It would seem that Amazon is taking a page from Sears and Roebuck, as it is a wishbook full of toys and a wish list. Strange. Surreal. A million thoughts poured through my head. Mostly settling on the pure irony of it all. Amazon is one of the reason that stores like Sears and the other brick and mortars have been shuttering their doors for decades now. The fact that they are repurposing one of their best selling tools, it's ironic to say the least. I guess they realized that children want what they can see, not what they are going to surf the web to look at.
The next thought was that a little marketing survey - or even looking at our purchasing history - would have told them that we have no small children in our home, nor do we purchase toys from Amazon. Or at least not many.
I don't know, the whole mix of thoughts and feelings simply put a bad taste in my mouth. It felt ugly. Although I have admitted that I am really struggling with sheer volume of commercialism that is being forced on us. I glanced through, as the cover doesn't truly tell what is inside. Pages and pages of shiny plastic toys. All designed to stir a desire in children for the fancy things that they will quickly tire of.
If you are on my Christmas list this year, you might be disappointed. All of my gifts are going to be practical. Most will be made with love, I will be thinking about you and focusing on how much I love and cherish you while I make them.
I don't want a ton of useless items to flow from or to me. There is simply too much of that in the world already. Add to that the fact that it isn't even Halloween and you are bombarding me with your holiday wares... ugghhh...
Okay, I think I will climb off my soapbox now. I was simply in disbelief. That isn't to say that I am not working on gifts myself, I do that fairly year round. I simply felt overwhelmed by it all. I went to pick up a few random items and the store I walked into looked like an advertisement for Nightmare before Christmas, no Jack wasn't lingering everywhere, but one side of the aisle was Halloween and the other Christmas. Slow down!
I fear I am becoming a scrooge as I start this new phase of my life. Or maybe I am simply becoming weary with the world we are having forced down our throats. Not sure which it is. But I do not intend to linger on it today.
Hubs is home for the next two days, he's injured himself with a pulled muscle and will need to chill out. Then he is back to work for a single day, before we take our first long vacation of the year. We are planning to go camping for a solid week. I know most folks head out during the summer months, but neither of us are over the moon with heat, both of us LOVE the beauty of autumn.
It should be interesting, as he will be restricted to lifting no more than 5 pounds and I can lift, but I am still not 100% steady on my feet. Truth is once we set up camp, neither of us should have anything to worry about. Just sitting around, relaxing and enjoying the beauty around us. Short walks for therapy, hours of relaxation and rest in the great outdoors. Hubs will fish, he can't be near water and not fish it is physically impossible for him, he better not finally snag that 8 pounder.
We struggled to agree on the direction we were going to head. I didn't trust my own willpower on heading too close to Hamilton, I long to visit Missouri Star Quilt Company, it is definitely on my bucket list. What isn't on my bucket list right now is buying anymore supplies. Again with that darn consumerism thing. I can't be trusted. I am as bad as the kiddo's are with the toys when you get me anywhere near supplies that I could possibly need some day. So... we put a big no to that one. Besides it was over 4 hours away and towing the camper and adding in my needed stops it would probably take us six hours to get there. That is not in my realm right now.
I also wanted to go north to capture the true beauty of autumn. Then I realized that the beauty was all around us and there was no need to focus on one area. In the end we settled for our first state park experience just 90 minutes from home and not terribly far from where we used to own land for camping. In an area we have explored many times and always find something new to love. The other places promised far too many temptations for trail walks and caves to explore. I can't do those right now.
I am looking forward to stepping away. I love my home, but I also love my camper. I love being disconnected and relaxing.
Guess it's time to re-immerse myself back into the real world. The one that can't decide what holiday we are on, where the clock spins out of control and the days fly by. The world is changing though. People are changing. I guess I need to learn to use a bit more patience...
Love and Peace!
Good one! 381+
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