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It time of year again. No, not Halloween (although that is coming 🙂
No, I mean it’s the semi-annual Drug Take Back Day this Saturday. Despite the shutdown, it looks like it’s still on the books to take place. So, get all your outdated RX bottles, check out your local participating drop-off, and get it all taken care of.
Then get ready for Halloween!
The most expensive waste of time, for me, was a fish dinner at a work event. We were at a combination training/awards/staff appreciation event. It was supposed to be low key, but was held at a location that didn’t even offer parking under $20 (remember this was a some time ago, so $20 then would be like $40 parking today).
So there we were, all dressed up for this “Fancy’s party, and they serve us the worst piece of fish I’ve ever seen. From a friend I learned that the company had paid about $45 a plate for each of us. I still don’t know what for.
Making it worse, they never even tried to follow up to see how we all liked it. Spoiler alert, we didn’t! They never listen, so they booked the whole thing again for the next year.
Seriously, there are currently 5 fires going on within a two hour drive of my location right now. The fact that I can’t see the fires, nor actively smell the smoke is irrelevant. If you, or anyone in your household, has allergies, sinus issues, or asthma, then you know what that means…. you’re gonna have some breathing problems. If you’re new to this situation, well then allow me to help get you setup. Say it with me: “Let’s just assume the air is bad.”
Why? Well, you have to, because if your offense sucks, then your defense is going to struggle with the clean up. It may not be fair that I have to take an allergy pill everyday because other people can’t figure out the appropriate amount of cologne to wear, but hey I still have to do it.
It got so bad once that I nearly passed out at a conference because I got trapped behind this guy and his plume of Axe body spray. It’s something I can joke about now, but it wasn’t so funny while it was happening.
Having your airway compromised really sucks even when you’re safe at home, but it’s made astronomically worse when it happens while you’re away. The only real course of action is prevention. Take that allergy pill, or make sure your inhaler is full before you set out for that fireworks show later this week. Let’s face it, the air IS probably going to be bad. Even if your eyes can’t see it, your nose knows.
Eggs are once again hitting $9-12 a dozen in some parts of the country. It’s mostly down to bird flu, but regardless, shelves are either empty, or only stocked because few can afford what is left. Cheaper eggs do tend to fly off the shelf first, after all. So, of course, people are once again talking about getting chickens. Therefore, I have to do nice again write a post ask you not to do that very thing.
Awhile ago I wrote a piece on the reasons not to indulge this whim, but today I’m going to add one more, heartbreaking, reason to hold off – which is loosing a pet hurts.
Anyone who’s ever lost a pet before will agree that’s true, but allow me to explain the relevance to the point at hand. 1.Simply put, avian influenza is highly contagious between bird species. 2. If the, outbreaks continue the way they have, then soon authorities will have to step up their monitoring of backyard flocks too (right now the focus seems to still be mainly on big commercial/poultry farms). 3. If they find that even one of your birds is sick, then they’ll kill the entire bunch…and there’s really nothing you’ll be able to do to stop them.
Having experienced owning chickens during a Newcastle outbreak, I can tell you from firsthand experience how nerve-racking it is to have the outbreak team show up to your house.
These birds will most likely become pets for you. You’ll care for them on a daily basis, do your best to keep them safe, and then potentially have to stand by while someone kills the.
Chickens fall under the same type of rules that other farm animals do. Culling family cats and dogs would cause riots in the streets, but we’ve recently seen over 100,000+ chickens killed, with barely a grumble of complaint from the masses. Why, because it’s being done to contain a disease threatening the stability of the nation’s food supply. Lofty words, but they won’t be much comfort as you watch them shoving your beloved, dead pet chicken into a garbage bag.
Unless you’re going to completely isolate your birds in the basement of your home, never allowing them to see the light of day, then you aren’t going to be able to completely protect them from this thing. Wild birds could land in your yard to eat, and manage to spread it through their saliva. Heck, they could just poop while flying over head, and it can still contaminate the entire flock. You, yourself, might even accidentally introduce the disease by tracking it into your yard, on your shoes.
All of this can be avoided by simply not getting chickens in the first place. Please think it through!
This probably won’t come as a shock to anyone, but prices on most things today are still really high. Sure, a few items have come down a bit, but several others continue to go up, or suffer from shrinkflation. Many of us are constantly on the lookout for ways to save. So, once again various articles, YouTube clips, and memes have popped up to help. Most of the suggestions are tried and true, such as make a list before shopping, check multiple store ads before buying, or stock up when something’s on sale. All are good pieces of advice, but one other suggestion might need to be rethought, which is “do your shopping online.”
The convenience factor of shopping online is definitely a plus, so why would you ever need to flip the script on this shopping habit? Well, sadly, it’s because shopping this way might be costly you money.
First, let me clarify that I’m not advocating getting rid of online shopping. It is convenient, can be timesaving, and often helps with matching up price saving options, with products I’m buying. However, despite all of this, you might also be paying more for some items than you would if you shopped in store. Sorry me items are actually going down in price, but you can only see it if you physically walk into a brick and mortar location. For example, I recently visited a local Target, and saw that the pack of napkins I usually get had dropped in price. Great! I didn’t really need any right then, but I was happy to see that the price was reduced (Not: reduced, as in not on sale or clearance.). However, when I tried to buy it online a week later, I saw it was still listed at the higher price. In order to get the cheaper price, I had to go into the store.
Why, you might be wondering? Well, there could be a couple of reasons. First they didn’t update the website, or second, this was a reduction for that geographic location only (and web prices can tend to be less city specific in the same way). Either way, it remains true that I have to physically shop in store in order to pay less for this item.
What options are you left with then? I’d say they flipping the script we will help, but you’re probably going to need a hybrid approach, which will require you to be more actively engaged in your shopping choices. Occasionally, visit a couple of your local stores, and compare prices (sadly, most retailers these days are usually some sort of dynamic pricing, so there will be differences even between two local targets or Walmarts). Then see how prices online look. Find your acceptable balance between the two, and make your buying choices. Then, be ready to do it all over again next month. 😕
It’s that time of year, when city and suburban streets alike are aglow from the many strings of Christmas lights strung everywhere. Add to that the lights from the displays and inflatables, and well, you can just imagine the electric bills. However, as familiar as this scene might sound, this year there’s a twist, as some of those pretty lights are now only being hung in the backyards.
Yep, you heard me, the backyards. Now, to be fair, this isn’t a brand new phenomenon. There has always been the rare house in the past that did this. Usually, it was because someone was sick, and couldn’t go outside. So, the lights were set up in the backyard, facing the house so that the sick person could better enjoy them. The other reason might have more to do with finding a loophole in the HOA rules. Neither reason seems to explain what is going on this year though.
Along with the typical well decorated streets, there will be the odd house out, sporting all the decorations in the backyard. So, nope to the HOA hack reason. In at least a couple of instances I’ve been familiar with the families in question, and no sick person resides there either. So, why is this happening.
In general, Christmas lights are displayed for a couple of reasons.
It’s confusing to say the least. Is it reflective of these isolating times we live in? Have we come to a point where even sharing the light from our lawn ornaments is considered to be too much of a violation of our personal space? What does such changes ultimately say about us?
Welcome to Thanksgiving weekend. Now I know we’re all exhausted at this point, and you probably still have a ton to do. Therefore, I’m going to keep this short.
Whatever you’ve already bought, take a breath, and then reevaluate your choices. Once you’re done, get ready to take it back. Really consider what you’ve done, and why. Even if they asked for those toys, do they really need all of them at once? Could they maybe wait till their birthday for a few of them; or maybe simply do without the entire list being filled, almost as if they’d placed an Amazon order?
Make these decisions now, because getting rid of this stuff later will be so much harder. Trust that you’re wallet, and bank account will thank you later.
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone.
Halloween is just a few days away, and that means Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the corner. It’s time to panic folks, the HOLIDAYS ARE HERE!
Or, on second thought let’s not. How about we take advantage of this last weekend of calm before the storm, and cross off some non-holiday related to-do items instead? Some of them can even be fun.
First off, Saturday is National Drug take back day. It runs from 10 – 2 pm. So, get that checked off the list.
Next, take stock of how much Halloween candy you still have left for the big day. Yes, I know you already bought some, and you know why I’m telling you to take stock.
Then, there’s the pets. Grooming or vet appointments that can be taken care of now, will be considerably less stressful than if they’re happening at the same time as the human festivities down the road.
I know that it’s still crazy hot in most places, but that just means the cold is gonna sneak up on us even faster this year. Get your garden, and/or potted plants ready.
Now for some fun. Take a breath, and enjoy a free moment for yourself before it gets too cold, or the holiday schedules get in the way. Take a lunch break where you (and just you) want to go. Read a few chapters in that book you’re ignoring, or just wander through Costco one afternoon, without any particular goal in mind. Just stop and smell the roses.
Finally, plan a scary movie night for after everyone, and everything, has wound down for the night. Embrace spooky season one last time, by getting some popcorn and your favorite blanket, then just hit PLAY.
It’s one of those good news, bad news kinda things. This year’s International Coastal Cleanup day was so popular that the CleanSwell app crashed. Oops. The app is run by the Ocean Conservatory group, and is used by people around the world to record how much trash is being removed from the world’s beaches. This is utilized throughout the year, but is especially busy during the annual coastal cleanup up day in September.
After not being able to record my results, I reached out to find out why. The response that came back was that so many people were trying to do the same thing, at the same time time; and so it overloaded the app. They fixed it, and I was able to record everything. However, can we just take a moment to acknowledge that it crashed because on that day, so many people cared about the Earth that they got up early on a Saturday, and went out to clean up other people’s trash? The only thing better would be if someone hadn’t left it out in the world, in the first place.
The early results show that almost 18.5 million people volunteered, and it resulted in over 383 million pounds of trash being removed from the oceans, and shorelines of the world.
If you missed out, don’t fret, you can still help by cleaning up, in and around, your house. Many local communities will be hosting a large item cleanup event in October. Check with your city officials, or your local waste management company for details.
With school out, the avalanche of school papers coming home will begin. There will always be some things that you’ll want to keep, especially if you have small children, but the vast majority probably needs to go. Just take a deep breath and start going through it now, while you’re still thinking about it. No need to find it all waiting for you once school begins again. A note of caution though, you will want to wait for the final grades to be posted before you actually toss anything, but that doesn’t mean you can’t start sorting now.
Aside from the regular cute drawings and school awards/certificates, you might also want to keep a few examples of your child’s work. This can sometimes come in handy if there’s ever a need to discuss changes in your child’s progress. Having your own file of examples to refer to can prove helpful. Anything with glitter, glue, etc. will need to be thrown away outright. However, the rest can probably be safely recycled. Make sure that none of it is special to your kid first of course, but after that you’ll be surprised at how good it can feel to let it all go. After that it’s time to enjoy the summer break.
Practically-Green.com 