So I like to carry a small disposable lighter on my person when I leave the house. Because if I’m ever in the situation when I need to make a fire (for an emergency survival situation, gentle reader, not because I dislike someone’s politics, because I am not young and or easily led by the permanent professional and optimized cacophony of the Internet), I want to be able to make a fire easily.
In the past, I’ve grabbed a three pack of small lighters at the checkout stand at the grocery or the Walmart, and I’ve kept them in my pocket provisioning drawer. I lose them here and there when they fall out of my loose pockets when I’m sitting various places–I probably have a bunch hidden in the chair in the parlor or beside the drivers’ seats of my vehicles–but I lost the last of them a couple of weeks ago.
When I went to replace them, I couldn’t find them at the checkout stands any more. I mean, you used to find them everywhere with the candy bars and chapstick.
But Walmart has dramatically cut its point-of-sale merchandise to basically candy bars, and I couldn’t find them at the Pricecutter. So I made a point to look for them.
I found some at the courtesy counter.
They’re now $1.50 each, not three for a dollar or three for a buck fifty.
Given that I’m going to lose them, I certainly don’t want to buy refillable collectible lighters or anything with personality.
But…. I guess it’s just one thing I’m used to being ubiquitous that was ubiquitous geographically but not in the time stream.
Maybe I should pay as much heed to not losing them as I do to the other things in my pockets.
