Wire

One of the items in my dad's workroom is electrical wire, quite a bit of electrical wire. Last week I was so excited to find somewhere that takes it for recycling. However Michael told me they will ship it across the world and melt it down and...he suggested the Habitat for Humanity Restore. I had already tried that with a previous suggestion of his and they were not interested in what I brought, so I was not too hopeful about them taking it. But today I stopped by with a small trunkful of electrical wire and they took it!

And in an additional note, we are corresponding with someone at Habitat about what we are going to do with my dad's home. It is nice to deal with people who are up front. Today we arranged a time for a realtor to come out and access a home value.

Looking thru stuff at my parents I found this classy black and white photo. I remember the relative on the left visiting with his son (the 3rd from left) when I was a child. They were from California and I remember sitting in the backyard with the son during a lightning storm. We were facing opposite directions and pointing out whenever there was lightning. He had never seen lightning before!

I asked my uncle how they are related to us, but my uncle isn't sure. I do think the man on the left is probably standing next to his mother. The three of us on the right are me, my mother and my little brother.

I also remembered when they visited when the boy was a teenager that he smoked and how surprised I was by that. I was in fact a bit horrified, my parents didn't think it was a good idea, but seemed to be more understanding that teenagers sometimes did such things.

Michael has a small retirement pension/annuity that is offering a cash out option. I did not have a very helpful response when he first told me about it. "If they are offering it, it is certainly because it benefits them not us!" Luckily we had found a fiduciary advisor after my dad died to consult and had a positive experience with him, so today we spoke to him about the annuity/pension and I'm grateful for that conversation.

Finally, I left the house this AM in an attempt to go for a jog. The air was so thick I only jogged 1/2 block and then turned into a walk. Oh well, it was still a nice walk. I saw a house or two with fans in the windows - no AC - and am reminded not to take that luxury for granted, even though Michael just got upset with me for turning the temperature up (he is working upstairs in the hottest room during the day).