I Explode Things.
Question: Is providing free sleeping structures for the homeless like passing out condoms to the randy? I came across this article yesterday, via the Tiny House Blog, about EDAR (Everyone Deserves a Roof). Peter Samuelson has developed this little shelter that is a cross between a shopping cart and a commercial sized laundry cart. It provides mobility during the day for caring or collecting goods and a shelter at night.
I love Homer Simpson, but this is one quote I just can’t get behind. Am I the only one, or are there others out there that start to carve shivs from salesperson writing utensils when they hear the words “would you like to purchase the extended warranty with that?”
I’ve tried everything as a remedy to the extended warranty. I have tried buying cheep pieces of crap that can be replaced a dozen times before the expense adds up to the warranty. I have tried buying top of the line appliances that I figure shouldn’t need an extended warranty. I’ve tried bribing repairmen, making fake threats and even begging. None of these has worked, with one notable exception. (I begged a genius at the Apple Genius Bar to have mercy on me and my two year old imac that needed a new logic board. He looked suspiciously around to see if this was a Steve Jobs orchestrated sting operation and then kindly agreed to fix it for free!)
Before you gag from the title of this blog, let me explain that my pets growing up included a pig, a few dozen rabbits, some ducks, a few hamsters, an occasional cat, a dog, a calf and a guinea pig. I’ll let your imagination tell you which ones I ate and witch ones I didn’t. But why should eating pets be such a bad thing?
If anything is out of whack, it’s that we’ve manipulated animal breeding, not that we eat them. What’s worse? Eating domesticated animals or breeding them to belch methane into old age and die a pointless life? There’s a chin scratcher.
Natives to North America, First Peoples if you will, knew that we should have a healthy connection with the food we eat, sometimes even asking the noble beasts permission to extinguish their souls. Now whacking a domesticated pet in the head as it stares up at you with trusting eyes might not be quite the same as hunting a noble beast, but none the less, it’s good to have an intimate connection with our food.
On that note, let’s take another lesson in sustainability from the redneck play book of life.