Cultural differences w/ living in Portland (Home Depot, vs, friendly)

[sharkylittleton]

Been here 7 months now and heard nothing about the toilet issue. I've never heard it talked about by friends nor office mates and its safe to assume i fraternize with fairly eco friendly people. You can guarantee I'll be bringing it up with them tomorrow!

[khyron]

There are certain "card access" pumps where you can pump your own fuel, some biodiesel stations are like this. So we TDi snobs don't have to comply with that silly madness.

[Bluesmama]

I certainly don't experience that issue at my job! If anything, just the opposite. They're the "water-efficient" types of toilets that can't seem to flush out toilet paper without hitting the handle again. Not unusual to hear someone flush twice.

The problem with this so-called water-saving practice is that the bowls do not have cleaners applied to automatically keep it disinfected. So, yes, the smell of urine gets sickening. And poo needs to go immediately! That's likely why flushing toilets were invented to replace outhouse.

[khyron]

There's sort of a demented way of thinking that goes something like:

If you don't "use" a gallon of treated water within the closed system of some American metropolis...the moment you decide not to "use" that gallon, another gallon of water magically pops out of a dessert on the other side of the planet making an emaciate young child jump for joy (perhaps right into the arms of Sally Struthers). If you do this twice a day, the second gallon may even reappear somewhere in a far away salt marsh or rain forest.

What's obnoxious is, I've worked in a corporate high rise (built to all sorts of wonderful LEED certifications complete with a greywater system) where misguided idiots who subscribe to this thinking left dukes in the bowls as if this helped someone, somewhere, somehow.

All they ever accomplished was causing the cleaning staff to pop open extra bottles of noxious chemicals, I'm pretty sure.

[aroseinrain]

You can "poo-poo" all you like. I still say wasteful is wasteful regardless of which climate you live in. And, where can I learn to darn my socks? I'm sick of trowing them out every time I get a hole in the toe!

[backdrifter]

Originally Posted by aroseinrain

You can "poo-poo" all you like. I still say wasteful is wasteful regardless of which climate you live in. And, where can I learn to darn my socks? I'm sick of trowing them out every time I get a hole in the toe!

Har har! That's punny...

But yes, exactly!

It makes sense at home, in particular. I've had some nasty water bills before. It saves an individual money by not flushing as much, thus not using as much water, thus not having to PAY for as much water. I think it's purely practical--not being a typical American wastrel. Helpful hint while we're on the water subject: You save water by using a dishwasher as well versus handwashing. And starting July 1st, in Oregon, all dishwasher detergent is low phosphorus. Bonus. And since we in Portland get quite a bit of our energy from hydro, that adds to the goodness of using a dishwasher.

[Sarcastic_Twit]

With all the automated toilets in public places, nobody is going to be saving pee or turds soon anyway. I was thinking that people might have left toilets unflushed mistaking them for auto-flush ones. But maybe they're just jackasses.

A lot of people claim Oregon to have the slowest drivers. Oregon slow drivers is nothing compared to Florida slow drivers. There you need to run along side an old timer's Caddy with defibrillator paddles to jump-start the driver.

What you can't do in Portland that you can do anywhere else, is use your car horn. Even a short "wake up buddy, it's green" beep results in WWIII. People will sit behind someone at a green light, agonizing over whether to honk or not. When they finally honk as the light turns yellow, cue the Mortal Kombat music, it's death-match time.

[TDNY]

Originally Posted by HoustontoPortland

I hadn't realized that Oregon was, like New Jersey, a state where you cannot pump your own gas. (Those are the only two)
I know all the arguments for that, but it really is just amazingly stupid. Glad I'll be selling my car when I get there, that would drive me nuts. Of course, I am gonna feel really stupid having someone fill up my one-gallon scooter tank...

The main difference being that NJ has really cheap gas

[Juxtaposition109]

I now dread the thought of going in the bathroom at work. Now whenever I can I sneak a pee in the parking garage. So I'm happy b/c I don't have to walk into a pee stenched bathroom or a poo filled bowl and also I can make my Oregonian co-workers happy b/c I'm saving the water. I asked the co worker who started all of this why he didn't just pee outside if he was that concerned with saving water and he replied, "Because I'm civilized." Civilized but still can't flush the toilet. Doesn't this start to get into the issues of people's personal belief system affecting the work environment of others. It's like an overly religious Christian passing out tracts at work and annoying everyone else they work with but it is their own personal belief that what they are doing is right b/c it's going to save something or someone?

[PNW-type-gal]

Originally Posted by aroseinrain

You can "poo-poo" all you like. I still say wasteful is wasteful regardless of which climate you live in. And, where can I learn to darn my socks? I'm sick of trowing them out every time I get a hole in the toe!

Just about any knitting/crocheting supply store or yarn shop offers classes on sock-making and darning.


Also, for the OP, I think you have one (or maybe 2) very gauche people in your office and it's amusing that you would assume the same for the entire city....