Awesome article, and very true. Now, as for the socks, you might just want to check out the seamless variety. Amazon has a wide variety http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...ias=aps&field-keywords=seamless+socks&x=0&y=0
I haven't quited figured out the smart phone phenomenom yet. I can see it being useful for someone who rides an EL or subway in the morning to work, but the average person? They suck at trying to be a mini computer and I don't want to watch a movie on a 2 1/2-3 inch screen. Don't get me started on how much they take you to the cleaners for your monthly contract bill.
Great read Shawna! We too strive to not throw out as much as we can and recycle those things that can be and it is not an easy thing in this day and age. Although it is getting easier, it still takes an effort and I applaud the Stryker household for it's effort.
Thanks Tom! We do what we can, convenience seems to play a big part in what anyone can do. Here are some ways that we recycle: -Shippers and shipping material - We receive a lot of packages (mostly shaving related) so Jeff takes the packing material and boxes to work and his company recycles them with their shipments. -Cardboard - If Jeff can't recycle it at his work, I take it to mine. I have a dumpster that the City of Lakeland empties twice a week just for cardboard. -Aluminum cans - We drink a lot of pop. It's an easy way for me (and Jeff) to ingest caffeine during our workday. So, we collect our cans at home and donate them to a local Boy Scout troup so they can collect the money for their activities. -Freecycle and Craig's List - If we have household items that we won't be using going forward we like to post it on Freecycle. If we don't get responses from Freecycle then we post the items on Craig's List. When we merged households and then later bought our house, both of these resources were a good way for us to not dump a lot of household items in the landfill. -Goodwill - We shop at Goodwill once every couple of months. We also go through our closets every few months and at least twice a year we donate clothing to Goodwill. -Local homeless shelters - Every now and then we will clean out our pantry and ask ourselves "Are we going to use this item?". If the answer is "No", we put it in a box. This year we have been able to make donations to the Talbot House and to Catholic Charities of Lakeland. On my wish list for recycling is plastic and paper. Our community does not currently offer recycling for these items. I try to buy as little as possible that comes in a plastic container, but it feels at times like a losing battle. We just don't have room to store plastic items until we can find a recycling center that will accept them. Same with paper. I use the internet to catch my local news so that we don't have a newspaper to dispose of. Anywhoo ... Thanks for all the comments on this article, it was truly a labor of love!
Shipping materials recycled = Good Aluminum cans recycled = Good Goodwill = Good Homeless shelters = Good Garbage dump = Part of my high taxes. I use it. I want to get my monies worth out of it. Local/national news = Bad. Same old things everyday. Now the Weather Channel, that = Good.
Shawna, that is unfortunate that you don't have plastic or paper recycling. I'm actually quite surprised that there isn't paper recycling. We are lucky, I suppose, that we can recycle paper, cardboard, plastic, aluminum, steel cans, batteries, yard waste, compost items, food scraps (including bones), and probably a few other things I can't remember off the top of my head, every week with the garbage pick up. We are a household of 3 (soon to be 4 in March) and because of all we recycle, we typically only have one kitchen size bag of garbage to throw out per week. Now a days I feel totally guilty if I throw something away that can be recycled or composted. And it may seem like it's a lot of work, but our community has made it as simple and convenient as possible, so it's really not difficult. Everything except for the yard waste, compost/food scraps, and batteries goes in one container. The yard waste/compost/food scraps has it's own toter and the batteries go in a zip lock bag set on top of one of the containers. We are indeed lucky and we definitely take advantage of the opportunity our city affords us to reduce waste and make a difference in the cleaning up of our planet.
Tom that is an impressive recycling system your community has installed. Sounds like it could be a blue print for alot of other towns.
Very nice read and very well written...You write with a vocal style...I feel the rhythm as if you were speaking...I dig it... I can't agree more either...Back when I smoked I used a Zippo....that was when I first started to make a stand against the disposable life-style... I think the worse thing is our culture is disposable aswell...Culture always reflects the society it runs parralel to...And this one is disposable aswell... You know your music is deep when you can listen to it everyday for 30 years and still hear something different everytime you listen to it...That is true with Miles...not 99% of what we hear on the radio unfortunately...I mean pop is cool, its like ice-cream...I love ice-cream, but if thats all you eat.... By the way...Shawna...This is not a hi-jack...Everyone else skip this....I have a Jazz tune for you....Been meaning to give it to you for quite sometime....Wish I had written it, but it was written by Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker (can't do better than that) called: Shawnuff...And it's definately not disposible... Here it is:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjwiC_KglBE
Man...The newspaper thing is a tough one...I'm addicted to the sound of the paper, and the act of reading the paper, turning the pages and folding it...But I always have paper-recycling...and I have a Budgie-Parakeet...She has ruled our home for the last 10 years, and is very dedicated to helping with recycling the newspapers...LOL
