A nice day for a game. Day 2 of my three game series.
I read an interesting article about a woman who went hiking with her husband in the woods not too long ago. He had a heart attack on the trail, far from help, and she remembered a public service announcement that advised her to do CPR in time to the tune Staying Alive (oh come on, hit the link, I know you want to. It's the BEE GEES!).
She did as the PSA advised, kept her head and sustained her husband's life long enough for the pros to keep him that way more permanently (go ahead and click that link, who can resist a title that reads "Disco Tune Saves Man's Life").
And all that was pretty interesting to me, but the most interesting part came at the very end of the article. While the PSA advised viewers to pump at 100 beats a minute (the pace recommended to maintain a life) to the tune of "Staying Alive," the doctors themselves apparently sing a different tune. It also runs 100 beats a minute.
It's called "Another One Bites the Dust."
Talk about the glass being half full or half empty.
Cooking at Brad's got a little out of control tonight. Dough from 3 different sources; crazy toppings. Most unique: peach & feta.
It's time for another dump run.
Ben and I are working quickly to get this home ready to sell in 2 weeks. If I'm lucky, I'll close on this one before I HAVE to take the loan for the Ohio home. If not, we'll deal with it.
Ben and I are both so darned excited we can hardly stand still. Which is good. SO much to do to make this happen.
I'll be around for at least a month and 1/2 maybe more. And I'll have reasons to fly back for get togethers!
I'm peeling off nine years of registration stickers
Cooler of ice cold Pliny the elder, blind pig and racer 5. #fromamotel6
Back in the day, we saved our cans and newspapers and took them to the official recycling center. That place was never close to home and piles of recyclables would stack up, waiting and dripping and decomposing until there was "enough" to justify the drive. Recycling was a dirty but noble business.
Nowadays the collectors come to your door and take the recyclables away with your trash, but rather than being a community oriented, let's-all-pitch-in-and-do-the-right-thing activity, it has become an obligation filled with pious righteousness. Neighbors look at each other's bins and measure them against their own "yep, we're greener." Judgements are made about whether one reads newspapers or magazines and how much we're drinking and of what quality. Wine labels are quickly scrutinized through the slitted eyes of the dog walkers. Our lives, or at least the things we consume, are quite literally there for the evaluating, the night before trash day.
Being a private person I'm not a huge fan of this, but being a lazy person there is no way I'm going to give up the convenience of curbside pickup. I make this privacy trade off because at the end of the day I'm more lazy than I am caring of my neighbors' opinions. I collect our recyclables every day, sort like items into bins or bags and prepare them for the bi-monthly pickup. Wait a minute, did I say "bags?" Can one use bags for recycling? Why, that would be an ever so convenient solution for the weeks when we have been reading or shopping or drinking more than usual and cannot fit everything into our color-coded bins. It seems obvious to me, paper is recyclable, and putting paper inside of paper can't be a bad thing, can it?
Ha.
Yesterday, our trash/recycling day, I came home to find that while my neighbors recyclables had all been taken away, mine were left to languish, rejected and embarrassed, on the sidewalk. Rejected by the recycling demigods. They left our not properly sorted or stored or something recyclables on the curb as a warning to others: do it right, right being whatever we decide it is, or we won't take it away. (P.s. we won't tell you why.) Which prompted me to write this on my Facebook status:
Dear Redwood City Recycling Czars: I sorted everything so nicely for you this morning. And yet you left it all sitting on the curb because it wasn't in your precious plastic bins. Here's the thing, when I'm recycling paper bags, I think it's ok to put them in paper bags. Is that so crazy?
Recycling bureaucrats, you are ridiculous. Perhaps you will like it better when you find my recycling in the garbage.
That's right, I picked up everything and put it straight into the garbage bin, seething. Two weeks of sorting for nothing but contempt from the trash police. Here's the thing: I know they sort all of the garbage at the plant. And I know they charge me for that service. So when I sort my garbage to keep the recyclables separate, I'm really just saving them money and time. I think this should be appreciated. Not with a discount, or even a thank you, but with a simple gesture: take it away from my house twice a month. And hold the attitude.
Way to take the shine off a good deed, kiddies. I think you know where you can put your community spirit.
Speaking of trash police, did you know that San Francisco is literally creating such a force? I pay attention to this kind of stuff because it's only a matter of time 'till it rolls down the hills of San Francisco and into the suburbs where I live. The SF garbage collectors are going to be allowed (in 2011) to write tickets to those people who do not separate their food waste into a special composting bin. The idea is to eliminate landfill (a very worthy goal), but there is also a nice, multi-tier revenue opportunity for the city: those who don't compost can be fined (up to $500) for not participating and those who do will have their compost sold to local farmers (up to $500 a truckload).
Have you ever worked at a company that composts? I have, and while it is certainly great for the outside environment, it is hell on the inside environment. Oh the smell. Oh the flies. It will take more than a bin to manage all of that.
Anyway, it's not like I'm going to do anything crazy like stop recycling (although it's tempting). I just figure I'm going to have to learn the rules (got any Kool-Aid?) of this new religion and do my best to follow them.
Take it away, Kermit
It's not easy being green.
It seems you blend in with so many other ord'nary things.
And people tend to pass you over 'cause you're
not standing out like flashy sparkles in the water
or stars in the sky.
I went to Ohio last week to see if there was a perfect home near my mom and sis, and there was. I can't say we'll actually GET this house, but I'd like too. We'll just have to wait and see.
I know many of our friends read my blog and are likely wondering what they heck we are up to. Please forgive us for not talking to you sooner - this is a rather sudden decision. I am a bit amazed we are really doing it. Once we get past the getting ready to sell, we'll have more time to connect.
So now we are in full clean up, repair, remove, store, carpet, new paint mode. We will be putting our :::sniff::: home of 14 years on the market. It's not worth as much as it was a year ago. We owe more on our home equity line than we did a year ago. While we do love our home here, and our friends, and CA - we are ready to try something new.
I've been traveling back and forth from here to Ohio for years now - each time I would pick a different area of OHIO and look a few homes. Twice I looked into Columbus. Last trip I found a beautiful home on 2 acres that I liked a
lot. I realized I did not want to live near Columbus because it is too much like a young California for us. I'll go there to find clients in high tech, but it's not where I wanted to live. I found a home I loved in Akron, but it was too expensive and out of the way. In fact, all the homes I found were just too expensive when considering we want to buy a home outright, buy furnishings and make a few changes, then invest the remaining $. Every trip, I would come back to my sister's home and my mother's home... Massillon, Ohio... and feel so at "home." Whether or not we get the home I just found, or another, I know we will be in a wonderful place to start again. Perfect timing, as in August we will be celebrating our 10th anniversary.
Why Ohio? And will we be in shock after living so long in California?
Yes, it will be quite a change. The pace overall is slower. There are more people "in the middle" - not poor, not rich - and more people with extended families near by. There are seasons - with GLORIOUS tree colors in the fall and thick warm summers with thunderstorms. Winter... snow... I have not lived in snow since I was 20. And for the first time, I am excited by it. We already have a ski trip planned with my sister and brother in law. The doggies will LOVE running through the snow. I'll learn to relax and let winter set the tone for spring. I remember as a little girl the excitement of the first flowers and the slow magical change from winter to spring to summer. I can't wait to snuggle Ben as the first snow falls in our new home! We will find new places we love to go and friends. And with both Ben and my family there, we will finally have a family life outside ourselves.I've already met a couple wonderful designers from the area. And there is so much to explore.
We will still work as HOPPING MEDIA. We will still have our same emails and cell phones. We will continue to work with clients as we always have, just from a different place on the earth
Everyone's trying to get home early.
