Freecycling, a.k.a. comedy tonight!

Today's lunch, and tomorrow's, is yet another Mystery Veggie Bake Thing.  

The dish is from a freecycle, and the veggies are chopped red and green bell peppers and green beans, mixture of two eggs, some chunks of sharp cheddar and excellent deli ham, with black pepper, kosher salt, drop of milk, poured over. Big chunk of basil pesto laid on top, not spread about, then a big twig of curry leaves lying on top of the lot.  385 degrees F. for about 25 minutes. Then remove the curry leaves, they having already flavored the food, spread around the pesto right before serving.  Very nice food. The ham was expensive, but bits of it have appeared in several meals, adding a nice sharp flavor.

On the subject of freecycling, I received this box of about 50 magazines today via freecycle

 
This will provide me with a bit of reading material to go along with a cup of tea for quite a while.  Then as I read each one I'll recycle.  Except for the ones I keep to teach paper beads with, which I'm scheduled to do for my embroiderers' guild this fall.

Freecycling is a comedy of errors at times, with more than its share of flakes, charmers, generous people, greedy people, a whole spectrum of human nature connected only by their interest in keeping items out of the landfill and into better homes.

Such as the gentleman, I use the term advisedly, who, when he received a lot of good items from me and found out they were part of   a friend's estate, offered the family the use of his time and his truck to get stuff moved anywhere they wanted.  He explained he's free at weekends, and can be called on to haul for the family, because he knows what it's like to do this work.

And the man who collects useful items and drives them to poor parishes in the city to distribute to people working fulltime who are still struggling.  Rarely takes anything for himself.

And then there's the lady, not the correct term here, who arranged to pick up a box of items, came in my absence and picked out the two or three best items, left the rest for me to deal with again...yes, she's on the 'don't even ask me' list now! likewise people who don't show and don't explain.

And the lady who asked for something that had already been spoken for, and emailed several times telling me how hard her life is and how this would have "brightened my day".  Wouldn't hear it when I said over and over, sorry, it's promised already.  Got back yet again to say well, you're very unfair!

And the occasional person who fails to realize that telling the taker to pick up their items "on my porch" that they need to know exactly which porch, nay,even which town.  Otherwise are they expecting a house to house search?

And the people who, when you post Pending Pick Up, meaning spoken for in Freecycle parlance, promptly email requesting the item.

Then there are lovely people who are so grateful when I rescue fine handwork and rehome it for them, or put old items into use again.

The other great fun about freecycling, aside from moving on old items to happy people and receiving items I will get a lot of pleasure from, is discovering streets and neighborhoods I've never been in.  I did that this morning, and did a detour coming home just to join up several places I was familiar with to see how they related to each other. So there's that!

Now I have to make a little cup of tea before my neighbor hauls me out to help him with his garden planting and planning, and read a mag or two..