Today, we freecycled. For those who haven’t tried it, Google Freecycle and learn more. It’s like craigslist only everything is free and people are organized into local groups (makes it easier to exchange stuff that way). Today we found a home for 5 used, but very clean, litter boxes and a metal mailbox. The recipients needed what we had and we wanted to keep these things out of the landfill. It’s a win-win. 
Something very strange happened. It walked outside and it felt sunny and warm. The Christmas snow was meting, the sun was shining. I felt WARM. It was 48 DEGREES. That is not warm where I come from.
I guess my blood is thickening. 
December is not really the best time to clean the garage (unless you live in Phoenix, then it’s not bad). However, sometimes in the course of human events it becomes necessary to dig out from under the pile of stuff that’s been flung out in the garage to deal with at the magical time known as “later.”
Well, later is today.
So we broke down cardboard boxes that have obviously been multiplying when we weren’t looking so we can make a recycling run. And we rediscovered a few items that need a new home if possible so those were listed on Freecycle, there are a few bags for charity and a few items for friends. Mostly, I wondered if we would ever be able to buy a smaller house in the future. Maybe we can as long as it has a giant garage.
When we were house hunting the first time around, I looked at a house that had a 5-car garage (as long as the cars were Hondas, not Tahoes). Sometimes I daydream about that garage. Ok, really it’s more of a fantasy. Anyway…today that garage would be awesome.
There are many things that I care enough to give money to: animal rescue, environmental causes, the arts and arboretums are all on my list of worthy causes. But there is one that gets my attention regular and that is the drive to end hunger. I have always given food during food drives but it didn’t become my cause until October 8, 2004. That’s when I heard this story on NPR: Hidden Kitchens, The Kitchen Sisters – An Unexpected Kitchen: The George Foreman Grill.
I was crying by the end of this story. I have never looked at George Foreman, his grill — or hunger — the same way again.
The current economic crisis is creating new pressures on our food distribution network. See “When the Cupboard is Bare” in the New York Times, November 11, 2008.
Especially when months go by without a drop. That’s life in the high desert of Northern Nevada. It’s dry. And then the 10 inches of annual precipitation make a spectacular appearance with high wind or a dump of snow. It does make an impression.
I made the mistake of eating barley yesterday. In the back of my mind, I knew it wasn’t for the gluten intolerant but I was in a hurry, blah, blah, blah.
After a night of feeling like I’d poisoned myself, I decided it was time to get completely and wholeheartedly on the gluten-free bandwagon. So I’ve been out on the Wonderland know as the WWW looking for gluten-free alternatives to my favorite foods. I came across this blog– the Book of Yum, www.bookofyum.com/blog –and now I feel that I will survive this passage into living without.
The current post is a recipe for gluten-free vegan pizza. A sign from the heavens!
We have a Princess of a cat (Princess Kiki) who is very particular about her litter box. In spite of daily cleaning, she has found it necessary to make her own accommodations when it’s not up to her standards–much to our chagrin. Princess Kiki is getting to be an old lady cat (she’s 11). She’s also pretty quirky. She’s a rescue cat who had multiple homes and spent some time on the streets–these early experiences gave her a unique personality. (Some days we would say she’s just plain crazy.) But she is affectionate and beautiful–and ours–so we do our best to meet her needs.
So we tried the new Breeze litter box from Tidy Cat. It uses pellet litter on top of a pass through screen with an absorbent pad in a pull out tray below. This allows liquid waste to pass through so it doesn’t create a wet clump in the box. (Princesses don’t like wet clumps under paw.) Early returns are good. With 3 boxes–1 Breeze and 2 standard boxes, the breeze box was seeing most of the action. The breeze system seems to consume a lot less in terms of litter and the boxes don’t require as much washing. The problem is the questionable content in the litter and the plastic lined pads. I was not feeling the biodegradable love.
So we purchased biodegradable puppy training pads for the tray. They are larger so some creative folding is required. They are not as thick but they are less expensive per pad and I am less worried about the environmental impact. And we purchased Feline Pine cat litter which is a pellet litter but of a more explicitly friendly origin. It’s also somewhat absorbent which helps mitigate the issue of the thinner pad without recreating the wet cat litter clump that our Princess finds objectionable. It also smells better in my opinion. (We were looking for another pellet litter, a recycled newspaper litter called Yesterday’s News, but couldn’t find it. It seems like that would also work.)
We also bought some biodegradeable poop bags for the cleaning regimen. I think the carbon pawprint just got a little smaller.
I am working on a presentation about the impact of James Rouse on planning. I came across another gem of the Internet–an audio archive of the Metropolitan Future Conference on the Metropolitan Future held at Cal Berkeley in September 1963. Very interesting listening. A little bit of a mind bender to go back and listen to great minds ponder the future.
http://dpg.lib.berkeley.edu/webdb/mrc/search_vod.pl?avr=1
Today I read the remarkable story of a real life Barbie. Barbara Buchan (BUH-kan) just won a gold medal in the women’s 3,000 meter cycling pursuit at the Paralympic Games in Beijing at the age of 52, the oldest member of the U.S. team. Oh, yeah – she broke a world record, too.
I am not into cycling but I am into passion and this woman’s passion for cycling and her determination to get back in the saddle and ride after a horrific crash is awe-inspiring.
Find what you love, keep going, don’t let fear stop you and hold on tight.
Read more:
From Death’s Door to the Medal Podium
By ALAN SCHWARZ
The New York Times
Published: September 11, 2008
Barbara Buchan, at 52 the oldest member of the U.S. Paralympic team, broke the world record and won the gold medal in the individual 3000-meter cycling pursuit.
…and I was in one of them. I went in up in the University-sponsored balloon as part of Media Day for the Great Reno Balloon Race.
More pics on flickr: http://flickr.com/photos/haikupiec/sets/72157607112867181
haiKupiec