Spotted at Wolze’s/5 Point Hardware store: a penny cup with an attitude. I guess the cup isn’t down with the Anti-Work perspective, at least it has a sense of humor.
Every once in awhile, even the finest ranfla has to get some repairs done on our city streets, this one seems to be in for some rear brake pad replacement. One of my many landlords stipulated in the contract, as a condition for rental, that we could not do any car repairs on the property or on the streets adjacent. Yeah, whatever you say, Crazy Lady. But you sign it anyways cuz who gives a shit what they stipulate. This is Lincoln Heights, most everyone has to take a wrench to their carcancha every once in awhile, like it or not. In my case, it’s always not. Unfortunately, the duct tape repairs do not last forever. There’s a reason why we have so many auto-parts retailers around here, lots of people still prefer to try their hand at fixing their ride on the cheap rather than spend a grip of money on repairs by some mechanic that might not be on the up and up. It’s DIY borne of necessity, something many Lincoln Heightians know only too well.
You have more time than money, parts are cheaper at the Autozone, shit’s broke anyways: ain’t gonna hurt to try fixing it yourself! The only real drawback is that soon enough, someone unscrewing the oil drain plug under their car, will eventually get their feet run over by some menso driving like a baboso. The Car-Self-Repair world will mourn during a regularly scheduled menudo break, talking about the menso that got hit by that other menso that was driving like a baboso. A lime or two will be squeezed in acknowledgment, though that may be completly unrelated. And then, the fix goes on.
I love the Big Saver on Figueroa and Ave 26, it has a great selection of items and the veggies are always super cheap! This is where many locals who still cook get their staples: potatoes, onions, chiles, meat, nopales, ajo, frutas, and all the other things you can use as ingredients for a meal. Those that tend to warm up their food go to Vons, they have all the deals on the prepared, packaged, or frozen items that have become the basis of the modern american diet. I love being at the Big Saver just to be around other working people that still take the time to make a real dish, people that still care about the quality of what one eats. Occasionally there’s a small conversation about how bad the tomatillos are this week, or the great bargain on mangos, and even sometimes a viejita will let me in on the fact that the freshest dried chile guajillos are over on that corner of the bin: even though the food here is always subpar to the stuff you can get at Whole Foods, most still care about getting the best quality food, at a price they can afford. Unless you are filthy rich, buying fruits and veggies at Whole Foods is an act of restraint, you buy just enough for todays sandwich or for the pretty garnish with which to dress your salad; it’s a place for nibblers, not for cooks. At the Big Saver, you can walk out with 10 bags full of veggies for less than 10 dollars, I kid you not.
Enough with the diatribe, here’s some random pics and info about the Big Saver, click ahead if interested.
Supposedly, the Goodwill Thrift Store is the largest private employer in LH. They do have lots of people coming in to their massive sorting complex/headquarters/whatever it is, but they also provide jobs for many of the “shoppers”: at all times there are throngs of people waiting for the next rack of new items to hit the floor, so they can scavenge for something useful that they can resell. At the loading dock in this photo, they buy full racks of stuff and the buyers spend the next couple of hours trying to fit it all into vans, trucks, and improvised pickups. You’ve seen them, those little pickups with plywood sidewalls, packed to teetering heights with an assortment of things by a complex process of stacking in a not-fun game of Junk Jenga. (Or would that be Trash Tetris?) Or maybe you’ve sped past them on the freeway, hoping to avoid the very real possibility of colliding with some of the falling detritus of our modern society. A number of those trucks begin their travels here, or maybe at the St. Vincents a block away.
This is the “First World” equivalent to the “Third World” trash dumps where kids and grownups roam mountains of trash scavenging for things to use or sell, we are just one step and a fence removed from that scenario, but since they don’t let you check things out in our local dumps, we remain a classy country. Many people seem to make their living this way, in a parallel poverty economy. I once made lots of extra video game cash by, umm, rescuing boxes of Toffifay chocolates from a local landfill: sold them 2×1, played lots of Mario Bros, and nobody died. Hey, I was a kid, I didn’t know I could charge full price! 😉 In any case, it will be be helpful to have the Goodwill nearby during the coming economic collapse!
Universal Remote Doorbell installed in every car, assuming your horn functions. Works at all apartments, homes, projects, and sidewalk tents. Please be kind to the neighbors and only ring once.
I guess I had it all wrong. Check this video clip, it’s explains it all in a nutshell! 🙂
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