One mans trash is another mans treasure

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Last night I was watching a repeat television show of My name is Earl. I’ve only ever watched that particular show two or three times in my life before because normally I am busy doing something else when it is on the air. But last night I was having trouble falling asleep and turned on the television just as that show came on. The show was about how tornadoes kept hitting the trailer park where the show’s characters were living, and that everyone’s possessions were strewn around. When the tornado subsided everyone was going crazy trying to take possession of the items that were strewn around.

In a way it made me think of a treasure hunt, people looking for the “best” find. They had a “finders keepers” rule – whoever gets it in their hands first gets to keep it. What was particularly humorous about this was that people were valuing some items that would hold the interest of most people. The adage “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” was demonstrated throughout the show. The next time I’m channel surfing and see that My name is Earl in on, I think I’ll watch it again. It was a little bit slapstick, but funny just the same.

Grass clippings

This is the season where people are starting to mow their lawns and blow their grass clippings out into the roadway. Every time I see some grass clippings on the road like that I think about how dangerous those clippings are to people who are riding their motorcycles. Grass clippings are very slippery, and it would be extremely hazardous to a motorcyclist to be riding along on the road, minding his own business, and then suddenly have to swerve to avoid hitting a deer or a dog or cat, and be in the middle of a section of road that was covered with grass clippings.

I want to write to a congressman to ask him/her to introduce a bill to make it illegal to dump grass clippings on a public road. I’m not quite sure which one to write to. Probably would be a good idea to write to one that rides a motorcycle, don’t you think? I wonder how to find out that information……

I think it is more widespread than imagined

A few years ago a good friend of mine died of some form of cancer. At the time no one told me exactly what the cancer was, but I’m beginning to think it was Mesothelioma because he ran a cement company. I’m thinking that because I just found out that there is asbestos in insulation, roof shingles, cement, brake linings, flooring products, and textiles. The “textiles” part really worries me – because “textiles” generally refers to fabrics. Does that mean carpets and fabrics?

I really didn’t realize that asbestos was in so many products that we come into contact with on a daily basis! And I just found out that the symptoms often don’t surface until as many as 30 to 50 years after the exposure to the asbestos!

With the baby boomers were born, there was a massive housing explosion that created a lot of these products to be put into the general population. I think that the repercussions are yet to be fully seen.

St Patrick’s Day

Shamrock on hat

Well, everyone is Irish on St Patrick’s Day.  Or so they say.  I see a lot of people wearing green today, but a few are sporting orange instead.  I’ve asked them why they are wearing orange and they tell me that the Catholics wear green, but the Protestants wear orange!  I had never heard of that before!  I wonder what the story is behind the Protestants wearing orange and not green!

Landscaping and hardscaping the back yard

Ever since we bought this house several years ago my wife and I have been trying to come up with a plan to fix up the back yard into a showcase lawn that would rival anything you could see in a Better Homes & Gardens magazine.

We’ve been thinking about putting some patio pavers on the ground right outside of the sliding glass doors in the basement to make the area look like an outdoor living room/lounging area. I am even thinking about turning the area out there under the deck into a screen room, but first we want to take care of the yard. We’d like to make a path with paving stone that winds down to the platform at the pond’s edge from the back deck.

For now we need to come to a decision about whether to set the stones in gravel, concrete, or go the more natural route and simply have them set in mulch. I’m inclined to go with gravel or mulch because concrete does not fare well in this area. I’d like to do something in the back yard that will reduce the amount of mowing that I have to do back there; there are several steep hillsides that need to be terraced. I think that with a little bit of elbow grease that we could have this yard ship-shape in no time at all!