Irons in the fire

I'm feeling like I need to take some of my irons out of the fire for the time being.  Problem is I don't know which ones to take out and which ones to leave in.  They each seem to have their own reason for being there. It's like juggling all the balls at the same time.  If you decide to let one fall it feels like maybe you really can't handle any of them then and they will all go crashing to the floor.

I can keep it all going as long as I have postive vibes around me.  However, when I feel a sense of negativity, that just saps me of all of my energy to accomplish anything.

I had a good forward moving meeting today on the ROWL project. We  felt we had made progress with pulling the lose ends together so that we can get the operation going. But what I had never realized was all the legalese that goes into starting a non- profit project that I became aware of today. Why didn't someone tell me all this technical stuff before I got started!?

It would really have helped in the beginning if someone had said,"Okay, you want to recycle plastic? Here are all the hoops you have to jump through first. You're not finished just because you have figured out the how".  Maybe I would have said, "Okay, I gotcha.  I'm out of here."The part I didn't figure on is all the legal aspects, tax laws, liabilities, structuring, 501c, etc. etc.

How naive of me to think that people should know that I am a trustworthy sort and  just trust that my intentions are honorable and pure. We'll merely set up a plan, raise the money and get started recycling plastic.

When I started all this I really had no intention of getting into the field of law any more than what I already know about to keep me out of trouble day by day. Now I need to get involved with a whole different level of laws to keep me out of trouble. I always figured all those business laws are for other people to have to be concerned about and certainly not me in my life time.  I think I am in for a whole new bunch of irons in a bigger fire than I ever dreamed about. Yeah, that's how I wanted to spend the winter of my life.

Crystal anyone?

I do believe summer has arrived in Lewistown, Mt. at last. It's up to fan temperature, but not air conditioner weather yet for me. It is during the evenings when you begin to feel the warmth. So I figure it is just a couple of hours and it will be pretty cool again.  That's one of the wonderful things about Montana for you. No matter how warm during the day, it is always cool at night. And I'd never complain after what the rest of the nation is going through.

Today my sisters and I worked on sorting through and cataloging, once again, all of Mom's French crystal. It has been sitting down in Anne's basement for years, taking up her space. I'm talking boxes and boxes of this stuff(I know, I shouldn't call fine French crystal "stuff", but by now that is what it is) and we are determined to try and find a new home for it this summer.   We were determined last summer, too, but didn't get anywhere.

Mom bought six sets of twelve each crystal wine, etc. glasses that only vary in size from one an other by 1/4". No exaggeration, 1/4 " from one size to the next! Now what is that about? They are listed worth about $60 to $70 a glass! So, here we are years later, we have no use for them, our kids have no use for them, the auctioneer has no use for them, the antique store in Bozeman has no use for them and so they remain packed away in Anne's basement, which is worth more to her than the glasses.

So, we took out the chipped glasses, counted sets of six perfect glasses of each size left, wrapped them back up and put them back down into Anne's basement. We feel like somehow we made some progress, anyway. We talked about the option that we have left, sell them on eBay. Everybody sells things they want to get rid of on eBay.  But we don't know how to sell them on eBay.

So, I told Anne that if everyone else can figure this out, then so can we. I know they have a book titled "eBay for dummies".  Maybe we can buy one on eBay.

One thing I won't tell Michael, though, is that I brought three boxes of the assorted crystal back to our garage to store for now. Our plan is to take a bit at a time to one  antique store in Gt. Falls at a time.  Maybe if we don't overwhelm them with the whole lot, they'll be willing to take it off our hands. I know, if I know what's good for me, I'll be motivated.

Home Alone

Michael flew to Indiana today for his dad's ninetieth birthday.  He'll be gone until Thursday. I hope his family all have a wonderful, healing time together.

For me, as most any woman will attest to, I'll be enjoying my solitude, so to speak. Not that I don't love Michael dearly and I have to say, he is like a part of me. I feel much safer and secure when he is here to check all the doors at night (even after I have checked them).  I'll miss having him beside me in bed at night ( not the snoring though). I know I never have to check to see if anything important has been taken care of as he always has the bills paid ahead of time and keeps the cars in great shape.

 Of course I'll miss his fixing the coffee for us and helping to make the bed in the morning.  We usually get jobs around here done well together (not the coffee though). What one of us doesn't get done, the other just fills in the gap until everything is nice and tidy again.  Tidy you can be sure of with Michael, which is much better than being married to a slob any day. Heck he's always squeaky clean even.

However, today after my long walk, I didn't even bother cleaning up since no one will see me all day. Just my sister once in a while, but she doesn't mind, I don't think. Actually, I'm feeling kind of scruffy about now and think a bath would feel pretty good.

 I made potato salad for the church picnic that is tomorrow and I even put raw onions in it. I'm also looking forward to eating the tortellini salad with garlic that a lady is bringing. Tonight I won't be cooking anything.  I'll eat when and what I can scrounge in the kitchen. Maybe I'll eat that can of sardines in the cabinet.

I'm planning to get my art supplies out and leaving them out if I'm working on something. So much easier than putting it all away each day. No one will be the wiser but me. Maybe I'll even watch a movie or two or read later at night.

Yes, I'm going to be really living it up while Michael is gone.  You know the old "when the cat's away....".  Okay, so that is about as far out of the routine I'll get.  After all, after being together for fourteen years (I think I got that right this time) it is kind of hard to get too crazy.

Going meatless

I seem to get a real high out of creating my meatless concoctions, because I've made another one for tonight.  My daughter Kathy made this recipe years ago, I believe when she was in her teens. A meatless lasagna with spinach, mushrooms, red beans, carrotsin place of meat and the usual other ingredients. Hopefully, I remembered it pretty correctly, since I couldn't find it written down anywhere.

Not to say these recipes aren't very labor intensive, by any means.  Certainly not something you throw together at the end of a long work day. However, I will have to say, much more rewarding than throwing a steak on the grill.  You just have to plan ahead.

The dicing up of all the ingredients probably equals the time it takes to clean up after yourself at the end of putting it all together. But, the satisfaction of making a meal that is sooo wholesome and hearty makes it all worth the labor.

It is definitely a labor of love.  A love of  the art of producing a tasty, meatless meal and the love for the person you are making it for to help him reduce his cholesterol level without medication. Even though Michael said he is quite capable of monitoring his own intake of harmful fats, I assured him that I could do it even better. After all I know foods.

So, taking into consideration that he says he doesn't like garlic, and I can't use salt also for his sake, and he can only tolerate a limited number of beans in a week, I don't think I have failed too often. I aways check to see if he leaves anything on his plate to gauge whether the recipe is a keeper or not.

Just have to say, we are running through a lot of Bean-o lately.

Not me, wrong!

Considering all the opinions I have about everything, it isn't surprising that I'm wrong once in a while. My sister Anne over heard we admit that I was wrong about something the other day from across the room.  I'm sure she had been waiting a long time to hear me admit that, so she just couldn't resist chiming in.

Okay,as an example,  I was wrong about the name of the movie with Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr(I  maybe have the wrong actress) lying on the beach.  I never saw anything but the scene of them on the beach, so stands to reason to me that I thought the name of the movie was On the beach.  But, I knew Anne was right when she recalled it was From Here to Eternity.

Sometimes, an idea just makes so much sense to me that I just can't imagine that I could be wrong. Such as where to put the bale for recycled plastic. Each place I thought about, at the recycling center, at the waste transfer site or at the fair grounds. I know I am right about those choices until someone comes along and tells me that no matter what I may think, it just isn't going to happen.

Now I know I'm right about putting the baler in the pig barn that isn't used very often out there for pigs.  How often are they going to have pigs there, anyway? During fair week, I'd say. And we don't need much space and only once a month.  It isn't like boarding  horses for events during the year.  You don't board pigs for anything but the fair I would expect.

So, now I'm waiting to hear from the powers that be at the fair grounds about using the pig barn and what they would charge.  Now, I know I'm right about this. I just have to convince them.

Lentil burgers and the mustard seed

Just finished putting together our lentil, walnut burgers (I'm sure it would help if I could put some garlic in them , as I'm sure he would never know the difference either) for dinner tonight and have some time to sit down and blog a little. Michael figures that if he puts enough catsup, relish and mustard on them, he'll never know the difference from a good juicy beef burger. Right! He really does try hard to go along with the program since this low cholesterol, low salt diet is really for him. However, he really enjoys the treat when he gets to eat out and order a prime rib once in a while.  I say, "Go for it!" since he won't find one on our table at home, anyway.

So the parable of the mustard seed is about how something that starts out so small can become something so enormously big. I know it is talking about faith, but it is true with anything good, I think.  A small act like picking up a beer can off the street (Bub was way ahead this morning) seems so insignificant.  Yet, when you multiply that by every beer can on the curbside on every street, the impact becomes huge.

When you recycle one little water bottle and keep it out of the landfill, that seems immaterial in the grand scheme of what we throw away. Yet when you look around at all the water bottles used in America and around the world and how we could impact the mess they make with taking the little amount of effort it takes to recycle them, it is huge, again.

Our little plastics recycling program seems to many not even enough to make a tiny ripple in the big ocean of plastic waste.  Yet, when our little ripple touches the next little ripple and on and on, eventually you have a huge tsunami effect upon our earth.  Wow, now that is really huge!!

Perfect and flawed

So the perfect, flawless plastics recycling plan was less than perfect and flawless, it comes to be.  Since the waste disposal company boss says,"no go", for now it is once again, no go. What makes perfect sense to most people doesn't mean it does to those that handle the strings. It is and always boils down to "money". Of course, I realize that in a country built on capitalism that is always going to be the bottom line.

Personally, I wouldn't want to live under any other system  However, there are times when you wish the powers to be could weigh the benefits to society over the bottom dollar.  It doesn't mean we can't accomplish altruistic values for our country eventually, but it certainly does make  it a greater challenge for those who want to make our environment  something to be proud of.

Some would say," But I see the beauty of nature all around me. Look at the national parks that we  have. They are wonderful!" Yes they are, but they don't stay that way without money invested in the effort.  If you left it up to man they would be trashed in a minute. But, because our government has provided the money for the effort, our parks are there for generations to come to enjoy.

The problem is that without the dollars invested, and the efforts of those who really care, the rest of our environment tends to look like a trash can.  A large segment of our population really doesn't care about the effort to keep our country a place of personal pride. Those who are the first to protest the use of money to protect our environment are often the first to complain about the trash and the last to do anything about it.

So thanks to those who persevere against the odds. Thanks for seeing it as your personal responsibility to help protect and preserve our world. Thank God your numbers are increasing and an environmental conscience is being heard through out the world. Keep up the fight.  It will be worth it today and always. I know and I haven't given up either.

Sister Trip

Our sister trip to Chico Hot Springs was everything any one of us would have wanted.  That could be a challenge with Anne and I liking a bit more physical activity than Joyce would. Last year we drug her on a, regrettable for her, white water rafting trip down the Flathead River.  Of course the one to get injured had to be Joyce. So this year, since it was for her birthday, we opted for something more low key and relaxing.

So for just taking in the natural beauty of the Paradise Valley, relishing  the best  salmon dinner  I ever tasted and just relaxing in the hot pool a couple of times, it was pretty perfect. Anne and I even got in a one and a half hour hike up into the foothills, too. I had to take lots of pictures of all the beautiful flowers that abounded along the way.

We kind of were optimistic that we would be able to sell our mom's French crystal to an antique store in Bozeman, though, in hopes that would pay for our trip.  But it wasn't to be. So we hauled 96 crystal glasses of 6 different sizes, along with lots of other varied crystal pieces, taking up most of the space in the car, all the way to Bozeman.  Then hauled them all the way back home again when the lady said she wasn't interested after all.

Next year is my year to pick our destination and activities  for our sister trip and I have an entire year to think about it.



Final plan

So you say,"How do we know this is the recycling plan that is the real thing after all the false starts for the past year?"  Well, you don't, except after trying every model and option possible to us, this is the last available. So this is it or nothing.

I sat down with the head of the local sanitation company, Clark, and Roger, my source of expertise in the field of recycling, yesterday and came up with a plan we are all excited about and feel is quite doable.  Amazing what you can accomplish when everyone is on the same page with the same agenda.

The plan: Using a combination of various models,we will purchase a baler, as originally planned at the first site, a shed and enclosure to be placed at the local landfill. Clark is 100% on board and committed to the idea. Since it will be necessary to trench 75 yards for the 220 wiring there will be extra cost from the original plan, though.

At least once a month we will hold a community drive for collection of plastic waste.  It is still in the works which plastics we will accept: 1s, 2s, 1-7s?  The purer, the greater value. This will occur at the Big Spring Market Co-op and conducted by the committee and community volunteers.  The bagged plastic will be transported by pickups to the landfill for baling by Clark, his staff and volunteers.

The bales will be transported by volunteers who will take them to Billings for market. As more and more people make the trip for shopping and medical appointments today, this will not be difficult to accomplish.

Once everything is signed, delivered and ready to go, the big job of educating the community will begin in earnest. St. James' had better be ready to take on the job that is due to fall into their laps soon. And that is enough said about that.

What a ride!

It is what we do as people, we bounce back.  The sooner we are able to do it, the more quickly we can get back on track emotionally and mentally. Sometimes it takes longer, depending on how deeply the pain goes, but, eventually you have time to sort things through and get a grip on yourself.

We have been riding a roller coaster with this recycling program for the past year, trying to come up with a plan that is doable for both the consumer and those providing the program. If you have been following along, you have noticed how many times we have needed to change direction due to one reason or another. From baling to not baling back to baling again. Will it work or won't it work.

The bottom line has always been, can we accomplish the goal of removing the plastic from the environment without costing money for the operation? It has been a constant opening doors and slamming them shut again for months now. It has been important that we focus on finding a workable solution that we can nail down with solid commitments before going into the next phase of promoting the program to the public.  After all, it is obvious your credibility is lost if you can't give a definitive explanation about how this all works without vacillating from one story one day and another the next.

It takes a lot of time, energy and focus without distractions from diversions to get the job accomplished. The hardest part, when you are trying to work out a solution, is having distractions from those who have their own agendas.  I'm a one focus at a time person.  Let me get this job sewn up then I can move on to the next challenge. It must have something to do with physics that if you spread out energy too thinly, it loses its effectiveness.

Anyway, if you want to know the latest, and hopefully, the final solution we have come up with for the project tune in tomorrow and I will let you know.  Hopefully and optimistically we are coming to the end of our roller coaster ride soon. And what a ride it has been!

Update

First, observations.
1. Today I observed the consumption of Busch and Bud beers this weekend was  pretty even, if you can go by the cans I picked up this morning on my run.

2. Responding to comment made regarding my last post about half full vs half empty. I agree, as much as we may not like it, it is important to have people who think both ways in on the discussion if we are to have doable and realistic results in any endeavor, I'm sure. But each needs to defer to the other side when reason  has been shown by their counter part.

3.I have observed that egos are like balloons.  When they get too much hot air in them they tend to burst, making them unable to be appreciated.

So, the Burger Bash is over.  Finally!  Just the thank yous to go out and we can put it behind us. If you were to measure the success of the event by how much work went into it against the out come, I would have to say it was not a do over again.  However, if you measure it by the camaraderie we had and good time had by all, it was a smash hit. The music was fun, the workers were wonderful, keeping their spirits high the entire time and we made $1,600 for cancer relief. Not bad for a Saturday afternoon. 

The ROWL recycling program is having growing pains again, I have to say. The only thing keeping me going is the response from the community who plead with me not to quit and give their encouragement. They believe. I will try not to let them down.
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