Saturday, August 4, 2012
Consumotherapy - buying something because it makes you feel good.
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Something I don't understand about the Olympics - I thought all the athletes and teams were supposed to be "amateurs". Yeah, I know there's government support and sponsorships and so on. There has to be because they have to practice so much and that takes time and money. But isn't there a line somewhere? The US basketball team is all professional players. I mean multimillionaire players from professional NBA teams. How can they be considered in any way amateurs? How are they in the Olympics? Why don't they just have a World Series of basketball instead? That's what it is....
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I have two layers of long heavy fringe hanging in the arch between the living room and the kitchen. It had been on spring tension rods, but eventually the rods started sagging, and when the Nugget goes through sometimes she gets a wee bit tangled and pulls one or both down. Jasper occasionally attacks them, too.
So I bought some brackets and two lengths of PVC pipe.
The PVC started sagging, so I bought some wood dowel and fed that into the pipes to strengthen them.
They still sagged. That fringe is heavy!
I decided to buy a small diameter metal pipe, like for plumbing, or gas lines. That won't sag!
Wow! Have you priced pipe lately? It's like $13 or more per FOOT! Holy cow! Why?!
I ended up with big fat wooden doweling, like would be used for regular DIY curtain rods. Not what I wanted, but it seems to be holding up ok so far.
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The township collects garbage twice a week here, Mondays and Thursdays. It's paid from taxes and there doesn't seem to be any limit on how much you can put out. I put out one small kitchen bag half full. They collect recycling twice a month, first and third Wednesdays. I put out 2 tall kitchen trash cans full every recycle collection.
My production is just the opposite of what they seem to expect. I have four times as much recycling as garbage. Two weeks of trash paper and cardboard will bury me alive. I think that may be the norm around here, since I see people putting recycle stuff out on garbage days. When whatever container they're using is full, it goes out. Most people don't have enough room to store that much recyclable stuff.
I wonder if the township is aware of the relative amounts, and that people who would like to recycle are forced to put recyclables out on garbage day? I wonder if they care? The township recycle center is just up the road from me, between me and the grocery store, and they're open every day until 3 pm, so when the paper and cardboard gets overwhelming, I just drop a load off there. People who have jobs can't do that.
(No, I am not going to volunteer to do neighborhood recycle center runs.)
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I once knew a country bar in the Gettysburg, Pa. area with a hunting theme, that labelled the restrooms "Setters" and "Pointers", along with a picture of the dog breed. Do you know that there were people (like my friend Jeannie) who couldn't figure out which door was theirs? Jeannie said she couldn't tell by looking at the picture whether it was a girl dog or a boy dog.
I liked her anyway.
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