6 things I don’t understand

1. Those shower scrubby things that look like a dish scrubber on steroids. How do you know when they are done? They never wear out. What are they really made of and will they exist forever? They make me think of a fish net for dead skin and soap scum.

2. Why is it so hard to separate the sides of the garbage bag just so you can fit it around the garbage can and fill it with garbage? What’s the mysterious trick to separating those thin plastic films to open the bag? Sometimes wetting your fingers just slightly will give you the traction you need to pry it open, but not always.

3. What is up with cats and paper? If they can find some way to annoy you, then it becomes all important for them to continue that behavior…

4. Why, when a small household appliance I use daily sudden quits, do I refuse to believe it for at least 24 hours? Last month it was the hair dryer. Not that I use a hair dryer very often but the one time I needed it so my head wouldn’t freeze solid outside, it was strangely quiet. I flicked switches, plugged and unplugged and even push the annoying reset button repeatedly. Maybe if I just let it rest for a few hours? Just a fluke, right?  The electric toothbrush took even longer to sink in. I came back every hour or so, cleaned, charged, and searched in vain for some secret button I could push to make it whirr to life again. Nope, just plain dead. That’s when I realized, it won’t make any difference if I whack it hard against the sink and it may just give it the wake up call it needs.

5. What is up with the sponge-mop industry?? Every time I buy a new mop, I am ecstatic until the sponge wears out (two washings maximum) at which point I realize that model is no longer available in the grocery store (two weeks later??) and I now have to buy an entire new mop handle and head assembly. OK let’s go to the most basic, standard, what-could-possibly-change version. Nope! Never will I find that model again.

6. Why are products I’m going to cook with not packaged, while a plastic lighter for the grill is shrink-wrapped to protect it for all eternity?  A quick trip to Job Lots yielded bright new ice-cube trays and the above mentioned lighter. As I was cutting the tags off the trays, I started thinking about their journey from The People’s Republic and all the dirt, disease (rats?) and just plain unhealthy conditions they had seen. Yet try to get at that lighter, and you are chiseling through hard plastic for an hour.