Greetings,

So for tonight's blog entry, I have a gripe - I was online and at Sears today, looking for a replacement HEPA filter for my portable air cleaner. Online? USD$ 83.00 (+S&H). At Sears? USD$ 69.00. I truly believe the machine probably cost that much when it was purchased in the first place. Now that price is just for the HEPA filter. if I wanted to replace the pre-filter as well, it's another USD$ 20. OK, so here's the kicker: For another 30 bucks, I can purchase a brand new air cleaner, one that's better than the one that I have now. I'd be set for another 1-3 years, and the new one would probably have a longer life than the one that I have now. What's up with that? Is this what it's come down to? Don't maintain it, just replace it? That's truly sad. So let's say I do buy a new one? What do I do my old one? Use it as a fancy looking previously high priced fan? That seems wrong too. A perfectly good air cleaner demoted to being a fan? Well, I ended up buying nothing. So I've got a dilemma. My conservation side says to just buy the replacement stuff and be done with it. But my materialistic side wants to upgrade and get the nice new shiny three speed, dual fan model. (sigh)

Ahh well, better get to sleep. I'm going to try and sleep in tomorrow...

-Kirk