10 Things I Can't Live Without

 Yea, this is all BS but you know.  I'm home.  It snowed a FOOT and got HEAVY and I am on a shoveling break.   Watching youtubes and apparently GQ for a while did a 10 things celebrities couldn't live without.  Mostly they think headphones and watches are essentials.  Uh...whatever.

Leaving aside things I really can't live without like air, water, food, shelter, yada yada yada.

Here's 10 things I really like having:

Ipod (which is now and old iphone with the sim card taken out).  Need my fatto app (free version, obviously).   And it's a handy way to have audio books.  I like falling asleep with someone reading me a story.  I also keep my master list in it.  The iphone is an improvement on the old ipod touch (may it rest in peace) because when I accidentally delete the master list, I can get it back.  The Master List includes, groceries, hardware, errands in town that need doing when I'm there, things my stock is low on (flour, bouillion cubes, underwear) so I can get those if there is a big sale or something.   And I use it as an alarm clock.  

Phone.  Flip phone.  I don't want a smartphone.  I like to separate my devices.  The ipod/phone is for email if there is free wifi, lists and whatnot.  It is rarely on the internet.  The flip phone is for texts and calls.  And lately getting lots of squares (no emojis on the flip phone).

Wool socks!  Love my wool socks.  I have heavy ones, light ones, thing ones, thick ones.  Got some super cool fancy high tech ones for xmas. Have some alpaca wool socks from a few years back and some giant knitted NW Coast wool sock booties that are on my feet the minute the floor of the wee shed gets cold.  I won't even know it's cold.  

Mouse-proof food storage. Jars and tins.  The little beggars can't bite through those AND cleanup is easy.  

Shovels.  I have a good collection of shovels.  I think only 2 were bought retail and that was due to a time crunch.  The snow shovel...aluminum with a wood (replaceable) handle.  Plastic snow shovels are STUPID.  This cost about 5$ more than a plastic one and I've had it since I moved out to the wee shed.  This is its 6th winter.  It is bent up and beaten and rusty and still moves snow.  The other retail shove was a basic rounded-point shovel for moving dirt.  Use it TONS and again, had it on the thrift/garage sale list but there came a time when I just really needed to get some dirt moved and had to spring for retail.  Again, metal with a wood handle.  It's alright.   Oh wait!  There is a 3rd retail priced shovel.  A short handled square blade one.  It's in the truck right now for snow.  I wanted a shovel that fit in the back of the car and would move snow.  Also needed one for straight walled holes. Flat/square blade for the straight walls and short handle so it fits in the car better.  The car isn't being used so it's in the truck.  I have a half dozen thrift/garage sale shovels.  As long as the blade is good I get them.  ONe is a round blade with a bat as a handle.  Like a baseball bat.  It's short but good for the raised beds with tops on them.  A few small scoop shovels for moving poo and for days like today when the snow is too heavy for the snow shovel to be effective.   The small scoop preserves the spine a bit.  They all get used.  

Long johns.  Warm, handy, and in summer they can be jammies.   Now that I'm doing zoom yoga at home, with the camera off, they are also yoga pants.  I'm wearing some now!  I have some that are SUPER stretched out and old and ratty.  They are jammies but this may be their last winter as a garment.  I can't keep them up with out a belt or new elastic..

Good hair care utensils.  Wooden comb, boar bristle brush.  I have 2 wooden combs right now and a really good boar bristle brush.   (Thanks Katie!!).  These are much better for my crappy hair and for the no-poo hair regime.  Plastic or nylon bristles make way more static and plastic combs mostly shred my hair. 

Buckets.  Love me some buckets.  I used them to haul small amounts of wood inside for the stove, keep one by the stove for waste water (like from doing dishes and rinsing coffee grounds out of my french presses), another for the composting toilet (well marked...once a bucket is a toilet, it can never be anything else, it is the end of the bucket line).   Plastic buckets, mostly free from the recycling center are used to haul water/wood/whatever until they are too broken or have holes.  Then I grow potatoes or something in them.  And then, when they are too busted up for potato planting, I used them to haul trash to the dumpsters. 

Coffee brewing equipment.  I have at the moment...IN the wee shed 5 stainless steel french presses, 3 percolators, 2 moka pots (one is a tiny camping version that makes 1 small demi-tasse at a time), 2 versions of pour overs, and some non-functioning antique graniteware coffee pots.  I do NOT Have a problem.  I do.  ALL were gifts or thrift.   The stainless steel french presses run $35 and up new, I have paid 3$ tops.  The 3 percolators were 1 or 2 bucks each at thrift.  In the office I have a BIG stainless steel percolator (thanks Pam!) that currently serves to make a colleague jealous more than it makes coffee.  I like making coffee.  Even bad coffee.  I also have a hand grinder from thrift that I've used 2 or 3 years so far.  I have an antique one in storage but it takes up too much room.  

DVDs. I like movies.  I don't like streaming movies.  I like the DVD extras, the wide screen option, the subtitle options, the commentaries, the little extra featurettes that I usually hate but then can talk about how much I hate them.  Movies are good.  I have a few series on DVD as well.  Not many.  

None of these are essentials and maybe I could have listed things like "good underpants" (which I am short on at the moment)  or jeans and t-shirts and sweatshirts and boots because that's pretty much my daily uniform.  But I didn't.

If GQ asked me, which they won't, to answer their stupid question.  This is what I would say today.

Good Riddance 2020.   Happy 2021 to all of us.