Broken Sled

Day 304: Broken Sled
Real Simple - the modern woman's Good Housekeeping - has an entire column devoted to repurposing household objects. Old nylons can be used to strain bacon fat. Old window screens can be used for earring hangers. Wine corks can be turned into bulletin boards. Teapots can be turned into lamps. Of course, when you attempt these projects at home, they do not in any way resemble to well-lit photoshopped versions in the magazine. In th spirit of Real Simple, I've been keeping this broken plastic sled on a shelf in the garage, thinking I might use it someday to haul raked leaves to the compost bin. I've seen my neighbors using old sleds for just this purpose. Molded plastic objects fill me with guilt, but, if I could get ten more good years out of it, maybe I wouldn't feel so bad.

Back when the kids were small, despite our best efforts to avoid it, we had many large-scale molded plastic items. We had a bright yellow and teal Little Tyke automobile with doors that opened; both the kids could sit in the front seat, and it had a steering wheel that really turned. If I'm not mistaken, they could propel it with their feet, much as Fred Flintstone did with his Stone Age car. We also had a Little Tyke little red wagon with removable sides, almost as convenient as a stroller for walking around the neighborhood with toddlers, but offering much more fun and freedom. These plastic behemoths had a very short run, floating in and out of our lives like flotsam on a fast river. Certainly, they still exist, but whether it's in someone else's backyard with the rest of their toddler toys, or in the middle of a mound of refuse at the city dump, it's impossible to say.

There's nothing rational about keeping this sled on a shelf in the garage, and it's not going to have a second life in someone else's childhood - someone who'd take it to Magic Mountain at Burns Park and give it a few dozen more good runs - because it's got a giant crack in the side.

Into the recycling bin with it, with apologies to Mother Earth.