Freecycle And Cheapcycle

You've heard me go on about Freecycle, I just think it's such a great idea. The purpose is to keep good junk out of the landfills. It's a message board and people post things they have that they want to give away rather than throw in the garbage. You can also post requests if you're looking for something. It's all done through email and it's all free. There is also a site called Cheapcycle. It's the same idea as Freecycle except it's for selling and buying stuff. It's like an online garage sale. For the first time I posted something on Cheapcycle yesterday. I haven't had any bites yet. I figured rather than give it away on Freecycle why not try to get a few bucks for it first. We'll see how it goes. As I was perusing the Freecycle sites, I belong to several groups since I live in between all the towns that have sites, I saw someone asking for stuff that I happen to have that I never even thought of posting. Great! One of the things is shingles. We just happen to have a few left over bundles of shingles piled up on our back deck. They are in the way and have been driving me crazy all summer. I never even thought of posting them. The other thing is garden edging. I just happen to have some of that too. It's been in the shed taking up room for years. I'll never use it. I took it out of my gardens. Again, great, I never thought of posting it and wouldn't mind getting rid of it. So I have someone coming here this morning to pick up the shingles and garden edging. Stuff that we won't use, is in the way, and I would have never thought of posting.

I never did go through the stuff I was planning to go through yesterday. I have a ton of clothes to go through. And of course that buried box. I also have toys that I was hanging onto for grandchildren that I think it's time to part with. I have a lot of stuff to get rid of really, I've been saving it for the yard sale that never happens. The problem is I can't get at a lot of it. That's how crammed our basement, garage and spare room are. We are getting rid of things slowly, one thing at a time. I would prefer to have a yard sale, but lets face it, it isn't going to happen any time soon. Meanwhile the clutter is just driving me mad. Also in a couple of weeks my friend will be here to teach me the ropes of eBay. Though I'm probably better off just sticking with Cheapcycle. Freecycle is great for getting rid of clothes if you don't have anyone to hand them down to. Little R lost weight this summer so we have a lot of clothes that are too big for her.

So I'm all excited about Freecycle and Cheapcycle, until I have someone stand me up. Then I'll be frustrated with it again. I don't know why people do that, but they do. They say they are coming to pick something up and don't show up. I'm excited at the idea of decluttering this house. Well at least I'm excited about something for a change.

Tomorrow is court again. We are hoping this will be the end of the whole thing. Not sure what to expect though. It's been 6 months! It's time for Mr. Man to move back home. It was time a long time ago. How much longer can they drag this out? It has to end sometime. None of it should have ever happened in the first place, but it did. It's been a very depressing experience. I'm kind of excited about this too, thinking it may come to an end. At the same time I'm a little terrified that it won't end. So tomorrow we'll find out if the nightmare continues or not.

I've been up since 4:30 a.m. That's a little early to start the day. I'm almost ready for a nap already. I just have to remember I have people coming to pick up those shingles and edging. It just wouldn't do to be in bed when they show up. It would also suck to stay up waiting and have them not show up. Such is the life of a Freecycler lol. Have a great day.

Freecycle Does Work Sometimes

Little R uses a hair staightener. I'm not sure why, her hair looks fine to me. Apparently it gets frizzy and poofy, so she straightens it. Well she broke her straightener. Probably during a hissy fit. One day I was sitting at the computer (like thats a big surprise) and Little R said "why don't you ask for a hair straightener on Freecycle?" Oh yeah, I never even thought of that. Good idea. So I did. Almost immediately I got 2 responses. I had 2 people wanting to give me a hair straightener! So I made the arrangements to pick them both up on the weekend. I figured I'd get them both in case one didn't work or something. Then, like you're supposed to do, I posted that I had received the item I asked for. I then got another email from someone who said they had asked for a hair staightener and got no response, if I got more than one response could I please pass some along to them. I emailed back explaining that I got 2 responses and was picking them both up and if they both work then certainly they can have one. So on Saturday we went to Fergus for one, and Elora for the other one, and they both worked. Little R picked which one she wanted to keep, and the other one was picked up by the Freecycler who asked for it. It all worked out great. Freecycle does work sometimes. I don't usually ask for things, I'm usually trying to get rid of things. I went to dig out some stuff I want to get rid of and I couldn't even get at it, it's so buried in other junk, heavy junk that Mr. Man piled on top of the box I wanted to get at. I was in a Freecycling mood lol. I may try to move the heavy stuff today so I can get at that box. I'm in the mood to get rid of stuff.

I actually dug out some Autumn decorations yesterday too. I put a fall wreath on the door and some fall flowers around the house. Looking at all of Fridays show and tells, a lot of them were of fall decorating, it inspired me.

Mr. Man posted an ad on Kijiji to sell the mini bike. He had plenty of interest. He had taken it down to his work because that would be easier for selling it. One guy showed up, checked it out and bought it on the spot, with cash. He didn't even try to haggle the price. So we no longer own a mini bike.

While we were in Elora yesterday we stopped at a Farmers Market. We got some fresh baked bread and some maple syrup. Mr. Man loves that stuff. It was a rainy, chilly day. When we came home I made a roast pork which turned out delicious and I made a fire in the fireplace. I've been holding back on having fires. Don't want to use the firewood, want to save it for the winter. But it was the perfect kind of evening for a fire. Damp and chilly. The way the wood from the dead tree burned on the bonfire, I'm thinking we may be able to burn the smaller stuff in the fireplace this year. The bigger pieces may have to be seasoned. We still haven't finished cutting it all up. I thought today would be a good day for that, and for cutting the grass, but Mr. Man went to work today. It's going to be a long day for me I think. Getting up so early and being alone all day. I'm going to look around for things to post on Freecycle. Have a great day.

Squirrel Trapping

I don't know why but this morning I got hit by a memory from my very young childhood. It's a happy memory, but it's kinda weird too. My Dad used to trap squirrels in the backyard. Live traps. And then he would take me to High Park to release them. I guess he really didn't want sqirrels in his yard. But it was always a fun excursion. High Park borders on downtown Toronto. I actually haven't been there in many, many years. It used to have ponds all over the place, with swans and ducks. It had playgrounds. It had a zoo! And it had a restaurant. It's a large park. My memories are kind of vague. I wonder if the zoo is still there. The only animals I really remember being there were buffalo and bison. I'm sure there were others. I don't know how often we did this. It seems like it was just a few times. My parents had a vegetable garden and fruit trees, I guess they didn't want the squirrels eating it all.

The funny thing is, where I live now there are no squirrels. I've seen a couple of chipmunks and lots of rabbits but no squirrels. I live far away from where I grew up and from High Park. I see more skunks than squirrels.

But those days in the park with my Daddy were fun. I seem to recall slides that came down the side of a hill and loving sliding down them. I just wonder if it's all still there. It's a little far to go from here just to check it out, but maybe some day when we're looking for somewhere to drive to. I wonder what ever happened to my Dads squirrel traps. I wonder if he was ever successful at keeping them out of his yard.

What a funny memory to have first thing in the morning. It's so vague, it was so long ago...

Autumn Joy

I was going to do a show and tell this morning then I said nah next week. It's been months what difference will another week make. At least I have something in mind to show. Now I have a whole week to get pictures of it.

Things are still not going well with Little R and school. She missed today altogether. Usually she gets up and goes, she just doesn't go to her classes. Today she didn't even bother getting up. By the time I noticed, it was too late. One good thing is that she did take the bus home every day this week. I was so glad we didn't have to go through the whole thing of leaving her in town. I'm not sure I could do it. I don't want to have to find out if I could do it or not.

We went to family counselling yesterday. I'm not sure how it's going. I don't see it helping much. I believe the biggest change that needs to take place is getting rid of my depression. I believe that if I wasn't depressed things would be a lot different around here. I think maybe Little R has caught some of my depression. It is hereditary afterall. I think she got involved with the wrong group of people and is otherwise friendless. That has got to be very rough in high school. She needs to find a new group of friends to hang out with at school. That will make her days a lot easier on her. I wish we could go back and start all over, but we can't. She needs to make changes in who she hangs around with.

The weather has been quite lovely, though I haven't been going outside at all. I guess I really should. It seems more and more like a cave down here in the familyroom. Another thing that depresses me I think. I spend all day down here at the computer. I did take some pictures of my Autumn Joy yesterday. Here let me show you...

And a single late blooming yellow rose...

I need to get out of the habit of sitting in my jammies all day. It's just so easy to do when you have nowhere to go. Little R is home with me today, maybe I can convince her to go for a walk with me. We really should be enjoying this weather while we can.

Have a great day.

It Was A Beautiful Fire

The fire was great. We burnt all the branches from the tree that were not suitable for the fireplace. Nothing smells like birch burning, it's a very pleasant aroma. It sure seemed like a lot more wood when I was hauling it all down to the back of the yard. Our friends came over for a little while, unfortunately they couldn't stay long. Mr. Man and I had a great time by ourselves and ended up staying out there until 4 a.m. At one point a neighbour came over, he actually snuck up on us and startled the shit out of me. He was drunk. He proceeded to tell us that he can't sell his house because some houses on the street aren't kept up. His house has been for sale for months. We knew he was referring to us. We were kind of flabbergasted. Personally I think he can't sell his house because he's asking too much for it. They did a lot of work to it and made it a show piece, they sank a lot of money into it. But the houses here just don't sell for as much as he's asking. It was foolish to put so much money into it. Anyways, he just stayed and stayed, it seemed like he was here for hours. We just wanted him to leave. The conversation wasn't very pleasant. Talk about a buzz kill. We were letting the fire die so he would leave and he got up and threw more wood on. The guy had a lot of nerve. Eventually he staggered on home. I admit we have been really slacking this year with cutting the grass and stuff. The place is looking a little rundown. But I find it hard to believe that would stop anyone from buying his house. The market isn't good for selling right now. SW has been trying to sell her place for months as well. Interestingly this guy has never come over here before, this was a first. We just didn't know what to say. We wanted to just tell him to fuck off. But we were polite lol. Ah the nerve when one has liquid courage.

Before our friends got here, I had let Bear out and then promptly forgot he was out. Mr. Man asked "What's Bear doing?" Then I realized he was gone. So Mr. Man went one way and I went the other way, the long way, looking for him. I walked all the way to the end of the street and back through the field, hollering and calling him. When I finally came back home, our friends were here and Bear was in the house. Little R had let him in and he was in the house the whole time!

Sunday, hung over and all, we had to run an errand down to the city. A bad part of the city. An area known for shootings etc. It was a nerve racking drive. While stopped at a red light Little R says "Is that a person laying on the ground over there?" Sure enough it was, and he looked dead. It was at a bus stop and there was a bus driver kicking the guys foot to see if he was dead. That freaked me right out. It was quite creepy and not something you see around here. On the way back we looked again and he was still there, but he was moving, so he wasn't dead. People were walking by just ignoring him. It was so weird. It was a long drive too. It took a few hours to go there and back.

So it turns out Little R has not been going to school. Here I thought she was going every day and things were getting better. Wrong. She's been skipping like mad. Whole days even. It's not looking good. And as for this business of her staying in town after school and us picking her up, no more. We told her we won't be picking her up any more. She must take the school bus home or get stuck in town on her own. It's gotta be this way, hopefully she will just listen and we won't have to actually leave her in town. If not, hopefully she will learn a lesson and just take the bus home. Tough love. Ugh. I'm dreading it. Leaving her stranded in town will be the hardest thing I've ever had to do. Why do I have the feeling she will test us too? I know it's going to come to that. She just doesn't listen to reason. I only hope this is the one time she does listen.

Is it any wonder I'm depressed? Life is just not going well lately. Things need to change. Meanwhile I think I'll go lay down now. I was up too early again this morning. Have a great day.

Is There A Black Cloud Hanging Over My Head?

Greetings. Well on Tuesday night Little R phoned and asked us to come pick her up like nothing had happened. So she's back home now. I called the police and cancelled the missing person report. But it has not been a good week. I don't know what my child is thinking. She is out of control. And Mr. Man has had trouble holding his temper. I don't know what he is thinking either. They are both driving me crazy. It was a bad week.

I feel the depression setting in again. I am fighting it. But sometimes it's just so much easier to crawl into bed and sleep it all away. I've been sleeping a lot again lately. But I did spend some time and energy cleaning the house yesterday. All that's left is the kitchen. I don't include the bedrooms and basement, that will just never be done.

I invited several people to our bonfire but so far only one couple can make it. So it's going to be a quiet fire. I've even debated cancelling it, for a time when more people can come, but who knows if we'll have any more nice weather for it.

Even when it's nice outside it's cold in the house. I've been freezing for weeks. I don't get out of the house. I used to love fall and even winter too, now I'm dreading it. I used to look forward to all the holidays, Thanksgiving, Halloween and Christmas, now it all seems like a big pain. It looks like we're having a few people up for Thanksgiving, more to celebrate my birthday which falls on Thanksgiving day this year. I'm kind of looking forward to it, but I'm kind of dreading it too. It's been so long, or so it seems, since I had a dinner with guests. I think we had the SW family here for Thanksgiving dinner last year. And I attempted to recreate the Pumpkin Delight dessert that Big R had made the year before. Ah well, I may even try it again this year. I don't like pumpkin pie. But I love this dessert. Or maybe we'll just have birthday cake. I always find it awkward celebrating my birthday. I don't want to get older. And because it's always tied in with Thanksgiving. I wasn't really planning this, then Cathy suggested it and I went along with it. But the way I'm feeling right now, I'm not really into it. When the time comes I will feel more into it I'm sure.

I'm just depressed. I haven't been feeling well lately. I even fainted the other day. I don't take care of myself. I don't eat properly, if at all. It's all part of the depression. I want to feel excited about the upcoming dinner party. One person who is coming is my old friend who I haven't seen in like 20 years. We've been talking almost daily on Facebook. I should be excited to be seeing her. But for whatever reason, I don't feel excited about anything any more. I feel like there's a black cloud hanging over my head. It's hard to go about life like usual when you have a teenager who's out of control. We never know what to expect from her next. Then there's the business with Mr. Man, still unsettled. Life is just turmoil. So I guess it's hard to make plans when you don't know what may be happening in your life when the time comes.

Today is supposed to be nice. I hope to get outside in the sunshine. I've been up since 4 a.m. That seems to be the new wake up time. Hopefully I'll have energy left for the bonfire tonight. I don't feel good right now. Maybe I'll go back to bed for a bit. Have a great day.

Sleepless

Well it's 5:30 in the morning and I've been up all night. It seems Little R is up to her old tricks again. She didn't come home from school, no call, no nothing. When we went to pick her up at her usual hang out spot in town, she refused to come home. So, we called the police. There really isn't much they can do either. They look for her and if they find her they pick her up and then we have to go get her. That's IF they find her. Half these kids she's hanging around with are homeless. I don't understand the attraction. I don't understand why she wants to be like them. It's so sad. Things were going pretty good, I didn't expect this. Of course I'm heartbroken. It's tough to think of your kid out on the streets all night. I don't know how to deal with it. I don't know how to stop her from doing this. I'm assuming she won't go to school today. But who knows, she may surprise me and go to school and take the school bus home. But I think that's just wishful thinking. The police can't do anything with her because she's not committing any crime. Running away from home isn't a crime. So I've been up all night stressing and crying. I feel like shit.

We are selling Little Rs mini bike. She hardly used it. It isn't fast enough for her. But of course now that we want to sell it, she wants to keep it. We've had it for a couple of years and I can count on one hand the number of times she rode it. It's a case of not appreciating what you've got until it's gone. At this point we could really use the money. We don't have a buyer yet, but there has been some interest.

It looks like this coming weekend is going to be decent, so we're planning to have a bonfire on Saturday. I've already invited a couple of people over. That means I'll have to clean the house. Thankfully it isn't nearly as bad as it was before. I've been maintaining it somewhat. It should clean up in a snap. We have a ton of wood to burn so it should be a good fire.

I broke down and made a fire in the fireplace the other day. It was so damp and chilly I couldn't resist. It was nice while it lasted. Life seemed almost normal then. Now we're back to the Twilight Zone. Well I'm off to stress and worry. I don't know when I'll cave in to sleep. But it has to happen eventually, I hope.

Not Much

It's been a while. Life has been quite uneventful. So far so good with Little R going to school. She's actually attending her classes. However she tends to stay in town, she's missed her bus home a few times, and other times she just wants to stay and hang out with her friends. This has been a bit of a pain. But I'm glad she's going and not skipping.

Last weekend we went to SWs for a bonfire. They were having a little trouble getting the fire going at first. The wood was wet. So this friend of hers decided to pour gas on it. Well he poured it directly from the gas can. Even with Mr. Man standing there telling him not to do it, he went ahead. Naturally the gas can caught fire and it spread right up his arm. I'm not sure how badly he was burned but bad enough I guess. So it was then up to Mr. Man to get the fire going, and that he did. It turned out to be an awesome fire. We didn't stay late, we were home by midnight, but I hear the rest of them were there until 5:30 a.m. I ended up feeling sick after drinking a whole 2 and a half coolers lol. My tolerance for alcohol just isn't what it used to be. Plus I hadn't eaten, I'm sure that was my problem.

We still haven't finished cutting up that tree we chopped down. We'll be having our own bonfire as soon as we have another nice weekend. This weekend it's supposed to rain. And it's rainy today. It's supposed to rain for several days. Hopefully there's still some nice weather ahead.

I'm slowly figuring out eBay. I'll need my friend to come up here to help me get started. Mr. Man is saving packing peanuts at work for me. I look forward to getting started, knowing what I'm doing and selling off some of my clutter.

I haven't been reading the news, and nothing has been happening in my life, so I don't have much to talk about here. I had my dentures relined, finally. They were loose for months, but I started using that glue and putting off going to have them relined. So I finally went, I had to be without them for 2 days. Now the bottoms are nice and snug but the top is still loose, so I have to have it done again. I'll probably put it off for a while.

We've been going to family counselling. That's going well. It can only help. Hopefully it will help in court at the end of the month too. Not looking forward to that, but looking forward to seeing the end of this whole episode.

So that's it. Not much I know. As I said it's raining today, so a good day to just sit here and play Wordscraper all day. I'm totally addicted. Honestly that's all I've been doing all day for the past week. I'm sure the novelty will wear off eventually. So have a great day. I'll be back when I have something to talk about.

Good Bye Tree

Well, this past weekend was the last long weekend until October. Little R went back to school today. I have mixed feelings about that. Obviously I want her to go to school, I'm kind of glad vacation time is over. But at the same time I miss her. It's awfully lonely here today. I can't believe summer is over! At least the weather is nice today. It's supposed to be hot again like it was all weekend.

On Saturday we drove to an outlet store to get a fabulous deal on jeans for Little R. $10 a pair. We spent most of the day driving around clothing shopping for Little R. We dropped her off in town to hang out with her friends and went back to pick her up at 10.

On Sunday we did yard work and wood chopping. We have this hideous pile of barn board. We were going to use it, then decided not to, so now its bonfire wood. But it needs to be cut up. We got about half of it cut up and hauled to the firepit. There's still a big pile of it. Then we cut down our big, dead, weeping birch tree. I took some pictures and of course as I went to take the picture of it actually falling, the camera malfunctioned, sigh. So there's a big mess to clean up. The bigger pieces will be stacked to season for use in our fireplace, all the smaller branches are being hauled to the firepit. We were going to have a bonfire but then the people nextdoor invited us over to their fire so we went there instead. I played a game of horse shoes, which I haven't played in a few years, and I sucked. I couldn't get one in the pit to save my life. I think my team lost. I'm surprised my arm didn't hurt the next day. It hurts after playing darts, you would think it would hurt after horse shoes. I was drinking beer. One minute I was fine, then the next thing I knew I was drunk and needed to come home. I left kind of abruptly.

Monday was a lazy day. We didn't do much. I put a dent in hauling the tree branches to the back of the yard. It was very sunny and hot. Too hot to work. And now it's over.

I have to keep busy today to keep my mind off of missing Little R. I'll probably go out and haul more tree branches down to the firepit. I invited SW over for coffee today, but I don't know if she's coming or not. So, my old friend that I connected with on Facebook, has been selling stuff on eBay for 10 years. She's going to teach me how to do it too. Every time I look at eBay I get scared off, it looks so complicated. She's going to show me the ropes. I've been wanting to try it for years.

It's a shame that tree had to come down. It was so nice when it was alive. We don't have many trees on our property. And of course now we have to deal with getting rid of the stump. But hey we'll have some nice smelly firewood next year.




Last night I was thinking about being home all alone today and I had a panic attack. So far it hasn't been so bad. I just have to keep myself busy. Since they did away with Scrabulous on Facebook, I've been playing Scrabble Beta and Wordscraper. But I can't sit in front of the computer all day. There are things to get done. I'm off to start my day. Have a good one.