4 days last week, keeping up with the flow of garbage so we don't get backlogged. And doing pretty good until Friday, when I went in and discovered some 30 large UHAUL boxes, an older lady slipped on the ice at Wal-Mart, brought to Kelowna to be with her family. So her estate was packed up, all of it, no room in the home for it all. And what a lot of shit she had.
Baking pans, maybe 50 counting muffin tins, all in good shape, some used once if at all. Every conceivable kitchen appliance. A hundred electric labour saving carrot slicers, radish dicers, cucumber spiralizers, blenders, mixing bowls, coffee mugs, brand new in the case, quality shit, for sure it'll sell, only, only we already have a hundred more just like them on the shelves.
And so it goes, and I'm wondering, how does one person have so much kitchen shit? I mean, how many baking pans do you need? And gadgets, do-dads, what-nots, many never even used, straight from the Wal-Mart to us...
I'm talking it over with a friend, baffled by this consumerism without end, and she explains it well. That as the Matriarch with everything she's probably stumped her kids, grand-kids, great-grand-kids for gifts, what to get the person with everything, and so the things she once liked are repeated endlessly without end, the inanity of custom demanding acknowledgement of every anniversary, birthday, Xmas, and so it piles up and up..
And yesterday, watching the cars pull up and unload their shit, more shit, more shit, boxes and boxes of stuff that will buy a little time on our shelves before heading for the landfill...