What's everyone up to right now?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Went through one of the most overwhelming shopping experiences of my life.

First for some backstory: if you’re from the suburbs of Chicago, you might be familiar with a store called American Science and Surplus in Park Ridge. A bit closer to me, there's a warehouse on the way to Superdawg that has a sale every couple months. The main store closed recently. While we drove to Superdawg today, we saw a sign advertising a sale at the Warehouse.

You ever gone to a store that's close to closing and has the inventory on the shelves at 70% off? This was nothing like that. It was a mostly empty warehouse, but it still had a lot of inventory spread out all over the place in containers that you could barely tell whether a given container even had anything in it, let alone whether or not it was worth anything. And if it could fit in a shopping cart, it had to go. I could have spent days on the piles of cigar boxes alone. I don't even know how many of those I got exactly, but I suspect it was between 12 and 15. (Edit: It was 12) Other than the cigar boxes, they probably got most of the other great stuff to the other warehouse. You had to go through a warehouse and look through every potential place there could be something. You don't know what's left, you don't know how much anything's supposed to cost. Maybe $60 for a shopping cart's worth of stuff. Or just $50, which is what we paid for. And, by volume, half of it was cigar boxes. All you know is you won't have that many potential chances left to get what's there. And like I said, the piles of cigar boxes alone could have taken days for me to sift through the best ones, or even just the ones with the "low birth weight" Surgeon General Warning stickers.

I was hoping to go to Half-Price Books today, but after all this, there was no way I could do it. It took about two and a half hours for my heart rate to go back down.

Why cigar boxes?

Boru

[Paraselene]

Package is in a nearby port. Might get it Monday or Tuesday.

[Rev. Rye]

Went through one of the most overwhelming shopping experiences of my life.

First for some backstory: if you’re from the suburbs of Chicago, you might be familiar with a store called American Science and Surplus in Park Ridge. A bit closer to me, there's a warehouse on the way to Superdawg that has a sale every couple months. The main store closed recently. While we drove to Superdawg today, we saw a sign advertising a sale at the Warehouse.

You ever gone to a store that's close to closing and has the inventory on the shelves at 70% off? This was nothing like that. It was a mostly empty warehouse, but it still had a lot of inventory spread out all over the place in containers that you could barely tell whether a given container even had anything in it, let alone whether or not it was worth anything. And if it could fit in a shopping cart, it had to go. I could have spent days on the piles of cigar boxes alone. I don't even know how many of those I got exactly, but I suspect it was between 12 and 15. (Edit: It was 12) Other than the cigar boxes, they probably got most of the other great stuff to the other warehouse. You had to go through a warehouse and look through every potential place there could be something. You don't know what's left, you don't know how much anything's supposed to cost. Maybe $60 for a shopping cart's worth of stuff. Or just $50, which is what we paid for. And, by volume, half of it was cigar boxes. All you know is you won't have that many potential chances left to get what's there. And like I said, the piles of cigar boxes alone could have taken days for me to sift through the best ones, or even just the ones with the "low birth weight" Surgeon General Warning stickers.

I was hoping to go to Half-Price Books today, but after all this, there was no way I could do it. It took about two and a half hours for my heart rate to go back down.

Why cigar boxes?

Boru

Well, here’s something to start with.





And, yes, I have made a guitar (nothing as extreme as Macca’s, I admit), ukulele, kalimba, preamp box and even a small amp from cigar boxes (or similarly-sized wooden boxes). And they’re even useful for more mundane uses. I’ve already put one of them to work for my pen reserves.

And that’s not even getting into the many shapes and sizes they come in.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Why cigar boxes?

Boru

Well, here’s something to start with.





And, yes, I have made a guitar (nothing as extreme as Macca’s, I admit), ukulele, kalimba, preamp box and even a small amp from cigar boxes (or similarly-sized wooden boxes). And they’re even useful for more mundane uses. I’ve already put one of them to work for my pen reserves.

And that’s not even getting into the many shapes and sizes they come in.

Fair enough. I just never knew cigar boxes were useful for much beyond holding cigars.

Boru

[Angrboda]

Coffee, watching a video on Hindu vs. Buddhist concepts of self, and dipping back in to my Korean soapies.

[Rev. Rye]

Well, here’s something to start with.





And, yes, I have made a guitar (nothing as extreme as Macca’s, I admit), ukulele, kalimba, preamp box and even a small amp from cigar boxes (or similarly-sized wooden boxes). And they’re even useful for more mundane uses. I’ve already put one of them to work for my pen reserves.

And that’s not even getting into the many shapes and sizes they come in.

Fair enough. I just never knew cigar boxes were useful for much beyond holding cigars.

Boru

Even if they’re just being used to hold non-tobacco stuff, they can be extremely useful. Here’s me using a small Oliva box for my pen reserves.



Tobacco has wrought a shit ton of harm on the human race, from the stupefying number of medical conditions it’s linked to to its use as a cash crop feeding into the slave trade, but whoever thought that storing cigars in these durable and sometimes beautiful boxes that can easily be repurposed once you’ve smoked them all was a great idea was a bloody genius.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Fair enough. I just never knew cigar boxes were useful for much beyond holding cigars.

Boru

Even if they’re just being used to hold non-tobacco stuff, they can be extremely useful. Here’s me using a small Oliva box for my pen reserves.

I may look into it. Every time I need a box, I make one.

Boru

[Angrboda]

This is not my evening. My K-cup coffee maker died, and I overflowed the kitchen sink trying to wash "just one more pan."

[Angrboda]

Doing dishes. I noticed that I was low on dish soap this morning, so I go to order it at Walmart, only to find they were out of the larger bottles of lemon and orange Ajax. I considered getting lavender, and I still will because, lavender, but there's no sense only getting part of what I need when there's a $35 minimum for ordering.

And my Chulux K-cup coffee maker is good and dead. I'm undecided as to whether to order another red one or to get black this time. The black is a few dollars cheaper, but it's just the color that I care about.

I think in addition to other things, when I start therapy again this week, I'll make indecision a topic alongside everything else.

[Angrboda]

Mr. Pibb was discontinued 24 years ago? Fuck I'm old.