Monica Kochelee

Several months ago I realized that I was using up an entire canister of Crystal Light drink mix every week.  I am not living in an area where I can recycle that kind of plastic, and I was concerned about what to do with the empty canister.  As I said, I was using an entire canister - that is 52 cans a year!  I can think of a few things to do with them, but I was accumulating way too many!

I saved some for a while and then gave them away on Freecycle to someone that needed them for a craft project for little kids.  OK, great.  That got rid of a few dozen of them.

So I went to the website of the company that makes Crystal Light and found a link I could use to make suggestions.  I wrote to the company, suggesting that they change the canisters from plastic to cardboard.  Since plastic is made from oil (and we all know how expensive THAT is) it is reasonable to assume that switching to cardboard would generate in production savings AND be better for the environment.

Their response was, in essence, (and this is not a REAL quote) “we don’t want any suggestions on improving our product packaging.”

It wasn’t long after that exchange happened that my store stopped selling the ONE flavor of Crystal Light that I liked, so I switched to the store brand of a similar flavor, which cost less than half of the Crystal Light did anyway.  So, I am spending less money (which is good) but even the generic version is in a plastic canister.  I don’t know why they can’t switch to cardboard, like the Pringles chips cans are!

One of my very first friends that I made when I moved from one town to another in eleventh grade, Mark, has kept in touch with me over the many years since we graduated and moved around the country.  He has moved from Virginia to Massachusetts, back to Virginia, back to Massachusetts, and finally to Atlanta Georgia where he settled down, married, and started to raise a family.  I like hearing from him and hearing about the things he has seen and done, he is much more adventurous than I ever will be.  He tells me that my construction based family inspired him to go into the profession that he is in, which is renovating old houses.  He tells me that he has been featured twice on the television program “This Old House” for working on some of the old Atlanta houses he has done!

Mark is self employed and tells me that he is looking for the best Georgia Health Insurance he can find for his family.  I told him that my brothers (who run their own small business) are very happy with Kaiser Permanente Insurance, and that I would expect that he would be well advised to look into the program that they offer in Georgia.  They are a well respected health insurance company that offers individual, family, small business and group insurance plans to fit any needs. 

My son and I were watching the June 19 episode of The Colbert Report on the Internet earlier today because my son had seen the episode and saw Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster on the show.  Remembering how much I enjoyed watching Sesame Street with him some twenty-odd years ago, he looked it up on the Comedy Channel’s website so I could see it too.

I was shocked to see that Cookie Monster has learned to eat healthier foods in recent years - he now loves fruit too!  It was a cute very cut episode; if you would like to watch it click here.

Ever since we bought this house my hubby has been talking about how much he wants to put some kind of additional storage building on the property.  We have three acres of land, so it really isn’t an issue of having the space.  It’s just a matter of picking out what he wants that will fit in our budget and serve his needs.

Right now my hubby is “hogging” the garage with his show truck and his motorcycle, leaving our “real” vehicles out in the weather.  When I go grocery shopping, I have to lug the groceries into the house by myself through the rain.  I really don’t like that at all.  I’d like to park the car beside the house, under cover so I don’t have to try to run through a downpour.

I’ve found a website, www.steelmasterusa.com that sells some nice carports that would be good options for storage buildings.  I’d really like to see us put in one of the metal carports near the garage. We have more vehicles than our garage holds, and a carport would be a great thing to have.  I certainly wouldn’t mind having one of the metal buildings that look like a garage, either!

Well my hubby informed me a few minutes ago that we are going to an Elks club picnic that starts at 4pm, and it is over an hour’s drive away, so I guess I need to change my clothes, brush my teeth and get ready to go!  Nothing like short notice to go somewhere!  I don’t even know WHAT to wear!  I guess blue jeans, but a decent shirt should be all right.  I wish I’d had more notice, I don’t even know if I can make my hair look decent!

********Later********

Well, After a few minutes of getting ready to go,  I asked my hubby if he is ready to go and now he tells me we’re not going; he’s tired and wants to take a nap!  So, I guess we’re not going!