Carbon Paper

You never know what will come in handy someday. That is what pretty much every serious hoarder tells themselves and causes their homes to fill up with useless junk.

 

“Useless” is the term that normal people use when referring to the accumulated “handy” stuff that fills the garage, shed, closets and basements in homes pretty much everywhere. I personally don’t have a hoarding problem but I guess that is just what most hoarders will say about their treasures. I don’t have a problem because I really can’t afford to bring home everything that I really, really, really need. God help me if I ever win a lottery!

 

I do crafty things from time to time and need to make copies of pictures or sketches from books and magazines. I make these copies so that I can use spray to glue them to a board and cut out the pattern on the scroll saw or whatever implement that I need to use for the particular craft I am making. Mostly I just find the image that I need on the internet, scan it into the computer and then manipulate the image in PhotoShop and then print it on the computer. Life couldn’t be easier.

 

In the old days it was more of a challenge. I have a light table so that I can take a picture from a magazine or book and trace an outline onto a blank sheet of paper which I could then use carbon paper retracing the sketch thus transferring it to the piece of wood. I don’t use much carbon paper any longer, but I have several hundred sheets of it in my workroom.

 

When I worked as a letter carrier we had to write up the registered letters, COD’s, Express post and priority posts that we got every day to deliver. The Post office needed three copies and yes, you guessed it the copies were made using carbon paper. Most of the normal carriers just tossed the used carbon paper out but I saw a potential need and saved mine. Now I have enough carbon paper to last at least my lifetime and perhaps the lifetimes of my grandchildren. Tornado shows promise of being a mini hoarder, but his parents are trying to “civilize” him.

 

The thing about carbon paper is that it retains a perfect copy of whatever was written on the paper so I have documentation of all the parcels (most of the parcels) that I delivered during a large part of my career and Canada Post. Technically I am on pretty shaky legal ground because I suspect that there is some inferred right of privacy when you use the Postal Service.

 

If you wouldn’t mind, don’t mention the carbon paper to anyone. Unless you have need of a few sheets of course. I can hook you up.

Outstanding

The other day while I was walking Buster or should I say while Buster was walking me, we stopped to do our business at the side of the road. When I say we did our business, Buster squatted and squeezed out one or two capsules of food waste. I stood by trying not to watch him and readied the plastic bag. Man’s best friend indeed! A true friend wouldn’t make me pick up his shit and carry it around for a couple of miles.

 

So, while I was waiting for Buster to find the perfect spot to drop his load I couldn’t help but notice that the leaves were cascading down around me like large, yellow snowflakes. The same thing was happening the length of the street and it was beautiful. I’m sure that the owners of the properties that the leaves were falling on might have a different opinion but they are obviously wrong. We don’t get a large variation in leaf colour in western Canada, but I have come to appreciate the monochrome nature of our Nature.

 

I would love to have the variety of hues that eastern Canada gets every fall but I suspect I would have many thousands of multi-coloured tree pictures on my computer and in albums as well as boxes that would need to be tossed out when I die. We do get some colour variation, but mainly the reds come from bushes and the odd (how the hell did that get here?) deciduous tree. 

 

Louise and I took a drive south of the city today and took more than a few pictures of the fall colours. More for the kids to toss out when I die. The most stunning contrasts came when those yellow leafed trees were mixed with many thousands of coniferous trees. The bright yellow and deep green took my breath away. Could have been from Covid, but hopefully not.

 

It is also the time of year when the ranchers harvest the hay…straw and leave the bales out to dry. When I was growing up there was only one kind of hay bale  which was rectangular and about 3’ X 2’ X 2’ and they weighed about 50 pounds. The farmers or the farmers kids would stack them in a pyramid shape to dry and eventually put them into the barn or in some kind of shed so that the animals would have something to eat and sleep on during the winter. That was in Ontario. Out here in Wild Rose Country the bales tend to be about six feet around and weigh in at around 1200 pounds needing a tractor attachment to move them. They used to be tied with a twine, but today we noticed that they seemed to be wrapped with a light green plastic. I don’t know if that is to keep the rain off the hay or if it is just more efficient. There is a good chance that I will never know and I’m good with that. I don’t have to know everything. All I really need to know is that hundreds of those large, round bales of hay look stunning with the gold and green backdrop of trees.

 

I did notice some very large, rectangular bales that were 4’ X 4’ X 8’ and from a distance looked like the bales I remember from childhood. I have no idea why one farmer would use small bales, one would use large round bales and still others would use those humongous, rectangular ones. I could Google it, but to tell the truth I just don’t think Google would give me the same kind of answer I could get from a local rancher.

 

Now…where am I going to find a local rancher? One that is out standing in his field.