Your Non-negotiable Creature Comforts?

reply to post by whaaa


OK - OKAY

I promise to reassess the whole toilette paper thing right now...

there - just bumped it to 2nd

coffee - still 1st

also - I've never had people - so can but imagine going without

hopefully it won't come to that whaaa

S. Having yard people and servants was just pure fantasy on my part.
Truth be known, I'm the yard people and servant around my place and I'm glad to have the work.

I asked my gf what her non-negotiable creature comfort was and her answer would violate the T&C, so I'll just leave it up to your imagination.

Here's a hint though...

It wasn't this:w: or but if you can conceptualize a hybrid, then you on your way.

reply to post by whaaa


the best things in life are free

:-)

Houris. As described in the Koran. A platoon or two.

A Bombay Fornicator.

A dwarf, a donkey and several yards of good Manila rope.

A case of Laphroaig and another of Lagavulin.

Several hookahs, with lighters as specified by Jean-Léon Gérôme.

A lifetime supply of hypoallergenic lubricant.

Oh, and coffee, of course.




[edit on 29-1-2009 by Astyanax]

A washer and dryer... life really sucks without one. And I mean one in the home, not the laudramat, or a cumunal setup. I've experienced both.

Music... I need music, and not the radio. well... that's last resort.

Sunglasses, they are a must.

Toilet paper is a great one.

Running water. I've lived without it before, and I realized how much I took it for granted. Imagine having to go take a shower by having to walk outside in -40F 200 feet to the shower. Same for the bathroom.

oh and filtered water.

reply to post by miriam0566

being clean - i cant sleep at night unless ive had a shower. cant start my day without one either. (i know, im crazy)

Me neither.

Apparently it means we have dirty minds.

Which reminds me that I need to add a hot-spring-fed Sento (with traditional yuna, of course) to my list of essential creature comforts. That okay with you, Spiramirabilis?

Originally posted by Astyanax
Apparently it means we have dirty minds.

wow... that is soo true

reply to post by Astyanax


cripes

now I have to look stuff up

just so you know - not all of it

now maybe - I know too much

:-)

edit to add - what a funny name for a chair

still - it's a nice looking chair

[edit on 1/29/2009 by Spiramirabilis]

reply to post by eye open doors

A washer and dryer... life really sucks without one. And I mean one in the home, not the laudramat, or a cumunal setup.

on my list of out of this world extravagances that I too might one day possess - these are at the top of my list

I hate to whine about stupid stuff - because life really isn't that hard without them

but still...

Music... I need music...

absolutely - maybe more than food

...Running water. I've lived without it before, and I realized how much I took it for granted...

it does change your world view real fast - going without

running water - but warm running water - a gift from heaven

reply to post by Astyanax

Apparently it means we have dirty minds.

and yet - sometimes a cigar really is just a cigar

nice warm water - being clean...simple

could I be wrong?

Which reminds me that I need to add a hot-spring-fed Sento (with traditional yuna, of course) to my list of essential creature comforts. That okay with you, Spiramirabilis?

of course -

this is what I was after - the things that make people really and truly comfortable and happy

I was imagining things more along the lines of say - running water and toast

but some of us are more complicated than others - clearly

:-)

Great Jung reference! I think all people should experience no running water. Another must have is to be surrounded by kind people. They truly are good medicine.

[edit on 1/29/2009 by eye open doors]

Well, I'm late to the show, as usual. In my defence, when you posted this thread, we were a month out from a Cat 4 hurricane lol. We had a genuine opportunity to answer your thread during the 4 months that we were without conventional power and worse......... internet.

1. love/companionship..... but that's a gimme, isn't it?
2. gotta agree with the coffee, although I'd probably try to go without before using instant coffee. ewg
3. guitar strings. Especially in this salt environment, I hoard them in plastic bags with dessicant in them. Bronzed strings still rust; nylon strings don't have the beatability that I like, but better than nothing
4. Agree with Badgerprints and others....... books. When we moved here from the U.S., I pared the books down to six boxes -- 300 lbs. of the most beloved
5. saffron. I love saffron. saffron good.
6. coconut oil. Homemade, even better. [insert yummy sound]
7. My camera. this is my camera. There are many like it, but this one is mine. Without my camera........
8. comfy underwear. I am a very simple creature.
9. hot water. After the hurricane, this solar shower came in very handy, until I could properly rebuild our ruined solar collector.
10. For whaaa.......... gotta agree with de t.p.
11. Internet. Oh the horrors of being without "fringe" and doom. If you're like me, what you imagine is far worse than what is actually occurring if you're without.

that's it for now. Oh wait.............

12. dental floss

reply to post by argentus


argentus!

it's been almost a year since anyone was in here :-)

love hearing this stuff - on just a couple:

gotta agree with the coffee, although I'd probably try to go without before using instant coffee. ewg

it's one of those things that makes life feel normal and OK

coconut oil. Homemade, even better. [insert yummy sound]

I love it too - but how much work is that - to make your own?

Internet.

at one time I would have laughed at this - but now I think I would lose my mind without it

reply to post by Spiramirabilis


Making your own coconut oil is not a huge amount of work........ it's an activity that you can do while doing something else, like housecleaning or reading, etc.

There are two methods I know of and have tried -- the cold press, where coconut is shredded and put in a mesh bag to press out the coconut milk. Then, the whole thing can be refrigerated to float the mostly pure oil on the top.

The second method starts like the first, but the "mash" is boiled until the water boils off, leaving mostly pure oil.

I forgot to add a very important creature comfort to the above list: soap. Your asking about coconut oil reminded me of that, because earlier in the year, I wanted to make my own soap, just to make sure I could. I can't count on there being pigs here (lard) nor cows (tallow), and fish oils are primarily in warm water fish (not that that'd make a good soap ewg). So, that left coconut oil as a consistent source of fat for soap.

Now THAT is a legthy activity, and one that requires paying attention, as the lye and mixing has dangerous potential. On the fourth attempt, I added homedried sea salt, and that made the final product set into a bar that I could cut up. Now that I know I can do it, I can go back to being lazy and just buying soap. For now. That goes into the SitX ziplocked recipe bag along with my formula for Naseberry wine, Cocoplum wine, homemade fuels and other stuff I hope to not need.

Uh oh....... did I just wander afar off-topic into [shudder] survival? oops

reply to post by argentus


no - not off topic!

I agree - I love soap

and I actually really like survival skill information

I'm not knowledgeable at all about most of it (OK - all of it)

but I prefer plant-soap hands down to meat-soap :-)

I'd have to buy coconuts at the store to do this - I gather you can find them just lying around?

lucky you :-)

reply to post by Spiramirabilis


Yep, coconuts are everywhere -- probably 20 trees or more on just our property alone. [edit to add: ......... and that's after the hurricane snapped most of them in half like carrots]

I like coconut water, and of course just eating/cooking with coconut. It's a decent survival food on its own, although I think a person would reach a toxicity point in less than a year if they tried to survive on ONLY that.

I use the coconut "fluff" for a soil amendment for our garden, along with seaweed. The seaweed has everything a plant needs nutritionally -- even the trace elements like boron, molybdenum, etc -- and all in the right proportion. Cool, huh? Coconut fluff -- shredded husk -- also has a bit of growth hormone in it, but we use it mostly as a person would use peat moss ........ as something to retain water.

Now all I have to do is figure out how to make a stylish hat out of the shell

[edit on 14/12/09 by argentus]