Not For Nothin…

This weekend I was B.U.S.Y.  It all started Friday when Paul escaped from his cage – again.  We captured him, THANK GOD – and now he is in solitary confinement with his cage taped shut until he can learn how to better behave.  Sorry buddy, but that’s what happens when you can’t follow the rules.

Fast forward to Saturday and Sunday, which really did feel like was in double time.  My boyfriend, mom and dad all worked their butts off to scrape down the paint on the front of my house (thank you, thank you, thank you!!!).  The paint was, in my mom’s words, “alligatoring” (not sure that’s really a word, but the woman gets things done so she can make up as many words as she wants) like crazy, and had about a billion layers of paint either stuck on really really good, or completely flaking off. Needless to say, was absolutely brutal to take off in the 85-90 degree heat and sun!  We got the majority of the scraping off on Saturday and Sunday we were able to prime by Sunday afteroon.  With only that done, and still needing to actually put the real paint on, it already looks a million times better!

Still lots to do, but coming right along!

After we finished that project for the day on Sunday, for some ingenious reason I decided it would be a good idea to continue with a million yard chores.  I transplanted some monster Hostas, weeded my gardens, put down the rest of the mulch, sprayed my patio with weed killer, and just for the fun of it, cleaned out my garage.  While I’m thrilled that I crossed so many things off my never-ending list of busywork, you can only imagine that I was exhausted by the end. (So exhausted, in fact, that I cracked a beer and never even took one sip of it – and if you know me, that’s out of the norm.)

I’m not planting anything this year here, but I’m hoping that the mulch will help keep the weeds down until I get the time time, money and patience to get some flowers in there.

6 months + several parties + a couple roommate changes + lots of yard and housework = this mess of a garage. Luckily that is all history!

Now for the reason of this post:  So after I finished I have a bunch of things at the road for Trash Day, which is Monday.  I had a couple tube TVs out there, the old vanity mirrors from my bathrooms, some leave bags and my regular garbage.  About 30 feet away, I have my car parked, and next to my car on the curb, leaning up against my car – not visible from the street unless you’re really looking, and clearly not with my pile of trash I have 3-4 bags of empty bottles and cans, a couple boxes of bottles and cans and a big plastic garbage can full of, you guessed it, bottles and cans.  I’m guessing this could easily be around 500 bottles and can as it was the past 6-8 months of bottles and cans from me and my roommates and the parties we’ve thrown.

Anyways, I’m in my house and something catches my eye. Its an old beat up pick up truck with a bunch of sh*t in the back.  I glance out the window and see if this person is taking one of my TVs or vanities – hey, you know “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”.  To my disbelief, this stranger was actually parked in front of my trash, but walking over to my car and stealing all my recyclables.  In fact, by the time I got to my door she already had all the bags in her truck and had her grubby hands on the (non-disposable) garbage can as though she was going to throw that in the back of her truck too!  I don’t know if it was the heat, my exhaustion or my pure disbelief of what was going on, but the whole situation instantly infuriated me. Enough, in fact, that I stooped down to her WT level and opened my front door and yelled at her.  I’m sorry, petty as it may be, I worked my ass off all weekend – I’m at least going to get $25 for it.

I may be being presumptuous, but personally I think its pretty obvious which one is trash…

Listen, I’m the queen of up-cycling.  I have absolutely no shame when it comes to taking things off people’s front yards.  Truth be told I have gotten tons of things from outdoor furniture, to kitchen table chairs, to mirrors, to a dresser and even a nice desk that I’ve gotten completely for free.  The difference, however, is that these items either had a sign that said “FREE” or if I was unsure, I knocked on the owner’s door and asked (hey, I said I have no shame), unlike this scoundrel.  Let this be a lesson to you all…unless you are absolutely certain that they are being given away, or don’t care if some crazy lady comes out and yells at you – don’t take things that aren’t yours.

Peace, Love & Yardwork xo!