Everything I own is a piece of crap.
I've never been big on "keeping up with the Joneses" so to speak; materialism is not really my thing. I like my stuff, especially anything I can wear (coats and shoes in particular). I do own furniture, but my apartment consisted of a bed and a table my parents let me have for about a year before I bought some on clearance. (Or, as with my bedroom furniture, from Ikea.) But I have never owned a computer before this past year when I inherited Brad's hand-me-down after he got a new one, I don't own an ipod, I have always had the cheapest cell phone around. I guess I'm just not technologically advanced really.
Today I realized that everything I have is either like 20 years old, broken, or I don't actually own it. My camera no longer works properly, the shutter doesn't open sometimes and it eats batteries like you wouldn't believe. My phone drops calls all the time, just plain doesn't receive them, and has recently started sending random people blank txts (which I apologize for, sincerely, all of you who were on the receiving end of that). And the thing is, these things are not from the 90s. It's not like I've had them for more than 3 years.
But the real reason I came to this conclusion is because my poor, dear, sweet car that has lasted me so well these last 7 years is clearly on its way out. I took it to the mechanic yesterday because it was making all kinds of terrible, horrendous noises, and it turns out it's been leaking oil pretty badly and had only 1 quart left. It's supposed to have 5. Of course it was mad at me. I hardly blame it. The mechanic found two different leaks, the first one was obvious, but the second one he had to really look for because there was so much oil everywhere he couldn't really see. It's going to cost me nearly $400 to fix it.
Mind you, this after the $580 I spent to get a new exhaust system this past August. I know that my mechanic is a good person and he isn't ripping me off, for which I am grateful more and more each year, but how much longer can I go on paying big bills like this every few months? I will have to get a new car soon. But I can't possibly afford it. I can barely afford to pay The Man.
Which comes to my next question; how can anyone afford the things they do? I mean if I had to buy a new computer, a new camera, a new phone regularly I'd be the poorest and probably least happiest person in America. Yet people still do so. These things are essential to people. They can't live without them. Granted, I also don't make as much money as others do, but still. It shouldn't have to be like this, buying a new product every few years because it's so outdated or so broken it won't work properly anymore.
My vote: start making better stuff that lasts longer. But I would like to say here that my car can't technically be included in this annoyingly-outdated-before-it-should-be-piece-of-garbage category, as it has been very good to me, and for many years. It was 5 years old when I bought it, so it wasn't the newest one in town then either. So here's a shout out to my little green, Gisele. Thank you for being as great as you have for so long. I promise not to love my new car (whenever I get it) more than I've loved you.
Today I realized that everything I have is either like 20 years old, broken, or I don't actually own it. My camera no longer works properly, the shutter doesn't open sometimes and it eats batteries like you wouldn't believe. My phone drops calls all the time, just plain doesn't receive them, and has recently started sending random people blank txts (which I apologize for, sincerely, all of you who were on the receiving end of that). And the thing is, these things are not from the 90s. It's not like I've had them for more than 3 years.
But the real reason I came to this conclusion is because my poor, dear, sweet car that has lasted me so well these last 7 years is clearly on its way out. I took it to the mechanic yesterday because it was making all kinds of terrible, horrendous noises, and it turns out it's been leaking oil pretty badly and had only 1 quart left. It's supposed to have 5. Of course it was mad at me. I hardly blame it. The mechanic found two different leaks, the first one was obvious, but the second one he had to really look for because there was so much oil everywhere he couldn't really see. It's going to cost me nearly $400 to fix it.
Mind you, this after the $580 I spent to get a new exhaust system this past August. I know that my mechanic is a good person and he isn't ripping me off, for which I am grateful more and more each year, but how much longer can I go on paying big bills like this every few months? I will have to get a new car soon. But I can't possibly afford it. I can barely afford to pay The Man.
Which comes to my next question; how can anyone afford the things they do? I mean if I had to buy a new computer, a new camera, a new phone regularly I'd be the poorest and probably least happiest person in America. Yet people still do so. These things are essential to people. They can't live without them. Granted, I also don't make as much money as others do, but still. It shouldn't have to be like this, buying a new product every few years because it's so outdated or so broken it won't work properly anymore.
My vote: start making better stuff that lasts longer. But I would like to say here that my car can't technically be included in this annoyingly-outdated-before-it-should-be-piece-of-garbage category, as it has been very good to me, and for many years. It was 5 years old when I bought it, so it wasn't the newest one in town then either. So here's a shout out to my little green, Gisele. Thank you for being as great as you have for so long. I promise not to love my new car (whenever I get it) more than I've loved you.
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