Saturday, December 12, 2009

Making it snow in my house-did I get snowed?


I took advantage of a special offer at Home Depot. When I bought 20 bags of eco-friendly insulation I could rent their blowing machine for free..sort of. They charged my credit card $500 and then reversed that charge when I returned the machine.

It took two of us to operate the machine-a leaf blower on steroids. It was hollow with a big fan on the bottom and it made about as much noise as an old vacuum cleaner. I ripped open the bags with the excitement of a 6 year old at Christmas and poured the material into the big round machine which whirled it around and spit it out the hose where my partner in this adventure guided it into the rafters of my attic.

We both wore masks to keep from breathing in the material that looked suspiciously familiar to me. When I took a good look at it I realized that it was shredded newspaper; I could actually read words off of the pieces. I spent money on shredded newspaper, the same stuff that comes to my house for free every week. I spent money on stuff that I collect in my garage and then recycle. I couldn't be sure, but did I recycle my newspaper and then buy it back? *sigh

The masks kept the paper-mache out of my lungs, but it didn't keep it from snowing in my house! As the particles blew into the rafters it forced down a snowstorm of dust particles making it look like a winter wonderland. Now I could visually see the snow job. At least it wasn't made of toxic materials, the clean-up was a breeze and I can use what I swept up to make my self a snowman.