Clear as a bell, or "On Garbage"
Tonight's sky is pristine clear and the stars are so bright. So much for the TV weather guys. Wrong, WRONG, wrong...as usual....not cold, not raining, but springtime warm and clear as a bell. Where did that expression come from, clear as a bell ?
I know this to be true because I am unpacking boxes in the Hardwood Dr garage and toting stuff to the street where my scavenger neighbors will snap it up tomorrow. And that is what I want.
All the thrift stores drop-off locations are too far away, in Foley, so I make boxes for the sidewalk on non-garbage days. We are lucky, we still get 2 days a week pick-up, BUT, it means also that I have to be more strategic about placing my good-stuff boxes on the curb, so they are not accidentally mistaken for garbage by the real garbage company.... but, there really is little worry, as the friendly 3 man trucks disappeared after Ivan. The ones who would get just about anything you put on the curb; sacks, bags, boxes, etc.
Now we have a guy on a cell phone driving a huge truck w/ remote control lobster claws who will ONLY deal with the official blue, BFI flip-lid container. Anything else out there is just as you left it after his pass. I miss my hardworking garbage guys. Every summer I would put a small cooler with cold drinks out there for them. I bought them warm gloves in winter. They were so appreciative that they would wheel my empty garbage container about 1/3 way back down my drive after it was emptied. This was a nice gesture, but it really payed off when I was out of town and not there to retrieve my empty container after pick-up day.
After my crew was replaced by the aloof cell phone guy, I got a cease and desist letter from the City of Gulf Shores for allowing my garbage container to remain near the street for more than 24 hours.
And speaking of garbage, I did something I have never done before tonight. I held an entire RCA CD player/Cassette player stereo up high and threw it down hard on the tile floor. I bought it for the Hardwood house last May for about 65 bucks. It held 5 CD's, played radio and cassettes, and I couldn't figure out if it was ME or IT . I couldn't figure out if I just had not spent enuf time w/ the multi-language instructional manual or if the thing was indeed acting in an irrational manner. Of course, this aberrant behavior did not start until it was rather late to return it to place of purchase for a refund or another model.
I only heard it play about a dozen times. Yesterday it would not power up at all. Prior to that, recently, I had to unplug it and re-plug it to get it to power up. Now...nothing. I decided if there were any CD's in the bowels of the thing, that they were worth more than the dead stereo sitting on the street looking all shiny and new.
First I threw it to the floor and the CD drawer popped out, ....a Fred Eaglesmith CD came forth...any CD by Fred Eaglesmith is worth more than any dead stereo.
This was fun, so I got a small sledgehammer from the garage and began smashing, a Bruce Springsteen CD became available.
The way I figure it, if I average the price of all stereos I have bought in the last 20 yrs, the cost of this one is still a fraction of the cost of the one I bought when i was 16 and worked one whole summer to buy a 'component system' (which BTW got sold later when installed in a hippy-ish step van camper that had about 16 headphone jacks. ). So NO BIG DEAL. It is smashed to pieces and in the BFI garbage container and I have my CDs that were in it.
Sooooooo, my only hope is that Google ranks this blog post very high for searches for RCA stereo and that RCA gets so bothered by my report of my experience that they ship me a Sony unit post haste in exchange for my removing this post. Photos to follow.
I know this to be true because I am unpacking boxes in the Hardwood Dr garage and toting stuff to the street where my scavenger neighbors will snap it up tomorrow. And that is what I want.
All the thrift stores drop-off locations are too far away, in Foley, so I make boxes for the sidewalk on non-garbage days. We are lucky, we still get 2 days a week pick-up, BUT, it means also that I have to be more strategic about placing my good-stuff boxes on the curb, so they are not accidentally mistaken for garbage by the real garbage company.... but, there really is little worry, as the friendly 3 man trucks disappeared after Ivan. The ones who would get just about anything you put on the curb; sacks, bags, boxes, etc.
Now we have a guy on a cell phone driving a huge truck w/ remote control lobster claws who will ONLY deal with the official blue, BFI flip-lid container. Anything else out there is just as you left it after his pass. I miss my hardworking garbage guys. Every summer I would put a small cooler with cold drinks out there for them. I bought them warm gloves in winter. They were so appreciative that they would wheel my empty garbage container about 1/3 way back down my drive after it was emptied. This was a nice gesture, but it really payed off when I was out of town and not there to retrieve my empty container after pick-up day.
After my crew was replaced by the aloof cell phone guy, I got a cease and desist letter from the City of Gulf Shores for allowing my garbage container to remain near the street for more than 24 hours.
And speaking of garbage, I did something I have never done before tonight. I held an entire RCA CD player/Cassette player stereo up high and threw it down hard on the tile floor. I bought it for the Hardwood house last May for about 65 bucks. It held 5 CD's, played radio and cassettes, and I couldn't figure out if it was ME or IT . I couldn't figure out if I just had not spent enuf time w/ the multi-language instructional manual or if the thing was indeed acting in an irrational manner. Of course, this aberrant behavior did not start until it was rather late to return it to place of purchase for a refund or another model.
I only heard it play about a dozen times. Yesterday it would not power up at all. Prior to that, recently, I had to unplug it and re-plug it to get it to power up. Now...nothing. I decided if there were any CD's in the bowels of the thing, that they were worth more than the dead stereo sitting on the street looking all shiny and new.
First I threw it to the floor and the CD drawer popped out, ....a Fred Eaglesmith CD came forth...any CD by Fred Eaglesmith is worth more than any dead stereo.
This was fun, so I got a small sledgehammer from the garage and began smashing, a Bruce Springsteen CD became available.
The way I figure it, if I average the price of all stereos I have bought in the last 20 yrs, the cost of this one is still a fraction of the cost of the one I bought when i was 16 and worked one whole summer to buy a 'component system' (which BTW got sold later when installed in a hippy-ish step van camper that had about 16 headphone jacks. ). So NO BIG DEAL. It is smashed to pieces and in the BFI garbage container and I have my CDs that were in it.
Sooooooo, my only hope is that Google ranks this blog post very high for searches for RCA stereo and that RCA gets so bothered by my report of my experience that they ship me a Sony unit post haste in exchange for my removing this post. Photos to follow.
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