2020 Life Logs, Day 44: Recycling, Writing, and Local Politics
Date: Thursday, February 13, 2020
Weather: Rain All Day; High 45 degrees, Low 29 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
I think I must have been asleep when I wrote last night’s log. First, I forgot to change the date and then I wrote over and over that Coco and Ollie are 8 years old. As soon as my head hit the pillow last night, I realized my mistake. I know they are only 7, but since I never trust my memory of ages (Once we made Mark a year older for an entire year until his mother intervened and made the correction.), I must have done a quick math check thinking they were born in 2012 and it is now 2020, so they are 8. Wrong. They haven’t yet had their birthdays in 2020. Not sure how I made that mistake, but apologies.
Until this morning, I considered myself knowledgeable in terms of recycling, but a Newcomers program this morning showed me just how much I don’t know. Unfortunately I didn’t learn as much as hoped as it was hard to follow the speaker. She was very enthusiastic and obviously knew what she was talking about, but she talked fast and the Powerpoint presentation progressed too quickly for me to absorb the information. It would have been helpful to have a handout to follow along. What I did learn was that I need to learn more. I had no idea that if you put a plastic bottle in the recycling bin you need to either screw the lid on or throw the lid in the trash. Small pieces of recyclable plastic simply don’t go through the machines and can gum up the works. So, no lids in your recycle bin unless they are screwed onto the container. I often buy mushrooms that come in black plastic containers that have the recycle logo on it. Black plastic cannot be recycled. Period. So, you can’t go by the recycle logo. I never bag my recyclables in plastic bags, but many people do. That is an absolute no-no. No plastic bags of any type should ever go into your recycle bin. They can be taken to a vendor, like your local grocery store, that has a bin designated for plastic bags, but never in your town recycling system. Once I do a little more research, I’ll report other details. So much to learn.
After the Newcomers meeting, I came home to be with Shadow and do a little writing. Shadow has had digestive issues all week and has needed a little more attention than usual. It started on Monday evening with no appetite. On Tuesday, he had borderline diarrhea and very little appetite. That continued yesterday. He did eat dinner, but not breakfast or lunch. And that pattern continued today. He certainly has no lack of energy, but still I am worried. I will take him to the vet in the morning to check things out. But in the meantime, I am trying to give him as much attention as possible. I took him for a walk and then he slept while I did a little writing for my Memoir Class. This class has finally given me the incentive to start writing my story of sailing around the world. Yeah! Once I had completed my homework, I did leave Shadow and went to the class. I did not stay in town to attend a political meeting tonight to meet candidates for the State Senate from this district, but I am watching it on Falmouth Community Television right now as I write. I’ve never paid attention to local races, but now I realize that we all need to pay close attention to all elections and get to know the candidates.
Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and after our visit to the veterinarian, Shadow and I will spend our day at Heather and Jed’s helping to get the house ready to be painted inside this weekend. Sam is away this weekend skiing/snowboarding with Scouts and Jed is taking Ollie and Jonah snowboarding on Saturday while Heather stays home and paints. Helping to get ready for that will be my Valentine’s gift to the Goldstones. And I will do my laundry and can the chicken broth I made this week while I am there. So it is a win-win for all. Since I will be gone most of tomorrow, this evening when I got home I took a Valentine’s gift to Shirley and Doris next door. They love biscotti, so I took them dark chocolate biscotti and got a rose for each of them. They were so appreciative. Happy Valentine’s Day to all!
