A new reader, AJ, commented on an earlier post:

That’s the one thing I would miss about the US. Stuff. Whatever you need, you can usually find it cheap on Craigslist or a yard sale or something. I needed a cement mixer a few years ago, found a really nice one on CL that had been tipped over onto it’s motor, which ruined the motor. Bought it for $50, found a motor in a thrift store for $10. Put it together and still use it. I guess there are trade-offs for everything.

We had lots of stuff. Prior to leaving for Mexico, after several garage sales, we still arrived at in-laws with this (plus a laden minivan and laden pickup truck that pulled the trailer):

We moved from the USA to Mexico in a pickup truck. A few years later, what we shipped from Mexico to Uruguay fit on one pallet (we also brought lots of luggage).

There are advantages to shipping a container of household goods from the United States — you can bring additional quality furniture scoured from Craigslist or estate sales. But every American’s “household goods” container I’ve seen looks like the photo above. Not a curated collection of carefully-chosen objects — just stuff.

Most of which they weren’t using there, and won’t be using here.

And obtw we do have Mercado Libre. 😉

We have two phones in our house: one local, and one VOIP with our business number in the United States. The six pictured here comprise neither of those two.

The farthest we brought from Mexico. Nice, solid thing but it dropped and cracked. Next to it, one we bought in Chuy, one of the towns on the Brazilian border where bargains can be found, and stuff brought back duty-free with a foreign passport. I hooked it up after taking the picture, and shortly after hearing it crackle and sputter, chucked it in the trash.

I know we’ve brought phones form the States. But why, and why so many?

Meanwhile, I realize the concept of a land line is kind of quaint. Why spend USD 15 on a phone and not-very-much (a bit over USD 10 last month) for a fixed line, when you can spend USD 500 on a smart phone and a bunch per month for a mobile plan, risk losing the phone and personal data, meanwhile irradiating your brain every time you use it, and your gonads when you carry it in your pocket?

Obviously I’ve thought about these things, their real consequences and costs, and speak with some authority.

Alas, I still feel like a phoney. And an old school phoney at that.

I saw this morning that my cheap Chinese alarm clock had died. The first battery lasted six months; its replacement more like four.

The package of five replacement batteries cost only $1.80, with free shipping from Hong Kong to Uruguay, so no big deal. I put one in the alarm clock, set about setting the time, and suddenly the thing made a strange noise and the clock face turned to gibberish.

I wanted to take a photo, but couldn’t find my camera, and realized that if I’ve lost it, I might not particularly miss it. I’ve gotten kind of tired of carrying it everywhere. I neither have nor want a smart phone.

I grabbed our older point-and-shoot camera, but it wouldn’t turn on, even though the battery was fine just a couple days ago.

Then I sat down to my desk, and the UbiRock vibration speaker which inexplicably died a few weeks ago. Oh well, I mostly use headphones anyway.

Then I remembered the indestructible Westclox Big Ben / Baby Ben windup clocks I grew up with. I wonder if they still sell wind-up clocks? Indeed they do:

When Westclox alarm clocks were made in America you couldn’t beat ’em–or sleep through their alarm! Now they’re made in China, and the Baby Bens I’ve been buying last routinely from two weeks to four months. Then they just stop ringing, and sometimes stop telling time, whether the winder is wound up all the way or just a few turns. They stop without warning & on the day they do, you sleep in–miss work, miss your appointment, miss your plane. I’ve traded them in for a new one ten or twelve times. They never last longer than four months. I’ve finally given up. Thinking of a Baby Ben? Don’t waste your money!
T
hen I wondered why I even need a bedside clock.

Then I remembered Chicago, from a time when I did need to wind the clock and set the alarm every day. Does anybody really care?