Random Chaos

Dull day... sort of.  For a rundown, proceed to the commentary below.  It gets interesting in the end.

8:39 AM.  Sitting around at work, after finding out I'm in laundry.  Anticipated a wicked traffic jam—a WORLD SERIES VICTORY tends to do that.

 

Instead I arrive ludicrously early.

 

With Pandora running I take the chance to try a composer I'd seen referenced somewhere: I'd wiki'd Delius, and run into Frederick Delius as an option.  As the jazz musician was not the reference— not in an ambient album!—I queued that artist in mobile! Pandora.

 

If you like Ravel's more mellow work, or Manuel Ponce, or Eric Satie, Delius is right up your alley.  Sweeping yet unobtrusive, the music is a pleasant wash of sound in an otherwise pedestrian day.  And so good for reading and artsy work—literary or otherwise.

 

1:45 PM.  There is a weight in my bag, taking up space and all around being a pain in my back.

 

Jeannie's old battery.  An old, clunky thing that is rendered even clunkier by a postage-paid return box, it sits in my bag like a chunk of lead.

 

... of course, actual lead would be heavier.  And by this point probably oddly shaped.

 

With some tape, some scribbling, and two hard-boiled eggs a label smacked on, it's off.  Five to seven days, and I have money.

 

2:15 PM.  Knowing damn well I'm broke, I step into a Bed, Bath & Beyond—I may have zero to spend but I have a plethora of questions to ask about something called a SodaStream.

 

This, if you've not seen it before, is a countertop carbonation device—and requires no plumbing work or electricity.  Go on, Google it.  This thing is sexy.  I'll wait. 

 

They're not cheap.  A starter kit is a little over $120.  (Just to make myself feel a little less like a spoiled brat I ought to look up that price in yen.)

 

I flag disambiguation an associate and pepper him with questions, including why I shouldn't try this cheaper model over yonder.  In answer, we do a little math:

 

I can usually go through three two-liter bottles of pop a week.  Call that about a six buck a week habit (CONSERVATIVE.)  Then there are the work breaks.  The machine charges $1.25.  Three of these in a week runs me an additional $3.75.  Rounding up to an even ten bucks and multiplying that by five weeks at a time, that's $50 a month on pop.

 

... before you ask, this is after cutting back.

 

Now, let's say I dropped the money on DAT DEVICE.  A spare can of CO2 is $30 the first time, and refills in store for half.  If I get a premix, that's $5.  These make 60 liters, minimum.  I could make my own.

 

Even with extras, it pays for itself in three months.

 

...*eyes the change jar*
...Good thing I get paid soon.

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