I've slowed down on wearing my favorite jeans, because they're starting to wear at the knee. I bought a back-up pair: same cut, same size. But they're just not the same, man.
You are absolutely bonkers, but that's why we love you.
Allow me to add my jeans anecdote. I just went through the crotch of my jeans. Being a gentleman with large thighs and butts (squats, y'all) I went to Levis, thinking I might, for the first time in a decade, find some jeans cut to concurrently fit my thighs, butt, and waist. Could only just squeeze into their more relaxed fit. Decided if I was going to spend close to 100 currency units on jeans they had better fit properly, so I went to Gap and purchased some jeans on sale that are too big around the waist but otherwise fine. Now I wish I had bought two pairs.
And... that was a bloody boring story.
I have a back-up pair of jeans since I know that I do wear these out relatively quickly and they aren't that expensive and they switch out the... colors? treatments? whatever they're called, they change them regularly.
Seriously, why can't Levi's reinforce the crotch of their jeans so it isn't the part that wears out first?
I'm terribly worried my minimally soled shoes are going to disappear. New Balance ended all the lines I liked, and Merrell reduced the options last time I checked. I've thought about hoarding, but that's a horrible way to live, always thinking of the finite number of uses you have left.
The speed at which we wear out the crotches of our jeans is indeed impressive, laydeez.
You have to decide if each jog is shoe worthy.
6: just buy maximally soled and a sander.
6: Can you get Vivo Barefoot in the US? Their range is fairly good (though their designs were a lot more fun about five years ago).
I do all my walking in Doc Martens lately. All the other shoes either wear out in about three months or look stupid or both. The only problem is that they are really heavy as far as shoes go.
10: Oh good, I can. I was worried I was going to have to switch to Vibram gorilla feet.
I don't generally buy backups, but we did it once for our daughter's favorite stuffed animal, and it was a really good move.
If it ever occurs to her to ask whether Pony was ever replaced, we will of course answer truthfully. Otherwise...
LB conserved wearings of a beloved pair of winter boots for at least 15 years. Now I can't recall if she finally replaced them, or just got new insoles.
We did 13.1. Iris only figured it out within the last year. She was thrown by it, but also appreciated the good sense. We switched them out regularly, so they'd wear evenly, but she insists she has a favorite.
Heebie: I do this also, and have never discussed it with anyone.
Levi's makes Commuter jeans that are crotch-reinforced. I ruined my last pair of 501s by biking in them too often (at least I assume that's why the crotch wore through; that didn't use to happen, at least not most often).
I tend to do exactly this sort of thing whenever I find something I really like, on the assumption that eventually I'll break whatever it is, or lose it, or it'll just wear out. I don't know if that counts in favor of doing that, though.
I still have a 12+ year old backup t-shirt purchased because I thought I'd wear the main t-shirt much more. So it doesn't always pay off.
I don't ration, there's always something I like better in the pipeline. Meanwhile, for utilitarian usage, take a look at "tactical" pants. I was looking for stuff to wear on photographic expeditions that didn't involve a hot and bulky vest; so lots of pockets, reinforced areas and seams, even built-in knee pad pockets inside the legs, loose fitting, not expensive, etc.
Just don't reach inside a pocket suddenly when stopped by a cop.
13: I live in some fear that my son will decide that his favorite is the one he was randomly handed at an amusement park (by some adult who didn't want the stuffed animal they had just won at a midway game) and not the one from Ikea that we already have a backup of.
14.1: Are you stalking or did you mean AB?
14.2: Careful. She might ask about the secret basement twin.
I had some shoes I loved about a year ago and then I destroyed them walking on salty snowy sidewalks and then I thought about ordering a second pair but they were about twice as expensive without the discount I had the first time, and now I can't even find any like them at all.
21.2: A little column A, a little column L.
I do this occasionally and often regret not doing it more, but generally by the time I realize how attached I am to something, they've stopped making it.
13 reminds me that my brother and sister-in-law got a backup security blanket thingy for my nephew as insurance against loss (after the original had gone missing for a bit, to his great distress and that of everyone within earshot). Only somehow he caught on to the existence of the backup and then insisted on keeping both with him at all times.
I have thus far been unsuccessful in replacing my dog's security blanket. He's obviously more discriminating than most of your children.
14.2: Switching out to equalize wear is a great idea that we never thought of. Too late now, as we're down to the last one -- the original was left in a cab on the way to an airport, and the first backup was irreparably contaminated in a stomach flu incident.
They don't make them anymore, but I guess there's always eBay if necessary.
the first backup was irreparably contaminated in a stomach flu incident
If it had been scarlet fever and you had burned it, you'd have a live version for your child to play with.
Years ago someone explained to me that expensive handbags are like thousands of dollars and I find the entire topic baffling now. Also people on The Hills always seemed to want to design a line of handbags. That was baffling too. I guess they just wanted all that money. I guess I had kind of assumed they were mostly a utilitarian thing that would cost $20 and then sometimes one would be nice looking and cost $50.
We got each of our children two jersey-knit swaddles when they were born - in two different colors, ie Hawaii has gray and black, Pokey has forest green and slate blue, Ace has lime green and aqua. In each case, probably because they imitate each other, their primary lovey item is these blankets. But none of them cares which of their easily-distinguished versions they have at any given moment.
(The colors are because the supply of these jersey knits is extremely limited in Heebieville, and so we take whatever they're stocking that season.)
I often have a will-wear-cycling and won't-wear-cycling version of the same item, which then get replaced at different timecycles.
29: Jammies' sister is very serious about acquiring high end handbags. Not of the several thousand dollar variety - she has more sense than that - but of the name brand, several hundred dollar variety. There are many things that cost several hundred dollars that I covet, so I have decided not to judge her for this.
(OTOH, one year she sent her mom a very specific link to a specific pair of UGGs for xmas. Her mom found the same shoes elsewhere, and bought them cheaper. Sister got suspicious when she saw the box, and confronted her mom, who openly admitted it. Sister returned the shoes - and this is the key part that makes the story awesome for me - saying "I can't tell whether or not they're fakes, but they might be.")
Anyway, as a whole, you all are being wonderfully validating. Thank you.
Jane's Beanie Baby anteater (dubbed Otiose, rather than whatever the default nomenclature is, back when he was rfts' random Beany Baby rather than Jane's) took a walkabout once, so we got a replacement off of eBay, only for the original to reappear. So now there is Otiose and his brother Otiose.
Do the "won't wear cycling" helmets last longer?
28: Didn't the stuffed rabbit have to be truly loved by the boy for that to happen in the story? I don't think the first backup stuffie was owned for long enough for that to kick in.
The original one that got left in the cab, on the other hand, may very well have come to life and gotten its own medallion by now.
Anyway: I just bought the back-up. Did I mention that I find it charming that they call it an oily bag, in particular?
32.2 is amazing.
Having separate cycling and non-cycling versions of the same clothes is actually a pretty good idea. I'd be very tempted to start doing that except that cycling damage is about the only thing that makes me buy new clothes at all.
Maybe bikes making everyone own two sets of clothing is the real reason that cars came to dominate the infrastructure.
I bought a second copy of a watch that I really like (but I found the second one on eBay and got it for a really good price).
That is a great bag, Heebie. I think you should get a second one.
I like that bag, too! Is it quite that shiny in real life? If not, I might get the green one.
28, 36 - "Can you hurt something else," asked the Rabbit, "when you get Real?"
I can definitely relate to the need to find some way to stop oneself from over-rationing use of the thing one likes! That seems to me to be a crucial extra ingredient in the "is it just me," here, on top of the basic desire to get a back-up now, while you know the thing is still available.
Meanwhile, now I am reminded wistfully once again of the shoes I bought at Target when I was on a trip and suddenly realized I needed flats unlike anything I had with me. They cost like $12 and I wound up wearing them continually and then of course they were gone gone gone when I wanted to replace them. Sigh.
It's a darker green than the photo looks (to me). Not quite as wet-looking as in the photo, but definitely on the shiny side of what leather generally looks like.
the need to find some way to stop oneself from over-rationing use of the thing one likes! That seems to me to be a crucial extra ingredient
Yes. The jeans-bike-crotch thing is not quite the same, nor is just having two pairs in rotation.
I like that bag too. Is it oily, though?
When I bought the pairs of shoes that were, at the time, the two most expensive pairs of shoes I'd ever bought with my own $$, I hardly ever wore them at all for years afterward.
I feel certain that I have related the content of 47 here before.
It's very interesting, though, so perhaps I'll repeat it again (still) later.
46: I assume it's been oiled, and that's some standard thing to do to leather to give some effect, but it's not weird or wet to the touch.
Also I'm having an impossible time trying to think of a yardstick for leather-shiny-oiliness. What is something we've all experienced that is too much oily-leather? It's less oily than that.
The jeans-bike-crotch thing
I don't think the bikes are at fault. I haven't ridden a bike in years, but the crotches of my jeans wear out long before they should. But years ago, when I would regularly ride horses while wearing jeans, the crotches of the jeans did not wear out. I can only conclude that, in the intervening years, the denim used to make jean crotches has become flimsier, or the denim-destroying power of my crotch has greatly increased.
I gave the girls Red Sox t-shirts summer of last year, when I was inculcating them in the ways of true fandom. M wore hers (with Saltalamacchia's name and number on the back) every single school day of fifth grade, so there's some economical clothes-buying.
On this site: less oily than the shell cordovan shoe, but maybe akin to the first photo under oiled calfskin, Horween chromexel. More oily than the second photo uner Horween Chromexel.
52 -- happy to send them some 2014 NL West Champion LA Dodgers wear as a replacement.
I got a pair of shoes reportedly made from shell cordovan leather off ebay recently and they're GREAT. I love them even though they cut my toes the first two times I wore them.
Whenever they are on my feet and I look at my feet, I think, damn, those are nice shoes on my feet.
Comity with the interesting 47-49. Also, in the days of leather boots for winter mountaineering, standard advice was that if you found a "good" pair, i.e., one that fit and kept your feet warm, order another pair immediately because they'd get thrashed relatively soon and be hard to replace. (I never had enough disposable income to actually do this.) Then plastic boots with foam liners came in and this advice went out the window - most people could keep the plastic shells for years and, if needed, just replace the liners.
Applying this anecdote to purses is left as an exercise for the reader.
Who makes a really good designer mountaineering purse?
54: Actually, they rather like the Dodgers.
Horween Chromexel
I never could keep all the minor Harry Potter characters straight, but I'm pretty sure this was one of the death-eaters.
One more for hoarding and multiple-instance purchasing, ever since the tragic demise of the one hip pair of shoes I have ever owned. Even after I'd worn through the soles, I kept them for dry sunny days.
I used to buy backups, but now I've decided that it's good to be forced to make a change every now and again, so I don't do that anymore.
Relatedly, and I might have mentioned this before, one of my favorite words is gebrauchsgegenstand, which means something like "object for use," as opposed to, say, a work of art. It used to be that when I got something new and shiny (like an All-Clad pan, for example) I would treat it gingerly, but now I think gebrauchsgegenstand! and treat it like a damn pan, and end up enjoying it a lot more.
ogged: He [the soap-box speaker] said everything should be made use of.
Hildy: It makes quite a bit of sense, doesn't it?...Now look, ogged, when you found yourself with that gun in your hand, and that policeman coming at you, what did you think about?...You must have thought of something...Could it have been, uh, 'production for use'?...What's a gun for, ogged?
ogged: A gun?...Why to shoot, of course.
Hildy: Oh. Maybe that's why you used it.
ogged: Maybe.
Hildy: Seems reasonable?
ogged: Yes, yes it is. You see, I've never had a gun in my hand before. That's what a gun's for, isn't it? Maybe that's why.
Hildy: Sure it is.
ogged: Yes, that's what I thought of. Production for use. Why, it's simple isn't it?
Hildy: Very simple.
ogged: There's nothing crazy about that, is there?
Hildy: Nope. Nothing at all.
ogged: You'll write about that in your paper, won't you?
Hildy: You bet I will.
Thinking back on it there really are a lot of things that I never bother backing up, though, on the assumption that something good enough will still be available in the future (shoes, watches, whiskey, etc.). What came to mind immediately for me when I read this was something like this, where you've got something moderately distinctive and where there's a chance they really could just stop being available. It probably has more to do with what you end up becoming really fond of.
(I suspect there are a massive amount of those knives, and that they're not selling especially fast. But then again that list used to be a lot longer, and the two knives that I love are the ones listed as being on back order. So who knows.)
It's good quality and the service was good? Because that *is* a very good price, and it looks so nice. WANT.
Here's how much I can tell about quality: fake leather has a kind of thin, wrinkly quality, and this has a convincing, thick texture. So it surpasses my ability to detect fake leather. It's not like hand-stitched or anything, but it doesn't seem like it's going to fall apart immediately, either. And there's cute little gold feet on the bottom, although not really big enough to actually keep it from getting scuffed over time.
Service was fine! Shipped promptly (from Hong Kong) and showed up maybe two weeks later. Shipping was free.
To be honest, the price doesn't add up, and I have no idea what is being exploited - is this some sort of knock-off? Stolen? No idea. I, um, chose not to think about this too hard.
related temperamental question: do you try to use all your towels in rotation so they match, or do you prefer to wear out a few and then move on to a pretty-much-new rest of the set?
(I have to wear out clothes rather than duplicating them because I already keep things well into the weird-dowdy-out-of-fashion stage. No reason to extend that by a decade. Lord, I have to buy some clothes for conferences and maybe job interviews, that's going to be so weird. I thought the platform heels for business wear were a fiction of the magazines, but no, even in Seattle they're worn in actual offices.)
I like to buy old flowered towels at estate sales, because I am insufferably precious like that, and they self-destruct before too long, so I can justify buying and replacing them on a continuous slow-drip. Also they tend to be priced at like fifty cents. Same with old napkins.
You would expect my jeans to wear out first in the crotch (laydeez), but it's always the right knee. I attribute this to drumming, as that's the bass-drum leg.
Perfect towel solution. Incidentally, I think I've seen three more pink-and-green-tile bathrooms being held up as charming, or at least worth considering saving, in the fancy mags. You're a trendsetter.
I bought 4 identical pairs of sunglasses a few years ago, the same style I'd been wearing for 25 years. They all disappeared at about the same time. The wife says they're too retro; I suspect foul play, but she denies it. Anyway, you can't get Vuarnet 4002s for love or money.
Hey, it looks like maybe they're bringing them back!
I have never thought of buying a back up. For anything. You're all weird.
I have that problem with places. I'll eat somewhere good, and then decide to take some friends there a few months later, and BAM! it's gone.
With clothes, I'll buy multiples in different colors, though usually I'll do that and then regret it, because I realize not too long after I don't like the article of clothing all that much. I wear things until they completely fall apart, but since I'm not hard on clothes and haven't changed size all that much since puberty, that usually takes several decades. I'll also purge stuff and then regret it a few years later. E.g., I had this light yellow sleeveless tank top that was a hand me down from my mother that I wore throughout high school, and then towards the end of college I purged it, and now I wish I had it back again. (As you can tell I am extremely cutting edge in my fashion.) I have noticed that there's a general decline in clothing quality over the past decade. Clothes I bought in the 90s tend to hold up much better than clothes I've bought recently, and this holds true brand internally. I have an orange Old Navy blouse I bought at a thrift store in 1998, and I still wear it on a regular basis, but everything I've bought recently from ON has stretched out after a few months and fallen apart after a few years max. With pants, the back of the left thigh is the first place that wears out for me, and I can't figure why. This is true for both tight and baggy pants. I don't put anything in my back pockets, my left leg isn't noticeably different from my right leg, etc.
72: In the late 80's GAP made very nice wool sweaters. Now their clothes are shit.
I don't remember Old Navy ever being really good quality, but now it's horrible. And their return policy is dreadful.
Late last night
I heard the screen door slam
She took my oily green bag
And ran off with my old man
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They discontinued that line
And a back-up's what I ain't got
Hmmm... etc.
I think Old Navy has always been terrible quality.
Maybe the quality changed too fast for you to notice.
Look all day
On ebay
For an oily green bag*
Got to find
Just the kind
What's already mine
* in Wisconsin
75: nah, at this very moment I'm wearing an Old Navy t-shirt I've had for years. It's held up better than almost any other piece of clothing I've ever had.
My dad has god knows how many pairs of black hi-top Reebok trainers. He's been wearing them for about thirty years and worries that they'll disappear. He likes to standardise.
30: If I can find them marked down, I will buy 2 or 3 pairs of my favorite running shoes at a time. Nike has discontinued a couple of models on me, so I have much sympathy for asilon's dad.
Most of my stories along these lines are based in regret for not doubling up. I have a bunch of Dickies brand boxer shorts that I really like, and wish I'd bought more of, as they are now discontinued. Same with my late, lamented unlined Carhartt jacket, also discontinued. Sigh.
Oh, and the old Wigwam "Outlast" socks, my favorite boot socks evar, now long since relegated to the sock bin of history.
You could buy a lined Carhartt jacket and remove the lining.
Just found this, might get a couple once I get some folding money*:
http://www.faribaultmill.com/scarf-1768.html
*Had final interview for job I want on Friday. Now just waiting to hear if I get it or not.
Yes, you should get that scarf, and you should wear it with a dark navy canvas workman's jacket. I think that would look very nice.
I found the perfect flats, one pair in coral suede with patent leather toes and heels, and the other all black patent but with toe-caps like pretend ballet flats. I went back to buy more even though I felt a little guilty about the price, but they were sold out of my size. I really haven't worn anything else (except my jack rogers sandals maybe, and some blue and green suede throwback pumas for the plane) for a year. >:-[
87: I like it, Natilo, and hope you get the job, the folding money, and the scarf. Had not heard of that woolen mill before.
i do 'backup purchasing' all the time. i have kitchen knives i've never used because i'm waiting for the old ones to wear out. clothes. shoes! i have sneakers i bought to replace my backup sneakers and my primary sneakers are still going strong.
i find that most the replacement stuff sucks and is never as good as the primary stuff, so i keep using the primary stuff far longer than i thought i would last.
We have some backup LPs. Probably a slightly mortifying number, actually, so I'm not going to count them!
My favorite warm weather dress just wore out (fabric wore through at a seam, not mendable), and it is making me a bit blue on nice days. I'd wore it for more than 15 years, and during most of them I joyfully reached for it first every warm day here in SF.
||
Is it possible for an Ordinary Person to make pommes Anna at home? Let's find out!
|>
Where did you get the ordinary person?
I don't know enough to say whether that matters.
I have tried and failed (in a cast iron skillet). But you might succeed.
I nailed rosti solidly once, and it's never been as good again.
I recently discovered I have two identical copies of Use of Weapons. That was accidental though.
One was supposed to be printed in comic sans.
72.2: do you cross your left leg over your right? Or... sit with your right ankle/leg on your left thigh, such that your weight is always on the back of your left leg on the chair? Best guesses.
In the process of rebuilding a [hobby item], I tried to buy a scarce part that was for sale together with a bunch of stuff I didn't need. Unfortunately the eBay listing misled me and someone else had already made a deal to strip off the part I wanted -- the seller changed the text but was too lazy to change the pictures -- so I wrote to cancel the transaction. Then, while the seller was asleep and I was not, I had the brilliant idea of using the parts to build a complete second thingy, and un-cancelled. So now I have two nearly identical thingies, but they're just different enough that one couldn't really replace the other. This is probably the closest I've come to buying backups.
The kid never really had a lovey -- there's one animal that is probably her favorite, but she often asks for it to be taken out of her bed and left with the other animals, because she's a weirdo, born ascetic, or incurable neophile. Thumbsucking seems to be her main worldly attachment.
Speaking of cooking, I made sub-par grilled cheese tonight. I attribute the meh-ness to the fact that I was using Thundersnow's stove (we still hang out sometimes in a platonic kind of way, as is wont when former romantic partners remain friends), and the Medium setting is simply much hotter than my stove's Medium. So they cooked too fast, and I don't think enough heat made it through to the fresh mozzarella. But the locally grown tomatoes were pretty banging.
I also think it should probably be "as is wonted."
I have studio Keens that produce a conditioned response: when I lace them on I am ready to work. They wore out after six years and I panicked, briefly. Turns out Keen keeps their models around quite a while. Now I have new Presidios and a backup pair, and considering a backup to the backup -- that should take me thru retirement.
I recently discovered I have two identical copies of Use of Weapons.
One of them clearly killed the other one and took on his identity.
A constructive proof of the possibility of making pommes Anna remains lacking.
Was it just not good or was it not edible? If you fail, do you at least get home fries?
When I've failed, I've gotten cooked but non-crisp buttery potatoes. Food, but meh.
You could mix in some canned, fried onions to get some crunch.
110: A few more copies and you could make a chair out of them.
I got some crispness by finishing on the stovetop. The basic issue was twofold: mindful of knecht's warning not to skimp on the butter, I used a lot of butter, and I also used a pan that didn't have very high sides, so the butter spilled over and the oven smoked terribly. (This could have been recoverable, I think, but in the smoky panic I made a bad choice about how to invert the pan.)
Define the pan as a matrix then you just put a superscript "-1" by it.
Every other element of the meal was a success, though!
104
Hmm...possible. I fidget a decent amount and frequently cross my legs. As I'm writing this, I'm sitting with right leg crossed over left and leaning to the left, so that could be it.
My experience with ON could demonstrate significant selection bias, since I never shopped there when I was younger, just sometimes bought their clothes from thrift/vintage stores. An ON shirt that makes it successfully to a consignment store could have easily been of above average quality.
With multiples, I just bought a pair of stretchy fitted pants that I absolutely am in love with. It's a color that I've been trying to find for awhile (warm muted rose gray), and the pants are both insanely comfortable and in a dressy enough fabric that they look professional if styled properly. I'm trying to decide if I should go back and buy more. They have a nice warm navy color that looks good on me and is hard to find. On the one hand, it was an impulse buy and I don't absolutely need more pants. On the other, I really like them and they're only 20$ each. Last year I bought three pairs of fleece lined legging/pants and haven't regretted that purchase (one of the three I spilled ink on and now only wear around the house, so it's really more like two pairs of the same pants in different colors.)