Old Light Bulbs Become Christmas Decorations

I'd accumulated some old light bulbs that I didn't want to put in the trash and hadn't found my way over to the recycling center, so I decided to turn them into Christmas ornaments. A quick couple of sprays with the silver spray paint and then I glued on some ribbon as a way to hang them and eh voila, nine light bulbs have a new use. Now I didn't finish them before Christmas so they didn't make it to our Christmas tree this year, but I'll be storing them away for next year with the other glass baubles and will hang them then.  Over the year I may think about adding other decorative elements to these, such as gluing on some shapes in bright colors or putting red or green strips of ribbon on them or some white snowflakey things...... well I've got 11 months to think about this.  Just glad to explore re-use of used light bulbs!

Transforming Cargo Pants into Small Cargo Bag

There seem to be a lot of jeans in the fabric stash, so once again I stitched together a bag using an old pair of my son's khaki cargo pants that were horribly worn in the knees and way too small for him.  I just hacked off the pieces that had the wonderful big pockets on them and made those the sides of the bag after opening up the pant seams and stitching two big pieces together.  I then made a strap out of the rest of the leftover fabric and found another piece of fabric in my fabric stash to make a lining. This fabric was something I'd hacked off the bottom of a pink dress that I had remade into a shorter version -- you can tell I hang onto all kinds of bits of fabric!  I then embellished this bag with some brown grosgrain ribbon left over from some other project and stitched in some Velcro snaps in the top so the bag could be closed. And, hey presto chango, I had a small cargo bag.  Now, this became a gift to my sister who thought it very useful to carry all those extra things she wants to take to work with her, like shoes, or make-up or lunch.  She noted that the outside pockets were great for cell phones or keys.  I said "the whole thing is washable too!"  I just love hacking through my fabric stash with these types of useful recycling projects!

Pink floral lining and Velcro "snaps" at top of bag

Toilets in BloomingdaleDC Alleys

Alley behind First St NW

Alley behind First St NW

Every once in a while I take a walk through the alleys behind our houses in Bloomingdale just to see what there is to see, to avoid traffic and to get a different view of things. Yesterday's walk elicited two toilets.  One seems to be positioned in a back yard where I assume there are people working on the house and the plumbing isn't working  yet. Or maybe -- so my mind rambled -- it's like that situation in the book "The Help" where the householder didn't want to share her toilet with her domestic servants.  I was also fascinated by this standing plastic toilet being red and white and blue. Is there something all American about toilets that I don't know? The other toilet has less to say about itself as it has clearly been abandoned and knocked over, lying in the alley behind a house that may have been renovated recently but I couldn't discern that.  I've seen these thrones kept and used as planters for geraniums but this one's previous owner apparently is not into that type of recycling. You just never know what you are going to see in the alleys behind the houses.

Jury Duty in the H. Carl Moultrie Building

Bronze Bust of Carl Moultrie

Entranceway: Carl Moultrie Building

This week I was called for jury duty and had marked it in my calendar but managed to sleep late that morning missing the 8 a.m. show up time. Nevertheless, I dashed over to the Carl Moutrie DC Superior Court House building arriving just before 10 a.m., relieved to find I could still check in (and not get fined $300 or thrown into jail as a no-show!). The clerk was very pleasant about it and explained well how I needed to sign in and what the next steps were.  So I waited in the "jury waiting room" for a panel to be called sorry that I hadn't brought a book or my laptop as they now have WiFi there! I was among the first jurors called about fifteen minutes later and we went before the judge for review of our ability to be "fair and impartial" in light of the charge. Clearly I had great difficulty with the charge --the only charge was felony possession of a handgun -- and so the judge excused me and I was sent back to the jury waiting room in case another panel was called.  After lunch I had time to peruse the bronze  plaque on the wall that explained how Carl Moultrie was the first African-American judge in D.C. Superior Court, appointed in 1972 by President Richard Nixon. Apparently he was instrumental in ensuring better court processes in D.C. courts were established among other achievements. Then back to the jury waiting room; about 3:15 p.m. another court clerk came in and said she was going to dismiss us as long we had not been instructed by any judge to re-appear. Two women in the back of the waiting room said they were supposed to be at one judge's chambers at 2:30 pm but "the door was locked and we couldn't get in."  This elicited a very angry lecture from the clerk who castigated these two prospective jurors for disobeying the judge's order back to his court. They protested again that the door was locked but the clerk continued to rail against them saying they should have gone to the court clerk's office and they were in danger of contempt of court. Another juror interrupted the clerk's angry lecture asking her to "please dismiss the rest of us if that is what you were going to do."  This elicited another angry admonishment by the clerk who said she wasn't finished talking to the other jurors about their obligation to appear when a judge ordered them and she wasn't ready to dismiss anyone yet.  I think everyone was silenced by this pure bureaucratic rage and hoped they'd be let go soon. Once the clerk finished her diatribe she did in fact let the rest of us go who had not been called into a judge's chamber, thanking us for our service and how we would not be contacted for another two years.  In the stairway down, a fellow juror muttered "she didn't have to be so nasty."  I agreed but did let her know that this jury experience was better than it used to be -- smoother security with politer guards, automated payment system for travel expense, new padded chairs, television with captioning, reading materials, trash and recycling barrels and a paint job in the jurors' waiting room, and a nearby clean women's bathroom. Also, overall the building was a lot cleaner, the cafe in the basement was more organized and -- but for this officious clerk -- the experience was much more pleasant than when I did jury duty previously.