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From: William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Pearls Before Swine: Rat The Luddite
Date: Sat, 17 Aug 2024 18:13:35 -0400
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Paul S Person wrote:
> On Fri, 16 Aug 2024 17:31:43 -0400, William Hyde
> <wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Paul S Person wrote:
>>> On Thu, 15 Aug 2024 16:22:11 GMT, scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal)
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Paul S Person <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> writes:
>>>>> On Wed, 14 Aug 2024 18:13:46 -0700, Dimensional Traveler
>>>>> <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> <snippo mucho, response is to plastic reusable shopping bags>
>>>>>
>>>>>> I use cloth bags....
>>>>
>>>> I have a box with handles (e.g. a document storage box) that
>>>> I keep in the car.  Tell the checker to leave everything in
>>>> the cart and transfer from cart to box at car.
>>>>
>>>> No bags necessary.
>>>
>>> I'm non-motorized, so I not only need bags (currently boxes, as noted
>>> elsewhere) but need exactly two of them (having exactly two arms to
>>> tote them with), which affects how much I can buy at one time.
>>>
>>> But walking to and (especially) from the store is great exercise!
>>
>> To, yes, but from is a cardiac arrest waiting to happen. Or a fall,
>> given the state of the sidewalks here in winter.  But then, why not both?
> 
> Walking is aerobic. It strengthens the cardiovascular system.

I am aware of this, but in current circumstances I must be careful.


  I began
> with jogging back in the 70s. This has varied over the years, but a
> lot of the time since then I have been doing something aerobic.
> 
> I have special shoes I wear when it is snowy. These are very heavy,
> and I often walk heel-to-toe to be safe, but that just means I am
> doing more work. Nothing wrong with that.

The problem is ice, not snow.  Falling, not slogging.

Sidewalks around here are a 1950s disaster aggravated by decades of 
neglect and corruption.  They are narrow, often flooded, and  not always 
very level.  We have several senior's residences in the area but you 
never see the inhabitants out walking.  Too difficult and/or dangerous.
This in turn leads to a lack of coffee shops and other amenities they 
might wish to visit.

To get past one strip mall in icy weather I have to walk on the road. 
Because if I was on the sidewalk I would soon be on the road anyway.
It's a very busy street.

Mind you, they are paradise itself compared to other places I've lived, 
such as various university campuses (never money in the budget to repair 
cracked walking surfaces, always enough for parking lots) or, to take a 
particularly egregious example, Durham NC.

But as I explained to our local Councillor, being better than the worst 
is nothing to be proud of.

> 
> OTOH, the "freezing rain" we had a while back defeated me. I'd never
> encountered it before. I'll be paying attention to it in the future.

After one particularly gentle freezing rain event I was standing on a 
sidewalk and slowly sliding down a hill I had never known was there. 
Seemed flat to the eye, but not to gravity.
> 
>> I regret to say that I go less often, buy more, and take a taxi back. At
>> $10 the taxi fare doesn't increase the cost of a $250 purchase by that
>> much.  Much less than the delivery fee.
> 
> I don't tip generally but,

I learned to tip more generously in the US, where to my surprise I found 
that wait staff were often paid less than minimum wage, or not at all. 
Most Canadian visitors to the US still don't know this.


  for some reason, I /do/ tip taxi drivers.
> So your $10 would be $20 for me.

I tip also.  About 20% in this case.  A more distant grocery store with 
a better selection would be about @20 away, but as this is comparable to 
the delivery fee, I generally order from them online.
> 
> But that isn't a bad strategy at all. Just not mine.
> 
> Well, not yet anyway. In another decade, who can say?


I used to play bridge with an 86 year old retired professor whose daily 
walk was at least two miles.  Were it not for covid, I suspect he'd have 
carried on into his next decade.

William Hyde