself I'll just go butch and headed to the mens department... Lee jeans- oversees, and of all horrors... even the carharts I looked at were produced overseas. The flannels.... oversees, work shirts, oversees. I tried to commit each garment and its 'country of origin' to memory and realised after about an hour that I couldnt keep up. I gave up and went to the shoe department where every single ladies boot in stock was made in china or the Philippines and ALL of them were made of some kind of plastic/petroleum product.
By the time I reached the shoe department the sears employees were starting to follow me around watching me suspiciously. So, I took my American Made Hanes socks to the register where a smiling Clerk asked "Did you find everything OK?". I almost strangled on my purposely unintelligible answer.
As I walked to my car clutching my socks.... I understood fundamentally what I had to do next. I already make it a point to do my grocery shopping from local farmers and dairies.. Now I will begin the search for American Made clothing and products. I will do without rather than buy one more item made in a foreign country. I'm only one tiny insignificant woman in an ocean of shoppers who dont give a damn. ........ But I say to myself ... a lone voice in the cacophony of the city.... LET THE BOYCOTT BEGIN!!!!