There is something about the consistency of mud after the freeze and snow that makes it particularly viscus and trackable. I put off scrubbing my den floor until I'm sure we're past any more of that weather.

This week I picked up Junkyard Planet again and his description of rag pickers, "grubbing", and of various levels of recycling that occur in places around the world makes North Americans look like slackers. We can afford to recycle stuff in bins at the curb because we don't need to sell the paper, cardboard, glass jars, scrap metal, and other found items to feed our families. He describes a hierarchy of recyclers in his city in China that is precise and incremental as materials move from an apartment to a scrap buyer to those who buy scraps and take them to larger recycling businesses. So much of our wealth is sent to landfills. I think that for those who are older and the children of parents who lived through the Depression, it is all apparent - we see the packaging that comes with purchases and would like to see it used again, we have all of these items that might be useful one day, so why throw it away to purchase again later? Can someone else use it now if we donate it?

I spent the afternoon researching and writing messages for my representatives. I'm to the point of mailing a letter to each again, in addition to calls and messages on their contact pages. Now to go do something else; the side yard and back need mowing. Moving around will do me some good.