Now that Sears is gone, there is no place to find an assortment of tools. I bought a few things to put on my Mazda and [subordinate rant] the daggone design engineers have it set up so that pre-assembled components are installed with no way to get at the most basic connectors. [/subordinate rant.] I have a replacement turbo hose I want to install, and it should be as easy as replacing a radiator hose... except that the screw for the hose clamp is inaccessible because it is wedged between the back of the hose and the engine (see prior sub-rant regarding pre-assemblies.) One thing that might work is to use a shallow well 10mm swivel socket...but there is no place locally (or regionally) to get them. None of the auto parts stores stocks this, Lowes does not stock it, Walmart does not stock it. There are no Snap-On or MAC Tool franchisees in the region. NAPA has a set of multiple 10mm sockets of varying types for nearly $40, and don't think that it includes the one I need. This is nuts. I've spent more time trying to find the most basic of tools than it should take to do the darned work...if the daggone hose clamp had been installed by someone other than a descendant of The Marquis de Sade.
I, too, miss Sears the most of all the retailers who have declined, especially since Sears was destroyed deliberately to line someone's pockets. The same person destroyed Cabela's and destroyed a fine company as well as Sydney, Nebraska. I can only hope that man is condemned to the deepest levels of Hell.
I read today that a good number of people are unable to solve this simple problem: 6 ÷ 2(1+2). The article called it an algebra problem, which it really isn't., It is an arithmetic problem and one we learned to solve in grade school. Algebra is that bit of math where variables enter equations. If true that most can't solve the problem, then the country is truly going down the crapper. The answer, BTW, is 1.
People want to "bring manufacturing jobs back," but the fact is that at any given point in time, there are 500,000 vacancies in manufacturing in America (according to the National Association of Manufacturers.) Employers cannot find applicants who possess basic writing and math skills...our schools are turning out "graduates" who are functionally illiterate and who cannot add & subtract. And it's telling that an article decrying such a state does not even know that the problem is not algebraic in nature.
Grocery stores in a couple of bordering counties have started charging 5¢ for each plastic bag you use...but in some of them, paper is free! So these idiots who forced us to use plastic instead of paper for "Mother Earth" are now CHARGING us to use plastic, and some are giving away paper bags for free!!!!!! The "too young to have lived through it" cashier just stood by and watched my crazy old guy rant. And who knows where that nickel goes. Exactly what will they do with my 5¢ to offset the environmental effect of that plastic bag? Woke is Joke.
Maybe you’ll feel better knowing that Pueblo, Col charges a dime and they’re totally banning them in NY and Chicago. Another option would be to buy them on Amazon. According to my calculations you’ll save ONE cent per bag by doing so.
My county does not charge for the plastic bags that have been government-forced upon us. Since I've been shopping at ALDI (the long-time "bring your own bag" place), I carry used plastic bags in my car. I just don't remember to take them into every store I shop at when I'm in those other counties. Heck, I passed up the Walmart self-checkout yesterday because I spotted a cashier who looked bored, and she double-bagged my stuff!!! Regarding the "now you use it/now you don't" whiplash, it's the same as forced masking. The less sense it makes, the more it is intended to break us down.
Convince the Virginia government that they’re needed for assisted suicides (or some such) and they’ll be free again. One mom and pop grocer here handed small ones out during the pandemic so people could hang the handles around our ears and use the bag itself as a mask. Looked more like a feed bag.
And most of the items that we purchase and put in those plastic bags are also wrapped/packaged in some kind of plastic. So, it is fine to get that 2 liter bottle of pop in the plastic bottle, but not to carry it home in a plastic bag. They have not started charging us here for the plastic bags, but I have been reading about places doing that, too; so it will eventually probably happen in more places. The Aldi method of bringing your own grocery bags is probably the best alternative available.
At our local Aldi, you can buy plastic bags for a nickel. I believe they charge for them so they don’t have to factor in the cost on food. People who want bags simply pay for them and no one else’s food is marked up to cover that expense.
My Aldi only sells the large reusable bags that have carry straps. I have so many I've saved from shopping that I carry 5x more than I need, and have sometimes shared with people who are unaware what the process is.
Local towns and cities here have banned the use of plastic bags 1.5 mil or less, so Walmart and Target simply went to 2.0 mil bags and call them reusable. Kroger uses crummy paper bags if you buy in the store but the heavier plastic if you order online. I think the companies that made paper bags all junked the machinery when everybody went to plastic, and now we are buying cheaply-made things made somewhere overseas, but I don't know for sure. @Ken Anderson might have a clue there. I know the paper bags we now get aren't good for anything other than fire starters.
Not to change the subject but I ain’t got no rants today. I still can’t see worth @#$@$#@ but complaining about it won’t help. Time to go out back and do some chores and try to keep all 10 or 12 fingers on each hand out of the way from moving parts of a machine.
The Kroegers in Albemarle and Henrico counties here have the thicker plastic, but you have to pay for them. (Self-checkout is on the Honor System.) They also offer paper. In reading articles about the regs, I wonder if paper bags might not be free. The Food Lion I went to this morning in Charlottesville said that their paper bags were free. (I only got 2 items so opted out on getting any bag.) I've mentioned that for year and years I was a member of Nader's Center For Science In The Public Interest (I loved their Nutrition Action Health Letter) and was on board with their branded reusable canvas grocery bags back in the 80s. But after a while, no amount of laundering could make them look like something I would want to put my produce in without putting it another bag first.