Task: CFL, needle drops, and mouse

I was thinking this one was done today, but I forgot about the mouse part.

There are a few different stories here. One is that I do inject insulin once daily, and so then I have a syringe that cannot go in the regular garbage. When this first happened I would take a full container to the pharmacy, pay them $5.00 to dump it, and then buy a new one from them. That seems like a sweet deal for them, but most pharmacies don’t want the hassle anymore.

Looking for a new solution, I stumbled upon Metro Hazardous Waste Roundups, where they hit different locations and you drive up and they take your waste. With the sharps, they give you a new container, free of charge, so it works really well. I had one getting really full, and I needed to look up a collection event. Since the events run March through October, when I looked it up I realized that I had a problem, because it was winter.

http://www.oregonmetro.gov/index.cfm/go/by.web/id=760

I was coming up with all sorts of creative ideas, but then I opened one drawer to get something else, and somehow I had a big empty one that I had completely forgotten about. That is why I could make it through to September. Regardless, it was still on the list, and today both boxes were dropped off, replaced, and we also got to drop off the CFLs.

Yes, we did have a bag of some that had merely burned out, but that was not how it ended up on the list. I have alluded to Jane’s personality issues, and one thing with that is that she likes to steal things and chew them up. I have lost more pairs of shoes this way than anyone, but Julie has lost much more expensive shoes.

We do take precautions to put things out of her way, but it is easy to underestimate the reach of a dog, and in this case we did. I was on the computer, job hunting, and Mom had just gone to check on the dog she was sitting for. I think Mom leaving was the trigger, but if I had been in the living room, instead of my bedroom, maybe it could have been prevented. As it was, I paused in my job search when I heard a faint crunching sound. I knew it couldn’t be good.

I came out and found Jane happily munching away on a Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb and the box it came in. That was not good. Those things have mercury in them was the main problem, followed closely by the also disturbing issue that the dog did not have the sense to quit chewing broken glass. In fact, she would fight to keep chewing it.

Fortunately, I tend to keep my head in these moments. I grabbed a piece of bread and threw it outside. Jane will generally choose real food over non-food items. (If it’s real food, we will probably need to use a combination of a chair to hold her off and Mom’s cane to pull the item away. It’s not pretty, and we know that we suck at discipline. It never mattered before Jane.)

Anyway, she followed the bread into the back yard and I closed the door. I then looked up instructions for cleanup on the internet. It was a fairly complicated process involving duct tape, a canning jar, paper towels, and a vacuum, all of which made for a situation where MacGyver would have been more than welcome, but I was on my own. I did the best I could, and sealed everything in the jar, but then there was no place to take it. It had been on a kitchen counter for several months now, but today it is gone!

http://www.energystar.gov/ia/partners/promotions/change_light/downloads/Fact_Sheet_Mercury.pdf

I suppose there could still be traces somewhere, and someday one of us is going to pull a Jeremy Piven, but you can only do what you can do. The really funny part is that Mom was calling Jane “Argento Vivo” because of her speed and energy (and mood swings). That of course means Quicksilver, which is of course an old word for mercury. Well, Jane is mercurial.

So what I forgot to do was the mouse. I wrote about the mighty mouse a while ago, but I still haven’t disposed of it, computer parts not always being easily recycled. I guess for now I am hanging onto it. It does have sentimental value.

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2009/12/requiem-for-mouse.html

23 minutes walking outside
Crunches
Isaiah 22 – Isaiah 30