I wonder about some things and I have been known to ponder things that most other folks don’t waste time thinking about.  I don’t know why I am this way.  I don’t think I was always this way.  I think it is a byproduct of developing the researcher in me.  I now exist in a state of endless curiosity and the focus of my curiosity can be anything from the bottling size of hair products to what causes autism.

I imagine my curiosity has to be annoying at times to folks.  When I asked Christina, the nice young lady who helped me with my cabinet order at Menards, about the aprons Menards employees wear, how many they get and how long they wear the holiday version she answered politely, but I thought later that she probably thought me to be decidedly odd for inquiring about such a thing.When I ask Cheyenne abstract things about her school, teachers or friends she becomes exasperated and asks me why I always need to know every weird little thing about the world.

I wish I knew why I was so curious about such things.  I wish I could narrow the focus of my curiosity so that I could just concentrate it like a laser beam on one or two important topics – that would be powerful.  Instead I often end up with odd curiosities that once answered basically satisfy my curiosity, but that supply me with information I will likely never utilize again in my lifetime – like the number of aprons each Menard employee gets.

Sometimes my curiosities bounce around in my head until I have the time and opportunity to finally talk to someone about them.  Today I have a few things in my head – questions, curiosities and ponderings – that I’d like to share with you  and hear your thoughts on.

Things like:

Why does the hair conditioner always run out before the shampoo?  And do you think that this fact has gone un-noted by hair product manufacturers?  Why haven’t they created smaller shampoo bottles and larger conditioner bottles?  I estimate that I need about 2/3 of a bottle of shampoo to each full bottle of conditioner.  Why hasn’t some consumer savvy hair product manufacturer come up with the idea of packaging a smaller bottle of shampoo with a larger bottle of conditioner?    Or is it just my household that uses more conditioner than shampoo?  It can’t be that I am the first to notice this…can it?

Do you think the designer of auto-start has oil investments?  I have used an awful lot of extra gas in the short period that I have had my auto-start.  The magically warm car at a push of a button comes with a price…one that I am willing to pay, but that I am quite curious about.  The truly brilliant person who saw gas use leveling off might have designed auto-start to increase usage via a luxury car item. It’s a backdoor approach to increasing fuel usage….smart and crafty indeed.

What does a lifetime warranty on a floor really mean?  My lifetime?  A 20 year old’s lifetime?  Or the lifetime of your patience looking at the same flooring?  Is flooring a one-time investment that you keep forever?  Or is a lifetime warranty on flooring just a gimmick to make some floors more appealing than others? Does anyone ever really use their flooring’s lifetime warranty?

Why are almost all cat scratching posts covered in bland neutral carpet?  Does that have to do with what appeals to cats or with what the manufacturer thinks will appeal to their owners?  Wouldn’t a cat appreciate a really colorful scratching post?  Why not red or purple or rainbow-colored scratching posts?  Why not custom scratching posts that are specially designed to match your home’s decor?  Do really wealthy people have such scratching posts? Doesn’t the truly discerning cat want a scratching post that has a carpet color other than gray or tan?

Yeah, I know…too many questions…it gets annoying…but c’mon – aren’t you just a little curious about this stuff?

Day five hundred and fifty-six of the new forty – obla di obla da

Ms. C