what runs in a family

My father sent me an email at 8:40pm saying his computer was "all messed up" and I was able to be there by 9pm to fix it. It also means, of course, that it's almost midnight and I'm just now getting home. The fix wasn't that time-consuming but all the chit-chatting around it was. When I was at my parents' Tuesday night I had passed a set of children's folding chairs and table on the trash. I immediately thought I should stop to pick them up but was in a hurry to get to my parents'. After spending an hour or two with them, I mentioned to my father that I had to get going soon to be sure to get this miniature dining set to save it from the landfill. It's not that I have any miniature people in my house that could use it other than the occasional visiting kid and we don't even really have a lot of space to store it, but I couldn't bear to think that something so perfectly useful would be thrown away and wasted. It just seemed selfish on the part of the world and it was my job to worry about these things.

I've been worrying about all the waste we've produced in our big office move. Sure, we haven't moved in over five years and we've amassed a bunch of junk to remove at one time. But I just don't know who to call about a woefully out-dated server with a bad power supply and everyone we did call had no idea how to help us. So it went to the landfill and I fretted about it.

When I left my parents' house very late that evening on "trash night" I drove slowly down our side street looking for the dining set but it had already been picked up. I took solace that there are extended members of our "family" that will save things from the landfill.