Dr. Bronner's - A Good Thing (?)

i used to hang out at health food stores a while back, during the "low carb" craze.

(i am, in case you haven't heard before, one of those "low carbers" - lost a lot of weight with that lifestyle, and i still contend that i would be either sick or dead if i hadn't! i still follow much of what i learned from Dr. Atkins, and feel that is why i'm so healthy now! So DON'T diss Dr. Atkins!)

Anyway, since low carb is so out of fashion now, and the health food stores do not carry low carb foods, AND their people all spread the tale that low carb will KILL you, i pretty much boycott those places these days. But before that happened, i discovered a few items i really liked, one of which is Dr. Bronner's Magic All-One Pure Castile Soap! Now, i know what you're thinking - that this stuff looks like "Snake Oil"! Well, if you read the whole label on the bottle (which has to contain the most words on a soap label you will ever find...) you'll believe it even more, but, really, it's great stuff! In fact, maybe you should try it BEFORE you read the label! Here's a sample of a very small excerpt off the side of the bottle - you ready? This is word for word straight off the label.

 "DILUTE- ENJOY 1 SOAP FOR 18 DIFFERENT USES! GUARANTEED NO SYNTHETIC PEPPERMINT OILS & 100% VEGETARIAN.

(which is nice to know if i ever want to drink it! - n)

SUPER MILD CASTILE HAS OUTSTANDING WATER SOFTENING & CLEANSING POWERS. PREFERABLE TO HARSH SOAP & DEFATTENING SYNTHETICS. IT DOES NOT CUT DIRT, BUT DISSOLVES IT. IT IS THE MILDEST, MOST PLEASANT SOAP YOU EVER USED OR MONEY BACK! ENJOY BODY RUB TO STIMULATE BODY-MIND-SOUL-SPIRIT AND TEACH THE ESSENE MORAL ABC UNITING ALL FREE IN THE SHEPHERD-ASTRONOMER ISRAEL'S GREATEST ALL-ONE-GOD-FAITH!"

Um, see what i mean? It's like it made sense until it all seems to fall apart into insane babbling right around the "body rub" part!

It IS fun to read, though! They must have reprinted everything off the first, circa 1948 homemade labels! He goes on to mention and/or quote Shakespeare, Mohammed, Einstein, some Rabbi,...and Jesus! Enough about that. Get a bottle and read it for yourself (I myself need a magnifier for a lot of it!). You can also print the labels in a PDF format from their website. The man definitely believed in SOMETHING he wanted to share with everyone, just not sure what in the hell that something was....

...the good doctor himself

At the time i first found it, the store had Peppermint, Eucalyptus, and Almond scents. Well, i can smell the Castile scent fairly strong in it, and i didn't think the latter two blended very well with that! So i have always used the Peppermint, which also is odd but pleasant smelling. It's also very "menthol-ly" on your skin, so it's really great in hot weather, but i don't use it as much when it's cold! There have also been warnings by other fans of the Peppermint soap about getting the undiluted soap onto certain sensitve "nether regions" of the body until you make sure you're not too sensitive to it! :-)

So there, i passed the warning on and did my civic duty. Use at your (crotch's) own risk!

It also definitely cuts thru (although Dr. Bronner says it "dissolves") oil, dirt, and grease. i use it on my hair periodically, and it really strips away all the product and crap i put in my hair to style it. And when you use it in the shower, your skin actually BECOMES "squeaky clean"! Most things we use to bathe with have moisturizers, deodorants, or other additives in them. While a lot of folks probably will want to moisturize after using Dr. Bronner's, it IS nice once in a while to feel like you've cleaned your skin completely - it's like a fresh start!

Tool Time

I love tools. My father, being an oil painter as well as a carpenter, built a room on to the house I grew up in (when I was about 3 years old), to use as an art studio and also added a "utility" room for his tools. So through my entire life until my early 20s, if I wanted a hammer or file (-or band saw!), all I had to do was go to that utility room. I didn't leave my parents' house until my wedding day, and never thought about the tool room....UNTIL one day I needed a file or a hacksaw or something, and we HAD none! Hey!? We didn't have one HACKSAW between us? I was dumbfounded. No longer could I go to that room and grab whatever I needed (and there was definitely none in our 2 bedroom apartment!)

This is MY cake batter!

So we purchased a few as we went along, borrowed the bigger stuff from Dad or some other friend or relative if we needed it, and for many years, the Xmas list (for me) always included one or two tools. Dad would inevitably ask, "Oh, Steve wants a cordless drill?" "No, I want it!" "Oh, Steve needs a Dremel tool?" No, it's for MEEEE!" "But - you're a GIRL...!" (Dad was old school - women just cooked and had babies)!

So i finally accumulated enough hand tools to make me feel somewhat less like i lived on an island with no provisions.

But just recently, we are facing the hard truth that my dad may not be leaving the nursing home he's now in, and his house may have to be sold in the forseeable future. Among all the angst and problems related to that, one question is starting to cross my mind....

"What in the hell am i gonna do with all those tools?!"