Junk Brothers, Recycling, and HGTV

You know I've survived half a century somehow without ever getting close to being addicted to television. But now I'm beginning to wonder about myself. This summer sis is renovating her house to a large extent and I'm here dealing with the day-to-day project as she pays for it by working in NYC. Seems like HGTV is on the tube about 24/7 these days. I draw the line at all those craft shows. And admittedly I think a whole lot of what they do to people's houses is questionable at best. I mean, I would file suit if they did that to MY house (but I don't even live anywhere in particular). Seems like bold primary colors are what they're doing to people's houses; crimes punishable by....whatever.

BUT....I really love the Junk Brothers, Jim and Steve Kelly. Have you seen that show? That Jim has the cutest smile and reminds me exactly of Will Pinkney, huntsman of the Golden Valley back over there in the Old Country where I spend my favorite months of the year. Anyway, last night Jim and Steve drove around in their truck and picked up an old 70s console TV set from the curb and also a very funky (and nasty) 2 piece sectional couch that had been totally trashed. In a half hour (TV time) they cut the console up and turned part of it into a base for this really cool aquarium (I reckon you had to be there) and then took the couch all apart and turned it into a really cool couch with a reversible copper/fabric arm end that served as a table for your drinks. Very cool. Part of their gig is they take these amazing creations they've made from seemingly unredeemable JUNK and sneak it right back to the people whose curbs (trash) they "stole" it from. They put down the newly recreated piece, ring the doorbell and run for the truck, trying to get there so they can watch the reaction of the recipients. Pretty funny gig, I think - and well worth watching. I'd like to have those boys work on some of the furniture in this house! I've had a high-50s red naugehyde couch with fabulous chrome legs sitting on end for more than a year since neither my sister nor I can figure out how to get the screws into the wood inside. They keep going wrong somehow. Help me, Jim!

Along those lines, sis and I took those 3 or 4 cast iron sinks from this big ole house to the metal recycling (walk-in) dumpster down at the Town Hall on Monday. By Tuesday, when we're in Lowe's pricing new cast iron bathroom sinks and finding they're like $600 for a nice-looking one and she's hemming and hawing about how she really didn't want to get rid of the nicest sink but feared telling me (the clean freak) because she thought I'd have a tizz (she's right). Now that sucker must have weighed 100 pounds, easy. So who gets stuck walking back into the metal dumpster today - all alone - and having to pick mounds of metal this and that off same sink and having to leverage it alone into a rusted out wheelbarrow and drag the thing (the wheel on the barrow was flatter than a pancake) across a long stretch of concrete and leverage it up in my truck? All this while sis is in NYC getting a pedicure or something.

Things are coming along nicely up here on the mountain. I'm almost out of junk to haul off, though I wish the Junk Brothers would just happen to come up the drive. I'd give them something they could have fun with. How 'bout a real live bear, boys? Might make a nice arm chair...many daytime bear sightings -- 200-pounders -- in the area in recent days.