Thursday Thirteen

1. I took the recycling to the recycling dumpsters early this morning, before the heat came, and saw that the plastic dumpster, at least, was compromised. Someone had tossed heavy plastic shelving in the bins. We can only recycle items with "1" or "2" in the little recycling logo on the bottom of things. Heavy plastic shelving doesn't fall in that category.

2. Generally, I suspect most of our recycling actually ends up in the landfill. I am very conscientious about recycling paper and plastic (I don't use much glass and tend to keep what I do to reuse as storage containers). But it doesn't do me much good if others don't do the same. Still, I do it.

3.  My car is not a hybrid or electric vehicle, but I also don't drive it that much. I put less than 10,000 miles a year on it. The car is 10 years old and only has 63,000 miles on it. I like to think that my staying at home so much is helping the planet.

4. The refrigerator door was not working properly, and my husband and his friend fixed it this morning. The bushings in the door hinge had worn out and the door wasn't closing. Some days I would go in the kitchen to find the door standing open a few inches. It took him 45 minutes to fix it, but that was because one of the pieces got stuck.

5. The refrigerator is 11 years old. The stove is 37 years old. The crockpot is 41 years old. Many of my things are 41 years old and I still use them. 

6. My trashcan in the bathroom is a testament to the longevity of plastic. It is at least 37 years old, and may be 41 years old, as I can't remember when I bought it. It still has a sticker on it that says $2.99 from some place called Hechinger. That apparently was a store similar to Lowe's and it went bankrupt in 1999. I honestly don't remember it at all, although apparently, I shopped there. I don't think anyone would have given me a trash can for a gift.

7. My trash can would not be a candidate for the recycling bin, either, just like those big heavy plastic shelves that I saw in the recycling bin. But it isn't degenerating or degrading or rotting or anything like that and it is still a perfectly fine little trash can. So, if I had tossed this trash can in the trash 40 years ago, it would still be in the landfill. Maybe the elements would work on it a little, but this stuff has a long lifespan.

8. Speaking of lifespans, I recently read an article about a turtle that was 192 years old. I can't imagine living that long. Imagine how much trash that turtle has seen.

9. I also read a story about a woman who was eaten by a python in Indonesia. It swallowed her head first. She disappeared and when people went looking for her, they found the python with a full belly and cut it open. What a horrible way to die.

10. On Facebook, they have this section called "reels" that shows videos. For some reason, I get a lot of paranormal or spooky videos. Most of them appear to me to be fake, but sometimes I am not sure. I was seeing a lot of tractor trailer driver videos and then suddenly more paranormal stuff. I wonder what caused that algorithm to change?

11. The influx of AI stuff to the search engines is confusing and I don't trust any of it. The best thing about Microsoft's Copilot is it gives references. I go check the references before I believe what I'm reading. And as for AI pictures - they are everywhere. Usually I can tell, but not always. It's a bit unnerving.

12. All of this reminds me of the first time I received an email from a certain friend. I just happened to be checking my mail when her note arrived, and I read it, answered it, and turned it around fairly quickly. She was mad at me for doing that, saying there was no way I could have thought about what she'd written in the short amount of time it took. "It should take days to write me a response like that," she had said. Well, I type fast, and I think fast. I didn't need days to respond to an email. That was around 1992.

13. Hopefully email has saved reams and reams of paper and lots of trees. I have gone back to writing "real" paper letters to a few people, though. It is more intimate and feels more personal.

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Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while, and this is my 864th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.