A few random shots from around the house… We lost power last night sometime before 3 o’clock but it came back on this morning around 11am. 

Oregon enacted The Beverage Container Act or “Bottle Bill” in 1971 to reduce litter and increase recycling.  I think for the most part it has its merits and should be expanded upon to include water bottles among other containers and perhaps an increased deposit. 

But that’s not what this post is about.  This is more of a rant of my most recent experience with the mechanics of saving, storing, transporting, processing and redeeming these containers.  Initially I had it all figured out.  So… a little history first.

One day I heard a knock on our front door, upon opening the door I saw a young girl dressed in full Girl Scout outfit.  I recognized the vest, sash and Brownie pin right away and felt comfortable that this young lady was legit.  I thought I was sure to be breaking out my checkbook any minute for a case of Thin Mints, Samoas and Tagalongs.  I stood waiting for her to pull out the cookie order form as I was salivating thinking of the peanut-buttery goodness, undoubtedly witnessed by her father standing by his little pickup truck. Then to my disappointment she asks if we had any cans or bottles we could spare for her fund raising efforts.  Sad to realize I wouldn’t be getting another installment of cookies I quickly refocused and pointed to the back yard.  I then said if she and her dad didn’t mind if there were some beer cans mixed in that they could have as many as they wanted.  I walked her around back and approached our garden shed where the treasure trove would soon be found.  The door opened to reveal a mountain of cans and bottles several times taller than the Brownie that will be carrying them.  “This is all yours” I proclaimed as if granting her a kingdom.  I’m not sure if the tears that built in the corner of her eyes was from knowing that she would certainly win the coveted multicolored slinky for collecting the most cans or because she was repulsed by the thought that two humans could consume so much liquid beverage.  Either way she dove right in and eagerly transported the cans and bottles out to her father who loaded and tied them down in his little pickup…… That was 3 years ago.

Since then we’ve been saving our cans in the same fashion,  stuffing them into 13 gallon garbage bags tying them off and stacking them in our shed.   Knowing that any day we will be able make a dream come true for the entrepreneurial child that will be knocking on our door soon.  But many days past and we never had that visitor we were expecting. The shed grew increasingly full to the point that extracting the lawnmower from the mountain of aluminum became overly frustrating.  Then I suddenly disliked that Girl Scout for teasing me into saving these cans.  So out they went, bag by bag, tossed into the back of my truck.  Wife and child in tow we headed down to Safeway where we would spend the next three hours processing the cans. Sorting cans and bottles into sticky old shopping baskets, waiting in line to put can by can into the dirty machine that reads the barcode and tallies up the total.  While plugging can after can into the hole I read a sign that says “we will only accept $7.20 worth of cans per day per person”, what?!  I look back to the flurry of activity at my truck, my wife churning through the bed of the truck sorting cans into the appropriate baskets.  This must be much much more than $7.20 I thought to myself.  And it was.  Each time the total on the machine would fill up, break down or reach $7.20 it would spit out the receipt.  In all we had over $50 worth of deposit receipts, soiled clothes, hungry stomachs and a nasty black coating on our fingertips. 

This exercise was three months ago.  How do I know?  I was reminded this morning when I looked at the fridge and saw what is left of the stack of deposit receipts, which has the date printed clearly on them.  They are on the fridge so that we can grab a couple the next time we go to the store and use them with our normal purchases.  Since the store actually enforces the $7.20 rule we can’t take them all at once and must piecemeal it.  I’m sure it’s obvious but we continually forget to grab some before heading off to the store or they are inconveniently at home when we are conveniently passing the store and it wouldn’t be worth the extra gas and time to go get them.  So they sit on the fridge until we remember to use them up as a constant reminder that we will not do this again.

What do we do now you ask? We recycle.  But we don’t take the cans into the redemption centers, we just toss them into our multipurpose recycling tote.  Ah, what a relief.  Toss it in and take it to the curb once every two weeks.  After all it probably ends up going to the same recycling center anyway, I just don’t get my nickel now. 

I would have loved to continue to give our cans to the children that come asking, but apparently the nickel isn’t worth the work for them either.

1928-2008

Services for Isaac M. “Ike” Risseeuw of Grand Ronde will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 4, at the Sheridan Church of the Nazarene. The Rev. Todd Bramhall will officiate. Interment will be held at Green Crest Memorial Park in Sheridan.

Ike is Tracy’s Grandfather and I considered him mine too.

Arrangements are under the direction of Macy & Son Funeral Directors, McMinnville. The funeral home will be open for visitation from 1 to 7 p.m. today and Friday.

Mr. Risseeuw died at home on Monday, Sept. 29, 2008. He was 80.

Born in Todd County, S.D., on May 19, 1928, he was the son of William Abraham and Winnie Nellie (Schryvers) Risseeuw.

In 1937, his family settled in the Grand Ronde area. He attended schools in Grand Ronde and Willamina.

He served in the U.S. Navy from 1945 to 1947, then spent five years in the Naval Reserves.

He married Mabel Darlene Shaul in Vale on May 13, 1950.

Mr. Risseeuw worked in logging all his life. He owned his own logging company and drove trucks for Littlejohn Logging.

He served 30 years on the Grand Ronde Water Board. He also served on Grand Ronde School Board.

A member of the Grand Ronde Church of the Nazarene since 1956, he was very active in church activities. He enjoyed tending his lawn, his garden and his roses.

In addition to his wife, survivors include two daughters, Sandra Sims of Willamina and Rhonda Ardell Stackhouse of Grand Ronde; five sons, David Wayne Risseeuw of Willamina, Donald Risseeuw of Sheridan and Kenneth Allen Risseeuw, Charles Keith Risseeuw and Russell Roy Risseeuw of Grand Ronde; a foster son, Steve Palanuk of Grand Ronde; two sisters, Jane Buswell of Dallas and Vivian St. Germain of Springfield; four brothers, Butch Risseeuw of Willamina, Lonnie Risseeuw of Roseburg and Vern and Bob Risseeuw of La Pine; 21 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by a brother, Billy, and a sister, Marie.

Memorial contributions may be made to the building fund at the Grand Ronde Nazarene Church, care of Macy & Son Funeral Directors, 135 N.E. Evans St., McMinnville, OR 97128.