Funny word isn't it when you think about it? I can't help thinking of getting on your bike again and going for a ride! (I see folk riding past on their bikes and think if I got on one now I would just wobble across the road and fall off (hopefully on to the grass verge not the kerb). Anyway - to the more serious stuff and away from frivolity.
I have a new chair. It looks very smart and matches my other furniture beautifully and - more importantly - it is comfortable and has been specially made with my disabilities in mind. I have fallen in love with it. (might even give it a name - any ideas?)
It cost £1,400. The reason I am telling you this is because of what comes next.
Most towns and a lot of country lanes and bits of spare land have become 'tips'. I don't get around in my car any more but I don't expect things have changed since my driving days. Near to the farm was a sort of lay-bye come lane - gated and full of wild flowers and long grass. In the far corner was an old - very old - caravan and in the caravan lived a man; in the old days he would have been called a 'tramp' I suppose. He had an even older bike and once a week he would cycle into town (about a mile) get his pension from the post office, do his food shopping and then push his bike, now laden with carrier bags, back home. A couple of the bags would be full of beer cans and the rest food. For drinking water he used the tap in our calf house. He had always used it. I don't know whether he had ever asked permission - he just used it - never spoke just came with a bucket, filled it and went again. The farmer never stopped him.
Where did his rubbish go - beer cans, bags, spare food that had 'gone off' ? On to an existing pile in the corner of the lay by. Over the years the pile got bigger and more smelly and occasionally (naturally) one would see the odd rat. )our farm cats frequented the area on a daily basis as they roamed the fields for baby rabbits. And occasionally a vehicle would stop and the driver would chuck something on to the pile. In other words it became the local dump - well hidden by vegetation in Summer, open for all to see in Winter.
Eventually - after a year or two - the old man's health failed and Social Services moved him into hospital where he died. The authorities arrived, cleared the rubbish away and burnt the caravan where it stood, completely cleared the site and disinfected it all.
So back to my chair. Remember how much it cost me (excellent service, delivery and suchlike) - to take away my existing chair they wanted £70. It was a good chair with a wooden frame but forty years old and worn out. Had we still lived on the farm it would have gone on the bonfire.
I refused to pay £70 and after asking around I found our local council (was Richmondshire and is now North Yorkshire C.C.) would collect it for £51. They are coming for it on Saturday. It has to be on the footpath at the bottom of my drive on Saturday morning by 6am and has to be suitably covered if it is raining as they won't collect anything which is wet.
I sent them a note telling them at 90 I couldn't get it down the drive but would leave it outside my garage where they could clearly see it. If it is raining it will be just inside the garage and the door will be open.
Hopefully it will disappear but it does beg the question - I wonder just how many such objects appear on tips in laybyes or chucked over the hedge into some field or some bit of waste ground.
Recycling is the eternal problem isn't it? Even to simple things like crisp packets (do they go in the rubbish bin or do they go in the recycling box?) I notice Kit Kat wrappers (Kit Kats are my weakness, along with Crisps - we all have weaknesses don't we?) can now be recycled.
I have an answer as far as these small things are concerned - I put it in the box in the kitchen for my carer to decide.
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25 comments:
For that price: "The Sovereign's Throne".
You are clearly much, much better (past your bout of shingles), judging from your last few posts which - as always - cover such an interesting range of subjects.
Congratulations on your new chair! Is it one of those who give you support for when you get up, like a lift?
I have had to buy a new washing machine last week, and arranged with the shop where I bought it not only for them to deliver and install it for me (I have no way of lugging something as heavy as that down to the basement, where everyone in this house keeps their washing machines), but also to take away the old one. Again, I have no way of pulling it up the stairs and transporting it to the recycling place provided by the city administration. For all three services - delivery, installing and disposal - combined I had to pay 80 euros on top of the price for the machine itself (around 840 euros). I had no choice in the matter, and so I never questioned the price.
How anyone can dump rubbish in a beautiful spot, such as the side of a country line with wild flowers, is beyond me.
We do make an effort to recycle everything that can be recycled. Our weekly rubbish collection usually consists of one or very occasionally two small carrier bags of things that cannot go for recycling. I get so very cross when I see rubbish discarded at the side of the road; things that are simply thrown out of a car window or even whole sacks of household waste dumped on the grass verge. Totally selfish and inconsiderate behaviour.
I am glad you like your new chair. Having a comfortable chair is important. I suspect it has the option to recline and also supports your legs and feet on a footstool. I find many US suburban towns have a "swap shed" where town residents can place usable household items for others to take for free. It works extremely well and is a way to recycle household items. Lawn mowers, bicycles, scooters and just about anything you can imagine can be found in a swap shed. As for recycling, I try to do my part. That said, I am aware that much of our trash goes to an incinerator.
That's an expensive chair!
I'm as dead against fly-tipping as everybody else but councils do make it difficult and often expensive (re. your old chair), to do the right thing. Here in Kent, the County Council are about to shut four council dumps and leave all the others open just five days a week (not weekends when working people normally get rid of their rubbish). It's easy to see that fly-tipping might increase as a result.
We recycle glass, plastic, and paper every two weeks with a service that costs just under $10/month. Larger items in good shape are donated or sold.
Hope someone rescues your old chair and restores it so it has another life. Strong old growth wood is hard to come by now.
Enjoy that new chair!
Hugs!
One of my favorite things in small Maine towns is visiting the dump (one can use it if the place being rented has a "dump stamp" meaning they pay property tax in the jurisdiction served by the dump). Usually there is a long open sided building with big stall like constructions labeled with the various things to put there, card board, glass, metal, news paper, etc. Then there is the Swap Shed (or various other names) with all kinds of great stuff. Your old chair would probably go there in such an operation. Our son, when he lived in one of these towns going to university, also took things to the dump for several elderly neighbors and always had a look in the Swap Shed. I know there were holiday gifts that came from one of them - glassware, lovely expensive books, etc.
Glad your shingles have moderated and that your new chair is satisfactory; I keep looking for the perfect small reading chair for a spot in our sitting room, but so far nothing has been exactly right.
Ceci
Oh, yes getting rid of things is certainly problem these days. We do have recycling every week which helps with lots of things, packaging and such---guilt-free. Big things though are more of a problem. The city will pick up most large things but for a $10 fee. There are also places Goodwill. Restore, Salvation Army, etc. where you can donate usable household objects. Also there is an area at the recycling center where a person can leave things for others to take, generally these are small enough that they can just be set on shelving underneath the overhang of the building. However, we have found a fairly easy solution for things that are large and in reasonably good shape. We just put them out on the street at the end of the driveway with a sign "Free to a good home" on them and almost always someone comes along and takes them within a hour or so. That has surprised us on a good many occasions . We would think "oh no one would take that", but we put it out anyway on the off chance that someone would take it and sure enough they did.That is a real "win-win" solution.
Regarding the priceof the chair - I sit in it most of the day and it is important that it is the right height and width and fits the space available. I need to be able to get outo f it easily. All these things mean that the company that specialises in custom-made chairs for the disabled came to the house, measured me and took great care in the chair being exactly right for me. That is why it cost so much.
Made to measure. You will be sitting comfortably. Xx
I was joking about the "Throse" of course, Pat. I think you did exactly the right thing. Money well spent.
Recycle may be a funny word. I like your sense of humor about it. But we are going to have to learn much more about recycling or the tip on your old farm will look like nothing.
My mother also has a made to measure chair and loves it. The same company also made her bed which operates with a control for comfortable positions, and is easy for her carer to clean under and raise to make the bed. These things are so important, and indeed, help with her happiness. Enjoy your chair, and so glad your shingles bout has been dealt with. You are a real trooper! - pam.
You sound brighter deArheart x
I am so curious about whether your chair was taken or not. Here people set things to the curb. We've had a sofa sitting across the street for probably 3 weeks now. Someone has added a dresser.
We are lucky. We have a truck, and we take things like that up to the retirement property and throw them on the bonfire.
We have regular recycling pick up in town, but once we move out to the property, that will no longer be an option. We'll have to drive it somewhere. The nearest place that I can think of is 45 minutes from the property.
Here in France we used to be well served with public bins everywhere, then some bright spark decided that we would have to pay to put our rubbish in them. This involves an annual fee and a card that registers every time we use them; for a further fee! Of course this means that fly tipping has become common, and in the summer the tourists haven't a clue what to do so they leave huge bags by the side of the locked bins or in the hedge. Foxes attack the bags, and rubbish is everywhere. And previously it had all worked so well.
Glad to hear that you're now sitting pretty. Comfort is always pricey, though I have a strong suspicion that the prices always go up if the word "disability" is mentioned. The trouble with recycling, as far as I'm concerned, is that the more I try to understand the "simple rules" the more complicated it becomes!
What puzzles me is the movement of the old chair. It didn't get to the garage by itself, I am assuming that you did not put it there, and it won't move itself in and out of the garage if it sees rain coming. Somebody got it there and somebody will decide on its movements in or out of garage. Accordingly this person could place it at the gate given that your drive is only a car's length plus a bit and no rain is forecast. I do as Librarian and use local suppliers for white goods who install and take away. One pays a little more but it is worth it. I have never had to dispose of old furniture, furniture is old when it starts with me and just goes on being old.
Recycling is a problem, I stand in the kitchen wondering if a particular empty package goes in plastic sack. Only this morning I read that recycled plastic is toxic. The sea is awash with it sadly, the only hope is they stop making plastic - as if!
John - my feelings and thoughts exactly.
Rachel - 1. The man who brought me my new chair carried the old one out into the garage which is attached to the side of my bungalow. 2. My carer will put the chair out tonight to just outside the garage doors. 3. My drive is quite long - maybe three cars length and steep There is no way my carer - female and just short of sixty - can carry it down the drive. She can 'walk' it through the garage door and there it will stay. We shall see whether they take it or not! I was advised by the Physio to get a new chair - the old one was decrepit - it has been a 'good and faithful servant' but its time is up.
Lets hope the council men come in and get it. I was imagining your chair on casters and pushed to the gate downhill, not uphill, clearly your slope is the other way. Parker Knoll chairs are just about as expensive and not necessarily made to measure so I guess you paid about the going rate.
Yes Rachel you are quite right. Because folk buy good furniture to last they buy it rarely and just don't keep up with the prices. Others buy cheap stuff and change it often. Mine is an HSL chair by the way and I am very pleased with it - it certainly makes me sit in a better position,
The company I purchased my reclining chair from took the old one away after delivering the new one, free of charge. As for day to day recycling we have black bins for veg. and fruit peelings, chicken bones, etc., green bins for paper and cardboard, and a third row of bins for plastic, tins and foil. Any unrecyclable plastics go to the local supermarket, and larger items go to the tip.
Chairy McChairface?
Our crisp packets go to a young girl who washes them then makes them into blankets for the homeless during winter. Debbie . P.s your new chair sounds perfect.
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