Baldur

My efforts to have her use reusable grocery sacks have not succeeded.
'I'm spending enough here to have them give me bags' is the reply.
She instructs the bagger to not load the plastic bags too heavily, so generally she gets a half dozen bags with 2 items, at most, in each.
I end up carrying these bags and would be quite content with them more heavily loaded.
As soon as mother gets home she tosses the empty bags in the trash.
But wait! it gets even better.
She always asks for a handful of paper grocery sacks to take home. For some reason they accomodate her. I've tried to talk her out of doing this but again to no avail.
She needs the paper bags to place her old newspapers in before taking them out to the recycling bin. The recycling bin is outside, 3 steps from her back door. Baldur is always the one to carry the papers out to the bin.
This is a complete waste of bags.
When Baldur shops for Boughbreak, my religiously faithful use of reuable sacks offsets the use of 4 plastic bags per week at the very most.
My mother at the very least uses 18 disposable plastic bags plus 7 large paper bags in the same period, just for groceries.
There is a considerable amount of additional waste from her other types of shopping.

marius

Baldur, sorry to hear about difficulties with your mother. I don't know why it is that our own flesh and blood can trouble us more than others, but it seems to happen a lot.

I wish I'd been able to get a sense of humor about my mother when she was still coherent. We used to have inane conversations that, looking back now, are pretty funny. They'd usually go something like this:

Mom: You should order the liver and onions, they are very good here.
Me: Mom, if you recall, I don't like liver and onions.
Mom: Nonsense, you've always liked them.
Me: How can you say that? I just now told you I don't.
Mom: Well you're wrong. You're just being difficult again.
Me: No Mom, I pretty much hate liver and onions.
Mom: I'm your mother and I know what you like. You've always been a difficult child.
Me: (in hushed voice) Well, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
Mom: See, there you go again. Now, order some liver and onions.
Me: (silence ... if you didn't shut up, this insanity went on for an eternity)

Anyway, wishing you luck and sending thoughts of peace and maybe something else to do with your Mom besides grocery shopping for bread three times a week.

And about all the waste ... that would drive my recyling nut spouse out of his mind! Sigh!

Dragon

Hmm, I can't help but think that marius' birds would probably go crazy for all that stale bread. Though I can't quite remember, are you actually supposed to give them bread or is that bad for them?

I wonder if Baldur's mom would still want all the extra bags if her grocery store started charging for them. Quite a few stores up here do and even retail stores are starting to go in that direction. I bought a purse not too long ago and had to pay for the bag it came in, this was ok because 1. I do actually care about the environment and don't think this is a bad direction at all. and 2. The bag was one of the re-usable variety so I kind of felt like I got my moneys worth out of it.

Dragon

My parents often have bird feeders out on their acreage just outside of Red Deer. One year in the winter there was a huge number of Red Polls at the feeders. Seemed like for several weeks you saw nothing but Red Polls squabbling out there. The feeders had to be filled almost daily. We really enjoyed those cheeky little guys. After a few weeks they moved on and we've never seen another one since. That was about 10 years ago, they must have moved their migration route or something.

polenta

Baldur, how old is your mom? Is she in her 80s? I'm not a psychologist but I would say she's trying to draw people's attention and in this case, your attention. It's like saying: "HEY, I'M HERE. DON'T FORGET THIS!" It's not the bread, it's having someone who notices her presence, who obeys her "orders", who pays attention to her. There should be places where older people could live together and happily. Patience is what you need... and I can tell you from my own experience.... IT'S VERY, VERY HARD.

No, we haven't rented any beach house.... but we live one and a half block from the River Plate beach and we never go there. LOL

Baldur

polenta she is only 73 years old and does not consider herself elderly yet.
What she is doing is making me less likely to go visit her. I can foresee this issue causing a major rift between her and I.

Baldur

Not much different to report here in lovely and icy Primrose, RI other than it is snowing again today.
We currently have 36 inches of the white stuff on the ground and expect anywhere from an additional 7-14" overnight.
Luckily I see no problem with enjoying the time reading by the fireplace. This is definitely a minority opinion.
At the greasy little restaurant we breakfast at each Tuesday morning there were great rounds of griping and whining over the weather. I made my entrance humming 'White Christmas' and was given the most evil of glares from the assembly.

Baldur

The book I'd just finished was 'The Devil in the White City' ( by Erik Larson) about America's first documented serial killer.
He took advantage of the confluence of thousands of young single women in Chicago for the 1893 Columbian Exhibition, to sate his bloodlust and perhaps basest sexual desires. I say perhaps since he left no remains of his victims to draw such conclusions from. He had built several great crematory furnaces which tidily took care of most of the evidence.
It too was an enjoyable 'period' book.
Normally my booklist doesn't delve so far into the macabre; after the current book I intend to read something more sartorial in nature.

Baldur

The cat dynamics have indeed shifted. Chloe, the female kitten is now by far the most destructive and troublesome. She is doing her utmost to dislodge the pictures hanging on the walls.
I have discovered that their dislike of citrus scents may indeed save my modern hand knotted wool Oriental rug.
It is rather large and the design taken from motifs taken from Gustave Klimt. The cats were doing their best to shred it. A few daily spritzes across the surface with organic pink grapefruit air freshener is so far discouraging their attack.

Baldur

Beyond all this I've begun a new bit of needlepoint, a Union Jack cushion for the parlour. This December's issue of Ideal Home magazine showed them in several rooms. I thought it a jolly good idea though the colour palette of my version is rather tea-stained.

polenta

Here goes a joke Baldur:

Have her move next to the supermarket so she can buy a new loaf of bread every day and at any given time. She'll have to walk a little only. LOL

Yes, you are right she's only 12 years older than I am. I hope you can find a solution to all this.

Baldur

I could move to Uruguay and not leave a forwarding address.

Dragon

You could move her to Uraguay. Perhaps polenta has a spare room (hehehe)

Dragon

I read online today that the mid-west states are experiencing a storm they are calling the Snowpocalypse. It seems that even Texas and Oklahoma are getting record snowfalls.

Dragon

Oooo, I just thought of a solution to your mom's bread issue. You could buy her a breadmaker!

mdawrcn

Dragon - Please forgive my ignorance, but being from the south, I have never seen a "snow snake." What do they plug in? There are surely not that many electric cars that loose their cords? Something to keep the car warm? I have wondered how in the world cars still operate in such cold climates.

Dragon

mdawrcn, cars in very cold climates are outfitted with a block heater. The car has a cord that pokes out the grill or comes out from under the hood. This keeps the engine block warm and I believe also helps keep the battery from freezing solid (which makes them pretty much useless). So when the temps get very low we plug in our cars so that they start in the morning.

polenta

Dragon, Dragon, Dragon...... me not have spare room and Uruguay have no spare room in whole country. LOL LOL LOL
Don't give Baldur any bright ideas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOL LOL LOL

Brunnhilde

Hi Baldur - I'm older than your mother and am shocked at her profligacy (a + word for you?). When I was a child during WWII we were told not to waste food but to think of the starving Chinese - have you tried that one? Does she have a computer - would she like a pen-friend (email) who refuses carrier bags and re-cycles all she can and who might possibly shame her into behaving more responsibly? I am really horrified that she can waste so much bread - if she doesn't like toast, perhaps you could persuade her to buy just one roll or bap a day .....

And apparently too much bread is not good for the birds - especially when fresh - it swells up in their little stomachs.

Baldur

Good morning Brunnhilde, thankfully my mother does not have a computer yet. Even more thankfully once she gets a computer she will not know how to trace any of my writings back to me.
That was very kind of you to offer you to be her pen-friend, I can only imagine how horrified you would be at her world-view if she actually opened up in honest conversation.