Grumpy Old Man - Recycle This!

Tossing and Turning

I recycle what I can. Before I do that I reduce and reuse. Meaning I look for the product with least waste and packaging and I look for products that are made of recycled materials or made with recyclable materials.

I am not one for buying bulk beans and pasta produced within 100 miles from home and taking them home in my hemp woven bag made by local craftsmen from hemp they harvested and carried home and to market on foot. But, when I have emptied my can of soup into a microwave safe Pyrex bowl and started heating it, I will immediately rinse the can clean and place it in the recycling container I keep under the sink for that purpose. I also put my recyclable plastics in there. My paper products go elsewhere and when the containers are full I take them for a walk to the elevator down to the parking level and to the large wheeled totes the city has for apartment building recycling and... stand their wondering what to do because some idiot in the building has filled it with inappropriate junk!

A person might understand if a person makes a mistake and puts an armload of newspapers in the wrong tote when they are empty with the lids up so you can't tell which is which. They are after all identical other than the label on the lids. But filling them up to the brim with the detritus obviously from someone having cleared out some tenant's abandoned belongings is totally different. True the material is possibly recyclable, but books and encyclopedia do not belong in the glass, plastic, and metal recycling bin. Neither do VHS tapes and broken stereos and appliances even if they are mostly metal and plastic.

In the Newspaper and Other Paper bins there is a mix of all sorts of paper as well as plastic, glass and metal objects... I do get it - maybe... someone has got it into their head the idea that someone spread that all the recyclable material just gets dumped into the same bin anyhow and either is sorted mechanically or is actually just sent to the landfill with all the rest of the stuff and the whole recycling thing is just a nuisance.

Yes, I do see that all three bins are dumped into the same truck, but I also know that the truck is designed with 3 compartments in back and the materials go into the appropriate compartment and are kept separate to go their own separate way at the collection station.

I know that other places do things differently. Our neighbour 4 miles East just has two bins for every household. One for yard waste and the other for paper, metal and plastic. They don't take glass, it contaminates the paper. Of course that means that people without cars has to take their trash on the bus to the recycling station to cope with recycling glass.

Most places do have a system of separating the recycling into bins - each place also makes sure that residences get copies of the regulations each year... except maybe people living in apartment buildings... Not that I consider this an excuse for what I find at my building.

Actually I find that someone in the building consistently contaminates the bins with garbage. I think they are of the mind that recycling is a waste of time and money since they heard that the process doesn't pay for itself. So I think it is their form of protest. While it is true that it is important to recycle in the most cost effective way possible, the point of the exercise is environmental protection and resource preservation. We want to keep from over stuffing our current landfills or appropriating new land for new ones and we want to keep an eye on our resources to ensure that we will always have them.

If someone wants to protest, don't mess up my chance to recycle! Go to City Hall and tell them! Don't pee in my cornflakes if you are mad at the milkman!

Or perhaps someone in the building is frustrated with the building management or owners about something - someone who either was moving out or in charge of cleaning suites- and figured that peeing in the cornflakes was a good way to protest?

Well the recycling bins have been stuffed to overflowing for over three weeks now with red tags from the city saying they will not be picked up until the materials in them are sorted. Perhaps it is a failing of mine, but I really do not feel like sorting through hundreds of pounds of garbage when I do not have a place to do it or containers to sort it into. I also am still coping with that health issue mentioned earlier. The building managers aren't doing anything... I guess they eat oatmeal, and all the city has done is stopped picking up the recycling until the situation is rectified.

...of course perhaps the person who made the mess is also the person who will be paid to clean it up... a bit of conflict of interests - at least I think so. But I wouldn't be able to prove it.

I have two bags of cans and bottles as well as my recycling bin filled and waiting to go. I don't want to toss them into the dumpster. Actually it is against the law... Maybe I have to figure where to complain? I do pay for garbage pickup which includes recycling with my rent. But I also do not want to be branded a trouble maker. Often there is that tightrope.

And still my cornflakes get soggy... and yellow.

Later!
~ Darrell

52

Grumpy Old Man - Not Tooting a Horn

Beep Beep

When did everyone decide that it is okay to sound your horn at any time of the day or night just because it might be convenient for you?

I recall, from somewhere that it was actually illegal to sound your horn except in a matter of an emergency? Part of the justification for that was that otherwise people might be less likely to treat the horn sounding as that of sounding an emergency situation. It also disturbs people and might startle them. Would you walk up to a 90-year-old-man or woman and sound an air horn?

This might sound like an extreme comparison however for quite a while I have found more and more cars where when the alarm is turned off or on the horn sounds. This is not a gentle tap on the horn but a full blown blaring of the horn. I get most grumpy when it isn't the "beep beep" like the VW Bug of old, but when it is the nearly air horn quality horn of the large pick-up truck or large SUV. Walk down the sidewalk of a small shopping centre and well after the vehicle has parked and the driver has exited, the horn blares! The driver having walked away and even while entering the shop heading for a frozen slush or chocolate bar or that 6-pack at the liquor store pushes the little button on his key chain to engage the car alarm and "HONK!!!!"

That sound no doubt comforting to the driver in that they know their prized chariot is now electronically protected. They didn't even have to turn their head to tell that the alarm set for they heard it engage. Of course anyone walking by the car, truck, van, or SUV got an earful of horn. Of course on the way back to the car... "HONK!!!!" And they know it is safe to open their doors without embarrassing themselves by accidentally triggering the alarm system.

Bad enough during the day, but you do get a fine sampling of horns if you are near any parking lot. It is more aggravating the later in the day after the afternoon is over. It rises making my grumpier for sure as it gets later. I know I don't like jumping when a horn blasts as I walk down the sidewalk. But on a quiet evening... and it doesn't even stop at midnight...

I first started getting grumpy about it when my past roommate and I started discovering that we both were being woken up at 4am each morning for no reason that either of us could figure out. We live in a moderately quiet apartment building and though not far from a major thoroughfare are used to that and the sound of traffic is not unlike that of a river - the firetrucks or ambulances do not wake us up. But something was.

Now I admit to suffering fairly often from insomnia and I found myself up before 4 am. It approached 4 am and "HONK!!!" it echoed from the parking garage under the building. I heard my roommate in the next room stirring, then getting up and doing what slightly older people do when they are woken up in the morning... well most folk I know have to go to the washroom when they are woken up substantially enough.

Now being an insomniac I have problems falling asleep so once I do fall asleep every moment I can sleep is precious. Being woken and robbed of that sleep very much pains me. My roommate had to wake up around 6am to go teach daycare and being woken 2 hours ahead of time is not nice either. I discovered that someone in our building worked a night shift and got home from work at 4am and when they parked their car they set their alarm and "HONK!!!" they were comforted to know their car would be safe for the night. Now of course it didn't bother them... they were AWAKE at the time. I wonder how many other people on our side of the building were woken up each weekday morning? (I really didn't care to sit up vigil down in the parking lot to see which car came in at that time. Call me a wuss but I really don't like my first meeting with a neighbour to be a 4 am confrontation when who knows how sober or belligerent they might be. Probably not something the police would interfere with either.)

Luckily they moved after not long. Interestingly people who don't play well with others tend to move around alot... they seem to find that everyone around them is unpleasant.

So just what is the point? My Dad's car flashes its lights when he turns the alarm and ignition disabler on. The lights flash when he turns them off. He can test the alarm to make sure it works, but he needn't do that every time. Now he does have to face the car when he checks to see the lights flash, but how much work and inconvenience is that for one person versus the inconvenience and discomfort caused to so many around?

Oh yes, I also live near one of those small shopping centre and luckily the bulk of the building is between me and the bulk of the parking. But as I typed this I heard at least two horns... perhaps the same car. But I knew I would and that was before 8am.

Of course - then there is the other thing... people too entirely lazy to walk up to a house and ring the doorbell or knock on the door. "HONK!!!!" Everyone look to see if it someone waiting for you! I really don't want to waste a moment of my life going to your door so I want to waste everyone else's time and comfort by blasting my horn so they have to check. That is bad enough on a residential street, but in an apartment building...

I really get grumpy and wish there was some way to complain, someone to complain too... maybe I'll figure that out yet.

Later!
~ Darrell

PS guess what I just heard?

"HON....

38

Grumpy Old Man

Plays Well With Neighbours

I don't like feeling like a grumpy old man - but I feel like that far too often when it comes to getting along with the neighbours of my building.

I am a person who believes that when people must live in close proximity to each other they must make some allowances - bit the allowances must be made both ways. I am meaning in such areas as noise. It would be nice to live in apartment buildings that had 100% noise proof walls, roof, and ceiling, but I think that most do not have that luxury, though modern condo apartments might be closer than older rental apartment suites.

They do have some intelligent designing going on. At least in my building the wall between my bedroom and the next suite is against their bedroom and the wall against my living room is against their next suite's living room. That means noisy room is against noisy room and quiet room is against quiet room - sort of.

When a neighbour puts a high powered stereo or sound system in their bedroom it can be a problem if their sleeping hours are different from yours. You might not want to feel the "Battle of Britain" coming through the wall at 2am when they feel like watching that flick with the base turned up. It is bad enough if it is coming through the living room walls.

If someone has the flu and you hear them coughing all night, you can commensurate with them - you know they are suffering and really would rather not be making such a racket. But they have a choice with the sound systems.

I know that I play my TV, Stereo, and Computer at reasonable levels. If I really wanted to increase the gain I would use headphones probably.

Then there is the matter of heavy feet. If you live on the bottom floor you can clog dance to your heart's content, but if you live over someone else you must be aware that heavy footsteps are heard down below. Even normal walking is heard, but is toleratable. Advantage of bottom floor - clog dancing - advantage of top floor - not worrying about clog dancing neighbours upstairs.

I don't mind if a neighbour has a party occasionally either as long as it might shut down halfway reasonably. Or at least tune down at 10pm from 11 on the amp. to 10 or better 9 in volume... well actually in an apartment building even for a party those higher levels are too high even for a party.

Then there is the matter of recreational substances that are not recognized as legal...

I have chosen not to smoke weed. I am aware of second hand tobacco smoke and I think even most smokers are. Why aren't pot smokers? Or at least it seems they aren't judging by the second hand pot smoke I get into my room at times. I actually get a bad reaction to the stuff. It makes me nauseous and perhaps it is an interaction with some of the medicine I have to take, but I also start having mood swings which I do not care for.

I am really not very happy when that happens.

I live life in my apartment trying to be reasonably quiet. I walk softly, not tippy toeing, but not stomping. I don't slam doors. I don't jump up and down, especially not after 10 pm or before 10 am. If I have a party we turn things down a notch after 10 or 11pm Just as we make arrangements for guests to spend the night if we have any drinking. There's no pot or recreational drugs on the balcony or in the hallway.

Maybe you could say that I am not suited to apartment living... maybe they aren't?

Am I the only one who tries to get along with the neighbours?

Am I the only one who doesn't blast their ears off with loud music?

Or maybe I am just getting grumpy with age... nah, I didn't like it when I was 18 either.

Later!

~ Darrell