Ist collections of wisdom and bottles

Old men sit and tell stories. These are my stories. To ascribe optimism or pessimism to an individual the diagnostic question of common usage has been “is the glass half empty or half full”? The glass part is right; we are each given a glass by ‘the one’ – (more on this in another story). It is our glass and we will have it for our life. It can sit in front of any individual completely empty, and that is unlikely. Our purpose is to fill the glass. Some will fill it with the materialism they have been tutored on since birth. The motto of materialism is “the one with the more toys win”. Other will fill their glass with acts of generous and kindness. I would want this to be the case for more of the human race. The Beatles say a stanza is one of their songs, “The love you get is equal to the love you give”. This is where the glass comes into our lives. The glass is the vassal from which we drink in the love we each need. Throughout or life we either inadvertently or on purpose spill out glass. There is no use crying over this, just right it and start anew to fill it. This can even be a fortuitous event when the glass contains more malevolence than benevolence. Dump the malevolence, turn a new leaf and fill the glass with benevolence. Why is all of this happening? Because YOU will be the one who will be drinking from the glass and throughout your life it is written (by all psychologists who speak about human needs) that you will need and crave love, belonging and acceptance. These precious commodities are only to be found in your glass and you are the one who has filled it. When it is filled with bile, you will suffer. When it is filled with honey, you will be refreshed.

I began collecting bottles and cans. Over three day the total is 150 redeemable. The winter has been good for trash out the window.

Winter Wonderland

I just could not help myself. I took a 15 mile bike ride in a Vermont winter snow storm. Collected one bud caan that poked its rim out of the snow! So, it was worth it. Something to think about as Christmas and the new year approaches; God dwells with you and is you. With that being true, no matter how terrible the people are who cross your lifes path; they each have something devine to teach you.

How we will all roll!

The Past
What the bicycle did, which nobody really foresaw, was the democratize transportation. In doing so it changed society itself. laborers could live in the country and work in the city. Women could escape the house to recreate, ruminate, or as Margaret LeLong did, cycle alone from Chicago to San Francisco. There were no laws about who could and couldn't ride, who could and could not own. The price of a bicycle, once a prohibitive $300, was rapidly falling. The steady advances in producing lighter pneumatic safety bicycles led to annual trade-ins, which in turn beget a brisk secondary market in which last years models could be had for half the cost of a new one.The bicycle was the future, and the future was about getting to a place you had never been. (excerpted from Major by Todd Baif)

The Present
Transportation is dominated by the car, bus, train, and airplane. Here in the developed world of the USA there are some people who can not afford these resources. Migrant workers, people living in shelters, workers with wadges below the poverty level, the layed off and those who have lost their job to an overseas economy. Guess what- they roll on a bicycle and participate in the leveling of transportation written about by Todd Baif. Same goes for the developing world where the bicycle is an ambulance, transportation for an HIV prevention worker, The Doctors only means to make a house call, the 'truck' that delivers goods to market, and the taxi in every city.

The Future
I am a reader of everything about 2012. The earth is either going to melt from inside out, the aliens who build the pyramids will return and reclaim the planet, or the worlds economic systems will fall apart and thrust us all into a rural developing world. Well guess what- the bicycle will once again be the future that takes you to places you have never been. (Hint: Have a stash of spare parts!)

Moved

My business partner with Little City Cycles is found of saying that all he would need to live is a touring bike and trailer for extra gear.I am now in my first night of living in a 22 foot class c motorhome through the Vermont winter.(From a nice cape cod style suburban house). I have an converted my Bike Friday into an exercise bike on a trainer folded between the drivers and passengers seat. The Straida lives in its travel bag in the back of my car and the downtube is on my "deck" outfitted with studded tired for the winter. I have a used frame coming from EBay to build up over the winter for or spring recycled bicycle challenge. I sleep in the loft over the cab- one half me and one half boxes. A fold down ironing boards is screwed to the bathroom door. I have a TV that sits on a box of gun parts in what would be a visitors spot at the one table in the rig that when collapsed, becomes a second bed. The moral of the story; I have a long way to go before my possessions no longer posses me and I could be comfortable on a touring bike, four panniers, a handlebar bag and a trailer for extra gear. Hell- I've even got a bike repair stand stashed in the back of what should be a closet for hanging garments.

Last Donation: Winter is here

Over the weekend we had snow at elavations over 2000 feet. I do not ride often in the winter and can't imagine the danger of stopping in the traffic late to pick a bottle off a snowbank. cash in account: 8/23 $5.30, 8/30 $8.65, 92 $8.50, 9/12 $13.95, 9/27 $14.20, 10/4 $5.05, 10/12 $7.10, 10/18 $1.90. The donation total is $48.00 and that included money from the "empty your pockets" money jar.

What A Find!

Yesterday while out collecting bottles I spotted a $1,000,000 dollar bill. What luck! Alas when I got it home it was a religious advertisement on how to save my soul. I guess someone figures that my soul is worth that much. Kinda make blood donors look like they are getting short changed.

Change Your Mind

OK, so it is officially cold and rainy in Vermont and my bottle collection had fallen to three days a week. The goals remain the same; American waste turned into cash for those who need it most. Now a refocus. Every bike past, present and future can be had from Taiwan. Cheep labor, cheep energy and no patient restrictions and they can and will make anything. Any bike you want to buy from your local bike shop is made in Taiwan- re badged to the brand the shop thinks you trust and will buy. I trust Green Grear the makers of the Bike Friday line because I know all their bikes are made here in the USA; that that really means anything to this post. This post is about GREEN and the state of the health of our planet. Buy something new- anything and you contribute to the carbon footprint of our consumer lifestyle. Buy used; shop at Goodwill, they have everything you need to run a household! Except bikes. For bikes go to a local shop that will build you a bike from a solid used frame and components of your choice. For me that's Little City Cycles in Vergennes. No secrets, I have a 25% ownership in Little City because I want my money to support a GREEN bicycle that is custom made with the buyers input. Rants over?

Slow Going!

The rains that have swept up the east coast and the cooler weather have slowed the pick up of road side redeemables. A good day has dropped from 40-50 bottles and cans to 20 plus or minus cans. More coffee cups litter the roadsides- of no value to me.

Good News-Bad News

My last cash in was for $14.20. The beer and soda drinking season is giving way to the coffee and hot coco season. Mush more paper litter than redeemable bottles and cans. I confirmed this experience with a scavenger I know who forages for his own ways and means. His totals in bottles and cans have begun to drop off. The bad news comes from the "now I've seen it all" department. Last week I picked up a can of Twisted Tea to find a mouse inside. The can acted like a "harve-a-heart" trap. The flap allowed the critter in but did not allow him out. I pried the lid open and set the fearfull creature, still inside the can back away from the roadside in a stand of bushes. I hope he makes it to a safe and sheltered life.

Nor'Easter

Other than being the recycling cyclist I create and repair bikes for the indigent, homeless and migrant farm workers- all no charge. I am also associated with Little City Cycles in vergennes, Vermont and the owner Tim Mathewson and I responded to a request for a 'hunting bicycle' to use where ATV are banned we created the Nor'Easter. Its a human powered electric assist twp wheel drive bike. The rear wheel is a Shamano 8 speed internally gearesd hub and the front wheel has the e-Bike electronic kit installed- a water proof hub motor and associated electronics. Here is a photo of our first prototype- it's being field tested the weekend.

Tour De Farms

An annual Addison County event and this was the first time I participated. I had my trailer decked out like a parade flot to advertise Recycle Cycling. I do not know that it was an effort worth the time. I did collect 35 returnable bottles and cans so from that standpoint- I was glad I participated.

Contact Me!

Electronic contact through the regular blog channels can be frustrating. I have not figured out how to contact my own son through his blog "second'n short" about college football. So I will make this simple. I am at normreuss@hotmail.com. I would be very interested in cyclisits who decide to participate in charity efforts of their own choosing or pick up on the idea of taking the caseoffs of the 'well to do" and donating them to the 'no so well to do". I am also interested in cyclists who repair bikes for those who can not afford bikes when this is done outside of the regular charitable organizations. I confess I do not know the politically correct terms for rich and poor!

Bonus!

Not only did I cross the $35 limit today, I also found a nice- (read new LLBean back) pack tossed by the side of the road, fillerdwith unopened cans of Bud. No ID in any of the many utility pockets.I of cource,poured out all the beer and took the back pack home for a good washing on the small load cycle.

Closer to $35

Today (9/13/2010) I cashed in over 200 bottles for 13.95. That is the highest single cash in so far and puts me at $28 in the coffee cup. Getting closer to my next donation- which this is all about anyway!

Home town hits a home run

"Home town hits a home run". Is that even proper when speaking of littering. My home town and its two neighbors, Williston and South Burlington combined for a 68 bottle day with four 40 ouncers in the mix just to make it interesting. Though all this littering by those who can't be bothered with a nickle return does help my personal charity to give to those who can't spare a dime; I don't think it says anything complimentary about my home state and it's 'tradition' of being green.

Props to Vermont's Northeast Kingdom

Were it not for the towns of Lowell, Eden and Morrisville this self made charity might be dead in the water. This past weekend, after a 20 bottle week around Hinesburg and Vergennes, I collected over 100 bottles and cans in two days over the Labor Day weekend on the roads of my northern neighbors. Said with a note of sarcasm; "Keep up the good work!" $8.05 added to the coffee cup (works better than a piggy bank).

They say you want a revolution

I've read them all, cycling manifestos from Amy Babich's Age of the Bicycle  to the current piece in the lastest issue of Bicycle Times. All share the prospective that gas is soon gone and human powered transportation will be the only way from point A to point B. We already have a revolution. The last time I visited my son in NYC I was overwhelmed at the number of bicycles in use for every purpose immaginable. My own closest city, Burlington, VT is a cornocopia of bicycle traffic from college students to shelter dwellers who carry their worlds posessions between the handlebars and impovised rear rack of a bicycle. I am not Robin Hood is this revolution. I do not rob from the rich and give to the poor. I mearly roam the roads looking for the nickles some can't be bothered with and convert their litter into cash donations to some who can not afford to spare a dime. Though I like to think of myself as a warrior in the front lines of change, fixing bikes for the have not's and collecting cans to convert to cash will not ever get my face on a t-shirt.

When your home is a bicycle

When you make the transition from an occational to passionate cyclist one thing for sure inevitably happens- you collect the tools neccessary to keep your bike tuned. People whose home is their icycle do not have the where-with-all to take this step. Open your garage! Let people know that you have the skill and the desire to make bicycles work. Believe me, this is more about how the exchange will benefit you than anything else.

What is Recycle Cycling

Recycle cycling is not a movement. There will never be an infrastructure. There will never be a central collection point from which donations are distributed. My sister Jane summed recycle cycling best when she said, "You get exercise, Vermont raods are cleaner and someone benefits with a financial contribution to make their life a little bit better". That's it, something good for you, something good for something larger than yourself and something good for someone else. No telethon, no $100 a plate dinners, no tuxes or formal wear, no $100,000 in the till to change the world. Just one cyclist at a time, dismounting and mounting to chase a bottle or can then turn the litter of someone into an opportunity for someone else.

Public accounting of redeemables to cash to donation

The date is the date i took the redeemables to the redemption center and money listed is the cash I collected.
5/18 $1.95
5/19 $.75
5/20 $.60
5/24 $.70
5/25 $1.30
5/27 $1.55
5/31 $1.60
6/1 $6.20
6/4 $4.50
6/10 $2.60
6/14 $3.20
6/14 $2.60
6/21 $5.20
6/21 $2.75
6/23 $4.25
6/27 $2.60
6/29 $3.85
7/1 $3.40
7/12 $5.30
7/15 $3.55
7/20 $4.20
7/26 $9.20
8/2 $5.20
8/9 $6.40
8/16 $10.30
8/18 $5.25
donated $1.00 to get to $35
8/23 $5.30
8/30 $8.65

Total $113.95
3 donations of $35 have been made to date through my social worker friends