When our family travels by car, bus, or train, I usually bring a stack of unread newspapers to read through. Why look at old news? Because, even a couple of weeks after the publication date, I usually find some story that I did not know about. It’s also when I finally discover that my Times Union blog has been excerpted its print edition.
Auto travel usually means eating at chain restaurants. We’ve discovered, unfortunately, that it’s easier to ascertain at those places whether the food on the menu is peanut-free; the Daughter has allergies. That’s how we discovered that Applebee’s, at least the one we stopped at in central Pennsylvania, had a notice that it could not promise that the food was prepared in a manner that was safe for her. We bemoan the fact that too many plastic milk cartons and salad bowls, e.g. get thrown in the trash because the locales don’t have a recycle bin.
The Wife and I are rather obsessive about recycling; we just can’t stand throwing away items that can be easily salvaged. All those newspapers I’m done with get thrown in the trunk of the car or collected in my luggage. It will be recycled our next chance, at our destination or back at home.
Likewise, we will travel many miles with used plastic food containers from, say, McDonald’s, rather than tossing them in the trash. We’ll rinse them out, and then recycle them when the opportunity presents itself.
We can’t stand throwing away items that will end up in some city dump when that can easily be avoided. I see people put even returnable bottles and cans in the trash, which is literally throwing money away.
Happy Earth Day! Maybe, as someone said of me in another context, I AM a neurotic intellectual.