Are badges recyclable now?

They don’t call it volunteering.  It’s community service.  A high school student is doing community service work at the local church helping to serve a hot meal once a week.  It’s really a boring place to work. She is working on earning a badge and she’s required to do a certain amount of hours in the community.  She’s in the boy scouts because there are more things to do than the girl scouts.  Makes sense to me.  I was a girl scout.  I would have been happier in the boy scouts, too.  I earned a lot of badges. And they rotted away in some landfill, I’m sure.  Anyway, I helped her with serving the milk/water/juice, keeping the silverware stocked, and stocking the packaged cookies/pastries on the table.  And I really tried my best to maintain some type of conversation without asking all of the stupid questions old people ask.  I don’t care why she colored her hair lime green.  Or why she was in boy scouts.  I know why.  It’s because she wanted to.  But I did try to show an interest in who she was.  I’m not an overly energetic conversationalist.  It’s been my experience most people will be happy to do a majority of the talking.  But our little badge earner was not too chatty.  So I had to work a bit.  It’s been awhile since I’ve talked to a teenager.

I took a trip a few days ago to visit my brother.  I was curious to see what his living arrangement was since his ex-wife divorced him.  He went from a manufactured house on a couple of acres to a motor home he purchased that sits on a small RV space he rents.  But he keeps everything clean and updated and organized.  He doesn’t do much cooking and tends to eat stuff out of cans, but that’s his own choice.  I don’t think he ever did any cooking and probably doesn’t know how to cook even the most basic of things.  He’s created a garden plot next to the motor home and he’s got a little mini snow plow and  he’s been clearing a trail around the property using that plow.  He’s got a dog that is probably his lifeline.  When I first heard about the divorce and how he was living, I was worried. But once I saw the motor home and his living arrangement, I didn’t feel so bad.  I wish he had some friends to talk to, but I guess most of the people he knew have either passed away or moved away from the area.  My brother is 11 years older than me.  It’s not much fun watching family members get older because you know you’re getting older, too.