Is it important to know anything?

I went to a gardening centre today. I wanted flowering plants for a shaded area. There were many plants in the centre, in different colours, easily overwhelming me. I didn't know which ones would grow in the shade. So I asked a woman in the garden centre's uniform for help.

She looked down at some plants in front of her, flipped a tag over, and said, "No, this one needs sun." She did that to several plants, muttering each time, "No, needs sun." She finally flipped one tag over and said, "Look, this one says, Sun to Shade."

I said, "Do you know which plants grow in the shade, or are you just checking the tags."
She said, "I'm checking the tags."
"So I could do that too."
"Right. Except most of the plants don't have tags, and some of them are wrong."

She was right about that. There was a tag buried in every ten plants or so. The plants are clustered so you can't see the tags unless you looked for them. But apparently, if I found one, I shouldn't trust it, because it could be wrong. And the woman helping me has no special knowledge of plants because she's just checking the tags, which could be wrong. My mind reels.

What's with that?

Of Mice and Me

We had a mouse problem in our house last week. We bought a humane mouse trap, the kind that traps the mouse in a box so you can release it later. So far, we've caught a mouse on three consectuive tries. The last one we found was on Sunday night, when we came home from the weekend. D took the mouse out in the backyard, removed the lid from the box, and threw the mouse out in the dark. He thought the mouse may have been dead.

The next morning, he went out to look for the dead mouse. It was not found. We are assuming the mouse was either dead and got eaten by a nocturnal creature, or it was stunned and when it came to, it scampered away.

Last night, we set the mouse trap again. This morning, no mouse. What are we learning from this?

1) We've been catching the same mouse each night.

• Mice are homing creatures. The one we've been catching is not very smart. It had to get caught several times before it learned to stayed away from the trap.
• If we had been catching the same mouse, our mouse died in the trap and got eaten up in the backyard overnight so it couldn't come back last night.
• Or it's playing with us, knowing we're too wimpy to intentionally kill it so it's staying away for one night to keep us guessing.
• We need to find that entrance to the house the mouse has been using

2) We've catching different mice each night.

• We've had a family of mice living with us. We finally got rid of the last one.
• If we've had a family of mice with us, there could be more that we don't know about. We are waiting for the babies to grow up to make their appearance known again.
• The mice stayed away last night because they are gathering friends for reinforcement to launch a mass attack.
• We need to bring in an exterminator.

We live downtown, where man has conquered nature. Yet, I run into raccoons and skunks on our street all the time. We've now had mice in the house. So even in a large metropolis such as ours, the living space for man and animals is only blurily separated. No matter what man does to claim land for his own, mother nature will always redistribute. Is that what this mouse episode is about, to make me see this?

Too many shoes, not enough feet

I bought a new pair of shoes last week. That makes over 20 pairs that I have in my closet, having discarded about ten pairs two months ago. But I really only wear four pairs regularly. Why do I keep buying shoes that I don't wear? Let me tell you something about my logic.

I buy shoes that look cute or have a nice colour that I imagine I would wear to create a certain look. But that look often requires new pants or skirt and a new top. By the time I get the shoes home, I've moved beyond that look I had in mind in the shoe store. So I don't buy the top or bottom to go with the shoes. So the shoes sit in my closet, unworn.

Or I buy shoes that are similar in look and feel because I just like that look and feel. These are usually low-heeled, comfortable walking shoes. I have many pairs of these, but I can only wear one pair at a time.

Or I buy shoes that are on sale. They have to be real cheap. So here's my dilemma today.

I came a cross a pair of lavender flats yesterday. They were kind of cute. I've seen the brand name version of these, which costs over $80 and were comfortable to wear. These particular ones cost $9! $9? I was excited. Lavender/purple happens to be my three-year-old niece's favourite colour right now. I had this bright idea in the store that I would create matching purple outfits for us. I could spend $9 to start the look. I'd then try to get her similar shoes, get us matching t-shirt, and skirt. Except these $9 shoes are very uncomfortable. They are so uncomfortable that when I got them home, I won't even wear them to break them in. Now, do I abandon my matching outfit idea, or go ahead anyway, because it'd be so cute?

Service Lesson

A young woman knocked on my door. She said she's a student. She could be. She's selling household products like Saran, foil, lunch bags, garbage bags and the like. Only she wants $23 per item, four times more expensive than if you bought the same item from a supermarket. I told her I didn't want to pay that much for the items.

She said, "But you are supporting students."
I said, "I would support them if they sold me something useful at a good price. This is a ridiculous markup."
"But students need your support."
"And I would be happy to support them in other real ways. I'm sorry, I can't afford to, nor do I want to pay those prices for these same items I can buy for so much cheaper at a supermarket."

The young woman looked disappointed. Naturally. But she walked away without saying thank you. She just rolled her eyes.

So what's with that? Do the organizers really think they can sell anything at a huge markup if thay attach "student" to the sale? And do they not teach their sales reps manners? When you don't make a sale, you should still thank your prospect for their time, not roll your eyes at them. At this point, even if I felt generous and wanted to part with my money, I'm certainly not going to give it to this woman or this type of organization.

Public toilets

I often wonder how public toilets get so filthy. Is it just overuse by many people? Is it a few people who make it messy?

I noticed recently in a woman's washroom that the toilet seat was splashed wet. Assuming the flush had splashed water all over the seat, I wiped dry the seat with toilet paper before using it. But when I flushed after my use, the whirling water did not over splashed onto the seat.

Another time, I noticed a seat with sole marks on it. Obviously, someone's been crouching on the seat to do their business.

So these women who crouch and splash on the seat...they do this because they think the toilet is dirty and don't want their bums to touch the seat? But if they object to dirty washrooms, why aren't they cleaning up properly after their use? They, in fact, are the perpetrators of the dirty washrooms they object to. What's with these people?