Calendar Recyclers of the World Unite!

There are clever, creative people out there who are performing visionary-type recycling miracles daily - EVEN with used calendars.

They are making transformations like calendar envelopes; new calendars from old; templates, coasters.

Their inventiveness knows no boundaries, no limitations, it would seem.

It's all Simply Stunning and Stylish and SO Sequentially Successful.

(I'm even starting to impress myself - see what great 'flow-on' benefits these creators initiate?)

*PS* I chose this moment in time to republish this lens when I passed my SECOND birthday on Squidoo.

It's been a long time since my personal second birthday... and I don't really remember much about that one, so it's lovely to celebrate a new, MEMORABLE one as a Calendar Girl (yes, yes, I know - old, recycled...but 'still kicking'...and that's OK with me!)

Thank you Squidoo... for the good years.

*PPS* Now it's getting a facelift to become a Hub. Here's to us HubPages.

- but they are Funny!

I have been recycling calendars since 1998. I cannot compete on the 'novel concept' platform - but can maybe give a small 'shuffle for the money' in the longevity arena. (The calendars' longevity, that is - not mine. I think we won't go there!)

I suspect the first year of my questionable creativity may have had something to do with pockets that seemed to be breeding dens for moths and the like. We've had a few of them in our 49 years of marriage.

I DO know that initially, many funny cartoon pics were cut out and pasted onto plain cards to send to family and friends for special occasions and celebrations - and many more for no reason at all except they reminded me of that individual in some way.

I also DO know they cheered a lot of people up and lifted many sagging spirits and down-turned mouths.

A quadriplegic I was caring for at the time was the helpless and hapless recipient of many of these - and he loved them - even though (to quote him) -

"Sorry Chris. I seem to have some trouble falling about with laughter".

(Did I happen to mention he had an even more devilish sense of humour than me? Maybe I was his star pupil?)

...stressing the paramount importance of the 'Do Not Forget' for the day - in this case -

"Kill something and eat it"

PS: What do you get when you cross a dinosaur with a pig?

Jurassic Pork.

- OH NO! No...no...no...no...NO!

THESE are 'Far Side' Off the Wall Calendars - the ones on a small plastic stand that have a tear-off page a day. I think the idea was to throw them away daily - or at the end of the month - or sometime. Is somebody kidding?? (Well-ll-ll - Gary Larson was - ALL of the time!)

I love his warped and wacky view of the World. I am appreciative of his aliens, besotted by his beasties, delirious with his dinosaurs, and rendered hysterical by his 'humanistic' critters - in other words 'The Far Side' humour, humours me into helplessness - daily!

It's my 'heart-starter', my 'pick-me-up, and some days, even my 'raison d'etre' (reason for existence).

And as I continued to 'squirrel' these precious pages away, I pondered deeply. How else could I recycle and continue to enjoy these gems?

- a 'Light Bulb' moment happened!

A PERPETUAL CALENDAR. THAT was what I needed. And if I would check the day of the 1st January on each calendar - I could label the presentation box that each year's calendar came in with all the years that particular calendar will recur.

Simple! And more good news. Because of the interval of years that pass between re-viewing, the OLD magically becomes NEW again.

Even if you find you have complete recall of the specific cartoon, it's a kind of warm, fuzzy feeling - the return of memories of days gone by. Surprising how much resurfaces from the depths - for some of us.

So here I am, recycling ENTIRE calendars! And the joyous part is that I've had a scanner/photocopier for sometime now and I can reproduce special pages instead of needing to 'sacrifice' them. YES!!

- then comes the Storm!

There had to be a downside, of course. Almost nothing good lasts forever (but that's true of bad 'somethings' also, so that's a consolation!)

Well-ll-ll you see, Gary Larson stopped his funny business, didn't he? I must grudgingly admit that he gave plenty of warning - and his staff DID pull together a couple of 'Best Of' versions that helped to offset the looming loss to Life as we (his fans) had known it. I suppose he wanted 'a Life' or 'retirement' or something similarly selfish.

Ah well - 'what cannot be cured, must be endured'. All I can say is -

'I was alright - for a while,

I could smile for a while.

Then a year came when,

I had no calendar, and then,

I had to buy something else.

It did pretty well,

But many could tell,

I'd been CRY-Y-Y-Y-ing

Over my loss,

CRY-Y-Y-Y-ing.........etc., etc" (you know the rest).

But at last, after 365 days of an inferior facsimile of a funny calendar, the year was over and a REAL replacement was hanging out to begin yet another year. Me too!.

And so I've 'soldiered' on, learning to stoically take the lean years in my stride. Such a year looms on the horizon for 2013 - but I'll be brave, I'll be strong. For now I just savour one day at a time. After all, there ARE worse things people suffer than this particular deprivation. REALLY??

- Try to Hold onto the Hysteria.

Some particularly heavy hearts were lightened up by Larson (Gary), and relayed by Larsen (me, Christine), when I was a Community Careworker.

My first client every weekday was a gruff and crusty, old-time English 'school marm'. Her heart and soul had been locked up tight for many years, and she had worked her way through almost all of our careworkers with her commanding and demanding presence.

And then we met - and her and I eventually, became friends (to the extent she gave me one of her favourite fine antique china bowls as a parting present when I was moving back to the country).

What helped, in no small way, was taking her the daily 'Far Side' cartoon and reading it to her (and often needing to explain the 'joke' - her humour was somewhat withered, as well as her heart - at first).

Although, I must admit, I DO love the 'down-home' wisdom of the wise man -

'The secret of Life is listening to your Mother in the first place

and not wasting your time climbing mountains to ask silly questions'

Mothers of the world, around the world, are heard to respond...in unison! -

"Well-ll-ll yes!"

(and see the red stickers? That's how I prepare them for their reincarnation? Nifty, huh?)

(This one was reborn in 2009, and due to be 'resusced' in 2015 AND 2026.

May get a little 'ho-hum by then! Ha! Don't think so. Much more likely to cause an outbreak of mirth - once again!)

PS: The only sadness about this one is that it's a whole week before you get a new joke. Not quite the same, somehow. But our daughter's thought was sweet!

...and due to be 'resusced' in 2019. And that's looming closer by the day! Seriously!

PS : Why do ducks fly south for the winter?

: Because it's too far to walk!

PPS: Which side of a duck usually has the most feathers ?

: The outside!

Perspiration and Inspiration triumphed. I found some 'new/old' Far Side calendars on the ever-amazing Amazon.

But you are probably still going to have to beg, borrow or steal copies from maybe Op-shops, or used bookshops (doubt it), or rubbish dumps (oo-oo-ooh) for the 'missing links'.

MAYBE there's somewhere else (I don't know where - because if others are like me, they are hanging on, desperately and very tightly to their ageing copies).

- I had no Far Side calendar to resuscitate.

I've been forced to use a Non Sequitur 2003 model for all of 2014 so far. It's nice, and adequate, but it's just not Larsonish.

2013 was a good year - I could use the born-again 2002 Larson Loony Toons.

2012 was another lean one when we were forced to buy The Argyle Sweater calendar - ohh-hh-h!

Owzat then? (Sorry...'Downunderisms' tend to pop out at the most unexpected moments)

But meanwhile, back at the regenerated, rejuvenated, restored, resuscitated or otherwise recycled story... I have my doubts about that 'Argyle' job - it's next come-out is not until 2040. Good grief - I'll be 94 that year!

The 2011 one was REALLY special in its original heyday (for the millennium year of 2000) - being in full colour for each day. And the suggestion on the box is that it is a look at the last 1,000 years (in 365 days - Wow! - and Jules Verne thought 80 Days was pretty good to pop 'Around the World'...that's progress for you!)

(Actually, to be brutally honest, the oldest calendar I have is an Angel one (also with 'tear off' pages) from 1996 - but that is not due again until 2024 - so I keep that at the back of the drawer and resist the temptation to peek. I plan to be surprised daily, throughout my 78th year!)

***News Bulletin***

OH NO! Disaster struck on the 1st March, 2011 when I discovered that the Millennium Year 2000 - was a Leap Year - and all the rest of the year would be one day out. NOT good for a sometimes 'dazed dinosaur'. More confusion, I do NOT need. So, I have had to go back to my Perpetual, Any Year Calendar about Happiness. It's good - but it's not a Larson - and so, once again:

'I was alright - for a while,

I could smile for a while. (2 months, actually)

Then a month came when,

The calendar was wrong, and then,

I had to use another.

It does pretty well,

But ALL can tell,

I've been CRY-Y-Y-Y-ing

Over my loss,

CRY-Y-Y-Y-ing.........etc., etc" (you know the rest).

But it's all in the past now, (and in my recycling drawer, where good old calendars belong.

When in doubt, remember - 'Everything Old is New Again'. That's my philosophy for this year and far beyond, and I'm sticking to it!

Uh-oh... just had a wobbly thought and rushed to check... phew, 2015 will be one of the good years. Out of the mothballs will come the 1998 calendar, recycled in 2009 and good to go for 2015! Now I'll be able to sleep again.

Oh boy! Just checking this whole hub and found I have another 2015 one - it's a double whammy! Now I'll really be able to sleep again.

And suddenly, the sun is shining, the birds are whistling again, etcetera, etc.,etc.

In short - LIFE is worth living again.

And the best news is that you can look at any page you want - at any time you choose -

AND NOT HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE RIGHT DATE!!

The caption reads -

"With a reverberating crash, Lulu's adventure on the tractor had come to an abrupt end"

And the 'aside' side of the Far Side, reads -

1902

The first gasoline-powered tractors are built in Iowa. Weighing in at upward of 11 tons,

they are so hard to start that some farmers just leave them running all night long.

Ohh-hh-h - and then there were some chickens who only got part way across the road -

and others who never crossed the road at all. Well-ll-ll.

- Is Yet to Come to Fruition

I have almost totally and irrevocably decided that my treasured and well-used collection of Gary Larson's 'Far Side' calendars should be put in my coffin with me and Ted, to drift upstairs together. As I have booked a really comfy, high-backed Lounge chair in the front row of the first cloud, I was thinking that those cartoons would really come in handy.

Firstly, I can enjoy them and share them for one last time - and probably, up there, I'll get a photographic memory along with all the other incidentals, like an agelessly beautiful face, perfect figure, brilliant intellect, and talents and skills beyond compare, etc.etc. (Dream on!!).

But best of all, I will be able to then fold them into paper planes, and 'fly' them to someone down on Earth who looks like they need a laugh - and when my 'funny' but perfectly aimed missile strikes, these poor misguided and miserable 'victims' will probably cry out loudly, something along the theme of -

"FAR OUT!

COULD THIS FLIGHT OF FANCY BE AN OMEN

- FROM THE OTHER SIDE?"

I can hear the 'da-dum, da-dum' ominous-type music playing,,,,and I get a little prickly around my collar region.

Do you?