Recycling is fun!

Monday was a very fun morning. Anziano Balzotti came over to help me take our old washer from the hall to the recycling place. It had been nice to have a horizontal surface to put something on, but it was a rather tight fit for Dee in her chairiot. The mission has a lightweight dolly, which was good enough so that we only had to carry it for about seven steps. As he was going down the final little ramp to the street where his car was parked, the washer fell off the dolly and slid toward a car bumper, hitting it a bit but not doing any damage. He said, "that's ok, it is the Knieses' car!" 

Amazingly, we were then able to fit it fairly easily into the hatchback of their Yaris hybrid, the same model we have. It wasn't very heavy,  just a bit awkward. We then drove to the the recycling center that everyone knows about a few miles away. It was rush hour, so it took us quite a while with traffic, thoroughly enjoying several Italian driving moments along the way. When we got there, the guy said that his container hadn't been delivered for the day, so he couldn't accept the washer, but he gave us a list of addresses of other recycling centers, one of which he said was nearby.

Reprogramming Google Maps, we reversed course and basically retraced our original route, but going against traffic it went quite quickly. With each turn we got closer to home, and in fact the facility ended up just off the main street a few blocks from our house! We could have walked it there on the dolly faster. 😆 However, both of us were quite happy to learn about the nearby location, which we may use again soon. Anyway, we thoroughly enjoyed laughing our way through it all and it all worked out. Unfortunately I didn't think to take any photos.

I got home to a big stack of dishes that I didn't get around to the prior evening. Dee could do them in theory, but I like doing dishes and it would be tricky for her to do them balanced on one foot. When we left for the Institute, I had four heavy shopping bags to carry to the car, while Dee walked down the ramp to the sidewalk to wait for me to arrive. It is only about 50 yards for her, but it takes her over five minutes, so I can arrive with the car in about the same time.

When we got to the Institute, I let her out right by the door, and the elevator is only a few steps inside. Imagine our situation when we found that the elevator wasn't working -- she was not about to climb 63 steps! I made a couple of trips up the stairs with some bags, trying to call the elevator from above to see if that would help, to no avail. The elevator is very old, and it has been quirky recently. So then I called the service number inside the elevator, and they promised to get somebody out there to look at it by the end of the day. 

At that point, we debated whether to drive Dee back home or have her wait at the cafe just outside. Neither was a very good solution. After each of us tried the elevator a number of times, with nothing happening when we pushed the button for the second floor (3rd floor US style), I said, "let's both get in and try it one more time." This time it worked! Strange. Fortunately it also worked at the end of the evening, so she didn't need to stay there overnight, haha.

I worked some on lesson prep for Friday and for the FHE that evening. In my FHE lesson I used the Old Testament stories of Naaman the leper and of Moses and the brass serpent, showing how they were both symbols of Jesus Christ, tying it together with 2Nephi 11:4, which says that "all things ... are typifying of [Christ]". We had a good discussion along the way, with everyone taking turns reading the stories from the Old Testament. The group was rather small, but afterward we all thoroughly enjoyed Dee's butterscotch peanut butter cookies, with chow mein noodles and peanuts. Dee writes: I made them sitting down, which was a new experience. The ingredients are all American, so this was a treat they would never have experienced before. It's fun to figure things out!

After dessert, we had a nice card game of Five Crowns, won by Anziano Conatti in convincing fashion. 

When we got home, I dropped Dee off by the entrance, then looked for a parking spot. There was none to be found in two trips around the block, so I had to go up the hill to the roundabout to find a vacant space. It was quite a hike with my shoulder bag, Dee's backpack, and two shopping bags. I was exhausted and hit the sack fairly quickly, after a thoroughly enjoyable day.