Halloween Decorating

 

Me?

This must be me above, my sentiments, anyway. Carpets, too, are a problem.

Today, I slept until 12:30 pm, mainly because I did not sleep until about 6 am. Cleaner was going to come and called an hour ahead. Well, I realized I only had about 20 minutes to rest, so went to bed. I got to sleep about two hours because she did not come when she said. No problem. I was in my gown and stayed in my gown while she was here. 

I had her dust surfaces where I was going to decorate for Halloween. I mostly have pumpkins with which to decorate in here. So, I sat and she decorated as I told her. I have an orange watering can with black and orange fake flowers in it. Flowers have gold on them. Very festive. 

Since I made the decision not to have real pumpkins, it is so much easier. Plus, we don't have to buy and discard. I had many years of real pumpkins. I am done. All of the pumpkins are devoid of decoration except for two. One has a haunted house with big moon and bats flying around. The other is the only light pumpkin. It is carved with a light inside that has a cord to plug into the wall. 

I have fake fall leaves all about the room, strands of them. There is one very large pumpkin, round and tall. There are about two dozen small pumpkins of all sorts of autumn colors. 

On the front door is a plywood stack of three pumpkins. There is a safety green pumpkin for Trick or Treating sitting on the table. Tommy put a heavy rock in it to anchor it. He hung lots of ghosts of different sizes in the only tree without leaves, a dogwood. He put out a Halloween flag on the wire yard hanger. We hung my black bird and a pumpkin from the shepherd's hooks. 

I sat! She also put away some clothing in my bedroom, some to hang and some to store. In the kitchen she took out Tommy's old smoky glasses I hate, and we never use, he boxed them up and stored. I put in my pink glasses that we will use and my red glass salt and pepper shakers. There is much less on the counter between microwave and sink. 

I bought some glass looking plastic storage containers. They have never been used because I could never get the top off. Today, I sat with one in my lap and figured it out. Now, the oats from a small container are stored there. I taped the cooking method and measurements on the top. I remember, but Tommy may not. 

While I was sleeping before she came, Tommy completely cleaned off the very messy top of his bookcase and even dusted it! I had asked him once about three days ago. Good job. 

All the batteries in the tapers, and other candles had to be replaced. Now, I have the three on the bookcase set to come on for six hours each evening. I think I will reset them for four hours to save batteries. 

We must have ten pounds of batteries to recycle at a place that only sells batteries. They are accommodating and come to the car to pick them up from us. 

Lastly, she painted the mailbox stand with black paint. Then, she painted the mailbox with red paint. This is part of the Christmas decorating. Now, we must get new numbers for the mailbox. Tommy says the mailbox looks really nice. I didn't think he would allow me to paint it. Now we can tell people our house is the house with the red mailbox.

For dinner I had salad from lunch last week. It was amazingly fresh. A can of tuna with a bit of Miracle Whip was eaten with the salad with no dressing. Tommy ate some sort of soft taco type thing with lots of cheese and few vegetables, much less than was on the box it came in frozen. 

Halloween decorating is done. Dinner is done. 

I will mail my first Christmas card since it has to go halfway around the earth! It never gets there before Christmas. This year it will. This is the earliest I have ever mailed a Christmas card. 

Have you put out any Halloween or Fall decorations, even a pumpkin or Jack o' Lantern?

Do you only use fake pumpkins? Or, can you still manage heavy pumpkins?

I need the tshirt at the head of this post? Anyone else relate?

I have never painted a mailbox before. Have you? The post and box were in dire need of paint or replacing. This was cheaper!

What is the soonest you have ever mailed a Christmas card?

Tuesday

 Monday night, we put six bscb in cooking bag with too many carrots and six small potatoes. Sprinkled only with garlic powder and onion powder and several slices of onion, they were delicious after baking. I made slaw. A few days ago, I made slaw from a kit that was nasty tasting. Tommy liked it and may eat it. I will probably freeze one or two of the bscb. 

I am having trouble with Amazon. When I order two of an item each month, I keep getting three. I will have to stop the order, I suppose, and start again when I run out of this six-month supply! Is anyone else having this problem? Also, orders are set to be delivered on a certain date, then the order is delayed. This aspect has not caused a problem yet, but it is different than their usual practices. It keeps me looking for packages, keeps me on my toes. 

My toothbrushes are on subscribe and save, too. With the extra percentage off from subscribe and save, I will use that, and then quit when I get a year's supply of toothbrushes. Every 5% helps. 

We need to take recycling to Publix since we have so much stored. Tommy takes care of that, so I am behind on how much we have ready to go. I have a recycling wastebasket by my chair so I don't have to hand him one or two items at a time. This way, I can deposit bottles, newspapers and he can sort it in the kitchen/dining area at his leisure. We try to be efficient and work together. By the way, the recycling wastebasket is just a plain white wastebasket that we have designated recycling as opposed to trash. 

Dinner: chicken, potato, carrots, slaw. Delicious again tonight.

I have had no energy today, just a sloth. My whole body hurts and it is hard to swallow. But, it was a beautiful, hot day. So, all is well. I have been making plans.

How are things with you?

Essential Tremors Treatment

My  92-year-old friend has essential tremors. The med she takes is only partially effective, according to her. She worries because her two children have the same thing. 

I read an article about a new treatment to cure it. I knew brain surgery was available. But, this new treatment is incisionless. It involves ultrasound. Click Here to read about this new treatment. 

Tommy woke me early since I had to do damage control for something I did, bad mistake. However, all is well. Then, I cancelled dermatology appointment because I could not get an appointment for him at the same time. Since I was up too early despite sleeping well last night, I needed a nap. I slept well Thursday night but not long enough.

Friday, we were homebodies. Tommy washed, dried, and folded two loads of his clothing. I usually see this. But, he was finished by the time I got up from a very early nap.

I froze 3 baked chicken breasts, chopped onions that Tommy cooked with 4 pounds of ground beef. Tomorrow, I will make spaghetti with part of the cooked ground beef and freeze the rest. 

I called my friend about the treatment for essential tremors, and she was thrilled. She wants it especially for her children. She has been sad because they have to go through what she is going through. 

We went out today to get bread, milk, and bananas. Tommy bought ice cream, too. He goes for the cheap stuff and it is slimy with gums. Yuck. That will keep me from eating it. 

As we were getting into the car, there must have been a dozen wasps flitting around trying to get into the car. When we came back, he opened the door, and one was coming in. He is so slow to react since he does not hear well. I had to tell him to shut the door several times! Maybe Saturday I can buy wasp spray. They are building nests under the porch ceiling. Of course, this is what wasps do this time of year. 

Today, I have been going through papers, either saving or put in waste basket for recycling. I have a basket in front of me where I put all recycling. Tommy then takes it and sorts it into separate bags. Today, he took many bags of recycling to Rogue and we took all that to Publix where an employee unloaded it at the curb and put into proper containers. Tommy tipped the guy since it was so much. Removing that cleared out a huge space in the dining room. Good! I don't know why we don't take it to Publix when it is just one bag of paper or bottles or Styrofoam. 

I have filled that wastebasket twice today, and now I have another being filled. It holds water bottles, mail and paper, anything recyclable. I use the short reacher to make sure it goes in. Most of the time, it does not if I don't use the reacher. 

Tomorrow, I will continue the mail/paper recycling. Maybe I will sort books I picked up years ago and find a place for them. I want to get wasp spray and other things, but I don't want to brave the stores with Easter shoppers. 

Do you know anyone with essential tremors who might benefit from this new treatment? Are you familiar with the ultrasound method? Or, do you know about it and I am the last to know. 

Are you lucky enough to have recyclable pickup at your home?

New Recycling Opportunity

When I go into Publix, I see three recycling bins outside. I "see" them, but I obviously do not see them. Or, they have changed the bins. I did a double take yesterday.

One bin is for "foam trays and egg cartons." Now that I am buying store eggs, I have cartons to get rid of. The foam trays under meat are thrown away. So, now I can keep those out of my trash and the landfill. I looked again today, and the sign says "foam produce trays and egg cartons." So, it appears that foam meat trays are not welcome. I will wash them.

Even if I could put the foam meat trays in my recycling, I would not. Animals would plunder the recycling bin.  Besides, according to our town's recycling website, Styrofoam in one of the things specifically listed that they will not pick up.

I steer clear of fruit on Styrofoam, so this may not be a great win. But, I do buy meat on foam trays.

Wouldn't it be great if everything in my trash can could be recycled?

Do you have a specific place to recycle foam trays? Are vegetable or meat trays welcome?

Problem Solved (sort of)

It has worried me for a while that I throw away medicine bottles. I use all I can in many ways. In order to avoid throwing them away, I put them down here and there and have them all over the place. Soooo, I began gathering them up and storing them in a plastic bag that my Hefty cups came in.

I have choices of what to do with the bag of pill bottles since I am absolutely using all the pill bottles I can.

Ways I can get rid of the whole stash instead of throwing the pill bottles in the trash to go to the landfill:

*put them in the recycling bin and see if they will take the pill bottles.
*donate them to someone who will use them for crafts.
*Put them in the box when I take things to sell at a junk store on the highway. I would not charge for them, just give them to her.
*Offer them to a veterinarian.

I looked online and found many examples of bedazzled pill bottles and lighting using pill bottles. But, I am not feeling it at all. In the link there are 13 steps. Step #13 is a list of links for more recycling of pill bottles.

Good ideas are sewing kits and first aid kits and a money stash. Until lately, all my pill bottles had tops that were very difficult to remove or they just fell off. One side was lockable and the other side was not. Since the new Walmart caps are so easy to get off, I am going to start carrying a pill bottle in the car with Q-tips in them. Before, the caps were easily popped off or impossible to get off when turned the other way. The last thing I want to do is to fight a bottle that holds something to make my life easier.

At one pharmacy I used for years, I would take my one prescription bottle in with me, The pharmacist would take the pill bottle, put more pills into it, slap on a new label, and give it back to me. That never happens now.

Exbf tosses his pill bottles in the trash, so now I have him saving them for me to recycle.

Do you reuse pill bottles? If so, what do you do with them? Do you put them in a recycling bin?

Recycling Frustration

The city gives us a container for recyclables. It's about the size of a clothes basket. Since I recycle, it is well-used and always has something in it.

That is, unless something has been dragging things out. Tuna/salmon, corn cans are prime targets. I put the plastic cups I use into a plastic bag and tie the bag. Usually, there is a food can in with the cups. Sometimes, the food can is in the recycle bin, loose, without a bag. The whole bag gets dragged out and strewn all over the yard!

When I found the dead possum, there was a plastic bag with plastic cups inside and food cans. Whatever animal is was had dragged the bag all the way around the house to the opposite side. The bag had been ripped open and cups shredded. There is milk residue in most of the cups and sometimes orange juice. I don't want to go near the smelly place, but I will because I have to.

There are animals all over the neighborhood--at least one possum, raccoons, dogs, and cats and coyotes if I am to believe neighbors. I have to go all over the yard and collect debris that animals have strewn.

The neighbors behind me put out bags of trash that are not in a can. I have never seen the bags torn. I feel like I am a target yard over here. Neighbors that put out recycling swear nothing ever happens to their recycling even when it has attractive contents.

We have leash laws that no one bothers to follow. We cannot shot raccoons because it is illegal to shoot a gun in the city limits. Poison would kill dogs and cats. Live traps could not trap dogs or neighbor cats, all of which would have to be released.

I even found a can under the house, visible from the outside since I did not go under there. No, I left the can under there. This opening under the house had a window with a screen until a cat burst right through it trying to escape another cat. I replaced it once and it happened again. No, these are not my cats.

I cannot confront anyone if I have not seen their cat or dog. So, there is no use even thinking of that. Wild animals would not listen, understand, or care.

As of this afternoon, there are five bags of things or individual cans I must pick up with my back that does not like bending over.

Other than stop recycling, there are no choices. What would you do? And, I am not washing disposable cups that I use because of the problem with washing dishes! Do you have this problem in your neighborhood?

Recycling Opportunities: CFL Bulbs, Rechargeable Batteries

Lowe's Recycling
compact fluorescent bulbs, rechargeable batteries, plastic bags

I have never seen a receptacle or heard of a place to recycle CFL bulbs. So, I did a double-take when I saw this bin that also recycles rechargeable batteries and plastic bags. I only have used one CFL, one that stays on for long times. Now, I know what to do with it. Do you have other recycling places I have not seen? Somehow, wrapping a CFL well and sending it off to a landfill just seemed so wrong. 

I can recycle any kind of tuna, soup, or Coke can at the curb or at one of the two salvage places in town for cash. Receptacles for plastic bags are in some grocery stores. The glass recycling place in Huntsville accepted glass after having people drive the glass to their site, yet they did not haul it to Atlanta like they advertised. They received a huge fine and no longer accept glass.  I reuse almost all glass containers I bring into the house.

There is another place I just discovered that takes plastic bags. I think that place recycles only plastic, paper, and cardboard. This town has plentiful opportunities for recycling, except for glass. How are your recycling opportunities? Does your Lowe's have this recycling bin?

Your turn
How are the recycling opportunities in your area? How about a specific CFL recycling bin?