"It Isn't Available Anymore"

I get so tired of hearing that these days. Seems like whenever you get something that's really good........when it fnally wears out....the "replacement" no longer exists, or is some cheap thing DESIGNED not to last---so you have to replace it sooner.

My Mom & Dad bought a Philco refrigerator in 1951, and the only thing that ever went wrong with it, was that the light quit working when you opened the door, which was no fault of the bulb. They bought a new one in the 1980's, and the old Philco ended up in Dad's woodshop to keep his beer cold.......in the DARK.....but cold.

They're both gone now, but it wouldn't surprise me a BIT if that old Philco was still out in the old shop RUNNING.

I have a Kodak Instamatic 124 "drop-in cartridge" camera that survived Vietnam and beyond.......and would STILL WORK TODAY if you could get film for it.......along that time frame, I bought a self-winding Timex wristwatch for about 8 bucks at the PX in Camp Pendleton, and I firmly believe that IT would still be running, if I hadn't dropped a transmission on it about 25 years ago!

PK-5......a MARVELOUS ointment that relieved back & joint pain better than anything I've ever used..........and a year or two ago, they quit making it!

I bought a VHS Camcorder 6 years ago for my return trip to Vietnam............still works perfectly today, but is now "obsolete" and you almost can't get film for it.

Everything has to be "digital" now......or BATTERY-POWERED.....or lightweight "space-age" PLASTIC which doesn't hold up, forcing you to HAVE to replace things a lot sooner than you'd figured on.

Cars......30-grand......you drop 6 or 7 as soon as you drive it off the lot, and by the time you get it paid for.....you're practically GIVING it away when you go to sell it.

They're making things cheaper and charging us MORE for them.

I don't fit real well in the 21st century. I understand inflation, but I still want 20-feet of car, and 104-106 octane gas to put IN it! I mean, we're PAYING 5 times more for things than we did "back when"......so I figured we're at least entitled to our MONEY'S worth!

When I was a kid, a toy TONKA truck was made of STEEL, and if you thought to keep it (or your mom didn't throw it away when you left home)............your GRANDKIDS could still be playing with it today. Toys like that, (erector sets & lincoln logs), also promoted CREATIVE thought among the kids, instead of numbing their minds with all these battery-powered videogames that make "trained couch potatoes" out of them.

A home is a big investment.......and when you pay for a house with a "2-car garage", it should BE a TWO-CAR GARAGE!

Yesterday......when I couldn't find VHS-S recording tapes....it was the same old scene-------"it isn't available anymore......you might try "on-line."

(seems like more and more, you have to "go on line" for just about anything you want............or......what's the other one?......."We might be able to ORDER it for you!")

You walk into an auto parts store, hardware store, lumber store...............if they no longer have something that YOU have used successfully for DECADES.......they always seem to have something "just as good"............ever notice that?

"hey dude......if I WANTED Blue Streak ignition parts, I'd have ASKED for them. I want BORG-WARNER. I don't want a WIX filter, no matter HOW much of a sale they're on this week......I've used FRAM for 40 years now, and that's what I asked for."

I don't like being "sold" stuff either. I do not deal with telemarketers and do not strike up any conversations with door-to-door salesmen...........If I feel I NEED something, I will go OUT and buy it,

I am a baptist because I CHOOSE to be one. If I wanted to be a Mormon or a Jehovah's Witness, I'm quite capable of finding your church in a town this size, so don't be ringing my doorbell in the middle of the afternoon trying to sell your religion to me.

But..............not only isn't it "AVAILABLE anymore", but now it is also -------"We don't DO that anymore."

Many decades ago, before liberal judges and bleeding heart lawyers, we used to HANG horse thieves. By contrast today, "Grand Theft Auto" is practically a misdemeanor.

In some states today, if you protect YOUSELF because the COPS aren't there to do it----it is YOU who gets prosecuted because you were acting "out of bounds" and it "wasn't your job" to stop that criminal...........ie: "We don't DO things like that today."

Ever known anyone who had to mortgage their home to put their kid through college? Probably.---------------an incarcerated felon can get an education for FREE and a degree to go with it. So can a California Illegal............so besides your "new mortgage" for YOUR kid.......you get to pay for these other guys too!

But.........."That's just the way it is today."

I looked all over town a few months ago for a particular size bolt and corresponding nut. Nobody had it, except ONE place.....but the "fly in the intment" was that you had to buy the entire box of 100!

I needed TWO. What was I supposed to do with the other 98?...set 'em up on a shelf for posterity?.......lay 'em out in a garage sale?

"You can't buy them as "EACH" anymore."

Cable/Satellite TV-------a HUGE "rip-off".........There are 200....300-plus channels available in these "packages".......YOU might watch TEN on a regular basis, but to get ANYTHING, you've got to fork it out for the entire package. NOW------------when you go to a gas station and want 20 dollars worth of gasoline, that's what you PAY.

If you just want bacon & eggs at A.J.'s....they don't charge you for "STEAK DINNERS FOR EVEYBODY!"

So WHY doesn't SOMEBODY come up with a television system where you only PAY for the stations you want?......no.....it "isn't AVAILABLE" that way.

Need a drill bit or a certain size socket?.........in most places, you have to buy the WHOLE set!.....they "aren't AVAILABLE" individually.

Need AIR in your tire? Dig up a quarter or two.........even AIR isn't free anymore........Ain't Available.............

Back to my VHS-C tapes.....my camcorder is "obsolete" now, and TODAY'S recorders are.......(dare I say it?)....."DIGITAL!"----so we go through this whole "2011 routine"........

.......oh yeah, it's all on a small chip, then you get get this adapter for your computer and program it to burn a copy on the disc (so I don't suppose you can edit it if ya needed to)......"OR THEN", he continued, you can buy one of the newer televisions that are already set up for these chips, and...........

(Oh great......now I have to go out and buy a new TELEVISION I don't need.............)

Bottom line here, is that I finally DID find a place that still had 14 of those old recordering tapes on their shelf-------and I bought EVERY ONE OF THEM!

Sometimes I think it's a "conspiracy" of sorts. When they've made all the money they think they can make....they CHANGE the design & operation of things so you HAVE to update........like when they started with beta.....then VHS.........now DVD.....and EACH TIME, you have to buy a "new & different machine" to make it work.

Because everytime you really get into the groove and knowledge of something....and it works well............

"It isn't available anymore."

This "Ethanol" business......they KNOW it eventually destroys fuel lines and gas tanks, so unless you do SOMETHING to COMBAT the effects of it....you're gonna be forced to buy a new vehicle every few years whether you can afford it or not.

And there HAS to be ulterior motives behind this one, because ethanol has been PROVEN to diminish both performance and fuel mileage, so you'll have to buy gas even MORE often than you do now.

Ethanol is made heavily from CORN products, which cuts into the supply and drives food prices up at the same time. Ethanol is a stupid, wasteful, damaging concept and the idiots behind it should be strung up.

REAL gasoline burns a lot more EFFICIENTLY, and it's cleaner...........and do not be mis-led----we are sitting on more oil that the Arabs themselves. If ANYBODY is holding anybody "hostage"....it's OPEC. But you won't find good gasoline these days...........

Like everything else that was good..........it isn't "AVAILABLE anymore."