Early Adopter, I Am Not

Sometimes it takes me a while to learn a lesson that I clearly need to learn. Today's lesson: I am not an early adopter. Hopefully, I have finally learned this lesson.

What I hope to be the final teacher of this lesson: the indoor composter. I cannot get the damn thing to produce anything but the nastiest, foulest, most disgusting substances known to man. I have followed all instructions to the letter (at least I have tried ... clearly I've not succeeded), I called the company and got advice and changed what I was putting in and how, I went to Home Depot and got some sawdust and endured the strange look from the guy giving it to me, and yet it still does not produce anything even remotely resembling soil. I am quite sure what is being put out by this thing is lethal to small animals were they forced to inhale the fumes for any length of time. It's so foul that I cannot even bring myself to leave the container open long enough to take a picture to give you all an idea. "Easy" my ass! "Odorless" my ass! "Virtually silent" my ass!

But this post isn't about the composter and its issues. I still believe that it does actually work in the hands of the right person. I, however, am clearly not this person. I am not the person who will continue to try and try with something like this. I tried twice and I consider that a miracle. I am not willing to risk a third attempt that results in the same output. I do not care about the environment that much. Right now, I would gladly see mankind's existence come to a screeching halt on the planet if it meant I wouldn't have to clean that stupid thing out again.

Megan, repeat after me: "I am not an early adopter. I will never be an early adopter. I do not have the temperament to be an early adopter. I do not have the persistence required to work out any bugs that inevitably exist in product adopted by early adopters. I am not, cannot be, do not want to be an early adopter."

The other side lesson in this is that when I get a bug up my butt to get some fancy dancy new appliance (that inevitably costs a large sum of money, thereby doubling the regret I feel later on), I should just stop and figure out other ways around buying it. Like these Biobags. For way less than this appliance, I could have done a bit of research and discovered I can buy biodegradable trash bags. Why it occurred to me one day to Google "indoor composter" and not "biodegradable plastic trash bags" I'll never know. I am going to use up all of our current trash bags*, then buy ONE set of these bags as a test.

Most of the time, I like my over enthusiasm about certain products. I think it's nice that I truly get excited about finding a new podcast or a new shade of sticky note or a new type of dog poop bag or a new type of vegetable chip - delicious & better than regular potato chips (to me). However, when it comes to the big ticket items, I could stand to shave off a bit of my enthusiasm and replace it with the self-imposed "just say no" discipline.

*I have already purchased lots of the bio bags for dog poop which work great and are easy to shove into a pocket. My pet sitter left them for me after one of her visits and I found I actually liked them better than the ones I was buying. I diligently used up all but one box of the old ones (I figured I'd leave one box of the old ones for D because he likes the cardboard handle) before buying them. This is a step forward for me since once I decide I want something, I typically buy it and then want to use it right away. Patience. I need more patience.