5-20-20: Five Reasons To be Hopeful This Wednesday – Dr. Plastic Picker
 

5-20-20: Five Reasons To be Hopeful This Wednesday

| Posted in Hopeful Wednesdays

Bag #193!!! Recycled a can too. Can #249!

May 20, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I strained my hip flexors on Saturday morning. It was a semi-embarassing injury because the mechanism was relatively benign. I was getting ready for a quick plastic picking session at the beach, and was trying to leave early to avoid the COVID-19 crowds. But I sat down too quickly onto the hard concrete step and strained my left hip flexors. A weekend of rest and motrin helped, but it is still somewhat achy on the left. I’m not sure if I will need to use a cane today.

Wouldn’t that be the greatest irony? I’ve talked about sacrifice and being ready to jump into the COVID-19 fray. I’ve posted pictures on my personal facebook with me looking serious in an N95 and facemask and full PPE, and then I get sidelined due to a middle-aged musculoskeletal injury. Mr. Plastic Picker strained his back around the same time. At least we are injured together, and it actually keeps us more home-bound and less likely to get COVID-19. There is always a bright side of things. I am making us seem more middle-aged then we really are! Part of the character I create, but based on reality of course. Mr. Plastic Picker and I are thinking of starting a home yoga program together. I remember buying a DVD years ago from Costco, so will try to find it.

But it is Wednesday, and I was not sure if I would have any items for a Hopeful Wednesday post. I had thought I had skipped an entire month because hope has been rare these days. But looking back on the blogroll, I actually did write a Hopeful Wednesday post two weeks ago https://drplasticpicker.com/5-6-2020-five-reasons-to-be-hopeful-this-wednesday/. That was very reassuring. I am generally a happy person and it would worry me if I was feeling that hopeless for more than two weeks.

Five Reasons to Hopeful This Wednesday, 5-20-2020

  1. Rare Metallic Blue Bee, Blue calamintha bee, Rediscovered in Central Florida: I have come to love insects because I have now realized through my environmental awakening that we need insects. Without insects, mutliple ecosystems will collapse. There was a spider in our bathroom last night and I left it. The rediscovery of this beautiful bee, thought to be extinct, is a reason to be hopeful. Our blog is a member of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/16/us/florida-blue-calamintha-bee-trnd/index.html
  2. An Endangered Pygmy Hippo born at the San Diego Zoo, first in over 30 years. Mabel, a 4-year-old female pygmy hippo, gave birth to a healthy male calf this month at our local zoo. Pygmy Hippos are native to the forests of West Africa and endangered, and only 2500 left in the wild. They are native to four African countries — Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. This baby boy is truly a reason to be hopeful. Our blog has donated to Marine Protected Areas of Côte d’Ivoire through the Rainforest Trust, so hopefully preserving their beaches will have some secondary benefits to the country’s forest. Our two children have attended the San Diego Zoo Camps for years so know this wonderful institution well. https://www.10news.com/news/local-news/pygmy-hippo-calf-born-at-san-diego-zoo
  3. Wild white storks hatched in the UK for the first time in Centuries. This item reminds me that I read way too much CNN. This is the third item I got from them. But this is a reason to celebrate “Five baby storks hatched at the Knepp Estate in West Sussex, the White Stork Project announced on Friday. This is the first time in hundreds of years that white stork chicks have been born in the wild in the United Kingdom.” The last one was 1416 in Edinburgh! That was during the reign of Henry V in England. I just reviewed the CNN story and it’s not just one baby stork, but five hatchlings living it up in West Sussex! I will need to share this with my children tonight at dinner. https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/16/uk/wild-white-storks-hatched-uk-trnd/index.html
  4. Upcycled Presidential Bird House: Here at Dr. Plastic Picker’s blog, we make our own good news! The Upcycled Presidential Bird House continues to attract daily friends. I can’t decide if they are the Northern Mockingbird or the California Towhee. I need to get a better camera. I used to enjoy the crows because at least they were birds, but we have a lot of visitors now that are smaller and need more help. I’ve taken to chasing the crows away. I may make an Upcycled Bird House for Dr. Dear Friend.
  5. Our Own Family’s Vegan Journey: Our family has been continuing on our journey to eating a more sustainable diet. It has been surprisingly much easier than I thought. We bought the Beyond Sausages again from the Beyond Meat brand from our local sprouts. Last week I had paired it with onion, zuchinni and a red bell pepper. It was pretty much the left over vegetables that we had. It was delicious and we had it with corn tortillas. Yesterday, the same sausage we paired with green beans, left over steamed cauliflower, and I used garlic and onion salt. We had it with Vietnamese rice paper and left over spring roll dipping sauce my mom had made us. We had lettuce wraps as well, and it was delicious. The kids like the vegan tofu crumble as well in lieu of meat from tacos. And thus far the weekly batch of beans is going over well. The kids had been already fine with the Boca vegetarian “spicy chicken” patties in lieu of meat. Then two nights ago I did a vegan curry which they were fine with.

When I got up this morning, I wasn’t sure what I would blog about. Sometimes when you don’t feel hopeful, it’s hard to write a Hopeful Wednesday post. I had to remind myself that the Hopeful Wednesday post is also an exercise in gratitude and reflection. After listing these five reasons, I do indeed feel hopeful! So the lead picture is bag #193 and I have now collected and recycled #249 aluminum cans. These are cans that would otherwise been thrown away. I’m definitely going to go out today to find can #250 which will prompt me to get another litter picking bag, and I can’t wait to get to bag #200! And this is my 190th blogpost! Thank you for following along. Gratefully yours, Dr. Plastic Picker your local litter-picking slightly injured pediatrician.

The vurry simmer sauce I bought from Sprouts. Now I need to learn how to make Curry without prepackaged sauces.

Click here to read 5-5-2020 Hopeful Wednesday Post! https://drplasticpicker.com/5-6-2020-five-reasons-to-be-hopeful-this-wednesday/

Next week’s post! Went on a tangent about real estate LOL. https://drplasticpicker.com/5-27-2020-five-reasons-to-be-hopeful-this-wednesday-real-estate/

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