Dec 31, 2007

In yesterday's post I mentioned that in 2007 I craved "stuff" a bit less and Ched asks what kind of stuff I crave. Fair enough question. We live in a society where we are taught to want stuff. Where else but America would a car company run commercials that show people destroying perfectly good automobiles so that they can buy new ones? In fact, the Christmas season advertising and news reporting tried to convince us that it is our civic duty to go out and buy a bunch of stuff. The point I was making is that I have reached a point in my life where I worry more about function than style. Sitting here right now, I can't think of a single thing I want to have enough to actually buy it. For instance, I am watching a college football game and they just ran a commercial for one of those new fancy, does everything cell phones. I have a perfectly good cell phone that makes and receives phone calls, which is all I really need. There was a time when the newest gadget intrigued me. Not so much anymore. I own a car and a pickup truck which is at least one more vehicle than a guy should have. In fact, if I lived in New York or Chicago, I would own no cars. Life is so much less messy without a car to take care of. But I live in Hooterville where public transportation is spotty. My pickup is six years old, has about 55,000 thousand miles on it and runs perfectly. All I need it to do is to get me from point A to point B and occasionally to the dump. A brand new shiny pickup would not do anymore than that. There was a time when I would buy a new truck without much thought but I 've gotten over that. My second car is a 1999 Honda Civic that belonged to my dad and later to Son Sneed. We are keeping it in the hopes that Son Sneed recovers enough to get his driver's license back. Otherwise, I would sell it. Anyway, that's what I meant about not craving stuff. A lot of things aren't worth the price you have to pay to get them because the cost is often higher than the purchase price. Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky

4 comments:

Kurt said...

On different occasions, I've been told that my bike and my computer are "worthless." Yet they both did everything I require from a bike and a computer.

Bobby D. said...

I wanted a new stereo, but I like to look at all stereos and read consumer guides and so forth at my leisure, so six years later I was still wanting a new stereo, but I had in narrowed down somewhat. then somebody gave me a stereo they didn't need. Sometimes procrastination works out OK. Any big purchase makes me want to do research for an extended period.

Bobby D. said...

I thought you might be talking about food craves, like kool-aid pickles and Ben and Jerry's Chunkey Monkey.

Steve Reed said...

This is why no one markets to those of us in the post-40 male demographic -- we don't buy anything. (Except possibly aspirin.)