E-Mail hoaxes -
This morning I received a "forward" type e-mail with an exceptionally long list of people who, in turn, had received it and forwarded it. It promised money if I would forward to people on my e-mail list. I normally trash "forwards" immediately, but this one had such an unusually long string of "believers" I wanted to see what it was all about. It was that Microsoft would send you a check if you forwarded the e-mail. Of course they will. So I immediately forwarded it to my Recycle Bin.

I was curious, though, and went to www.truthorfiction.com, but I didn't find anything about that particular forward. However, they do have this to say:

There has also been a rash of emails that promise goods or money for yourself or others in return for you forwarding the email to your friends. Some of them claim that a wealthy individual or a major corporation has promised to donate a certain amount of money for each forwarded email to a worthy cause such as a child's surgery. Others claim major corporations will pay you for forwarding the email and in a few days, you'll receive a large check or some valuable product in the mail. Those are hoaxes. At the present time, there is no practical way for a corporation to keep track of the pathways of tens of thousands of forwarded emails.

That's good enough for me.

Here's something a bit more mundane - a rig that is reported to decompose all your household garbage, including meat, fish and bones, without odor or risk of animal invasion from critters. You simply bury part of it in the ground, maybe in your flower bed or someplace convenient to get to, and it's maintenance-free! Dump in your table scraps (they say grass clippings, too) and keep the cover on - it's all reduced to practically nothing by the microbes and insects in the ground. It doesn't make compost - the "nutrients" (make that decomposed matter) aare deposited directly into the ground, leaving only a small residue at the bottom of the cone.

Fred saw one of these green cones at recycling in Hardwick today and brought home the sheet that describes it and the order blank. If you want to know more about them, contact dsauer@zwinc.org - that's Zero Waste, Inc., or phone 802-472-5424. There is also composting information by Central Vermont Solid Waste at www.cvswmd.org/resident_services/composting.html

We both like to take care of all our "errands" on one trip whenever possible so we don't have to go somewhere every day, so after Fred did the recycling, he drove down to the Frye's Quarry looking for wood. There has been a sign by the road indicating firewood for sale and he wanted to check it out. They no longer have wood for sale, but he got some nice pictures of the quarry pond. Then, on the way back, he stopped to pick up JPA mail and took a picture of Diane - smiling and pleasant as usual, even in the face of having her picture taken. The store and post office are quieter now, summer residents and tourists are mostly gone.

Gone, too, is the foliage except for a few poplars and tamaracks showing yellow hues on the hillsides, but even those are fast losing their color. It's a very nice day today, though, and we expect temperatures in the 60's. Happy Halloween!!