Yes being reasonably healthy loss most of my hearing very thankful to have my better half to help me thru that
Little things we take for granted
- Thread starter Joey
- Start date
Clean water and air (excluding Cali), abundant food, quality reliable medical care, people who WANT to work in local governments, the place where used toilet bowl stuff goes, electricity for home appliances, automobiles, family, personal hygiene stuff (Q-tips, fingernail clippers, soap, shavers etc.) and the second amendment.
GypsmJim
GypsmJim
Having a furnace that runs automatically, thus you don't need to go to the woodshed to get a can of kerosene every night.
Having a phone in the house so you don't have to walk a block to the phone booth.
Having snowplows go down your street so you can drive the car in the winter.
Having a basement so you can have a nice workshop to cast boolits and reload brass.
Having a garage for your car. (Nevermind) Having a garage big enough that ALL your cars and boats can be stored inside.
Having a good family.
Having a good doctor that will heal you even though you just got real sick.
Having access to forums so you can learn about your hobbies.
Living in a safe neighborhood.
WAIT....WAIT. Maybe not all these things are taken for granted, but rather cherished.
Having a phone in the house so you don't have to walk a block to the phone booth.
Having snowplows go down your street so you can drive the car in the winter.
Having a basement so you can have a nice workshop to cast boolits and reload brass.
Having a garage for your car. (Nevermind) Having a garage big enough that ALL your cars and boats can be stored inside.
Having a good family.
Having a good doctor that will heal you even though you just got real sick.
Having access to forums so you can learn about your hobbies.
Living in a safe neighborhood.
WAIT....WAIT. Maybe not all these things are taken for granted, but rather cherished.
OP
Bathrooms. My paternal grand parents had running water in the house but the toilet was an outhouse about 50 yards from the house. At night they had slop buckets you did your business in. Try going to an outhouse in 25 degree weather! When I was a child, I got into the medicine cabinet and found some chocolate. I ate most of the pack. Turns out it was es-lax! I sat on that slop jar half the night, and had to have it emptied a coupla times! Taught me a hugh lesson!
OP
That this old man is starring back at me every morning in the mirror. Means I've made it thru another night!!
Scares me near to death.................
Scares me near to death.................
OH get real! The water in California meets all federal standards. Unlike places like Flint, Michigan (though they have supposedly corrected that) where politicians made water quality decisions based on money not science. Air quality in California is leaps and bounds above where it was 10 years ago not to mention 50. Read son, read!
I do, about smog, water shortages, water fights over usage.
"Since 2024 and through most of 2025, Los Angeles County ranks third among U.S. counties for number of unhealthy air quality days with air pollution. Riverside and San Bernardino Counties in California ranks first and second in the country."
"Unexpected factors behind California’s water crisis
California is known for its sunny skies and fertile farmland, yet the state keeps facing surprising water shortages. Even with rivers, lakes, and modern infrastructure, communities, farms, and cities struggle to get enough water."
Okay, you just triggered a lesson in politics. The reason areas of SoCal have bad air days isn't that the air is getting worse. In fact, it has improved greatly. But when the number of bad days drops the air quality agencies "lower" the standard, thus creating (artificially) smoggy days. It all done for the single purpose of ensuring money to operate their operations.
Very little known fact. Back in the 80's some of the air quality boards got too big for their britches. They kept passing regulations that were strangling businesses. Forcing many to leave the state. They had no oversight from elected officials.
In response, they legislature dramatically cut their budget and began passing laws governing and overseeing these organizations. It worked fairly well for several decades. Air quality continued to improve and business got a break.
Over the last two decades, the legislature and executive branches have become peopled by the same types of folks who once ran the air quality boards. As a result the draconian rules are back. But this time there are no cooler heads to rein them in.
So to reiterate, we have more smoggy days but we have cleaner air. Or simply put, politics as usual. And, of course, we are seeing business and industry flee again.
Very little known fact. Back in the 80's some of the air quality boards got too big for their britches. They kept passing regulations that were strangling businesses. Forcing many to leave the state. They had no oversight from elected officials.
In response, they legislature dramatically cut their budget and began passing laws governing and overseeing these organizations. It worked fairly well for several decades. Air quality continued to improve and business got a break.
Over the last two decades, the legislature and executive branches have become peopled by the same types of folks who once ran the air quality boards. As a result the draconian rules are back. But this time there are no cooler heads to rein them in.
So to reiterate, we have more smoggy days but we have cleaner air. Or simply put, politics as usual. And, of course, we are seeing business and industry flee again.
GasGuzzler
Hawkeye
Or ever.
We in Walnut Creek California have the best tasting clean water in the whole United States east bay mud
1974, the Safe Drinking Water Act was passed. Even before that most places in the US already had better water quality than most of the rest of the world. With remarkably few exceptions the water supply in this country has remained untainted.
Sure there are places like Flint Michigan. But in most cases poor decisions by local officials have resulted in the problems. The one major exception is the contamination of aquifers with MTBE. The use of MTBE was mandated by the feds against the advice of the petroleum industry.
One thing that seems silly is folks who rage about micro plastics in water while drinking their water out of a plastic bottle.
Sure there are places like Flint Michigan. But in most cases poor decisions by local officials have resulted in the problems. The one major exception is the contamination of aquifers with MTBE. The use of MTBE was mandated by the feds against the advice of the petroleum industry.
One thing that seems silly is folks who rage about micro plastics in water while drinking their water out of a plastic bottle.
Dang, I thought this thread was about the many little things we should be grateful for that we take for granted.
God is good. I am healthy. I have food & water, transportation, employment & a loving family. That isn't even getting into the little stuff like nail clippers, cool firearms, good friends & the list goes on.
God is good. I am healthy. I have food & water, transportation, employment & a loving family. That isn't even getting into the little stuff like nail clippers, cool firearms, good friends & the list goes on.
That is the other thing I learned to appreciate after Long Covid. I had major problems with that- major. Yup, simply inhaling and exhaling is WONDERFUL!
Teflon97116
Single-Sixer
Not too terribly far back in the history of this country, the "old west" is often romanticized in movies and TV shows. Fun and entertaining to watch, but imagine actually experiencing life in those times without:
- Showers
- Refrigeration
- Flush toilets and sewers
- Toothpaste
- Trash collection and remote landfills
- Antibiotics
They might seem like little things today because we DO tend to take them for granted, but I'd miss any/all of them within moments if I were magically transported back in time to that world.
Beyond mere convenience and comfort, without those "basics,' the average US life expectancy of 78 (ish) today would trend very quickly back toward 47 as it was in 1900.
- Showers
- Refrigeration
- Flush toilets and sewers
- Toothpaste
- Trash collection and remote landfills
- Antibiotics
They might seem like little things today because we DO tend to take them for granted, but I'd miss any/all of them within moments if I were magically transported back in time to that world.
Beyond mere convenience and comfort, without those "basics,' the average US life expectancy of 78 (ish) today would trend very quickly back toward 47 as it was in 1900.
Last edited:
CharlesBSummers
Bearcat
Chinese Buffets!
model70man
Bearcat
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2016
- Messages
- 60
"As a man, the ability to stand and pee. On my now many nightly trips to the john, I often neglect to appreciate this."
I have to watch out for the occasional "splitfire".
GypsmJim
GypsmJim
After Grandma died, Mom had Grandpa over for dinner every Tuesday night. After he left Mom would always complain that he dribbled on the edge of the toilet. Now that I'm his age I understand why.
I look around my home and think about all of the little things that I do everyday without thinking too much about them. Walking into the kitchen and making a fresh cup of coffee, turning the handle and having hot water for my shower, clicking the flat screen TV on whenever I feel like it. Plus pressing a button on my key fob and having my car start up and start getting warm before I even leave the house. And on and on. Being able to drive a two minute drive to a giant grocery store that gives me access to more food and other items than my grandparents, and maybe even my parents could have dreamed about. Opening the laptop that I am typing on right now and clicking on the Amazon link and ordering almost anything and having it reach my front door by tomorrow. We live in truly amazing times, at least here in America and at least for the middle class. A retired old codger like myself, who never earned a fortune when working, can live better than kings and queens did not so long ago.
Being able to still breathe without the help of O2, though I have COPD. Normal hearing would be also right near the top. Hearing aids are great..... when working properly and a royal PITA when not, like now. Left isn't working at all and the right is loud and has a rushing background 'noise'.
The older one gets the more things we realize we have taken for granted and now wish we had it back.
4896worker
Single-Sixer
- Joined
- May 3, 2017
- Messages
- 117
bobski
Hunter
doctors and dentists.............
who with new techonolgy perform miracles and save lives daily.
who with new techonolgy perform miracles and save lives daily.
when I was growing up we had a kerosene burning heater that we had to take a like 3 gallon little barrel off the back and take it outside to the 275 gallon tank and fill it. it was the only heat in the house. no electricity upstairs until I was a teenager. slept under like 10 blankets in the winter.
Try to imagine what a thread with this title will get as comments 30 years from now. So much of life today involves things that 30 or 40 years ago would have been thought of as "science fiction". That includes having a device in your hands the size of a deck of cards that gives you access not only to speak to almost anyone on Earth but to essentially all of human knowledge. Or being able to get in your car and heading to a destination thousands of miles away that you have never been to previously without a map or a thought about how you will get there other than speaking to the GPS device and giving it the final address. Or having a transplanted heart when your own heart is ready to fail. Makes me wonder about how much better things will be in the future. Maybe even having one of the flying cars we dreamed about in the '50's.
OP
Imagine a flying Earnhardt............
I don't however, forsee the time when humans' lives will be greatly extended by AI. Declining cognitive skills, for example...I would never trust AI to reinvigorate my mind.
