Aren't We Fresh and Clean?

I admit to being mystified. Do we all stink? Do our houses smell bad? Do our cars emit sickly odors whenever we open the doors? Would people 10-15 feet away melt at the stench of each of us as we passed in a hallway without use of cover-up scent? I'm curious, because it seems that odor cover-up scents and air fresheners are starting to dominate our lives. 

Body odor can indicate illness, not just poor hygiene.
Here's a link to a small article about body odor you
might find interesting. 

There are scents to add to the washer. I guess it doesn't matter that most detergents already have their own scent, we have to add cap-fulls of crystal scent bombs into each load of laundry. I have a front loading washer, and I do add a VERY SMALL - like itsy-bitsy amount of smell to each load. BUT it's because I have a front loader and I use scent free laundry products. I know that even though I am meticulous about keeping my washing machine aired out and wiped down, it's going to have a slight odor that I really don't want on my clothing. 

There are a LOT of different laundry scent boosters on
the market today. Most of them recommend HUGE amounts
of crystals to mask normal human odors. There are people
I've known who would benefit from huge amounts, but
not very many. To be honest. I use a bare minimum - just
to keep my washer drum and door seal fresh. 

I'm scent sensitive. I have become more and more scent sensitive as I've grown older. Scents on my clothing can cause me to break out in an allergic rash. Heavy scents and perfumes on others can pull me into extreme sneezing fits or, in rare cases, make me nauseous. I rarely wear perfume, and when I do it's an essential oil blend from a local perfumer. I use scent-free detergents and softeners. If I could find a scent-free wash freshener crystal, I'd switch to it, but I'd still use a barely-there amount. 

There are multitudes of different bathroom air fresheners. I do use
one when Sharon visits. I like her to have a bathroom that
smells nice. But I usually let it rest until her next visit. DH has
one specific style that he likes in his bathroom. So I get
that style for him when I see it is available. 

Commercials center around making things smell fresh. To do that, you don't open your windows to get a blast of fresh air. No, you affix a freshener to the air ducts in your car, or you grab a spray can of a freshener and spray it around. You also use scents in the bathrooms because ... well, it's a bathroom and sometimes excrement will stink. 

Fainting students? We really don't hear about it often, not
even in the athletic locker rooms. 

With all of the publicity about how bad teen-aged boys stink, I'd expect to see the halls of any average middle or high school replete with prone bodies as these young men walk past, wafting their stink over the clueless hordes. I haven't seen this happen, even though I haven't been inside of a school building for years. I suspect I would have heard about young Jonathan Hardwick causing the entire geometry class to faint from his stench. 

I saw this Fabreze commercial last night - probably the
inspiration for today's post, as well as the foundation
of my query. That room looks sparkling. Does it really
need a spray air freshener? 

So, I ask once more. Are we really that smelly? Are we unsanitary? Do we not shower or bathe if we are able? Does the key to a wonderful day lie in a can of air freshener that we gleefully spray around our living room before stretching out on the couch with a contented sigh? If an alien race ever wanted control of our modern population, putting chemicals into our air fresheners should do the trick. 

Have a great Tuesday and I'll be back tomorrow for the Super Blue Blood Moon. What fun! Enjoy your day. 

All For 80 Cents

My business website and my computers haven't been talking to each other for almost two years now. The host did an upgrade that has locked me out for product and pricing updates and it's been more than frustrating. But redoing my website from scratch also seems unfeasible - I have thousands of products on the site, each pictured and coded for sale. But, getting back to my story, my updates are stacked to the moon, and no, the prices aren't up-to-date. But that hasn't seemed to matter to the customers ordering from me - until yesterday.

Dark Sapphire is a unique color, never available in large quantity,
and almost completely unavailable nationwide. I'm sold
out of the 3mm and 4mm sizes and get asked for them regularly. 

Among the items I have on the website are Swarovski crystal beads in numerous colors and sizes. The price has changed, yes, it's gone up from $2.75 to $2.95 per package, but I do have a disclaimer that prices are subject to change at any time at the bottom of each page of the website. My customer ordered two packs each of two different colors, so her order was increased by a total of 80 cents. She was lucky to get one of the colors at all - it's no longer made, very rare, and I'm totally sold out of the two smaller sizes and get asked for them at least once a month. But ...

I order on-line all the time and sometimes there are price differences.
for a major difference, I would have raised a complaint too. But
for a 20 cent difference? It seems a bit over the top. 

She sent me a rather snitty e-mail demanding that I honor the website price (not going to happen) or cancel her order. I'm cancelling her order. I'll live without her under $12 order and sell the beads to someone else who won't have a snit over 80 cents. I mean really - 80 CENTS???? You could probably find that in your couch cushions or thrown into your car. But I'll cancel the order, get a refund on the postage from the Post Office, and go on with my life. She, on the other hand, will have difficulty finding that color available anywhere else. I wonder it she'll give up and try ordering from me again, or just change the color palette for her project instead.

I have one of these - bought it at the Bead & Button Show last
year. We finally got the base changed out on it and it's ready to go.
I want to play with my wheels! 

Today is my day off. I'm hoping to get some stone work done amidst the laundry. I also have to get some income tax paperwork completed and finish the final read-through of my SV story so that I can get that posted within a day. It's going to be a busy day, and I'm so ramped up to get going on it, I awakened at 2:50 am just psyched to get my day going. Since my alarm would have gone off within less than 30 minutes, I went ahead and started my day. One step ahead. I'm hoping that continues throughout the day and that I actually accomplish some stuff today. What a concept!

Happy Wednesday to all!

Breaking News and Witch Hunts

Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

Remember the old movies where the paper boy was standing in the intersection or on the sidewalk with a stack of newspapers next to him, waving one that clearly said (in 80 typeface or larger) "Extra, Extra"? It's beginning to feel like that here in the US with explosions and I'm not really happy about it.

This picture is so amazing. It looks like a fiery wasteland.

I awakened at my usual 3:15 am and turned on the news as I always do. The news was full of an explosion that occurred in a fertilizer plant in a town near Waco, Texas. The scene looked like a volcanic lava flow - orange-red spread across a large area. Apparently there had been a fire at the fertilizer plant which then caught a concentration of fertilizer within the plant causing a massive explosion. This explosion destroyed the plant, and also homes and businesses in the area. There are no estimates on deaths or injuries yet, but these are burn injuries - the worst injury to have. Just nasty! My thoughts go out to those people affected by this.

This mushroom cloud rose from the plant when it exploded. WOW!

Instant communication is a two-edged sword. It allows us to send help immediately to places in need such as this small Texas town that has now been devastated. It allows people to donate blood and supplies for people who have now lost everything. But it also creates a reactionary policy. In this specific incidence, having instant communication will turn into a blessing. Trauma teams, the National Guard and other people who can help will be quickly dispatched to help. But instant and reactionary communication can also result in witch-hunts which is NOT a good thing.

The ultimate witch-hunt. The Salem Witch trials as depicted in
the masterpiece "The Crucible".

How much information publicized through the media is actually accurate? The variety of news organizations, stations, and media and reporters need to have something to report. When there is no concrete information they will often speculate. News pundits speculating can often be misinterpreted as news pundits reporting factual information. It's not always the case. So before you begin to pillory your neighbor who has been inaccurately accused, take a deep breath and await corroboration. Wait for a second source and proof. Don't act on news that is half-baked.

Customer Appreciation - NOT! A Banking Rant

So, yesterday's blog centered on customer service and the practice of getting a bonus for shopping with selected vendors. So many of you remembered your parents and others collecting the stamps (of various types) and turning them in for merchandise. But that's not the world we seem to live in today and I'm rather disgusted by the trend we have lately.

When I opened my first bank account as a child, we had passbooks that were kept by hand and got gifts from the bank for opening up an account or putting a certain amount of a deposit into it. We were rewarded for saving our money and for choosing X bank over Y. It's not that way any more, though, and this is one thing that hasn't changed for the better.

Yes, our accounts are better maintained because they are all computerized. Of course that can lead, and has led, to accounts being hacked and errors in deposits/withdrawals that can sometimes take months to fix. We can check our balances on-line 24/7, access funds at Automated Teller Machines (did you remember that was the definition of ATM?) throughout the world, and set up automated bill pay if you have trust that you will have the money to actually pay them when the computer will try.

But instead of offering incentives or even still giving free checking accounts, they are charging. The minute your money goes into a bank it is worth less than it was when you held it in your hand. It's rather like a car that loses half its value the minute it is driven off the dealer's lot. There is something wrong when I have to pay a bank to take care of my money.

I fully admit that interest rates are pathetic and that interest was one of the major ways that banks earned money. Additionally, the banks made really poor decisions regarding mortgages and business loans, not requiring the financial foundation for those loans that they had required when I bought my home in the late 1980's. Their lax controls and poor decision-making along with a static financial market led to their inability to make money at the rate they wanted. So to fight losing funds, they started charging for some services, finally extending those charges throughout the system including monthly charges on checking accounts. I admit it, but does that make it right? No!

My local credit union is building a larger building near my home. I'm seriously considering pulling my personal checking account away from my bank and its ridiculous fees and moving my money to them instead. The credit union doesn't charge a monthly fee for checking accounts. Maybe that will be my toaster for opening up a new account...no fees chipping away at my very hard-earned funds. What do you think about your bank? Are you happy with their service and fees? Let me know.