It's really horrible.
Here in Slovenia, we have a word 'priden' /pronounce: preedn!/ (meaning: good, hardworking) and my Dad is just, well too preedn!!
I wanted to boast about our zero waste week resulting in less waste in a month than in a week before!
& partly, it is true: our kitchen bin is after 5 weeks (!) only half-full, approximately!
Before zero waste week, we made 1 bag of trash a week, now it's been 5 weeks & it's not even fully half-full!
But, the very last weekend before 1 month anniversary, my Dad really did something horrible & ruined it all!
He stuffed a crate full of old dirty glass oil bottles - into the bin! Yikes!
& while I was asking myself on Tuseday (emptying-the-bin day!) how my neighbours could be so stupid to put so much glass into their bin (the bin lorry machine chewing glass is LOUD!! & glass doesn't burn!), I learnt the horrible truth - it wasn't my neighbours, it was my Dad!!
& he wasn't even ashamed of it!!
Door was slammed, Dad got yelled at (& still remained clueless! /sigh/)
I was devastated. I hid under the duvet & cried. (& contemplated staying there forever).
How could I
The worst part of it is I know it was partly my fault for not figuring out what to do with the bottles in the right time.. (First I asked Dad to give me one week, then one month to figure out..) Mum just thought I was meaning to wash 'em & put into recycling. 'But they were too dirty to be washed,' Dad said..
I was meaning to call the two companies who could tell me more, & kinda hesitated (afraid they'd both tell me different things anyway!)
Then, I got even more furious.
It was precisely because of this sort of thing that all matters trash should be really accessible to the masses (so I or Dad didn't need to ruminate for a month over what to do with the old oil bottles!)
Ideally, all info would be readily available online, & trash consultants happy to answer all questions, & consult people! & the battle against trash should really be increased, not abandoned completely out of all misery!
Like in Star Wars, 'one battle may be lost, but we can still win a war!'
So I went &
(while watching Pride&Prejudice - the series! to calm my nerves.. & get more 'into' the 'spirit' of ladies' handiworks! I also coveted the lovely hats & dresses!
I didn't even know if I could still
At first I fumbled about a bit, didn't really follow a pattern, due to a storm we had to turn off the PC - & well, doesn't look to shabby! so I was quite proud!)
Do you know the story of a wife who made a doll every time her husband really made her mad? (I think she was ideal wife, never raised a voice, & got rich selling the dolls or something!)
'So it was your pride that got hurt?' Dad asked me 2 days later when I calmed down. & we talked. & he says it was because a relative was coming to visit & he might see the damn bottles!
/sigh, whose pride are we talking about?!/
So then Dad & I made peace, & I thought that was the end of it!
Next day or so, I find our old doggie house (kennel) roofless!!
'Why did you do that, Dad?' - 'Oh, it was old & in the way...'
Grr!!!
I had asked him to donate the kennel to someone 2 years ago already..
'Oh, maybe we'll get a dog...' - Grr! Of course we didn't, Sis & I are still lamenting our old doggie too much!! & everyone's too busy with other things anyway!
(& since neighbours' doggie isn't walked enough, I prefer to take him for a walk!)
He told me to fix it & donate it myself, & well, I couldn't figure out what to do with it in 2 days.. (not really handy with fixing roofs without Dad! & he was busy until today..)
So now we ended up with this:
And this:
without further notice! :(
I want our old doggie house back!! :(
And why all this maddness?
Why is Dad removing everything like a mad man?
Well, our big balcony is to have a wall & a roof over it, & Dad is 'making space'... which is all in all, a good thing. (as water has been going into Sis's room!) I just hate the way he goes about it.
No consulting with the family, no family meeting.. maybe sometimes he casually asked Mum, who half-misunderstood him & gave him the 'go ahead' to 'remove' the kennel? (But where, I said? Mum thought he'd just move it away, Dad saw as permission to annihilate!)
I printed him out an article in Slovenian warning about burning trash or painted wood! (because of dioxins!)
It's making me frantic, both the balcony workings & the promise of 'building trash' - this is another 'sore spot' of Slovenian trash & waste & building companies..
Dad said at first he just meant to shove the balcony tiles by the river (to improve the banks anyway!) - not half a bad idea, though are the tiles & the cement glue they were glued on with really so harmless?
Then, he said, 'he couldn't do it if I'm so strict about it, soo.. he might give 'em to a mate to shove in a ditch where he puts such waste!'
He mentioned some building waste (including plastic - possibly PVC - flooring?!!) being already put there (not ours! but still!!).. Grr!!
So I lamented & wondered if it will ever be sorted, the War on Waste!!
& now I truly saw it as WAR!!
Especially after reading the awesome Saga of the Otori trilogy!
You may win one battle (like my own bathroom, & now the kitchen!! YAY!:)
But you must always WATCH THE BIN!! (One month of my family behaving well made me careless!! so first someone slipped a recyclable chocolate wrapper in the bin, then other things followed, now even the budgie's waste!! grr!!) And that's despite me making zero waste cookies AND muffins for the 1-month anniversary (& the relative's visit!) previous weekend! (Okay, almost zero waste! just previously-used baking powder baggie got thrown away. Better than tons of cellophane or plastic bags or containers when buying cookies!)
I was trying to be zen about it all, & many times didn't 'fly into the air' & make a terrible fuss, cause I thought I was making too much fuss as it was, & wanted to give my folks a bit of a break!
AND, seems like the 'downstairs' will be a new & tough battle!!
Dad has always seen the 'Downstairs' as his supreme legacy, Mum had the upstairs & kitchen etc in her command, his downstairs was where he could be free!!
hmm!!
To make garbage? - I don't think so!
It may be a long tough battle, but already there have been some victories too!!
You know how loud noises REALLY annoy me? I mean, REALLY annoy me!!
My Dad used to mow the lawn in a really non-eco way, with the loud gas guzzler!!
So I objected & demanded it be mown old-style, with a scythe!
'Then mow it yourself!' Dad said, not believing I'd do it!
He didn't even tell me, one day he just started mowing the lawn! I ran outside & yelled!
Then, we negotiated the lawn! He'd mow the harder-accessible half, since he had gas in the lawn mower already (& we have small fruit trees) & I'd get to mow the better half.. I felt quite smug, negotiating it all!
He grunted, but since he had promised to teach me to mow, he had to comply!
(scythe in the backround, I felt like Death's daughter Susan! :)
okay, I didn't use the old-time transport means, I used a wheelbarrow)
but our compost looks nice now:
& I may be ADDICTED to making dish cloths now!! :)
/if only I knew what size to make 'em? 12 - 14 cm might be too small? What do you guys think? Also, Mum suggested a softer pattern-?)
