Errands and Housecleaning Managed a LOT of Mileage For Me Yesterday

I started the day out yesterday by pulling out the refrigerator shelving, taking off the tape at the end of each shelf that was keeping them in place during shipping, and washing, then replacing each one. I wanted to get a start on understanding how the shelves were assembled, where I had space and where I gave it up, and how I wanted to arrange things. By the end of my "explorations", I had removed numerous pieces of tape, removed one door shelf completely to allow space for taller bottles, and started filling the other two remaining door shelves on that side. I then made a grocery list and headed to my two favorite grocery stores - my local Target for some items, and my local grocery for the bulk. We lost a lot of refrigerated food during the past week, and needed replacements. 

It was a joy to actually be able to purchase fresh vegetables 
again yesterday. After almost a week of eating lots of pre-mixed 
salads for two or three meals a day, the opportunity to buy 
fresh veggies and make my Alkagizers again was happiness. 

It was a joy to purchase veggies again. I pulled out my blender, set it up, and immediately started making a new set of four Alkagizers. I missed my "ogre juice" SO MUCH over the past week. It was a relief to finally have my veggie smoothies again. I made four, then a few hours later, emulsified two and poured them into my travel containers. I'm ready to go now, and my salads are once again reserved for dinnertime only. Thank goodness! 

I had a long list of items that I brought to Goodwill 
yesterday. After I was finished with that and back home, 
I pulled out two large plastic bins of sweaters and 
started culling those for my next trip over. I ended up 
saving seven sweaters. The rest are in three shopping 
bags and will be taken to Goodwill next week. 

I had the back of Minion packed solidly with items to donate to Goodwill. I started a complete list of what I was donating, made sure that everything was secured with rubber bands or in baggies, and drove over, putting them into their appropriate bins, or onto the rolling table. Donations are handled a bit differently now, but that's to be expected. Covid has changed a lot of things. 

I've used Tech Dump for years to recycle old 
electronics. Some things they accept at no 
charge, others are a nominal fee. It's well 
worth it to reclaim what can be reused and 
recycle whatever we can. 

I then drove down to Tech Dump. Tech Dump is unique, as far as I know. They accept all dead computers, computer parts, televisions, etc. for rebuilding or controlled destruction. They have a classroom where they teach computer skills, and a showroom where they sell refurbished electronics. For $15 I was able to get rid of an old printer, a non-functional portable DVD player and a miscellaneous electronic something or other. Well worth the cost to me and much better for the environment. 

Home again, I continued housecleaning. I don't have a lot of time until Sharon arrives, and I'd like things to look somewhat civilized. I made a start on cleaning the computer room, did a bit more in Sharon's room, culled through the two bins of sweaters mentioned above, and started my next box for Half-Price Books. 

DH and I have season tickets for Ren Fest. We usually 
are there every Sunday during the run. Of course, 
everything was cancelled last year, so what would have 
been our 50th annual Ren Fest, is now being celebrated 
a year late. Still - 50 years is something wonderful to 
celebrate and we're looking forward to sharing the 
festivities. 

Renaissance Festival starts today, and it's looking like we'll have really fabulous weather for opening weekend. There are supposed to be thunderstorms, but not until the nights. The temps will be manageable, and I'm really looking forward to getting geared up and out to the Fest grounds on Sunday. I suppose I will continue my hunt for a new corset. My old one hasn't fit me for years - it was from the days of WAY overweight. I'm now at my wedding weight and approaching my High School weight. I need a new corset that actually fits. I'll at least try some one. 

So, my days are filled, as usual. What have you been up to? I know my friends along the East Coast will be flirting with their latest hurricane - Henri. I'm holding all of you in my thoughts, my friends. Please be careful and stay safe. I'll be back on Monday. 

It's Going To Be A Busy Day

Today is going to be a very busy day - even busier than usual for my "day off". The washer is already filled with clothes, just waiting for my  gym clothes to be added before being started. I'll have 2-3 additional loads after this one is complete. I have grocery and sundry shopping that has to be done, and I need to fill out, scan and email a cancellation form for my old health insurance policy to the appropriate company. You would think, since the company is the same, only the policy has changed, that it would be a simply flip-over. Apparently not. So I'm still getting billed for two different policies, even though one is no longer in effect. Sigh --- bureaucracy. 

Bureaucracy can be a sign that your organization
is nearing it's death. Have you ever seen the
"Organizational Life-cycle" curve before? It's
actually pretty interesting to look at. 

Another goal for the day is to get some boxes with books out to Half-Price Books. The books won't do me any good, so I'll pass them on, and if they give me some money for them? All the better. I also have a pile of old clothing to donate to Goodwill, while I'm out and about. I'd like to clear out my entryway for a while, at least until the next batch of books to be donated take the space. 

Half Price Books actually rented the space where my store is located
until the early 1990's. At that time time they were still a young
corporation. They've grown a lot since then and have locations
all over the Twin Cities and possibly the nation. 

Tomorrow will be my first day in the swimming pool since March 21st, so I'm going to make sure I have everything ready for the switch over. It's been a while since I've had to put together a swimming kit, so I'll make sure everything is ready to go. I generally put my kit together the night before so that I have everything at hand in the morning, but I carry different things for water vs land exercises. I also have to charge my underwater iPod so that it's ready for tomorrow's swim as well. 

My mesh bag carries my flippers and paddles and other things
that I don't want to carry in my dry pack with my clothing. I haven't
had to carry my mesh bag with me for two months. I hope I
don't forget important things tomorrow. 

I'll also have a chance to catch up with Aearwen. Last week's chat had to be cancelled because of my final tattoo appointment, but I'm back on track now. It amazes me that we can touch base for so many years, be good friends, sisters in many respects, and that we have never met in person. Sometimes people click like that and it's a totally wonderful thing. 

Do you have a friend who is your sister from
another mother? I've been fortunate in my life. I have
several friends who are that close and who I
cherish that much. Aearwen is one of those friends. 

So, it's looking like it will be a busy day. I guess I won't be lazing around, munching on chips and drinking tea. That's just as well. Have a great Wednesday and I'll return tomorrow! 

A Busy Wednesday - Get Rid of Some, Buy Some Others

May arrived with warm temperatures, overnight showers (which would have been some serious snow even two weeks ago) and a crowded schedule. Not really a difference there - crowded schedules rule my life. This time it's Memorial Day getting in my way. Sure, it's the final Monday of May - so not exactly happening right away. But it shifts my schedules around because it's a Major Holiday in the USA. The store will be closed, I'll probably allow myself a second sleep day and skip swimming for that day, and I have to schedule around it for my bi-monthly Chiropractor appointment. 

Memorial Day is an important national holiday, a day set
aside to honor those who served and who still serve in
our military, and a chance to say "Thank you for
putting your lives on the line for our freedom". 

June is starting to rush in where May has barely begun. June brings with in my annual trip to the Bead & Button Show in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I always have a good time at the show, and it's not a bad drive out there - only five-six hours on the road from door to door. I suppose it popped into my head because I got the first "Here's what you need to bring for class and I look forward to meeting you," email from one of my instructors in my in-box this morning. I'm taking classes on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, so I'll have to keep my eyes open for the other two emails I'm sure to be getting. 

The exhibit at MIA is called "Power and Beauty in China's Last
Dynasty: Concept and Design by Robert Wilson". I think it
will be fabulous and I'm really looking forward to it. 

May brings the flowers, the green grasses, and my birthday - all is good. A few weeks ago I told DH that I wanted to attend an exhibition on Chinese art at the Minneapolis Institute of Art for my birthday gift. He said "Fine, go ahead and buy the tickets and let me know what I owe you." So I did. We're going this Sunday. Of course I reminded him yesterday that we were doing this on Sunday and it had completely flown through his head - no memory of his words at all. He was all "What if I don't want to go?" I refrained from telling him that if I wanted him to come with me to watch ants do their thing, he should be happily doing it because it's my request for my birthday. ARGH! 

My car isn't quite this bad. Everything does fit into the back
of my SUV. But since I keep a very clean and uncluttered
car, it's bothersome to me to have the back filled with stuff. 

Today, of course, is Wednesday. I have a car stuffed with things that I have to add to today's list of stuff to do. Four large boxes will be gone quickly - I'm dropping them off at my local UPS Store for shredding. These are daily cash reports, etc from the store I used to operate in Mall of America. I closed that business in January 1996, and I thought we had caught all of the boxes the last major shred we did, but I guess we missed a few. So I need to get rid of those. I also have a couple of smaller things to drop off for shipping there. I'll do Tech Dump tomorrow morning since that's closer to my shop. That's where electronics go to be refurbished or minced for landfill-appropriate deposition. 

Tech Dump recycles electronics. Things like TV's have to be paid for
because of the recycling costs of the screens, but most electronic
items are recycled for free. They offer employment for people trying
to return to the workforce, and they do mobile events throughout
the Cities. It's a great organization. 

I'm shopping at my local grocery store as well as at Target today. I try to keep my Target runs to once a month, but there are some staples that I'm running really low on - salad dressing and paper towels head my list today. Of course there are my usual four loads of laundry for a Wednesday, and I'm hoping to get some cleaning done on my car. If it's raining that won't happen and it might be. We're starting May out wet. 

So what are you doing on your Wednesday? It's got to be less hectic than mine will be - LOL. Whatever you're doing, have fun and I'll be back tomorrow with clean clothes and a stocked pantry. 

Weekend Wrap-up and Fabulous Monday

It was a cold run to the outdoor pool on Saturday, but the water was wonderfully warm and even though the clouds kept threatening rain, it stayed away until the afternoon. I got my full swim in and ran like crazy back to the warmth of the locker room and a toasty shower.

Perhaps I should have been running in the water instead of to and from the
pool. Running in the water is excellent exercise and much easier on the body
than just running on a treadmill or on land. There are several people at my
YMCA who run in the swimming pool. 

We got a large shipment into the shop on Friday so worked on getting that checked in on Saturday. It took most of the day and tempers were snapped a couple of times, but at the end of the day all had been checked in and was ready to start processing. We'll be busy for a week or two getting everything packaged, labelled and out onto the sales floor.

The center area of our recycling center is compost. In the distance
you can see a dark mountain - that's where the brush and greenery
gets deposited. The recycling center is always busy and heavily used. 

Sunday was cooler, but not bad. We hauled two loads of old wood to the landfill. I got lots of arm exercise pitching logs into and over the walls of greenery. The landfill uses a large earth moving machine to compress the greenery and wood into a more compact form and it pushes it up a good 10-12 feet high. I tried to make sure to toss with both arms to have a more balanced workout - LOL. The larger pieces of wood we just placed at the base of the green wall.

For household recycling, Eureka is contracted with our city. They have provided
each household with large wheeled buckets similar to our trash buckets and
they pick up mixed recycling every two weeks. It's so convenient. 

We'll have another 2-3 loads to take over this coming long weekend. The store will be closed Sunday, Monday and Tuesday this coming week to celebrate the July 4th holiday in the USA, so I'm really looking forward to having three days in a row off. It's extremely rare for me to have such a gift.

Have a wonderful Monday. Make it the start of an awesome week! 

Here's to Monday - the start of a new work week. I hope it's a kind day for each of you and that it goes smoothly. I'll be back tomorrow.

How Far We Have Come - More Earth Day Thoughts

A friend brought up a good point about one thing I said in yesterday's post about Earth Day. I'll condense and paraphrase because I don't have a right to quote her without asking for permission and I'm running late. She expressed a bit of healthy cynicism about Earth Day, stating that it's a one hand/other hand issue. The increased awareness of the environment is good, but for many people it's just that single day and they return to their poor habits immediately thereafter.

Her comment made me think, since I've been involved with Earth Day since the very first one while I was in High School in Colorado. I thought back over my more than thirty years of celebrating and fighting for environmental awareness and causes, and remembered what the prevailing attitudes about the land that we lived in were like back in the early 1970's. It really wasn't that long ago to me, but I have a lot of friends who weren't even born then, so I guess it's been a while. 

Toxic water was becoming all too common with chemicals and pollutants
being added to the waters at an alarming rate. The awareness started by
Earth Day led to some serious cleanup of the waterways as well as
strengthened regulations about waste water disposal practices. 

What really hit me is that over the years, environmental causes and a focus on helping to save the environment has become a part of standard rhetoric and discussion. It's nothing for a municipality to publish their water testing results in their monthly newsletters and signing a community up for curb-side single container recycling has become commonplace (and oh, so nice!). The EPA was established and strengthened over the years, factories and other businesses were fined and forced to clean up their environmental damage, and toxic waste dumps were fenced off, analyzed, and in some cases cleaned up and repurposed. 

Businesses are often really poor at self-policing. They'll go for the
least expensive solution and the short-term fix. Those practices
can lead to long-term problems that can affect generations to come. 

None of this would have happened without that original Earth Day and the subsequent ones bringing the topic of the land around us into sharper focus. We're losing that focus now, with our new political administration, and I have to admit that I'm probably more afraid for the lasting effects of this poor decision on Mother Earth than many other aspects of the current President and Congress. 

I'm grateful that concern for the environment isn't as much a 'grass roots' and 'underground' lifestyle as it was when I was a kid. Environmental causes have shifted from the back pages in a bottom corner to being front page news. Talk about the future ramifications of environmental actions, project construction, and corporate decisions that impact the land, air and water is a standard topic for discussion. All of this comes from that original Earth Day. 

Many cities and suburbs have taken to fully mixable one-step curbside
recycling containers. It's so easy and efficient! The waste containers
have a radio code in the lid that helps the truck speed from one stop
to another. The picture here is from Indianapolis, Indiana. 

Yes, Earth Day might be just a single day in the year for many people to think about the Earth we live on. I can't disagree with that; I know people personally who live that way, compartmentalizing things that make them uncomfortable or that demand that extra step. But those first ripples in the water went on to become a movement that changed our perception of the world. I'm grateful that we still celebrate and acknowledge Earth Day because even if it's only a single day, that's one day of thought that can fertilize more awareness in the future. 

I'm so grateful that I've had an opportunity to be part of
environmental awareness for most of my life. It's a gift. 

Have a wonderful Friday and enjoy every aspect of it. I'm quickly choosing pictures and getting this posted. Running late for my swimming! ACK! 

Bringing Some Important Dates to Your Attention Today

OMG, how can it already be Thursday! There are lots of things going on within the next week that I want to bring to your attention, so here we go!

Earth Day is celebrated on April 22nd. What have you
done for our earth lately? Remember, we borrow the
earth from our children, so leave them with a world
worth living in. 

First of all - Saturday the 22nd is Earth Day. It's a day to remember that we only have a single planet upon which we live and that if we mess this up, it's curtains for us as well as a lot of other lovely and amazing critters who share this world with us. The next race to inherit the earth after us may well be the cockroaches, so let's do our very best to assure that doesn't happen. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Replenish and Restore - treasure this world we live on. My DH and my staff know I'm a bit of a maniac about recycling. I blame/thank my aunt for that. In the early days when she lived in Aspen, she would drive miles out of her way to take her recycling to the center of town where there were bins set up for glass and paper. My mother could have given a darn, but Tante Vera cared about the environment a lot. So thanks, Tante Vera, for teaching by example. I've never forgotten it.

Check your local restaurants. Many areas will have
restaurants participating in this nationwide event.
Follow the link in the paragraph below for more
information. 

Next week, on the 27th is Dining Out for Life. This National effort helps raise funds for AIDS services. You can find out more specific information on diningoutforlife.com but check out what events might be happening in your own area and try to support them. Last year more than $4 million was raised in North America for this cause through this single event and a lot of very generous restaurants and eating establishments.

I wanted to get this, but I'm cheap. I didn't want to spend
the money on it. I'm sure it will go on sale at some
point and I'll pick it up then. I'll just have to watch
for it in the sales emails and flyers. 

Yesterday I walked into Target with a shopping list (I still ended up forgetting a couple of things, despite the list) and $55 of gift cards in my pocket. It was my intention to get a new pair of jeans and maybe a DVD with the gift cards. After shopping and getting lots of things for home and the shop, I checked out the jeans. The style I wanted was sold out of my size - my size was only available in styles that I already had and didn't want more of. Meh! So then I checked out the DVDs. I knew I wanted the Harry Potter offshoot - "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" - but ended up looking, and deciding that I'll wait until the price goes down. I'm not in a rush, I just want to have it. So, yesterday I walked back out of Target with a shopping cart full of paper products and $55 of gift cards in my pocket.

Here's hoping you have a tremendous Thursday. I'm ready to hit the pool and dive into my day running. Lots to do! Enjoy!

Prince, Earth Day and Passover - A Very Busy Day

So much is going on today. The news wires are full of information about the life and speculation about the cause of the death of Prince. I don't think this news story will die down quickly. There is speculation of illness, a drug overdose of opiates, and other guesses, but nothing certain. The only thing that is certain is (1) we lost a paramount musician who was respected throughout the world, and (2) there will be lots of legal crap when it comes to parceling out his estate, valued at a minimum of $200,000,000. Or so "they" say. All I know is I won't be getting any of it, and I also won't be seeing stories about him appearing at various local venues to enjoy performances or take up an instrument for an impromptu concert.

The airwaves and internet are full of so many photos of Prince in
performances throughout his career, but this was as close to the
'real' Prince as we can get. This is a passport photo that he had
taken just a couple of months ago. Makeup had to be minimal in
this photo, so just a bit of eyeliner. Damn - he looked good for age 57! 

It's also Earth Day. Earth Day was first celebrated on April 22, 1970, when I was in high school - yes, that was a long time ago. At that time, for the very first celebration, many of us ditched school and walked in a large group from our building to the Convention Center in downtown Denver where there were displays, exhibits, and discussions about clean water, clean air, zero population growth, and the beginnings of the recycling movement. I remember I phoned my mom to come pick me up after I was done roaming the aisles. I was willing to walk the hour+ to get there, but didn't want to walk back home that distance plus the additional half hour to get home in the dark.

This is a vintage poster from the first Earth Day. I have
no idea what town/city this was from, but the image
of the earth wearing a gas mask is stunning in
its simplicity. 

Tonight, at sundown, is the beginning of Passover for my Jewish relatives and friends. I always loved Passover. Although we held Seder at our own home various years, it was just as common for us to go to the homes of other friends or relatives for Seder. I loved the food, the ritual rhythm of the celebration and ... did I mention the food? Total yum! It was also a great excuse for a thorough housecleaning since products containing yeast were forbidden. I remember many a college student or visiting Christian pastor being sent home with bags of cookies and bread.

The Passover Seder chronicles the flight of the Jewish people as they
escaped Egypt under the leadership of Moses. It goes through their
slavery, the plagues (including the passing over of Jewish houses when
the angel of death visited Egypt for the final plague), and chronicles
the parting of the Red Sea and the forty years of wandering in the
desert. It is one of the integral holidays of the Jewish religion and as
such, I celebrated it many times as I was growing up, even into my
early college years. 

So while people speculate about life and death today - the life of a bright talent, the deaths of firstborn children in ancient Egypt and the death of the entire planet due to poor management of our resources and our waste - look around you. Treasure what you have, tread the earth lightly, and "Let's Go Crazy!". Happy Friday to all.

The House is Looking Empty

Yesterday's job was cleaning out the kitchen/breakfast nook area in preparation for the laminate install later this week. We also pulled more of the living room furniture out and moved tables up to various rooms that we're using for storage. What a chore! Then, just to finish things off, we cleaned out the pantry because we're getting laminate in there also.

We have a walk-in pantry that is really poorly designed. DH has wanted
to re-do it for years, so this will be his opportunity after the new
laminate is installed on Thursday. I hope he doesn't take too long to
get the re-do finished, though. 

DH was a bit perfunctory about cleaning, but I dove in right after breakfast and went non-stop until after 7:00 pm. I even took a small pull over to Goodwill with my old espresso/cappuccino/coffee maker. I bought it years ago at WallMart on a Black Friday special and it actually works well, but I stopped using us and it took up a bunch of counter space. I put the electric kettle on the counter instead and that will suit us just fine.

My coffee maker was just like this one. It was HUGE. It
actually made a pretty good espresso, and a decent cup
of coffee, but I wanted my kitchen counter back, so I
donated it to Goodwill. Someone else can have it and
I hope they enjoy it as much as I did. 

The recycling bucket is overflowing, and the trash container is pretty full as well. It's been a very busy week getting ready for the big install. I have the couch, love seat, and central coffee table remaining to move. We'll move those early Tuesday morning after I get back from the gym. I probably should try to contact the installers and find out what time they will be here tomorrow. It's always helpful to warn DH when people are due to arrive.

Our city is part of the assorted waste recycling program where our
bins are almost identical in size and shape as our trash bins. Over the
past month or so, our recycling bin has been almost overflowing, we've
done so much cleaning. It's really great! 

I'll take photos today and tomorrow and hope to share by the end of the week so that all of you can see what a difference just the carpet will make. I got notification that our drapes were shipped out to us on the 12th, so we'll soon have those as well. The rooms are coming together. Now, if we could just agree on a wall covering ... LOL. Happy Monday to all!

High Gear Steps Up

I'm back ... did you miss me? Things will be going crazy here over the next few weeks. I work through this week, but I'm off to my annual conference next week. After I return, I have one more week to get my house cleaned up and ready for carpeting and flooring. It's crazy-busy time.

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I had a really nice Memorial Day weekend, although we ditched the movie in favor of a bit more sleep and increased cleaning time. That's key right now - getting things cleaned up to the max as quickly as possible. The drapes have been ordered and we knocked almost 40% off the price because of sales and other discounts we were able to apply. SCORE! The dining room is completely cleaned now, and Sharon's Room has started receiving boxes of books from the living room. I have one more box of books to scan and then the in-use boxes can also be put into there.

We are so busy over the next few weeks, it's mind-blowing! 

DH got rid of one large pile of stuff from the kitchen yesterday, but he still has things in the living room to go through today. Since he'll be working the rest of the week, his initial thoughts that he could do more on Thursday and Friday don't hold, and he'll be working all next week too. Poor boy. He'll survive, although he's not happy.

Tech Dump accepts any electronic items for recycling, and most
of them are at no charge or little charge. I have two printers and
a third CPU and a third computer monitor that need to get dropped
off. The only thing I'm keeping from my old computers are the keyboards.
Those seem to have use for me in so many other systems. 

My car trunk is stuffed with items for recycling, Goodwill and TechDump, with more waiting for later in the week. I think I can get TechDump done today, but Goodwill will have to wait until tomorrow because they open a bit later. Still, things are getting tossed, donated or recycled, and that's making me quite happy.

We're making progress, slowly but surely. 

So progress is being made and that's the important thing. Now to wrap this up and get going to the gym. Have a great Tuesday, everyone!

Paperless? Ptah! I Say ... Ptah!

One of the promises of our electronic, computerized world was that we would become a paperless society. Although I see that in many things - email, facebook, twitter and the other social media methods of reaching out primary among them - I don't really see this coming through in spades throughout my life. I would LOVE to rid myself of paper, but I don't think it is possible, at least not yet. My notes and instructional manuals, my alternative keyboards for odd fonts such as my Egyptian Hieroglyphic fonts, and my other odd keyboard instructions are all are printed in hardcopy because I need to refer to them. My weekly and monthly story prompts are printed because I take them with me to work on a variety of different computers while composing the storylines. Forms, legal letters, etc are sent via email, but printed out, again for easy reference. Every time I print, I hear a tree cry. But...I have to print these things to make sure that I catch everything. My memory isn't as good as it used to be, I guess.

What happened to our 'paperless' society? 

It's a real Catch-22. I want a paperless office/life, yet my unreliable or overloaded memory and my lifestyle demand pieces of paper to remind me of things like passwords, account numbers, instructions, and procedures. For example - today I printed out the exhibition times for an art and crafts exhibit I'll be attending on Sunday. Although I know the times, my DH won't take my word for it, so I'll have to back it up with proof *sigh*. One tree.

Maddy Haggith put together this paper mountain of an average year's worth of
paper waste. It's a really interesting article if you follow the link. 

The second tree was sacrificed by my printing out the addresses of the Mazda dealers near me so that I can go and take a closer look at one of the autos I'm thinking about purchasing. I want to check it out from top to bottom, and I'll probably request a full brochure also so that I have all of the statistics at hand. Two trees...

I will admit that I read almost all of my books in e-versions now. I use my Nook
or my Nook App on my phone and cruise through my usual 2-3 books a week
on those. My house appreciates the fact that I don't have to find space for more
paperbacks and I love the fact that I can read practically anywhere with more
ease. My Nook app on my phone gets used to the max daily. I LOVE e-books. 

The third tree was sacrificed printing out the instructions for the B2MeM Compilation Ebook. I want my story and artwork included in this, but I've made a couple of very important text changes to my story since the original submission and must make sure that the version used is the most up-to-date one. I need to read through the directions carefully to make sure I'm doing everything correctly and submitting the proper required information. Sometimes it is easier to have a checklist, and that's what this basically is. Nonetheless - it is my third tree of the morning.

Are we trapped in paper? Is the dream of a paperless society just
a pipe dream? 

My DH was contacted by the attorney who is working on the income taxes for his father's estate. He needs one more bit of information phoned into him this morning. I printed this out and put it on DH's keyboard where he'll see it first thing this morning when he awakens. This particular tree was an important one, but nonetheless, was my fourth tree of the morning.

What things would we miss in a paperless society? Paper airplanes, certainly,
but also things like the morning newspaper and catalogs. I hope to always enjoy
handwritten letters and cards from dear friends, however, and I will continue
to design, make, and send my annual Solstice cards in December. 

My final felled tree for the day was used to print out the April Challenge Prompt I had received in my email for my monthly LOTR Community story. Again, I work on my stories on several different computers (thank goodness for Dropbox) and need to remind myself about prompt words, deadlines, and headings so that my submissions meet the criteria. I carry these with me until I've submitted the story, then shred them. Tree number five.

Of course, if you must use paper, please recycle the pages when you
are through with them. So few things actually need to be archived in physical
form these days. 

Now, I also admit that I am a HUGE fan of recycling, and that all of these pages will be shredded and added to my recycling bin. But still ... the paperless office is a joke in my life. How about in yours? Have you managed to eliminate most printed paper and leave lighter footprints on Mother Earth?

We can all dream of living in a new Emerald City of clean air, pristine water,
ample food and supplies for everyone throughout the world.
If we stop dreaming, halted by the immensity
of the challenge, we won't make the slightest dent in our future. Work
for progress in your own life and it will impact the lives of others. 

Sorry for the rather 'preachy' post today. Have a fabulous Tuesday...