The cost of living

The 16oz container was purchased in the summer of 2005 at a Grocery Outlet or similar store for one dollar. The price is built right into the label. The 11 oz container was purchased at the same place one year later also for one dollar though the price has disappeared from the label. What caused this precipitate increase? Did the cost of corn syrup and vegetable oils etc increase? Or was it the packaging? The containers are pleasing to hold. Firm yet pliant, fitting the hand well and retaining a comfortable temperature in most conditions. The label design though unexceptional is relatively pleasing. The sky blue color is soothing and the beverage cup pictured is unthreatening and approachable. Perhaps it was the plastic that increased in cost with the price of oil. I did find a thirty-five ounce container of creamer that worked out at a dollar a pound at Walmart, but I only use the stuff when I run out of Nido when I am in my van. I wonder how the powers that be never acknowledge the real increase in our yearly cost of living?

The other cost of living I have been thinking about is what we encounter in daily situations. Today I went to a tai chi class and nearly expired of cold. The teacher said you can mentally overcome cold and Tibetans do it all the time. Not the Tibetans I saw. They kept themselves warm with heavy wool clothing and an endless supply of hot tea or water in their guts. So I suffered through the class and came home and turned on the heat and poured hot liquids through myself until I regained equilibrium. After the class a German woman lectured me on the Bill of Rights and how we should practice defending these rights in all situations. Wasn't sure if she was telling me I should have left or insisted on the right to a living temperature. The others were cold, but not as cold as me.

Another example? This involves dogs and humans. At the dog park I met an apparently pleasant couple and we talked dog talk and watched our dogs. Then a friend of mine came up with his dogs. He immediately separated his dogs and appeared to snarl in our direction. He let my dogs into his section of the park to play so I went over to chat. He really hated the other couple. Their dogs were fine with each other. I am concerned, because I like this man who is Hispanic, unemployed and has bad teeth. The people he hated were white ex military RV dwellers. All three love and rescue dogs, they are all good people. My concern is that I might offend this man without knowing it, as the ex militaries seem to have done.

I guess what this all means to me is that the cost of living, even in pleasant circumstances, is inevitably high.....