I wanted to put a tarp over out wood pile last summer. It’s not necessary really, but it felt like something I should do, so I did. The pile was big and the tarp had to be big to cover it. A big tarp’s expensive, so I bought a cheap one. The guy at the hardware store, his name’s mike, explained that those tarps were only good for a summer, or thereabouts. And he was right.

When you are on the front end of a bargain, it’s all good. It’s the tail end that bites.

In the instance of a cheap tarp that’s spent the better part of a year covering piles of wood along my driveway, the tail end looks like a bunch of blue confetti leeching micro plastics into our well water and lawn.

So we spent about half and hour to forty fives minutes picking up little bits of blue, and I expect we’ll continue to find some for the next few weeks, and then a few shreds next summer too. 

Would I pay extra to not have had to do that? Maybe. I didn’t mind picking it up, it was kind of therapeutic, but what I do mind is all the scraggly junk wormed into the grass and rocks. I’d pay to have that not be there, I think. 

Expense is a thing that lives broadly throughout time, and out little pinprick view of time limits our ability to gauge cost and risk. 

I shoulda bought a nicer tarp, and I should remember to throw away my nice tarps when they’re all used up, and before they’re spread across the lawn like start dust.