Road Trip Minnesota

March 2020

If you live in Minnesota then this is the time of year you begin to pull out of the long months of winter and look forward to the snow melting away and warm weather coming.  People start getting in the mood to clean out the house and mop up all the slop that’s been tracked in all winter.  Open the windows and let the fresh air blow through.  Yes, Spring cleaning!  I’m a reader so I’ve had lots of books to sort through and have managed to haul numerous boxes of books off to Half-Price Bookshops located around the metro.  Bit by bit I’ve been reading them up and sending them on.  Lately I’ve come across a few about the trash and second hand trade and became keenly interested.  It’s good to know that the next generations are working out solutions to clean up the mess the previous generations (including mine) are leaving behind.   Technology has made some fantastic breakthroughs but have also created some problems, fraud being a big one.  But those things all get worked out as time goes on.

I really enjoyed these two books. Adam Minter is a good writer that is easy going and will keep you reading and awed at all times.  He opened my eyes to another world economy that’s making billions and right under our noses and feet.  It’s good to know that our waste is finally going to good use but we still ought to be less wasteful just the same.  One interesting thing he wrote about China buying up our trash by the fully loaded containers is that this trash has changed the whole country of China.  People leave work on the farms to sort through this trash and make more money doing it.  Imagine that, stuff valued over food!  There are some sad facts that need to sink into all of us, but then we knew that all along, didn’t we.  Another thing Adam made clear is that we didn’t dump our trash on anyone, they came here looking to buy it because they knew the value of it.  Recycling metal is better than mining it, etc. Those bone pickers you see walking the streets picking up trash and collecting it in bags just might not be such the poor sods they look like.   Cities are fazing out the landfills and burn trash that is used to generate energy to power the city.  The old days we went to the dump with our dads who had a trailer full of junk to get rid of while us kids had the time of our lives digging on the heaps looking for treasures and sometimes we found them.

Meanwhile, my neighbors have been busy.  I think the Health Dept. gave them an ultimatum and now my backstairs are cleared off.  They haven’t looked like this in 30 years!  One good thing coming out of this mess, because the great grand kid who’s under six years old tested high levels of lead the health dept. is going to replace all the windows throughout the house, and it won’t cost us anything!  Wow!  Most old houses have lead all over them and ours is no exception.  So if you live in an old house that’s something to think about, it’s not healthy for adults either.  Radon tests were done too.  The city of Minneapolis has begun requiring these tests, disclosures and abatements to be certified  before anyone can sell their house.  We’ll have that in our hands too.  Hoarders are usually not bad people, they can be very likable even but very difficult. And when cleaning day comes along. . .  At this time it’s her and her family cleaning out the house, which is better than someone else doing it, therapeutically good, that is.  However she’s renting a lot of storage lockers now and that’s not good.  It’s draining her much needed money for one thing and later all that stuff will makes it’s way back here.  I can only hope that changes or else we get a hell of an offer on this house before one of us pops our perch.

With that best wishes to all and have a good Spring season.