Caroline, Cycling, and Recycling

Thank you so much for your comments on the Noni bag. You seemed to be as undecided as I am, so I'm going to use the safety pin idea and add the flower as the mood strikes.

Caroline's left and right front are finished. Sleeves are on the needles!

The Giro D'Italia, Italy's version of the Tour de France, started last Sunday. US viewers can see it on Sunday nights on Versus, 4-6pm. The scenery is wonderful!

Our GYGIG donations now total $1323! Thank you again for your support. If you haven't yet made a donation, and would still like to, you can click the button on the upper left for details. We'll be giving out the last prizes of Charlie's yarn and the $21 LYS certificate on Memorial Day Weekend -- next weekend! Or, if you'd rather purchase some of the Charlie's yarn and donate that way, please see Lavender Sheep.

Our fearless GYGIG rider, both in preparation for his ride and in celebration of Bike to Work week/month, has been riding either home from work (leaving his truck there), or to work in the morning. It's 40 miles one way. Now if only his co-workers in the state government would get the clue, and make alternative transportation easier in our state!!

In an "Is it me?" moment, I called the Local Pharmacy With Initials in its Name to ask if they recycle pill bottles. A lot of knitters in blogland are doing their best to recycle, and in a moment of inspiration from their examples, I thought, "why throw the pill bottles away when I can take them down and have them refilled using the same bottle?"" So, today, I took the little brown bottles for my allergy meds and Rainy's meds to the Drop Off window, and explained that I would like them to use the same bottles and they can just put a new label over the old one, per the phone conversation I had with someone there the previous night. The woman at the counter looked at me blankly, said, "Well, we usually just throw them out and use a new bottle, but I guess if you want us to, we could do that."

I don't know if there are health regulations that prevent this that I haven't heard of yet (e.g. did I sneeze on the bottle, and so they can't reuse it -- how sterile is a pharmacy?) but from the blank tone of voice and looks I got from people there, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they said to each other, "She's crazy, just throw those bottles out and use a new one and she'll never know." But I will know -- I'll peel back that new label when I pick up the prescription to see if they covered the old one. It's such a small thing, but I thought it was a good idea, because those brown plastic bottles are a 5 which I don't think is even recyclable in the regular way. We live in a pretty earth friendly area, and a number of people do use their totebags in the grocery store now, so I can only wonder if maybe it is me?

Have a great weekend!

"So I hear they're going away this weekend, and that woman is coming to take care of us."

"We can take her."

Comments

[Chris]

Oh oh, the catsitter's in for a time of it... Hmm, I should go look - new pharmacy, and the bottles are white - haven't looked at the code yet. Darn it, we nearly have to use a mail order place or we get charged $$$$, so I hope the bottles aren't too evil... Otherwise, it's time to start making lots and lots and lots of pill bottle art.

[Beth]

I've been bothered by my pill bottles, too. I can't find a place to recycle them so I need to find out if my pharmacy can reuse them. I did call to find out whether they dispose of old medications and the pharmacist said to dump it. That's bad, but she didn't have another solution. So I put everything back in my medicine cabinet until I find a solution.

[Devorah]

Never even considered the pill bottle problem. Refilling them makes sense to me.

[Julie]

It definitely is NOT you! Some people are just clueless; I can't imagine why they would think twice about your request to reuse your bottles.

Caroline is looking great.

[Yvonne]

The bottles make sense to me! I should check mine and see if they are the same way!

Oh, and I did put up a post this morning on my blog about doing preorders for the Charlie yarn for anyone that is interested.

[sarah]

nice to see the kitties getting along so well...even if it is just to gang up on the cat sitter, lol!

[lori]

It's great that you thought of recycling the pill bottles. Unfortunately many people don't even think about recycling anything. Oh and I really like the color of your Caroline sweater:)

[Kristen]

Caroline is looking lovely. Reusing one's own prescription bottles certainly makes sense. Watch out for the kitty trio!

[Robin]

I completely agree about the pill bottles. I have an Rx that comes with a new reusable dispenser and 10 pages of the same literature every month. I mentioned the waste to the pharmacist and she said they are required by law to provide it every time. Its so wasteful.

PS - love the caption on the cat photo, I am sure that my cats have similar thoughts every time I travel...

[Barbara-Kay]

I use those small bottles. The new sewing machine needles can only be used for about one garment - especially if you use the machine embroidery feature. Needle moves so quickly through so many stitches, it tends to get a burr. So anyway, the bottles are my "sharps" container, a safe way to dispose of sewing machine needles. Takes a lot of sewing to completely fill up a bottle.

[Robin]

Oh, and one more thing: Tag, you are it, check out "New Bird On The Block No 13 Has Been Tagged"

[robin]

Caroline looks great!! Love the pic of the kitties all lined up by the door too. Hope you had a wonderfully relaxing weekend!

[Sonya]

It's definitely not you. We used to try to find alternate uses for the empty bottles, but we've long since run out of ideas for that. I'll have to ask my pharmacy if they'll refill. At least I don't have those huge bottles with the horsepill-size colitis meds anymore.

Your Caroline looks great! That's going to be a cute sweater.

[Rebecca]

The bottles always seem too sturdy/solid to throw away to me too--like they should be good for something, even if it's not more medicine.

But then I often feel that way about containers--it's kind of funny/depressing how things that are meant to be disposable sometimes seem to be made better than things you're meant to keep using!

[Erika]

Caroline is looking good so far!

I never thought about reusing pill bottles, but that does make a lot of sense. I'm still trying to figure out Seattle's recycling rules...I would say there must be some rhyme and reason to them, but then again this is Seattle and a lot of their rules seem pretty arbitrary (A $101 fine if your car blocks an intersection? Sheesh.).

I love that cat photo! It's like the gang leader flanked by his henchcats.

[Shannon]

Pharmacy's totally used to reuse the bottles. I mean I remember when I had an RX that had refills, I'd take that in as proof of refill and they'd refill it and put the new label over. I think now that things are cheap and disposable they aren't so interested in doing this. In the UK every medicine I've ever seen comes in blister packs - you can't buy a bottle of tylenol equivalent (there is also a legal limit on how much you can purchase at once which is very small). I used to just put my RX bottles in the recycling bin since the pharmacy wouldn't reuse them.

Oh sometimes pre- or primary schools like things like those bottles for crafts, etc.

[Helene]

I have always thought of using the pill bottles again. In the old days ( I am old enough to say that) when we needed a refill we took the bottle to the pharmacy, even the liquid filled bottles, and they actually "refilled" the container. We never gave it a thought. Now look what we have done to ourselves and our world. They are good for needles or anything small that could be easily lost. Larry's Mom and mine too were great recyclers. You never knew what you would find in a Sucrets box!!!! Your kitties look so sweet sitting together. Ours have finally come around to tolerating each other to do that occasionally.

[2paw]

Almost all our tablets come in blister packs in a little card packet, so not much to recycle at all. Love the cardi, it's looking fab!! Poor kittycats!! They are so funny!!!