Living in Edgewise

Friday, April 4, 2014

Funerals and Mushrooms

There's this TED video of this woman who is designing a suit made of mushrooms that can be put on bodies before burial to help with decomposition. Her answer to the idea that we are dust and to dust we should return. Her idea of environmentalism as it forwards the idea of zero footprint. See here.

After watching that video, I had this overall curiosity in the back of my mind about funerals and burials and things and yesterday I found myself unexpectedly at a funeral home asking questions.

Seriously, no joke, no one is dying that I know of...except in the normal inevitable biological way we all are, of course.

So, here's some things I learned from the guy, in case, anyone else is curious.

Cheapest casket they sold was 20 gauge stainless steel that the guy was sure to mention twice -- "it has an airtight seal". So apparently this is a feature a person should seek out. The cost currently was $1495. View typical low end caskets here. He mentioned that the fanciest caskets are made out of hard wood, but that since you are not going to really see the casket since it is often draped with flowers, he really didn't understand why people so much effort into going with a more expensive model.

The cost of embalming and the funeral service itself depending on options at the service ran from $2500-$3000.

The cost of the plot at various cemetaries around here is between $500-$600. He recommended buying more than one plot because the value for plots never drop. How helpful.

And I am certain he must have mentioned something else because he said that everything all together costs about $8000-$10000, and all the things I've listed come out to about $5000. He might be leaving a pad for fancier options. Like the mentioned flowers.

Places closer to big cities are going to cost way more money he said, and I believe him cause that's been true about lots of other things.

You're welcome.

Friday, March 28, 2014

Middle School Touring

We're touring the local middle schools and we've think we've made our choice. I am envious of the things that my kid is going to get to see and do at this place. It's got a tech shop (they were displaying robots and go karts powered with veggie oil), and an art studio with an additional art computer lab, you know, because you also need really fancy large computers to learn art properly.

Here are some random pictures from the internet of the place.