Finances. It costs money to run the heater, and working class families are on really regimented budgets. A difference of $30-$50 in your power bill can really mess things up when you’re living on a strict budget.
Running does things like that to the mind. The first time I ran 10 miles, I started hallucinating around mile 8. I was running through the forest and the wind was gently swaying the trees back and forth. I understood for the first time that trees are the lungs of the earth, steadily breathing in the cO2 and breathing out oxygen for the rest of life on earth.
I figure that’s about what a CD used to cost back in the day, adjusted for inflation. We were paying $16 for a CD back in the early 90’s. Records are probably more expensive to make, and often have really cool artwork as inserts. There’s the thrift store too though. About half of my record collection are original presses that I got from the thrift store for twenty five cents each. They don’t sound as good, but they’re pretty neat. Sometimes I buy a record at the thrift store just because it has cool artwork, like the Chicago album that has pressed engraving artwork, like dollar bills.
I do miss not being expected to have my phone with me all the time
I didn’t have a cell phone for long after they became mainstream. I still remember a friend hitting me up on Facebook with a message saying he had been calling me all day and kept getting VM, asking why I don’t answer my phone. I thoroughly enjoyed saying “I wasn’t home and don’t take my landline with me when I go out”. I do have a cellphone now, and I dislike how people freak out if you don’t respond within 10 minutes. Like, chill the fuck out dude, I’m doing things.
I do miss the era of physical media
I still buy vinyl records, and love listening to them. Thankfully they’re hipster now, so you can get high quality, deep cut records for just about any album. I buy CDs at the thrift store for $0.25-$1.00. I’ve managed to buy every CD I lost throughout my life, plus everything else I always wanted, but couldn’t afford. I even found the Pink Floyd Pulse album in perfect condition for $2.
Yeah, the ants. Maybe they just followed a scent trail into your house and live far away. If that’s the case then it’ll be easy. A couple of addresses ago we had a fire ant colony living under our foundation. Nothing we did got rid of them. Even powerful poisons that they take back to the colony only worked for a week or two until the next round hatched and they were right back. It sucked! Best of luck! Hopefully they live far away.