A recycle day

kw: musings, activities, recycling

There is something about the first really warm day of Spring that gives a body extra energy. I've been accumulating failing and obsolete computer junk for years, and today we finally got rid of some of it. The recycle areas include an area for putting old electronics. In the past I've taken my old computers there (including a 10 Mhz PC-AT Turbo that's been gathering dust at least twenty years) and one defunct monitor. Of course, I remove hard disks and keep them. Before I decommission a computer, I make sure all my data is on the new one or on the big external drive.

So this time, it was three printers and a scanner. One of the printers was an IBM ProPrinter, one of the first really good dot matrix printers. I'd thought it gone a decade or more ago, but found it in a closet. The other two were bubble jets, and the scanner was an older one with a fluorescent lamp that has gone bad. All three have long since been replaced by a multifunction printer/scanner that uses an LED light bar, which is supposed to last lots longer than fluorescent lamps. So these heavier items went into the trunk first.

Next, also heavy, thirty years of National Geographic. I'd called the Goodwill Industries center, and they said they take those, though they don't take other magazines. The rest of the trunk was filled with more ordinary recyclables: cardboard, plastic bottles and such like. Gathering, loading and delivering took us up till lunchtime. I guess the sayings about "Spring cleaning" are true.

The afternoon was spent in yard work, including going over an extra-weedy section of the lawn with an old "Silent 700" human-powered mower set at one inch. (Almost an hour of sweaty labor; in yard work season, I don't need to go to the Y!) Cutting close takes advantage of the different modes of growth of grass and weeds, giving the grass a chance to squeeze out most of the weeds.

I expect to sleep better than usual tonight.