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Life’s Little Instruction Book

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I found a small booklet, “Life’s Little Instruction Book” by H. Jackson Brown, Jr., in one of the Little Free Libraries that I have been visiting recently. I don’t read all the books that I get from these lending libraries, especially the large, adult books, but I do try to read the children’s books. The “Instruction Book” lists 511 different suggestions for having a productive and happy life. Upon Mr. Brown’s son going off to college, Mr. Brown wrote down a list of suggestions for having a happy life, and gave the list to his son. *If we reach an age of maturity, many of us probably have the urge to do something similar. After all, don’t we want to pass along our accumulated wisdom.

So, I started to read the suggestions. And, one of them, #114 “Keep fire extinguishers in your kitchen and car” inspired me to go online and order a couple of small fire extinguishers for about $30 total. *I have a cook stove that has a burner problem. It seems to overheat according to even a medium setting, so it has to be watched. Finally, I realized that having a small extinguisher for my kitchen would be prudent, and so inexpensive for the service it might have to perform.

Something that I should have ordered long ago, and that has been worrisome for a long time, is a belt. I bought a couple of the adjustable “military style” belts a couple of years ago, but these did not have a suitable sinch, and the belt would start to slip when wearing it until it didn’t hold the pants up effectively. *I didn’t order these belts, for about $25, because of a suggestion read in “Life’s Little Instruction Book.” But seems like I am motivated to make some changes and try some new things not tried before… now!

NOTE [ 09/22/23 ]: The belts arrived and appear to be of really good quality… but two problems already. The first problem is that the width of the buckle is too big to fit through my belt loops. I finally figured out that I could leave both buckle connectors connected to one end of the belt, and just thread the belt through the loops. Once the belt was threaded, I could then thread the belt into the other buckle connector. *But, and this leads to the other problem… how short can you make the belt, have the buckles fasten comfortably, but still be tight enough to hold the pants up. I’m not sure if the belt was slipping or if I just hadn’t tightened it enough at first, but the pants began to slip again. **It may be that I will have to get serious about learning how to wear suspenders.

My hammock (not the stand) arrived yesterday and although I have not completely unraveled it, it appears to be well made. It is a “family” hammock and is supposed to hold up to 650 lbs.

Having ordered the fire extinguishers from Amazon, my mind began to wander on to something I had been looking at regarding using a hammock for my nightly sleep. *This all began because some time ago, I started sleeping with matching bed sheets having been reversed upon my bed. There is a “fitted” sheet which has corners that slip over your mattress to hold the sheet in place. The top sheet is completely flat. But for some reason, I started putting the top sheet next to my mattress, and then using the fitted sheet on top. It felt good to slip into the fitted sheet, catty cornered, my feet going into one corner of the sheet, and my head into the opposite corner. The fitted sheet then acted somewhat like a banana peel and wrapped my body in a cocoon, and this was very pleasing to me.

I’m not sure how I toss and turn during the night, those few hours that I am actually in bed, but at some point I thought of sleeping in a hammock. This is not something I have ever done, or don’t think I have ever done. But I think it was a couple of years ago that I started pricing hammocks & hammock frames. There was an outdoor, bowed, wooden hammock frame that I liked, but I think I read a review about the wood splitting if the frame were left outside. Not sure why this hindered me from purchasing this frame since I was planning to use it entirely indoors.

So, for whatever reason, and maybe in a small purchasing frenzy, I ordered the hammock frame and a handmade hammock. Hoping that the hammock fits the frame, or that I can figure out what kind of connectors I might also need to purchase.

NOTE [ 10/10/23 ]: When the two fire extinguishers, from Novete, arrived, the box they were in was slightly discolored on one side, and there was the smell of ammonia. The safety pins were still in both extinguishers, and they both felt heavy, but I knew there had been some leakage, by at least one of them, during their transportation. I decided to keep them and take the chance that they both would “do their job” if, and when necessary. But, I did write a review in which I mentioned the leakage, thinking no more of it.

I don’t recall how long afterward (perhaps several days) but I noticed an email from Amazon that said my review had been rejected because I had violated their rules and asked that I re-write, and resubmit my review. My simple heading for my new review was, “If you smell something besides smoke when your extinguishers arrive, perhaps these units are not for you.” Yes, you would have to know that I am referencing smelling ammonia instead of smoke. *But, then I went back to read reviews and that is when I read at least 4 reviews that stated basically what I had said, ‘the extinguishers arrived, box discolored, funny smell. After I read these reviews I was confused in that Amazon had allowed these other customers, or potential customers, to write their honest reviews, but had not allowed me to do the same. **So, I decided to ask about a return. The Amazon rep on CHAT was polite, and the responses seemed to come way too quickly for it to be a live human being responding to my queries. There would be 3 or 4 “canned responses” meant to appease, quell my fears, belay any anger, that appeared immediately after my question or comment displayed upon the CHAT screen. No time for a human being to read, think about and then respond. This was a Customer Service bot that had honed it’s skills on thousands of customers.

But, after about 15 minutes, and me asking twice, “are you still there, are you currently working on my problem” the CHATter returned and offered to refund the amount, I chose from my VISA account, without me having to return the extinguishers to them. This is at least the second time that Amazon has refunded my purchase amount without me having to make a return. The other time was when I was attempting to order a 6-pack of Lime/Habanero flavored Tiger Sauce. When it arrived, the 6-pack was of Original flavor Tiger Sauce. Now I like the original flavor, but I thought the new Lime/Habanero flavor was better. ***The new flavor had been discontinued, but I guess someone was attempting to replace the new flavor ordered with the original that they actually had in stock. It is amazing to me that Amazon has determined that they can just “write it off”. That it is actually cheaper, and they would not do it otherwise, for them to just give the customer the item, and refund the purchase price. They don’t have to worry about whether I am trying to bilk them out of an item and they don’t have to pay someone to process a faulty (or potentially faulty) item back into their system… where they are probably just going to throw the return box, unopened on the trash heap.

While writing the above note, I checked the Tiger Sauce web site and surprisingly they are advertising the new Habanero Lime flavored sauce. I then went back to Amazon and they are also adverting the new flavor. The Tiger Sauce web site even has a “find a store near you” page that will show several stores and whether these stores are supposed to have the original and/or the new flavor sauce. Food Lion in Westwood Shopping Center is supposed to have both flavors in stock. I hope to see if the new flavor is actually in stock there later today. It’s a little after 1 am now.