Now and Then

This new century has not been a good one for me. 13 years into it and I can't see much good has come out of it. I am OK, I own my homes and cars. However I can not find quality products in the stores or online. I am in a new climate and need some warmer clothes. When I can see through the winter weight tee shirts I just bought and then hold them up to my old regular tee shirts I have had since the 1990s then I know quality has plunged down like an avalanche. Sizes of clothes is no longer consistent, I have no idea what size I wear until I buy it and try it on. I have no stores to shop in so it is all catalog and online now. I have shopped these catalogs for decades and even that is not helpful. So sizes are all over the place. Quality has nothing to do with price or label. Even the name of the color is not helpful anymore. So buying clothes is a crap shoot. Buying one or 2 sizes larger than recommended by the instructions is best since 8 times out of 10 they will be too small or too big, But mostly not designed for a human figure but for the neck of Jabba the Hut, the boobs of Dolly Parton and the arms of Olive Oil. Slacks are another area of concern. No more length just about 6 inches too long so it will fit a basket ball player. I guess I could hem them but.....
So clothes are no longer easy to buy from season to season. Warm clothes do not come in sizes over size 14. So I layer layering needs several sizes so one will fit over the other.......

After clothes house hold items are the next on the list of next to useless no matter what the price. A brand name used to mean something but now everything is made in China and most likely by the same companies that are making everything there......

Computers once had a certain cache but now they are all alike except for price. My first new computer was the iMac bondi blue. Had it 10 years. Came with everything needed already on the computer, Easy to run, turn it on and it worked no funny business. Now even Apple is made in China and comes with not much pre-installed even though it is two or three or four times the price of other makes. Apple abandons its products and leaves their owners twisting in the wind (like my G5). Whatever mystique they had of being a fine product is just hype now, all made in China and too expensive for what you do not get now. There is no great easy to use computer out there....I thought there would be by now since all the world is run by computers. If I was not connected to the net and living in the middle of nowhere I would give up on computers however I shop 90% via the computer and have things delivered. From cat sand and food to coffee and flour....so I am hooked on this addictive drug. However even in the stores there is not much of a choice in quality price yes but not much difference from a cheap product and the middle product. I can not afford the high end stuff..that is for the 7% who have all the money.

Groceries have caused the biggest secret hit to the standard of living. Every food and cleaning product has lost contents. There are no quarts or pints and it is not even in metric. We all watched coffee dwindle to 10 ounces to the pound some are 9 and 3/4. Now even a gallon of paint is not a full gallon. Ice cream is not longer a half gallon and few things are sold in pound packages anymore 12 ounces is the new pound. Since no one mentioned the peanut butter going to 15 ounces it was able to slide to 13 and 12 ounces. Cat food lost a full ounce per can and when one is feeding 17 cats that adds up to some one going hungry or more money needed to buy the same amount.
It is not easy to see until you start to read labels and by then it is too late. We are paying more for less. Business is reaping the profits. While we wonder why that was used up so fast or why the pain is not covering the wall.....how can you calculate gallons needed when the paint is no longer in gallons or even metric!
Life is getting weird. I notice these things since I pay attention. Nothing is as it seems anymore and nothing is really better. A new computer is the same price and is not any better when it needs to have more installed to have what it once had already there 17 years ago. The good old days are real and over.... way over... and now it is just a down hill slide. But no one sees this as a problem except me.