Good Deeds

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After spending way too much time feeling like I wanted to die, just feeling a little better has made me so grateful and wanting to give back. These are the things I’ve done recently to try and be a good citizen. And yes, it does feel good, which makes the good deed not completely altruistic, but who cares?

Awhile ago I signed up with Be My Eyes which is an app blind people use to request help. Volunteers are sent a message when someone needs assistance and the first one to respond is connected to the blind person’s phone so they can be their eyes. I finally got a chance to help out a few weeks ago when I answered a call from a woman wanting to check whether her rice cooker was on.

While walking Wookie one day I spotted a pair of purple glasses in the grass near a bank of mailboxes in our neighborhood. They blended in quite well, and if not for keeping an eye on the ground like I do now, I wouldn’t have even noticed them. I didn’t touch them, assuming the person who dropped them would come back to that location looking for them. However, the next day they were still there, so I put them on top of the mailboxes and posted a message on Nextdoor in the hopes it would be seen by the right person. Luckily it was, because I received a reply not too long after thanking me. Apparently the glasses belonged to a neighbor’s daughter and were lost on a walk a week prior. Since they don’t live on the block where they were found they had no idea where to even look. I know from personal experience how expensive glasses are, so I’m glad they were able to get them back (luckily no one stepped on them). I wonder if the girl had to go without seeing clearly that entire week or if they bought a new pair. I guess at the very least they have a backup pair now.

We made a monetary donation to Feeding America after the Parks & Recreation special aired (which was really good all things considering).

We dropped off a full bag of unopened dog food at a local rescue’s donation area. Long story short, it was expiring in July which is before Wookie would be able to eat it all, but instead of shipping it back to Chewy they said to keep it. We bought a new bag with a better expiration date for Wookie so we donated the other bag.

I shipped a care package to my friend K weeks ago which included a toy for her dog and Idiocracy on DVD. (Side note: doesn’t it seem like it’s a prediction of our future?) Yesterday, Joe and I took a drive and dropped off a box of stuff for her by her door. Inside I had gift-wrapped our old copy of The Wedding Singer on DVD (since we now have it on Bluray) and some copied movies (shhh don’t tell on me) she had been talking about wanting to watch. I also gave her a container of Clorox wipes since she was running out, some homemade dog treats, some homemade oatmeal chocolate chip cookies I made on Saturday, and some dog toys Wookie no longer plays with. (Not everything is pictured below since I thought of the dog treats and toys right before packing up the box).

She was over the moon happy with the surprise and said it made her day, and that in turn made MY day. I know it shouldn’t matter, but I really love it when someone shows appreciation for something thoughtful I’ve done. Plus, it definitely makes it more likely I will do it again. My family (Joe excluded) doesn’t seem to get this and doesn’t really show enthusiasm for stuff so I feel let down. I love that my friend was so excited. If someone did that for me I know *I* would be thrilled too.

Vehicle Emissions & Plate Stickers

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Just before the stay at home order Joe got a notice that his vehicle needed to go for emission testing. Of course he can’t because they’ve closed those facilities. Now he has gotten his license plate renewal notice, which he cannot get until he gets an emissions test. But he can’t, so …. ??? What are the chances the state will open the emissions facilities in time to get the plate sticker before the current one expires? Guess we’ll find out…

CategoriesCar

Weekly Accomplishments

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Monday (05/04) – I went through my recipe binder and threw out the ones we never make, then reorganized what was left, adding in new ones I’ve been making for awhile but haven’t printed out.

Tuesday (05/05) – I gathered all our old “homemade” VHS tapes and the VCR to figure out what was on them and whether any were worth retaining. There were not. So I recycled their cardboard cases, destroyed the actual tapes (not sure why, but I just didn’t want them to be playable), and threw them away. Felt good to get rid of them after they’ve been sitting on a bookshelf for over ten years. I can’t get rid of the VCR, however, because I have some Cure tapes that cannot be viewed any other way. I need to look into whether I can digitize them myself. I guess that’s my next big project.

Wednesday (05/06) – Cleaned and reorganized the junk drawer.

Thursday (05/07) – Finished scanning in my CDs to complete our media cataloging project.

More Spring Cleaning & Home Projects

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This past Sunday (4/26) it was warm enough outside for us to get in the garage to do some decluttering. Initially it was in the hopes to make room for a deep freeze, but we’ve decided against that. It was nice to go through all the empty boxes and consolidate the boxes of things we’d like to donate once Savers is open again. Plus we cleaned out the box where we keep extra computer parts. I also went through my trunk and cleaned that up a little.

About a year and a half ago a woman I know from the local dog park gave me her old doggy stroller. It’s been sitting unused in the garage because we haven’t had an occasion to use it, until we were doing our declutter. I put Wookie in the stroller so she could hang out with us without getting in the way. I pushed her around the block afterward but she really didn’t like that because she wanted to get out and explore all the smells. She doesn’t mind sitting in it when it’s not moving, though. I had thought about getting rid of it but I think it will come in handy when we’re sitting on the patio or out in front and she wants to be with us. I ended up cleaning it real good yesterday and today she sat in it for two hours while we worked on the garage some more. We consolidated some storage totes, broke down a bunch of empty boxes for recycling, added some wood shavings to old paint we want to discard, and cleaned up our bikes.

Other things I’ve done recently:

Rearranged the hall closet again and removed some towels we rarely used. I put them in space bags under the bed in the master bedroom.

Cleaned out the workout room closet so it’s ready for future guests and threw out a torn comforter and an old yellowed pillow.

Rearranged Joe’s side of the master bathroom cabinet.

Sharpened all our knives.

Rearranged the freezer.

Filed some paperwork that was piling up.

Made homemade hummus & zucchini bread, both of which turned out delicious.

Planted some green onion bulbs.

While working on the hall closet I found a brand new throw rug which is perfect timing since the rubber backing on the one in front of the stove was crumbling. I was having a hard time finding a suitable replacement online. There are some things that are just too hard to shop for remotely. We had been in the process of changing the color scheme in the master bathroom and had already purchased new towels before the lockdown went in place. I can’t seem to find a shower curtain or bathroom rugs I like, so we’ll have to wait until this is all over before we finish that process.

Thoughts On Death

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I was listening to Pete Holmes interview Conan O’Brien on his podcast today and one of the topics was cemeteries and how in some places in the world there’s so little land that every 70 years the bodies are dug up to make room for new ones. The reasoning, besides lack of space, is that by then their next of kin will have also passed on so no one will even be visiting all these dead people. They also noted that so much beautiful land is being dedicated to those who have passed on and cannot be enjoyed by those who are alive.

It made me realize that in a way it’s really strange to have all theses places where we “store” dead people. Don’t get me wrong, I completely understand why it’s done, but I think it has changed my mind about how I personally want my body to be handled when I die. I used to want to be buried, but I think now I’d rather be cremated so I am completely gone, instead of waiting centuries for my body to rot while also taking up space. Maybe I can be turned into a tree or something. Whether you believe in an afterlife or not, I’m pretty sure we’re not going to need our bodies once we pass on.