Trash Talk

Trash talk: boastful and intimidating comments made to one's opponent(s) in a game or sport.  Mohammed I'm-the-Greatest! Ali  was the trash talk poster child.  I think of it as banter - lighthearted and humorous.  Pickleball players trash talk a lot, part of what makes the game fun.

Now that I've lead you astray with a false start, I'll divulge the real subject of this post: trash.  As in garbage, solid waste, refuse.  Well, that's not really it either, but we're getting close.  It's recycling, specifically 'single stream recycling.'  Folks who live in large metro areas are probably familiar with the term; small town dwellers and rural folks, probably not.  I just got up to speed myself because my home town just started doing it.

I'm a strong believer in recycling, been hauling stuff to recycle centers for decades.  No more.  Now, it all goes into a large container, unsorted, and dumped into a truck.  How the devil do they sort and separate such a mixed bag of stuff? you ask.  Okay, maybe you didn't ask, but I did.  The answer is MRF: Materials Recovery Facility.  MRFs are huge buildings that contain a series of conveyor belts to transport materials to a variety of sorting devices that use gravity, magnets and condensed air for sorting.  Here's a picture of one.

It's not 100% automatic, does require some hand sorting.  It's not 100% efficient either.  Critics maintain that pre-sorted recycling results in a lot less landfill material than single stream recycling.  Broken glass is the main culprit.

Here's a video that explains how the materials are sorted.
https://youtu.be/7CFE5tD1CCI

It's entirely possible that a blog post on single stream recycling may not be the most exciting post ever, highly doubtful it'll go viral.  Whatever.  I thought it was interesting.

Rosarito, Baja, Mexico

Guess this isn't the self-defrost model.  Nor the self-fix model.  Wait, it gets worse!

The villa is advertised as being the largest on the Baja.  At 7500 SF, I don't doubt it.  Ad also said it slept 21 people, don't doubt that either - but there were only 6 of us.  Although the long weekend getaway was my treat, I didn't choose this place, would have been happy with something much smaller.

The villa was built by a gringo couple over a period of 3 years, 2005-8, but given it's current condition you'd think it was at least 30 years old.  The husband died awhile back.  The widow moved to a smaller place nearby and let the property go to hell: zero preventive maintenance, zero repairs, apply a band aid, forget it. 

It looks quite impressive from a distance, has a great view, nice patio.

We soon discovered the furnace didn't work.  Heat was critical, temps in the mid 40s at night, and several windows that were so corroded they couldn't be closed.  Big fireplace in the living room, but damp firewood, no kindling.  We got a fire going eventually but the chimney didn't draw well (yes, the damper was open), the place filled up with smoke and we had to open several doors to air it out.  What little heat was generated by the fire went out the doors with the smoke.

We called the owner, who arrived shortly, along with a young Mexican couple who finally got the furnace going.  I pointed out the iced-up fridge to the owner: she didn't respond, didn't bat an eye, was obviously aware of it, didn't give a shit.  End of day 1.

Below, two sons at sunset.

On day 2, we discovered the stove didn't work, called the owner.  Then, it was the barbecue, called the owner.  Furnace stopped working, called the owner.  At $400 a night, I expected better.  Silly me.

The surf was big and loud.  No beach, just rocks.

Despite all the hassle, we enjoyed the getaway.  It was all about the people anyway, having a nice long visit with my 2 sons who live near San Diego.  We watched the football playoffs, me whining a lot about the lousy performance of my home state team, the Vikings.

It took us 1.5 hours to return to the States via the Tijuana border crossing, constantly pestered by vendors of every kind of beverage, food and artifact one could imagine.

I won't be returning to Mexico any time soon.