Rants of the day

Okay, I have to get it off my chest. I am sooooo in love with that set. And I understand that it contains 10 designs - but let's be honest, lots of small ones also. And I understand that the basket must be nice. But one hundred and eighteen dollars just for the basket and the charts? Is that fair... isn't that overpriced.... Tell me what you think. From what I read, the design is not sold without the basket. Not that I think that finding a basket with an oval/round top like this, of the correct size, would be an easy task. BUT. Or am I being cheap... I'd really welcome your thoughts on that. Drema has a special price for the set with the silks and linen, but 199 usd... Okay, kill me, but that was my rant of the day.
Maybe it's triggered by seing recently so many lovely kits - but I mean *very small* kits containing a couple of skeins of silk, a small design, a chart, all that for 50-60 usd. Some of them are really lovely. But I'm thinking more and more often if the market is not going in a wrong direction... sort of like computer manufacturers (won't mention the name) creating equipment that requires more and more ressources.
Oh, I don't know. Bear with me today :) I've lived the weirdest compact 10 minutes in my life. Minute 1: I meet a lady whose husband I loved and knew since I moved in here in 1993, who had one doggie, then another, we often walked a bit in the park and chatted, he was somehow a famous person in his specialty and a government expert, well, I learned he died within 2 hours three weeks ago, and he was in good health, and he took care of himself... anyway. I will dearly miss his presence during my doggie walks... he was a very special person. Minute 5: a man sneaks into the building right behind me, tries to push me in the lift - I resist, he barks something, his eyes are dangerous, I go out, he takes the lift, I hear noone opens the door for him so he might be waiting at one of the floors, I wait till someone else arrives and take the lift with that person. Minute 10: I meet someone at my floor who tells me that the plumber who took care of our building, a man that helped and repaired a bit of everything in the apartments, and who did lots of works in my own apartment over the years, and whom I knew well, died of a heart attack on Monday. That was a bit too much for this afternoon ;-)
That tops three other persons of a certain age from my building that died in the past few weeks but I wasn't close to them.
I wish I could learn coping with the unexpected death of someone I knew and cared for. Life.