Change the World Wednesday – 20th Mar

I am procrastinating.

It’s something I do rather well.

I haven’t got the onion nor beetroot for pickling yet, basically because apart from work, I haven’t been out of the house due to the rain. I must go today because the fridge has developed a lot of empty space… yes, it’s empty again, which is the reason I ate out last night, yummy BBQ.

I admitted to not doing strategy last week, well, I don’t, but Small’s comment, “Ahh … it seems you do have a strategy, AV … it’s just such a part of your life that it doesn’t seem like planning … it’s what you do and that’s fabulous! It’s the goal for all of us! ”

Made me think, it is such a part of my life, not by design, rather by necessity.

Here’s an update.

TV waiting for me to deprocrastinate

I had threatened to spring-clean my living room, despite the fact that today or tomorrow (I forget) is the first day of autumn (fall for our American cousins). You see, my ex gave me a ‘new’ TV when I delivered the PC for the kids. For a whole week it sat on my sofa.

Then on Friday I went to town and got an extension cord and a remote control unit. Friday afternoon I was bitten by the bug to do my promised reorg. You see the TV was too big for the previous location, and I had serious doubts that the old PC desk would support the additional weight as this 29″ behemoth was twice the weight of my 20″.

The result was this…

I made a support using an old wardrobe (closet for our American cousins) side and two drawers from another wardrobe. All material that I found discarded on the street. My previous wine boxes (old fruit cases) got stacked around it and pot plants (more added after photo) arranged.

The result is that I have a presentable TV table and it cost me nothing. Unlike many of you, I don’t have the money to go out and buy something new, or even second hand; I have to make do with what’s on hand in the yard. Now the old PC desk is in the yard, it is old and rickety and will go back to the street as trash where I found it four years ago.

Click for full post

Now for this week’s CTWW challenge.

Every so often Small throws me a googly (a tricky cricket ball, equal to a curve ball in baseball). A googly is basically a ball that doesn’t behave as expected catching the batsman unawares and often resulting in his dismissal (out).

Welcome to SPRING! This week take a walk outside. But we’re not talking about any walk, this will be a walk with a purpose … a walk which goes beyond the obvious “not using transportation” benefit. For example, walk to a library, gym or community center and post some basic green-living ideas on their bulletin board for others to read. Participate in a river, community garden or public park clean-up. Collect litter as you walk and recycle it or deposit it into trash bins. Join a “walk for the environment” … an organized walk to raise environmental awareness or raise funds for a worthy project. The idea this week is to take that one additional step and make it count double.

This is a googly.

Being hampered by my walking stick, I don’t walk as much as I used to, although I do walk to the nearer of my two jobs. The other problem I have is that bending down is also enfettered since I have been consigned to my walking stick.

Before all this, I used to pick up the trash spread around our little praça (park) in front of my house, which is continually being littered by the kids. They are not taught to respect the environment, neither by their parents nor schools.

I do admonish them, if I catch them in the act of littering, and this generally shames them into retrieving their trash and putting it in one of the five bins spread around the place.

Wooden cable drum ends

But, I still collect stuff from the street that I might find useful. In fact, after I finish this post, I am off across the praça to retrieve the end of a cable drum that might well make a good outdoor table top. It’s about the size of the right hand one.

So, eventually, considering my skills at procrastinating, I will have a garden table.

That’s it for this week, not much.

After the cable drum end, I am sure to need refueling and the coffee pot is hot.