Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

Going into this past weekend, Memorial Day weekend, I was disappointed that we hadn't planned travel anywhere. As I noted Friday night, it was a combination of factors. We were tired from previous trips, we didn't get around to trying to plan anything until late, and by then prices and availability for the destinations we were considering were poor. So we decided to stay home, a disappointment given how much I like to seize the day when there's a free day off from work and go traveling. Of course, we didn't exactly spend the weekend at home; we went out all three days! And that made it a good weekend.

To recap:

• Saturday we hiked Zim Zim Falls. Just getting there seemed like half the adventure, with the location in a remote corner of Napa County 2.5 hours away. Then the hike was epic, with 9 water crossings. Each way. We got home just after dusk, about 8:30pm, and thought about enjoying an evening soak in the hot tub, but were too tired.


• Sunday we mostly took it easy, recovering from Zim Zim while running some errands shopping around lunch. But wanderlust caught us again by mid-afternoon. We drove out to nearby Alviso for a short hike around the otherworldly salt ponds. Later in the afternoon back home there was still time to lounge around the pool and hot tub.


• Monday we weren't sure if we'd go out for another hike but we did! After taking it easy at home much of the morning we pulled plans together quickly. By 10:55am we'd agreed on a hike at Henry Coe State Park, and by 11:20am we were packing the car to roll out.

I love it when we can manage a stay-home weekend but pack it full as if we'd traveled somewhere. Because then it's also a take-it-easy weekend since we don't actually have to travel.

By now I probably don't need to define the term shrinkflation— because you've probably already noticed it. It's a combination of the words shrinking and inflation, and it refers to when manufacturers shrink the size of a product instead of raising its price (inflation). Though lately it seems they've been doing both at the same time often enough. 😡

One bit of shrinkflation has hit the crapper. I noticed when I bought a package of toilet tissue several weeks ago that the package is smaller. By how much, numerically, I couldn't tell you. I haven't memorized the number of square feet per roll. But I do know how big a package of 6 or 12 rolls is, and the packages have definitely gotten smaller.

I wasn't sure what exactly what the difference was until I opened a package and hung a roll. Then I noticed. The new rolls are narrower. Here's the new roll in the package I just opened placed side by side with the spindle of an old roll I just finished off:



Yeah, the new roll is smaller by about 15%.

And the price went up by about 20%.

Fuck inflation and shrinkflation.