Recycling in the Round

“Let’s do all the errands in one trip.” My honey is a stickler for conservation of effort. If the vehicle leaves the driveway it better be because we have too much stuff to carry or the distance is too far to be feasible by walking or biking (about 12 miles – a decent workout).

Every stop is planned for maximum efficiency. We are good if one parking stop hits the can recycler, the bank, the grocery story and the library. Since we read for fun and research, we have many heavy tomes traveling back and forth.

At the second stop, I crammed the used printer cartridges into my purse and grabbed the six-year-old cell phones I’d discovered under the bed. I walked across the partaking lot the size of a corn field; really this development was a former cornfield. I made my deliveries and wandered to the farm supply store to meet my honey.

We packed everything in our canvas bags and headed home. Two stops, eight errands. I talked myself out of an impulse purchase of a frozen latté. As a reward my hone made me a double chocolate with vanilla soy milk when we got home.

THE END

Since Beverage Containers Don't Self-Destruct

The aluminum can was created for beverages at the Coors brewery in Golden, CO in 1959. The reason for the change was careless discarding of steel and tin beverage cans causing environmental problems. The company also instituted recycling of the aluminum can.

We live in an enjoy and ditch society where taking a moment to even think about the destiny of a can is inconvenient. My honey and I perhaps think too much and simple observation resulted in this question begging for action leading to an answer. “How many beverage cans could we pick up on the three-mile loop I usually use for my daily run?”

We took our bikes and two bags determined to crush the cans to take up less space. We underestimated the number of can we would find. The two bags were full before we made it halfway and we’d only done one side of the road. We made a trip home to dump the bags and go back out again.

Some people in cars glared at us when they passed us. Picking up cans or trash along the roads seems to be equivalent of dumpster diving. Trust me; we weren’t in this for the money. Our recycler pays twenty cents per pound for aluminum. It was higher but the economy hit recyclers too. We ended up with 233 cans and earned $1.40 for the scrap aluminum. We wondered if we would have found fewer cans if we lived in a state that charged a can deposit. At five cents per can we would have collected $11.65.

I’m curious though. Drinking and driving is illegal. So why did we find a majority of beer cans?

THE END

Treasure to be Found in a Book Barn

Of course I wanted to spend a Saturday morning wandering through the stalls of a barn. Especially when the proprietor admitted he didn’t have a clue where to find certain books. I was here by invitation because my date knew I treasured all books. The hard to find and long out of print books are my favorite.

Somewhere in this would-be attic was a treasure waiting to be discovered. The problem was reading every title. I took the ladder to the hayloft and looked down at the stalls. From that height I couldn’t determine which stalls held which subjects.

My date sat in a rocking chair with an oversize book of photographs on his lap and one of those old fashioned viewers he could use to look at special postcards giving the illusion of three-dimensions. He looked up at me and grinned. I waved and blew him a kiss.

From somewhere one golden strand of hay fluttered into my hair and pricked me when I reached up to remove it. Back on the ground floor, I tripped on one of the loose planks and landed on my seat in front of a bookcase. Right there I saw a large brown cover with gold illuminated letters on the cover. The book was a complete works of Shakespeare and had been printed in the first decade of the twentieth century.

This was the treasure I couldn’t bear to put back on the shelf. While I didn’t have competition from other customers for this book, I decided to pay right away. The owner directed me to the back yard where his daughter had a lemonade stand. I bought two cups before joining my date. He’d brought me to the right place and the wrong place. I wanted to bring home every book. I praised the owner for rescuing so many books from becoming trash. I didn’t want to leave.

THE END

Light or Dark Coffee

I need to always be prepared by carrying a reusable mug in my briefcase. An unexpected invitation to go for a cup of coffee meant I entered a whole new world of the ubiquitous coffee shop. Where have I been the past fifteen years that I didn’t even know how to order a cup of coffee?

The barista approached. “What can I get you?”

I had been looking at the menu board and experienced a moment of confusion. “All I really want is a plain cup of coffee.

“Light or dark?” The man took pity on the poor ignorant granola head who hadn’t yet caught up with modern culture.

“Dark!”

“Should I leave room for milk or cream?”

Oh no. I really am odd. “No thanks, just hot, dark and strong.” I was talking about the coffee, really not men. OK, so I like my men the same way. I felt guilty holding the disposable cup, like my environmental friends would set the recycle patrol on me. At least the cup was made of recycled pre-consumer paper.

In theory, I knew about coffee shop culture, philosophers and intelligentsia in Europe throughout the twentieth century met in coffee shops and shared thoughts. The modern coffee shop seems to be taken over by writers using laptops sitting at tables alone. I had hoped for sharing ideas etch and my coffee companion proved to be interesting.

He brought up themes to discuss and the conversation ranged from discussion of careers to business, books and then the dangerous territory of politics. In terms of compatibility I’m not sure if a dark straight-up coffee drinker has much in common with an iced mocha latté with extra whipped cream.

The nice thing about opposites is combining strengths. The one topic we didn’t discuss was the environment. The coffee shop embraced recycling and provided an aura of being good for the environment and supports fair trade practices. Next time I’ll make the experience even better by taking my own cup.