I went to the grocery store to get my Darjeeling Twining's tea.  I drink a lot of it, and don't drink coffee at home at all.  I had a hot tap installed by my sink to deliver boiling water so I don't have to wait for the water to boil on the stove--I told you yesterday that I don't like to wait.  I want my tea now.

Well, the last time I bought it, it wasn't Darjeeling.  The packets held plain Black Tea.  The box said Darjeeling!  I can definitely taste the difference.  I took them back and the store returned my money, and sent them back to Twining.

So this time, I took the eight boxes of tea I was going to buy to the customer service counter and had them open them there.  Sure enough--every box was black tea.  Which they are once again are sending back to Twining.

But now I have no tea.  So I had my friend Jeanette order me some from Amazon.  Who knows whether it will be Darjeeling.  Just because it says it is on the package doesn't mean that's what's in the box.  Major frustration.

If you buy a car and only expect to get 100,000 miles out of it--and you pay $25,000 for it, then it costs you $1.00 every time you go four miles just to drive it.  Not counting replacement tires, oil, and gasoline and insurance--per mile.  Probably nobody but a mathematician would think like that. 

So the way I figure it, driving fifteen miles for tea is not an economic endeavor.  That's probably why Amazon is so successful?

When I was teaching a class at the college to first semester engineers, I gave them their first assignment: Your first year's salary will be $100,00. Taxes are 30%.  You have to have a car to get to work.  Also insurance, a room to live in, etc., etc.  Write your budget for me.  One kid came back and said he was going to live in his car and would never be able to marry.  Not a single student had ever thought about the cost of living.  That's why I gave them the assignment.