Small Scribbles

There is a new billboard on the edge of town that greets the motorists. Welcome to Smallville: A Smoke-Free Community . I know you are probably scratching your head and wondering, W hat's so newsworthy about that? Our public spaces have been smoke free for a decade! Smallville is last in everything. Health, wealth, education, you name it. We're last on the list. So it stands to reason that we would be the last to reduce, reuse and recycle as well. It's green in my neck of the woods, but, only because of the woods. Some citizens in my fair county do embrace the concept though. In their own way. Done with that fridge? Move it out to the porch. Car won't run? Push it on out to the back lot to rust alongside the Dodge Dart and the Ford Pinto. There are NO options for recycling here in my little community. Every disposable item that comes into the house goes out to the curb in this: NOT GREEN Techically, I guess this container is green. The picture doesn't do this thing...

Stuart and I went on a crash diet this weekend and lost a couple hundred pounds. Our waistlines are not trimmer but the garage is no longer stuffed to the gills. It had to be done. Especially after I posted a picture of the disaster for all the world to see. It's one thing to admit that I'm a slacker. But what if somebody sent me an e-mail a month from now and asked, "Do the kids still have to wrestle with painting equipment and footstools to get at their bikes?" If I had to admit that they were, what kind of mother would I be? So we cleaned the garage. My favorite box was filled with joy sticks to a Nintendo game. We don't own Nintendo. Remote controls. Lots of them. We pushed buttons. Maybe we were turning on the ceiling fan to our last house? "Hey! Remember the TV that caught on fire. I think this was the remote that went to it." Cordless phones without their base units. A rechargable battery. To what? More head scratching. Enough! "Tip the whole...