Mangling my own items

[tarotfindsandmore]

Why does it seem that the older I get the harder it is to open a box?  I seem to have lost the ability to do anything gently anymore.  I actually had to include a line about ME wrecking the package on a new item in the description in one of today's listings.  I took a perfectly pristine box and wrecked it while trying to get to the contents to take pics of the item. When did I become so feeble? or brutish? or whatever it is that has made it impossible to just delicately open a box? I've only had two cups of coffee today for crying out loud.

Am I the only one?

[tarotfindsandmore]

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@chevymontecarlo88 wrote:

Maybe I could even sit in and absorb the caffeine transdermally!

@tarotfindsandmore 

Reminds me of a funny story (at least to me) that i hope you don't mind me sharing and hopefully will not gross anyone out. I remember i first moved out to LA (early 90's) and visited the famous Venice Beach. I remember walking through the crowd of people and seeing tents set up where people would sell incense, art, jewelry and all kinds of things you would see at the beach for tourists to purchase. At that time coffee enemas (cleanse) were popular and being administered in these tents that thousands of people would walk by 🤢.  No, i did not participate in any of that butt (😆) many stood there waiting to be called into the tent. Blew my mind and all i could wonder was where were they dumping the coffee after the procedure. 😳 Never did find out where. 

I still prefer drinking it. (call me old fashioned) 

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🤣🤣🤣

After raising three sons, you'll have to do waaaaaay better than that to gross me out.

[roccotacodad54]

   The battery packages are the worst. They make a tool just for opening those sort of packages, I may have to buy one. For now I have a pair of heavy duty shears that will cut up a chicken, cut cleanly through 8-10oz. leather etc.

[tex-421]

So here’s the real difference between then and now.  I was out mowing the yard this morning and I noticed my new 30-something neighbor across the street was using a push mower, meanwhile without my self propelled mower there is no way I could push that 150lb beast 10’ across the yard in 95 degree heat.  Tempus fugit  

[roccotacodad54]

   I did a beief stint in Mar Vista? in the mid 80's near Venice one year and that doesn't surprise me at all.

   One day I was walking on a sidewalk in Venice Beach and as I passed a gym Hulk Hogan (much younger than now) came out. I'm not a small guy (6ft 2) and stood there like a deer in the headlights, he was huge compared to me.  He just smiled, said Hi and got into the waiting car. 

   One never knew what one would encounter down there. I imagine it's really crazy these days.

[roccotacodad54]

   I have a collection of gadgets just for opening jars. Rubber ones, ones with teeth.....

[tinsoldierunderground]

Yes!  Shears are the plan for those at my house as well.

[mtgraves7984]

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@tinsoldierunderground wrote:

And yes, those damm battery packages are the worst!!!!!

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@everyhaterofthebatterypackages

I thought they were the worst, too, until I started using Imodium. We're talking sundial seconds vs. stopwatch seconds. 😥 🤣

[roccotacodad54]

   Kudos to your neighbor. I use an 80 volt electric (not propelled) but my only neighbor out here in the sticks is in his 40's and uses one of those mowers you sit on like they use in public parks that will turn on a dime.

  His lawns aren't much larger than mine. Of course my only neighbor would be addicted to internal combustion machines that are loud. I don't complain when he blades my driveway in the winter with his Razor four wheeler though.........................

[mommaknows]

@roccotacodad54 

Graduated from Venice High and spent much of my youth in Venice. Oh, the stories I could tell. As for Mar Vista, my parents lived on Braddock for some time.

 

Ps...My tool of choice. 💪

[fern*wood]

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@tex-421 wrote:

So here’s the real difference between then and now.  I was out mowing the yard this morning and I noticed my new 30-something neighbor across the street was using a push mower, meanwhile without my self propelled mower there is no way I could push that 150lb beast 10’ across the yard in 95 degree heat.  Tempus fugit  

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You need to ditch that 150lb boat anchor you are mowing with and get a battery powered one.  I mow with a 40v one (not self propelled) and really enjoy, it unless it gets too hot out.  It takes me around 3 hrs, but at 66 I find it an easy way to exercise. 

[12345jamesstamps]

Barbie Dolls are the worst thing to open and then get out the box...no child can ever get the doll out with those plastic tags or wires or whatever to the cardboard...LOL

[tarotfindsandmore]

They child proof what is supposed to be a child's toy. Oh the irony! 

[roccotacodad54]

   I don't remember the street now. We (ex girlfriend) rented a large poolhouse (I think people call them cassitas now) from a nice well off couple that rarely used the pool. Nice and quiet back there with pool & barbecue privileges.

   Me being raised by a steel worker (dad) and adventerious mom in places near the jobsite at the time (bridges & dams) usually in the sticks just couldn't handle all the people and got claustrophobic and had to move on.

   I bet you did experience alot going to school there. I went to many different schools and grew up all over like a military brat, mostly in very small towns. Sometimes in little trailer communities set up just for the job that ended up becoming established towns on their own after the project made living there worthwile after the bridge/dam was complete. I remember these temp. communities had everything including a church, bar, playground for us kids etc. etc. Until after my 50's I still didn't think any road trip shorter than 8 to 10 hours was a long drive.

   I have no complaints. Saw and experienced alot of places and people. 

[gurlcat]

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@tinsoldierunderground wrote:

While I appreciate the sellers who like to do bulletproof packing, it's difficult for me to unearth the packaged item in many instances without damaging it.  I too, keep a variety of implements in the kitchen/dining room area for this purpose. scissors and single edge razor blades are among most reached for tools.

I still have enough manual dexterity for the most part, although hand strength and steadiness have diminished somewhat.  You're certainly not alone.  

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From buying so much stuff here and seeing all the ways that sellers both under-pack and over-pack, I've arrived at a pretty simple rule for my own sales:

Pack like every postal worker is going to drop-kick the box along the way, and like the buyer is going to open it from a standing position with only their bare hands, over a marble floor. 

[pickapaper]

@toysaver wrote:  "As I have gotten older I noticed they have developed machines to make bottles jars nearly impossible to open.   I guess it's for security so somebody doesn't try to add poison to the pickles."

I don't know if you remember but back in 1982, there was a scandal in which "someone" took bottles of Tylenol and replaced some of the pills with cyanide, apparently while the bottles were still on the store shelves.  Several people died.  That was the beginning of companies using sealed and anti-tampering packaging.