Tote that bale

 After a madcap week of eye doctor (cataracts still practically teenagers), covid shot (no reaction other than a sore arm), haircut, with a little Mahjong at the senior center thrown in, I finished up on Saturday with the fabric drive for the town library.

The drill was to hang out in front of the library and receive bags of clothing and other goods from donors who pulled up to unload. We’d then transfer the offerings into big black garbage bags since they were required by the organization we were basically selling our donations to. As I understand it, the donations would go on a scale and we’d be paid based on the weight. The organization would later sort everything according to whether it could go out on the sales floor or sent to wherever fabric is recycled.

          The return is pretty good for the library and there’s no overhead on our part since we’re all volunteers.

          I’d signed up to serve as one of the drivers, needed because while we gathered everything at the library, it had to be moved to a member’s garage until everything could be trucked to the company receiving it. And good thing I did. I’m pretty sure no one there yesterday was under 70 (including me) and added to that one person had a congenital wrist problem. Maybe next year we can round up some teenagers.

          It’s remarkable how heavy clothes can be, and when you fill a garbage bag full to
over-flowing you have a challenge. We’d stuff at least two+ kitchen bags into one black bag, tie it off, heave it into the back of a car, drive it to the collection point, and heave it out of the car onto the pile. My car alone held about 14 bags and I made 6 trips.

          But I must be doing something right because here I am the next day and my back and shoulders are still in one piece, thank heaven.