The $47 Bag of Cat Litter

I walk a lot, always have. I don't drive, but even if I did, I love walking and would do it anyway. Yesterday I needed to go to the market and would normally have walked the 1-1/2 miles there, but since we're buried under 8 tons of snow I decided to take a cab. Another time I'd have put off the trip until I could walk, but I needed cat litter and if you have a cat, you know that's something you can't wait on.

When I lived in upstate NY, $5.50 would get you anywhere within about a 5-mile radius in town, another $1 for the next town over. I'd plan my trips to get everything done at the same time, so it didn't cost much at all. So when I called the local cab company, I didn't think to ask how much it would be since in everything costs more in NY, so I thought it would be ok.

We went to the market, and when I asked the guy to pick me up in an hour, and how much it was, he said 'Well, it's local so it'll be $18". I confirmed what I was thinking: "This is round trip, right?". He smiled and said that no, it was for a one-way trip, meaning it would be $36 to get there and home.

I literally got lightheaded hearing this. I'm not rich, and even if I was, would never give in to price-gouging. We were already at the store, so I had to pay him for the trip there. It turned out that the sidewalks were clean all the way there and I could have walked to the store and taken the cab back, but I didn't know this until afterwards. So I was stuck.

I was so freaked out that I had to walk for a few blocks just to get my head back to normal. I got the litter (Plug: 'Feline Pine' is the BEST) and a few other things. I didn't get everything I planned to buy because I had to offset the extra expense. I went home paying another $18. So $36 there and back, plus $10.99 for the litter comes to $46.99.

I'll shred newspapers and douse it with baking soda for a day or two before I'll ever do that again.

I was trying to figure out how this was possible; why such a difference in price from one place to another, then it hit me. In NY, many people didn't have cars and a lot of them are poor, but have to get to work, doctors, etc. There were about a half dozen cab companies in my town alone, so there was competition and price wars, similar to what gas stations do. There are also buses into NYC and even a 'Dial-a-Bus', a little van that you could schedule a local pick up with for only $1. But here in suburbia, there are no buses, no private services, nothing. There are tons of McMansions and more Lexuses and SUVs than I care to count. So the demand isn't there, nor is the competition. But, they're all doing the same thing--driving a mile or two and that's it. Capitalism at its finest I guess.

I need to take a walk.

Valentine's Day: Yeah or Bleh?

I have an online shop, and like any self-respecting retailer, am wondering if I should do anything special for Valentine's Day. I know my fellow entrepreneurs are right now making and listing everything red and/or heart-shaped they can, but since I have mixed feelings for the holiday, am still not sure what to do. I do like the idea of dedicating a day to l'amour but at the same time, it sends the message to some people that it's ok to act like an ass 364 days a year and then somehow 'make up for it' on the 14th. That doesn't cut it, folks. We should be nice and show others we care about them all the time, whenever the urge arises and not just when the mall tells us to.

There is one Valentine's Day tradition that I always thought was horrible. When I was in grammar school, one of the biggest days of the year was the day we made the Valentine's Day Mailbox. This was a big event, done with ritual seriousness. It was essentially a plain old cardboard carton wrapped in gift wrap, a slit cut into the top for depositing our cards. Then when the time came, we all stood around while some lucky student got to hand them out, usually yelling out names like it was a military mail call.

There was always at least one kid who didn't get a card, and that was the awful part. They would stand there empty handed, while everyone else swooned, blushed and giggled over secret admirers and 'be mine' sentiments. It was a cruel and unnecessary tradition, I think, and surely scarred more than a few kids well into adulthood. If you were one of those left out, you might as well have had the Plague for the next 2 weeks or so.

One would never know this now, but back then, I was painfully shy, extremely quiet, smart (not good if you're a girl!), a year younger than the rest of the class, left-handed (and yes, they tried to 'fix' me) and so skinny I needed rubber bands to keep my knee socks up (Catholic school). But even with all this, I still got at least one or two cards and so was spared the scorn that some of the others received.

One thing everyone noticed even back then: the girls who got the most cards were always the first ones to grow boobs. Some things never change, eh?

My first Valentine's Day gift was from my first boyfriend, Joey DiPasquale, a cute chubby kid with glasses, about a head shorter than me who always let me win when foot racing. He was 8 and I was 7. He gave me a little plastic change purse shaped like a bear's head, with googly wiggle eyes. Our 'relationship' consisted mainly of us running home after school together while our mothers walked behind us, saying how cute we were and planning our next 20 years. I have no idea what happened to Joey as he moved away after 3rd grade, but he was pretty cool from what I remember of him.

Many Valentine's Days later, my socks stay up just fine on their own, but I still don't think of Valentine's Day as a really good thing. I never could picture buying my guy boxer shorts with lips or hearts all over them, or one of those obnoxious singing, dancing stuffed animals that sound like crap and get dragged out of every stock room in the country at this time of year. I really hate those things. Maybe it's because I worked in retail for many years and without fail, at least once a day someone would walk down the aisle where they were and turn every single last one of them on at the same time. I'd want to throw them all into the incinerator, the stuffed animals too.

If you're still reading this, thanks. Let me know what you think about all this; I'd love to hear some opinions. Personally, I think leaving nice notes, giving flowers, kisses, hugs, little gifts, etc should be something we do without prompting, and done 'just because'. There are a million ways to show someone you care, and you can do it anytime and most of the time, it's free. How cool is that?

So what say you?