One (small) good deed a day 2024

[crocheted_stache]

A tiny local cafe had a car driver into the shop window back in February. I wanted to go there today and saw that it is still boarded up and the door was locked, but there were signs indicating it's still open and to call to get in. I did so, and the owner explained sadly that they're still waiting for insurance/repairs to come through. I asked if I could take some photos, so that I could post on social media to get her business, and she said yes.

I did post on social media along with some photos of the cafe during happier times. I hope that people will shop there more until she gets back on her feet!

Car-versus-building crashes are disturbingly common. Sturdy bollards now surround one of our stores where an elderly driver hit the gas instead of the brakes or maybe didn't realize she wasn't in reverse. The people unfortunate enough to be in between that car and the store survived, fortunately, but it really shouldn't be down to luck.
I gather the octogenarian driver lost her license. I wish our transportation systems for those who don't drive were not such a penalty, and if the driver is lucky, she's now relying on responsible children to get her around, which unfortunately penalizes them for her age and inability and for our lack of better options.

It also, unfortunately, inspires lenience when it comes to rescinding licenses for the worst drivers.

It's no coincidence that Target, Costco, etc. all protect their walls and windows that face the street or the parking lot.

Sorry for the rant.

I'm glad no one was hurt. I hope your local cafe survives, and that the insurance company gets its act together very soon. There can't possibly be any doubt who was at fault. It's not like the cafe went flouncing out into the street all of a sudden.

[Josiecat22222]

Picked up an empty icecream container from the forest floor.

What??? Is there a population that gets ice cream and then goes to the woods to eat it??? It sounds great, but I have so many questions.

[Serendip]

Picked up an empty icecream container from the forest floor.

What??? Is there a population that gets ice cream and then goes to the woods to eat it??? It sounds great, but I have so many questions.

I live in a mountain town so I think this was a case of someone walking home drunk from a party and dropping the container. Since there is lot of wildlife I try to pick up food-scented garbage when I can and a lot of the trails double as animal paths :)

[crocheted_stache]

Today I let a team of volunteers work on a project in my yard. I didn't participate much in the project, but I served them lunch and helped a bit with the planning.

[Poundwise]

A tiny local cafe had a car driver into the shop window back in February. I wanted to go there today and saw that it is still boarded up and the door was locked, but there were signs indicating it's still open and to call to get in. I did so, and the owner explained sadly that they're still waiting for insurance/repairs to come through. I asked if I could take some photos, so that I could post on social media to get her business, and she said yes.

I did post on social media along with some photos of the cafe during happier times. I hope that people will shop there more until she gets back on her feet!

Car-versus-building crashes are disturbingly common. Sturdy bollards now surround one of our stores where an elderly driver hit the gas instead of the brakes or maybe didn't realize she wasn't in reverse. The people unfortunate enough to be in between that car and the store survived, fortunately, but it really shouldn't be down to luck.
I gather the octogenarian driver lost her license. I wish our transportation systems for those who don't drive were not such a penalty, and if the driver is lucky, she's now relying on responsible children to get her around, which unfortunately penalizes them for her age and inability and for our lack of better options.

It also, unfortunately, inspires lenience when it comes to rescinding licenses for the worst drivers.

It's no coincidence that Target, Costco, etc. all protect their walls and windows that face the street or the parking lot.

Sorry for the rant.

I'm glad no one was hurt. I hope your local cafe survives, and that the insurance company gets its act together very soon. There can't possibly be any doubt who was at fault. It's not like the cafe went flouncing out into the street all of a sudden.

I think the driver was most likely uninsured. I'm not sure what the whole story is with the landlord.
I now have a secret fantasy that she will move to the empty storefront across from my house, although it wouldn't be a good location for her and I would balloon up even more than I am!

[Raenia]

This morning I was in the waiting room at the vet, waiting to drop off my cat for a dental procedure. I noticed another woman who seemed upset, and asked if she was ok. She told me her dog is in liver failure and may not make it. I got her to tell me about her dog, and before I left I offered her a hug.

Hope it helped a little.

[crocheted_stache]

Yesterday, I encouraged somebody who was promoting a relatively new grant at an event to go introduce himself to another organization nearby, which would certainly qualify if anybody puts together a reasonable proposal.

Toward the end of the event, I was talking to another participant who complained of an upset stomach. After determining that he thought he needed more food, I gave him a granola bar I was carrying and encouraged him to take some of the leftover event food. I don't know him that well, but after watching for a while as he focused intensely in quick succession on several topics of interest to him without actually eating the granola bar or any of the leftover event food, I suspect some sort of attention differences. I hope he managed to eat something, but I didn't watch it happen.

[Taran Wanderer]

I stopped in the middle of the road and picked up a bolt so it wouldn’t end up in someone else’s tire.

[crocheted_stache]

I think I talked someone out of including colored liquids in a school craft project meant for eight-year-olds. It prevents anything from leaking and getting on library books, and it opens up options to use materials like fabric and paper, which are easier to obtain and to work with.

[crocheted_stache]

I supplied sunscreen to at least four of the ten people on my group bike ride today. My ulterior motive is to use up this bottle a little sooner. It's okay sunscreen, but the fragrance is too strong for me. DH and I are using it, but one bottle lasts us a long time.

I also took the group to a favorite local small business for lunch and made sure the owner introduced himself.

[Poundwise]

Last week: Picked up a new duffle bag and a purse at the church tag sale for two members of the club for mentally ill. Called a friend and offered to pick up groceries for her while I was at the store.  Tried to mediate a conflict between two people but it hasn't worked out, yet.

[Taran Wanderer]

More road debris removal - this time it was pieces of firewood. And we also picked up a friend’s roadside political campaign sign that was still sitting out after last week’s election. 

[Wolfpack Mustachian]

A waiter asked us about how to get cheap manga because my kids were reading some while waiting on food. I was able to point them to the library as a solid source of manga. It felt really good to recommend and brag on the library even though it took minimal effort to do so.

[LaineyAZ]

When summer temperatures rise, our homeless population usually moves on to cooler climes.

Despite that, there are some who are still outside on street corners begging. 
So during the year I buy some bucket-style hats for a few dollars at thrift stores and keep them in my car.  Yesterday I gave a homeless guy $2 and one of the hats, made him happy and made me happy that he could have some protection from this harsh sun.

[crocheted_stache]

A waiter asked us about how to get cheap manga because my kids were reading some while waiting on food. I was able to point them to the library as a solid source of manga. It felt really good to recommend and brag on the library even though it took minimal effort to do so.

Someone online was asking about information for navigating Medicare as he approaches that milestone birthday. He didn't like that so many of the "guides" he'd found were selling something.

My suggestion to try the public library seemed to connect. He was a bit embarrassed not to have thought of it himself. Librarians aren't selling anything beyond responsible library and information use, and if a particular book or article this out to be not very useful, it costs nothing to give it back and try the next one (or ten), or to check out a whole stack to take home and sift through at leisure.
 
I'm not at Medicare age yet, and goodness knows what that system might look like when I am, but I've definitely done a library raid to prepare for other major turning points, including buying my house. It was a library book, or a sequence of them, that started me on the path to financial literacy, too, when in my early 20s it occurred to me how little I knew about what banks really do and how money worked beyond the jar of change on the dresser.

We all need to be bragging on libraries right now.

[Serendip]

-Picked up a hitchhiker who was just trying to get to work on time (I guess that was the case because it was near an obscure spa)
-carried out some found trash while hiking

[crocheted_stache]

I got a notification that a local trail is going to be closed for maintenance. I passed it along to some of the local bike people and groups, and somebody asked where the announcement was publicly posted. It's completely reasonable question, so I asked the staff from whence the announcement came. I'm afraid the chain of communication is pretty indirect from where I sit, but perhaps it will get where it's going in time to do some good.

Bike trails have this funny way of counting as transportation (as they should) when justifying building more of them, but when it comes time to close them, officials seem to assume they're recreational and that a closure merely rearranges someone's dog-walking route. That, and they don't quite understand how the trails work. They'll close some entrances and not others. One time, they managed to create sort of a jogger trap, a segment that was (needlessly) closed at both ends but open at a forgotten spot in the middle. Fortunately, there was no hazard, just confusion and inconvenience.

I'm going to keep trying.

[oneday]

There's been a heat wave recently. I always feel for the store employees who have to wrangle the shopping carts, so when I put my cart in the corral, I arranged the carts that were already there to make them easier to wrangle by the employees later. Bonus: another shopper was about to put their cart in the corral as I was exiting, so I took their cart & saved them a few steps, too. It was nice to have a little human interaction (and a smile) for something I do a lot where nobody usually sees. I don't do it for the love, but the love was a nice bonus.

[crocheted_stache]

There's been a heat wave recently. I always feel for the store employees who have to wrangle the shopping carts, so when I put my cart in the corral, I arranged the carts that were already there to make them easier to wrangle by the employees later. Bonus: another shopper was about to put their cart in the corral as I was exiting, so I took their cart & saved them a few steps, too. It was nice to have a little human interaction (and a smile) for something I do a lot where nobody usually sees. I don't do it for the love, but the love was a nice bonus.

I usually just take a shopping cart in with me that's not in a corral. Sometimes DH takes one too and one of us drops the extra at the entrance. Bonus if it started in the far corner or somewhere it shouldn't really be. Generally, we'll also leave it in a corral. At that point, I figure we're net-negative or at least net-zero on shopping cart entropy.

[Dicey]

@oneday, and @crocheted_stache, we are sisters in cart corraling!

[Taran Wanderer]

Stopped in the middle of the road and remove a fist-sized rock that was sitting mid-intersection.  I’d hate to have it shoot out from under someone’s tire and hit someone.

[crocheted_stache]

Last night and this morning, I did a flurry of baking and cooking. Throughout the afternoon today, we shared the resulting large batch of bread and a large batch of chili* at three different community potluck picnics. I am counting this as the good deed for two reasons. At the first two picnics, the food offerings were a little spotty, something I kind of expected based on the guest lists and the organizations. Our bread and chili turned out to be the main dishes.

Even though I only see him twice a year, I know that one of the folks who's a regular attendee at the third group is vegan and gluten free. So before I added the bulghur to the vegan chili for everyone else, I set some aside in a separate container, and I made sure he knew that portion was for him. Alongside a few selections from the fruit and veggie trays, it was just about the only thing I saw him eating.

*Dried beans + Instant Pot for the Mustachian potluck win!

[oneday]

I usually just take a shopping cart in with me that's not in a corral. Sometimes DH takes one too and one of us drops the extra at the entrance. Bonus if it started in the far corner or somewhere it shouldn't really be. Generally, we'll also leave it in a corral. At that point, I figure we're net-negative or at least net-zero on shopping cart entropy.

I usually do this, too. For the same reason :)

@oneday, and @crocheted_stache, we are sisters in cart corraling!

Fist bump!

[Serendip]

Offered to keep on eye out for a delivery for a new neighbour and can put it into her place since she won't be back for a few days.

[crocheted_stache]

Moved a construction sign over a little so it's more visible from the road whose users it's supposed to notify and less in the way of the bike lane.

Removed a sharp object from the roadway.

[crocheted_stache]

I found a loose piece of paper in the parking lot at work. It was an invoice with a name and home address on it. I did a search of the employee directory for that name but found nothing. There are other companies sharing the parking lot, and the wind could have carried the paper some distance.

I suppose I could have mailed it to the address, but I expect the invoice can be re-sent, if it is not already in the person's email, so I tossed the paper copy in the shred bin.

[Poundwise]

I hired the son of a church friend to wash my windows and paid him more money than he was asking. He was charging super cheap and did an okay but not great job; I am thinking how I could recommend him but manage people's expectations.

[Freedomin5]

One of our friends lost his job. He has a wife and a young child. They’re now moving cities to live with their parents because they can’t afford to live here with no job. Our Bible study group put our funds together to help them out a bit. Some of us also have connections in their new city who may be able to help them find a job.

[Dicey]

For a variety of reasons, the thrift shop where I volunteer allows us to "check out" items without paying for them. I draw a line down the middle of my card, front and back, and use it often. When the card gets filled, I clear it all at once. And then I round up. Today I had the manager ring me out, and then I added ~$45 so the total was a nice, round number. I appreciate that this system exists, and I'm happy to add a little extra to the cause.

I also thought of this thread when I was at Costco this week. Of course, I returned my cart and then straightened up the ones in front of it. Your inspiration is greatly appreciated. Hmmm, allow me to elaborate on this, if you will. I have always done stuff like this, but never thought of it as a good deed. I just thought I was a slightly OCD* weirdo. Thanks for helping me re-frame some ingrained behavior.

*My friend says it's actually "CDO" because the letters MUST be in alphabetical order. Makes sense to me.

[crocheted_stache]

We went looking for a needed screw at the hardware store. I know a bit about machine screws and spent a minute putting some of the jumbled mess back in its correct little slots in the drawer. I could have met there all day, but instead, I determined the item we needed wasn't there, chose and alternative, and moved on.

[LaineyAZ]

We went looking for a needed screw at the hardware store. I know a bit about machine screws and spent a minute putting some of the jumbled mess back in its correct little slots in the drawer. I could have met there all day, but instead, I determined the item we needed wasn't there, chose and alternative, and moved on.

Geez, this reminds me of going into a thrift store near me where it was obvious that several store workers hadn't shown up for their shifts in the last 2 days and the place was a mess.  The senior cashier guy with the dyed purple beard was there, friendly as always, but seemed to be the lone worker.  I was very tempted to go up and down the aisles and restore some order, but I restrained myself.
Are we just born this way??

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Sent DH over to our elderly neighbor's house with macaroni & potato salad. She doesn't cook anymore, and loves leftovers. We have so many people eating at our house, that it's rare for us, but we love to share when the opportunity presents itself. She also loves a chance to chat with DH.

[crocheted_stache]

We went looking for a needed screw at the hardware store. I know a bit about machine screws and spent a minute putting some of the jumbled mess back in its correct little slots in the drawer. I could have met there all day, but instead, I determined the item we needed wasn't there, chose and alternative, and moved on.

Geez, this reminds me of going into a thrift store near me where it was obvious that several store workers hadn't shown up for their shifts in the last 2 days and the place was a mess.  The senior cashier guy with the dyed purple beard was there, friendly as always, but seemed to be the lone worker.  I was very tempted to go up and down the aisles and restore some order, but I restrained myself.
Are we just born this way??

Maybe we are.

According to r/I dont work here lady, the next step after putting back or tidying up something in a store is either another customer asking for help and blowing up when you tell them you cannot in fact go get something in back or ring them up, or (rarely) getting offered a job. I presume the times when they believe you, apologize, and wander off don't get to be posts there.

Years ago, I was in the screws and bolts section of a different hardware store, and I asked for a machine screw by name. The employee who tried to help me was maybe new or more familiar with other departments. "Whoa, you know more about this stuff than I do!" I ended up giving him a five-minute tutorial right there in the aisle about what the different numbers mean that describe a screw thread.

[chasingthegoodlife]

I always try and do a little tidying at the thrift store - I joke that it improves your thrift karma.

My GD was driving a family member to do errands because I knew the area and the driving conditions were difficult.