Toothpaste is not like skim milk or orange juice - items requiring frequent trips to the grocery store. A tube of tooth paste goes a long way. Hence, changes in your favorite brand are likely, since the last time you went toothpaste shopping.
This past week, I used up the last of our toothpaste. Off to the grocery store I went, (for milk and orange juice and other items that had gone missing from our pantry and refrigerator) to investigate my options. When I came to the toothpaste department, I was overwhelmed. I was astounded at the technological improvements that had been made since I bought my last tooth paste.
What product might best suit my needs - my old brand nowhere to be seen?
Rows and rows of toothpaste - all touting their particular value for your pearly whites. And all the boxes were big - nothing that would allow me to fly on an airplane. Did I have sensitive teeth? No, an occasional bowl of ice cream was never a problem - nor a tall glass of something cold and refreshing on a hot day in July. Or hot soup in January.
The various boxes raised other existential questions. Did I want to whiten my teeth, remove plaque and tartar (is there a difference?) or prevent cavities and gum disease? Or simply freshen my breath - which I assumed was fresh enough because people did not back away when I opened my mouth.
Feeling overwhelmed by all the choices, I moved on to the hand lotion department. At least there, I was clearer about what I expected the stuff in the bottle would do. And I did not have high expectations that a particular brand would make me thirty years younger and sexier.
However, there still was this matter of toothpaste. So I returned to the plethora of products. For starters, I asked myself if was there anything I didn't want my toothpaste to do for my teeth. And I forgot to mention - what flavor did I want to invite my mouth to enjoy.
Lacking a computer with sophisticated statistical analytical tools, I was forced to collate the various factors in my head. At least I could be methodical about scanning each row of large boxes.
Finally, I reached out and plucked a box from the shelf. I hoped it was a good choice - because the size of the tube meant I would be living with it for some time to come.
Unless that is, I booked a plane flight - and needed toothpaste that met TSA requirements. Wouldn't want someone flying with me who used a toothpaste tube to carry a bomb. Bad breath is enough of a problem, given the increasingly smaller size of seats.
Life is so complicated these days.
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Friday, July 11, 2014
Urban Crane Watching
Note: After a sabbatical of rather considerable length, I have returned to contributing to this blog!
During springtime, we often go crane watching in central Nebraska. Across a sixty-mile stretch of the Platte River, most of the sand hill cranes in the world congregate. There they fatten up for their long journey to nesting grounds that stretch from eastern Siberia across northern Canada.
Since it now is mid-summer, we have turned to another kind of crane watching. This past week, we watched a huge crane "fold-up" after completing whatever it was doing at a construction site near us. The height of this crane seemed a bit of over-kill to us. But what ever - the crew seemed to think this behemoth was necessary. Slowly, the huge creature telescoped into smaller and smaller sections until it fit on the flat-bed of a vehicle designed to transport it from place to place.
The procedure was elaborate. Many pieces were stored in place, parts chained down so they could not move and cause damage, leg-extensions that prevented it from tipping sideways were slid into slots within the interior of the vehicle- and finally chocks the size of railroad ties were removed from its fourteen huge wheels. Then off it went - toward the freeway and some other project.
We marveled at this elaborate invention and wondered how much money it took to make it. It did not originate from some factory assembly line mass producing such an ingenious creation. Rather, it likely was custom-made.
Our appetite whetted, we went to the third floor of a building in the center of the city and stood on a balcony overlooking the biggest construction project in our city. Here multiple cranes slowly danced across the sky. Choreographed to move materials from one place to another on the construction site without colliding with each other. Back and forth they went, giving a new perspective of our much smaller mobile crane of several days earlier.
Most of the time, the cranes lifted dark unidentifiable objects. Somewhere, there must have been someone directing the traffic, someone who responded to recess to move a needed part from one place to another.
However, it was our lucky day. As we watched, the biggest crane plucked two Porta Potties and moved them from one side of the work in progress to the other. fortunately the crane did not either one while it was in transit.
What can you say?
During springtime, we often go crane watching in central Nebraska. Across a sixty-mile stretch of the Platte River, most of the sand hill cranes in the world congregate. There they fatten up for their long journey to nesting grounds that stretch from eastern Siberia across northern Canada.
Since it now is mid-summer, we have turned to another kind of crane watching. This past week, we watched a huge crane "fold-up" after completing whatever it was doing at a construction site near us. The height of this crane seemed a bit of over-kill to us. But what ever - the crew seemed to think this behemoth was necessary. Slowly, the huge creature telescoped into smaller and smaller sections until it fit on the flat-bed of a vehicle designed to transport it from place to place.
The procedure was elaborate. Many pieces were stored in place, parts chained down so they could not move and cause damage, leg-extensions that prevented it from tipping sideways were slid into slots within the interior of the vehicle- and finally chocks the size of railroad ties were removed from its fourteen huge wheels. Then off it went - toward the freeway and some other project.
We marveled at this elaborate invention and wondered how much money it took to make it. It did not originate from some factory assembly line mass producing such an ingenious creation. Rather, it likely was custom-made.
Our appetite whetted, we went to the third floor of a building in the center of the city and stood on a balcony overlooking the biggest construction project in our city. Here multiple cranes slowly danced across the sky. Choreographed to move materials from one place to another on the construction site without colliding with each other. Back and forth they went, giving a new perspective of our much smaller mobile crane of several days earlier.
Most of the time, the cranes lifted dark unidentifiable objects. Somewhere, there must have been someone directing the traffic, someone who responded to recess to move a needed part from one place to another.
However, it was our lucky day. As we watched, the biggest crane plucked two Porta Potties and moved them from one side of the work in progress to the other. fortunately the crane did not either one while it was in transit.
What can you say?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)