Juicers, Beauty and Living a Life of Integrity and Joy

My guitar teacher turned me on to the wonders of juicing. I'd drop by for a lesson and he'd say "Hey, you want something to drink?" He had a juicer that looked like it was commercial, and a press too. He'd make some delicious juices, usually with coconut milk added. After he juiced the stuff, he'd take the pulp and put it in a press that looked like a bumper jack. Maybe it was, I don't know. Either way, it was delicious.

A while later, one of our friends gave me an old juicer. It's plastic and works fine, but I'd use 5 pounds of carrots and get very little juice. I noticed he got a lot more juice than I did. So, I made it a mental note: find a juicer like my guitar teacher's.

Well, thanks to Craigslist, I found a Golden Harvest Imperial 9901 juicer the other day. Craigslist is an amazing website. It's simple. No graphics. It's free, except if you want to place an employment ad in a major city. That costs $25, and the money sustains Craigslist's tiny but effective staff. The website is not just sales, but a social network. It's also self-policing. What I mean by that is that if you see something that is not right, just click "flag" and it will get a second look from the moderators. If a post gets flagged for a good reason, it will be removed.

I contacted the seller, arranged to meet him after seeing some more photos showing what he pointed out as stains and surface rust I should know about, and we met at the local used bookstore and vegetarian cafe, Books, Inc. While I was there, I saw a cool, vintage French "Leopard" bike and had a great time gathering info and photos so I could write up an article on it. Here's the article and the bike is in the photo below.



I was waiting around for Mario to show up and started talking with the proprietor at the bookstore. I just finished reading "The Dharma Bums", by Kerouac. I couldn't for the life of me remember who the character Japhy was based on. I asked the proprietor (didn't catch his name) and he immediately said "Gary Snyder. He's in poetry and natural sciences". Man, what a great book. And, nice that the guy working in the bookstore likes beat fiction. Gotta find some stuff by Gary Snder. I liked his description of "The Book of Tea", by the way. And, it's on the web, in case you're interested. Click here to find out about "The Book of Tea".





Cool! I got a beautiful, industrial quality juicer. Made some new friends: Mario, the guy with the juicer and Tony, the guy with the cool "Leopard" bike. And, I have to say, the web is changing everything, while everything remains the same.

People worry that social networks are isolating people. I disagree. It's a tool, just like the telephone and TV. Do you think TV is killing people's social skills? I don't think so. I think it's a great thing to be able to stay in touch with people all over the place that would be impractical to connect with without the web.

At any rate, I just had to look on eBay and see what other juicers like mine were selling for. I found an ad for one with this note attached:

From an eBay ad: "A note on email: I check my email once or twice a week. I do everything through eBay. I answer questions, check payment status, send messages, and add tracking numbers through eBay. I don't check my email often because I am a single dad of two and I am going to school full-time at Portland State University. I fall behind in listing items, school work, and my social life (or lack there of) but I believe I am not falling behind with my children...even though I don't know how to answer some of my son's questions about his mom. So, if you need an immediate response feel free to ASK SELLER A QUESTION on one of my active items and I will answer you within 24 hours (I hope).

A note on shipping: Shipping will be based on weight, dimensions, zipcode, and a $2.55 handling fee that I will most likely be spending on insurance and tracking. I don't know exactly how much shipping is until I take your boxed item to the post office. I weigh the item on my vintage scale and guesstimate on the weight of box and stuffing. If the eBay calculator or my scale makes a mistake and you see from the sticker on your box that what you paid exceeded the actual cost, feel free to contact me for a refund (if you see that I paid more than what you paid...well, do what feels right). You'll see when you get your box that I don't use those stickers that you can't see what I paid for shipping."

By the way, this juicer is in Portland, so if it sounds good to you and you're one of many Zoobird readers in Portland (did that sound like a commercial?), you'll save on shipping and the seller will not have to guesstimate the shipping charges! It looks like a nice juicer. I can say that now that I am a juicer aficionado.

If stuff like this makes you want to shop at your local Mom and Pop store to get that personal treatment, I know just what you mean. It's all about being human, all about life.