Husbands

It's been over two years since the hubster lost his job/retired/became my new best friend. By the way, why is it called, "loosing your job"? The job isn't lost really; it just doesn't exist in its previous form anymore. At any rate, he is at home with me now. Some days that is a blessing and sometimes it is a curse. Mostly it's a blessing and I try not to complain too much on the "off" days. Trying to be sympathetic to his frustrations and restlessness can be equally trying for me. Maybe all that frustration burns more calories! A girl can hope, right?


The blessings are many. He now folds and puts away the laundry and will unload the dishwasher too.  The younger gand-darlings get to see him without the distraction of a job that kept him from the picnics and tea parties during the week days. Online shopping and checking investments as well as maintaining our bank accounts helps fill his days.  Today, for instance, a box of "Cheri's Berries" arrived at the door. "For you" he said and I marvel at how much better he has gotten at surprises and gifts now that he has the time to "shop". The big secret is that he can now shop in his jammies with his coffee in hand! Funny how that works.


The off days are crappy. We get on each other's nerves and bicker like small children playing in the sandbox. I tear-up and plot an escape (never matter that I never do it). Mother was right; sleep on it and the sun will come up and bring with it new day. 


He is way too young to be "retired" ! Isn't that for old men who play checkers and feed pigeons from a park bench? I guess not. When do I retire? It seems that I do he same things as always. I just now have a helper. The pigeons will have to wait and we never did like to play checkers. 

Saving the Earth?

Recycling, although a good thing in general, makes me sick! Once a week my husband sifts through the cans, bottles, glass and paper then sorts it all and hauls it to the curb. A big ole truck then comes by and takes it away to God -knows where to be processed and made into something useful. For this service we pay a fee to the city. Shouldn't the city be paying us? After all, we are saving the earth and the garbage load is lighter these days. Right? Supposedly the landfill (aka 'the dump") won't fill as fast as in the past. Whatever.

We diligently rinse all the cans and bottles. Isn't that wasting water? What about razors? I recently went to my local Walgreens to purchase razor blades for my favorite razor. The blades are no longer available, but the razor lives on in a disposable model. HUH? I now have a useless handle (razor stick?) which I suppose I should throw away. The disposable model comes three to a pack. Great, now I can litter -up the dump with dull razors with plastic sticks times three! What about those nasty little CD cases? We now download our CDS to an IPOD. So what is to be done with the CD and the case it came in? Prescription drugs are another sticky issue. Why do we not return the bottles to be re-filled? Some drug stores will do that. Cold water washing to save energy? Dog vomit and urine be damned; I am saving the earth by using cold water. Not.

Enough is enough. I have for years reused and recycled because doing so saved money. Recycling a pot roast into vegetable soup, using a towel more than once, washing margarine tubs, cutting open tooth paste tubes to get the last bit, scraping jars until they squeaked and driving cars until they begged for mercy was a way of life around our house. Recycling was the way I was raised. My parents lived through the Great Depression and WWII, so reusing and recycling were second nature to them. The do-gooders, organic hippie -types who push the save the earth button have nothing on our parents' generation.

Please don't ask me to drive an electric car to save the air and then demand I un-plug my pc to save electricity. It does seem counter-productive to me, or maybe I am the crazy one. Wash in cold water but remember to use hand sanitizing gel to kill germs. Even my new "Energy-Star" washing machine has a sanitize cycle! What's that about?

By the way, the earth saving, savvy husband of mine discovered that the local Humane Society uses newspapers to line the kennels, so he now loads them up and drives the newspapers to them. To me, that is recycling in the best way.