When I got up this morning, there was a box on the patio. My things from Itoya! Seriously? DHL killed it, delivering these things from Japan in five days for $25. Amazing, right?
I know we're all jaded from the internet bringing the world to our doorstep, but to shop via a live person and have the things arrive so quickly is still a thrill. It made me very happy. (And it reminded me of a passage in the book I'm reading--At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson--that talks about why household electricity and electric lights were a middle class phenomenon for decades. The rich, he said, had servants to do everything that the poor and middle class needed electricity to do. Servants would light fires, trim and light candles, heat water to fill the bath, wash and iron clothes and dishes, and so on. And servants were also a status symbol in the way a washing machine is not. The rich wouldn't have made their own lives easier by adopting time- and work-saving methods, they would only be making their servants' lives easier. And who cares about making a servant's life easier?
Amazing book.)
Anyway, for $39 dollars and an internet connection, a live person will shop with you directing them live and then ship things to you from halfway around the world. Can you imagine if I had a billion dollars? I would buy everything this way. I would be the most spoiled asshole on the planet.
So, included in our order was our packing list--and the packing lists for two other packages that were shipped at the same time. Mr. Chan in Fremont, California, shopped for two dolls. (What kind of dolls I wonder? Kokeshi?) The dolls cost him $119.72, plius the $39 guide fee, plus $25 shipping. Ms. Haack in Honolulu ordered stickers, three towels, and washi tape. I wonder if those things came from Sanrio? They cost her $92.17, plus the $39 and $25.
What would you buy in Tokyo? I mean, yes, I would love to just walk into a conbini and walk out with an onigiri and, like, four cans of grapefruit Chu-hai, but I mean nonperishable things. I told Dave, maybe in a few weeks, I'll see if I can visit a fabric or craft store. That would be awesome. Looking back at my old journals, the only thing I ever bought from the craft store in Japan was scissors and glue. Ha! Now I would go nuts buying fabric and paper probably, but then I was in a kind of no-buy phase. (Plus, there was no way to get all that stuff home. And shipping would have cost considerably more than $25.)
What else is going on? We're dealing with some pretty nightmarish air quality from the California wild fires. The sky has looked like old, gray milk for about three days now and every day I get a notification on my phone to stay indoors. Not healthy.
Yesterday I had to go out to an opthalmologist appointment and I double masked the whole time because it was gross out.
And speaking of gross out, are you watching the Covid numbers? The governors of Texas and Florida, who have done nothing to mitigate the rise in Covid cases and who has actively hindered the efforts of schools and hospitals to reduce the covid numbers, are now begging for healthcare workers to come help with the overwhelming Covid cases. Florida is accepting nurses with expired and out-of-state licenses, with a 60 day waiver being issued by the Florida board of nursing. Yeah, right? Why would anyone travel to either of these states to work in healthcare? They voted for Republican leadership? Now let them choke on it. Or die of it. Or, given the number of children now hospitalized and dying of Covid, let them sacrifice their children for it. (Sacrificing their children to appease their republican gods is a time-honored Texas tradition. I mean, let's count up the number of school shootings there alone. It's like "thoughts and prayers" don't even stop bullets--or protect children from Covid. Who ever could have guessed that?)
That's my daily Covid rant. Stay home, you idiots. Wear a mask when you have to go out. But don't go out. And get the fucking vaccine the minute you can.
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