Wednesday HodgePodge 28Mar18
Joyce over at From This Side of the Pond hosts a weekly hodepodge of questions. It’s been a month since I hopped into the discussion so it’s time!
1. What’s a word that describes your life? Cluttered
A word you wish described your life? Simple
2. Back in my day we
subscribed to newspapers. I always had a least two dailies coming to the house, and one at the office. Sunday afternoons, I sat down with four weekend papers. It was glorious. It was a trial for me when we first moved to rural Nova Scotia because we couldn’t get any national newspaper delivered – and even the copy I could buy at the pharmacy in the summertime has been discontinued.
But that’s not the issue. I just read this CBC news article (on-line, of course)—“Your lifestyle is making blue box recycling unsustainable”—about the problem facing recycling programs today. Basically, the sale of recycled paper used to cover the cost of processing the plastics, but because the volume of printed newspapers has dropped dramatically in the past 20 years, so has the income of these programs.
Add to that: the volume of plastics has increased BUT the income from these is based on tonnage (takes a lot of plastic to make a ton) and the processing capacity of the recyclers is based on volume. And there’s the problem of handling all the new kinds of recyclables on the market now: your take-out salad bowl, your frozen vegetables bag, or any ‘combined’ product such as bubble envelopes. (Are they paper? Are they plastic? Can they even be recycled?)
3. When it comes to takeout are you more likely to opt for Italian, Mexican, or Chinese food? Does a typical week at your house include takeout?
Hmm . . . of the three options, the only one available in a less-than-45-minute drive is Chinese, although there is a food bus that sells “tacos” in the summer cottage season. We probably have Chinese take-out (no delivery) once a month or so.
4. Think about the people you most respect. What is it about them that earned your respect?
The word that sprang to my mind was ‘integrity’. Webster’s Dictionary defines that as “having sound moral principles, uprightness, honesty, and sincerity”.
Yup, that’s it. It’s those people. I’m thankful that I have a lot of them in my life.
5. What’s something your friends might see and say is ‘so you’? 
Wall-to-wall floor-to-ceiling bookcases. It’s something I’ve wanted all my life and finally got two years ago. Then our real estate agent told us that at least half of them had to come out if we want to sell the house. I can’t tell you how shattered I was.
(These aren’t mine. I couldn’t find a photo of mine on short notice.)
6. Insert your own random thought here.
Since I live in part of that region of North America that has had four nor’easters this month, I’m hearing a lot about how it’s supposed to be spring. I have to restrain myself from that line of thinking because I know that spring comes to northern Nova Scotia in May. At the beginning, it’s cold and colourless. By the 31st, it’s summer.
It’s a miracle month, but it’s still five weeks away.
What about you? What did you do back in your day?
I sure hope you (and we) get spring SOON. We’ve had enough of winter! And I’m sorry to hear what the real estate agent said about the bookshelves. Within a couple years we’ll probably be trying to sell our place, and believe me, we have a ton of bookshelves. Don’t people read anymore?? Anyway, enjoyed stopping in today. Have a wonderful Easter.
Her reply was that ‘no, they don’t’ (read anymore). 🙁
Thanks for dropping by Exurbanis, Judy!
I just said to my hubs last Sunday that I really missed the Sunday newspaper. It was big and I looked forward to coming home from church, getting in comfy clothes, and going through the paper page by page. I especially enjoyed the crossword puzzle which I do online but it’s not nearly as satisfying. Thanks for joining the HP today!
Nothing on-line is quite as satisfying as the paper version, Joyce: the crossword, the news, books. Glad to hear we’re of the same mind about the Sunday paper.
I was just thinking yesterday about newspapers. Though I never read them much it is the way I have been accustomed to reading the news and I find it frustrating getting news from the internet.
I’m certainly not up on the news the way I was when I read it in paper form,. Judy. I find news web-sites generally confusing and so jampacked with videos – when what I want is to READ the news.
That article about recycling is fascinating- and disturbing. Thank you for sharing. Back in my day, (at college) we had to wait until 10pm to call our long distance boyfriends because the rates dropped after 10. Now girls can text their BF any time, day or night.
I found that recycling article the same, Julia. Scary, really.
I remember waiting until 10 or 11 pm for long-distance rates to drop! I also remember when, before that, long-distance calls were just out of the question, and we wrote letters. When I was cleaning out my Mom’s house, I came across an old phone bill with a 2-minute long-distance call on it, that was the equivalent in today’s dollars of over $10 – for TWO minutes!!
I remember desperately wanting to call my best girlfriend when I learned that they were making a televised version of Anne of Green Gables and we had to wait to talk after 11pm on a weekend evening (because the rates had to drop and we had school so couldn’t stay up that late on a weeknight). And, even then, we had to squeal for a super-abbreviated time. *smirks* Back in the day.
I found a phone bill when I was going through my mother’s papers, that contained a call from St. Thomas ON to Hamilton ON (140 km) from the early 1980s. The call lasted less than two minutes and cost the equivalent of over $6 – and I’m sure that call was made after the rates ‘went down’. Crazy. Kids today just take for granted they can talk to anywhere in the world for pennies – or for free.