Shirtonomics

Yours truly is back after another foreign trip. Writing on this blog is a way for me to let go, at least with words and it has been a trying first few months this year with travel and dealing with everything that comes with travel. 

This time it is an economics lesson, but right here in the US of A. Yes, you can find incredibly good deals here too!

Over the last few months the kids have been taking ice skating classes. The classes are only 30 minutes, but with the driving to and from the rink, putting on and taking off skates routines, it takes an hour and a half almost for the "skating process". 

There is an upside to this routine when I do the pick up and drop off. There is a JC Penny and food court right next to the rink. If it is not the hot chocolate from the food court that occupies me for 20 minutes of break time, it is the clearance rack at the JC Penny entrance!

Usually the things on the rack are XXL and above sizes. True, I could buy those XXXXL flannel shirts, cut the collars off and use them as bath robes, but there are a few Smalls and Mediums that find their way to that rack. 

It takes me ten minutes tops to go through that when I am there. One curious thing is that some items that I see take a price nose dive every alternate week but never leave the rack. Last month, I finally spotted this shirt and could not belive the price. 

Ok, I know you caught that. 50% off on $34 should be $ 16.99, not 14.99.. someone at JC Penny needs to pay some attention. 

Took it to the counter and the lady said "It is actually $3.13 with taxes!" as though the shirt price had crossed the sound barrier. Told her "I will take it!" and she says "don't know what is up with that shirt. seems very good to be on clearance"

Came home, wore it to the local park to meet some friends after a long time. Realized while putting it on, that it missed a button! That was the only flaw in the shirt. Funny thing is that there were two spare buttons stitched on the inside.  

(think that is the first family portrait for the 2015 year!)

Got compliments from friends saying "this shirt looks good on you!" So, came home, stitched that button back!

The shirt has already been through the washer twice and everything is still intact.

Guess, it has now been restored to its $34 glory days.

The funny thing is that most of these stores have resident alteration tailors. The thougt that was going through my mind was, why couldn't they fix these little things and make a profit? Is it because that labor cost of a 3 minute button restitching is so prohibitive? 

Really don't get that. Last week the little one had to interview me for a school project on immigration. One of the questions was "what day to day differences between your former country and USA did you like after coming here?" and without much thought I replied "no water cuts, no power cuts, clean roads, garbage collection, in short good utilities and a better quality of life!"

Somehow stating that came with a practiced ease that made me shudder. Those who are in the "quality" business know that quality is as much about eliminating waste as it is about creating value. If you look at things from that stand point, we here in the USA are probably on the top when it comes to creating waste, be it packaging, poor recycling habits, our inability to promote shared transportation, and the list goes on. We have a lot of resources but we treat them with little respect. 

We drop the price of a shirt from $34 to $3 because of one missing button, because we set our bar for quality pretty high!

The irony of that, is not lost on me. 

ps. There are many unfinished posts that will hopefully see the publish button today! 

Bringing things up to..

Let us say that a forty year old person gets sick and goes to the hospital. The doctors admit the person in the hospital and they bring him/her out of sickness to a recovery point after working very hard on the patient.

Then the patient's relatives tell the doctor "it is not enough if you bring him/her to this level or even to the same level of health before the person was sick. The new requirement for a healthy forty year old has now been set. So please keep him/her in the hospital till the person is able to run a marathon, have 20/20 vision and also meets these new list of requirements" and they hand the doctor a list.. 

Would that make sense?

Let us now take another simpler case. Your car tail lights stop working. You find out that it is a fused bulb after taking it to the local auto repair shop. You ask that person to replace the bulb and hand you back the car. The repairman goes "whoa whoa whoa.. stop it right there! you cannot just replace that bulb with a another filament bulb. The energy standards have changed now in the last ten years. you have to put in an LED lamp that meets the lastest energy rating.  Also, the bulb housing in the car is only for a filament lamp. You have to gut part of the insides of the car just to make this lamp change, as that is the only way to meet the current standard"

Would that make sense? 

Maybe it does to some people. It does not to me!

Yesterday I made grand plans to come home a little early and write something for work, go to yoga, take a nice shower (since the previous night the shower had turned cold midway) only to find out that our water heater had started leaking and it was pretty much broken. We had to replace it in short notice. 

Just going into that area to shut off the inlet water and drain the tank, cost me a nights sleep thanks to all that dust that had accumulated in that closet over the last 8 years! 

Here was how the typical conversation went with the plumbers :

Can you replace the heater?

P: yes we can within 24 hours. but they dont sell the 40 gallons any more. they sell 38 or 48 gallons. 

What is the difference ?

P: not much. you get the same pressure etc. some government requirement to save the 2 gallons somewhere!

How much is the heater and install ?

P: (quotes us a number that is way more than what the cost of heater at home depot is + a normal labor rate for install, given it is a 3 hour job)

Why so much?

P: you see these connecting hoses, braces, etc. etc. We have to bring all these upto code. Looks like this was done 8 years ago. The codes are different now. Let me show you this book. you have to cut this piping, weld this tubing, go underground, above ground, blah blah blah.. and that is why it is an extra grand

But it was working fine till yesterday and it was installed 10 years ago by the previous house owner. We had to change the connects when we upgraded the house. All I want is to get the same thing back. 

P: Sorry Sir. We have to bring this up to code! It is the law. we are licensed and this is how we will do it so it will pass the permitting.

Given the "Law", we had no choice but to go with the cheapest quote that still did the new tubing, piping stuff. That pretty much took out the saturday morning routine. 

On the bright side, we now have hot water again.

On the dark side, I went into a rage on hearing about this "bringing up to code.." stuff. At this rate we have to tear down the whole house again every 10 years in the name of "bringing it up"

Sometimes life just passes by..

Recently was walking through a park.. Sun was about to set. This lonely park bench was really calling out to me. 

Kept walking.. really wanted to sit on that bench, cross my legs and stare at the trees.. but something told me, there is more to see, keep going! 

Then came the actual sunset through the trees. Thoroughly enjoyed it!

Sunset is sunset, no matter where you are! Watching the same sun set over and over again never gets boring!

Walked some more and saw this fellow on the path! He (or she) rolled around and showed the belly for me to pet! Have nothing against cats and dogs, but am allergic to them. So stay as far away as possible. Said "sorry" to the little fellow, took a picture and kept moving. 

Then there was the selfie.. this one is for my mom, who has not seen my face in two months. For that matter I haven't seen her face in two months as well.

It was a miracle that I did not get sick with all that pollen floating around.

It is time to stop writing about parks and cats and figure out a time to do video chat with folks in India. 

Now you know where I was going with the whole Life passing by thing!