But it is still cold.  Maybe I will put on my mittens too.  That is mux brtt5x////

OK, the mittens did not work out so well for typing.  The nice lady brought over a space heater so it is now nice and toasty over by Meerah’s computer.  That was a very nice thing for the nice lady to do.  I told her not to bother.  I was going to build a fire in my living room.  She got very excited then and said, “No, don’t do that.  I’ll be right over!”  I don’t think the cold is very good for her health problems.  When she got to my house she was breathing very heavily again and her eyes were big and darting all around.  

Once her breathing slowed down and her eyes rolled back into one place, she explained to Meerah that I could not build a fire in my living room because I do not have a fireplace.  This sounded like foolishness to Meerah.  I have much experience with building fires in places they are not originally meant to be.  But, Meerah is full of kindness and concern, especially when it comes to people who are not in the best of health.  So I promised the nice lady I would not build any fires in my living room, and I would use the space heater she brought me VERY CAREFULLY.  Meerah typed those last words larger to show how loudly the nice lady spoke them.  Maybe the cold has affected her ears also?

So, now I am nice and warm.  Meerah will share with you her wisdom for cold weather.

1.  Don’t keep turning up the thermostat when it gets colder inside your house.  This just means the people with only letters for a name can charge you more money.

2.  People who charge much money to heat other people’s houses only use letters for a name so angry people cannot find them in very cold weather. 

3.  Wearing nine sweaters will keep you warm, but make it very difficult to make any sudden movements.  Plan ahead.

4.  Ten sweaters is too much. 

5.  If you need to wear your mittens inside, do not try to type.

6.  Apparently, it is not acceptable to build a fire inside your house unless you have a designated “fireplace.”  (Meerah is researching how to build one of these right now.)

7.  Space heaters are great for keeping small areas of your house warm and cozy.  But they must be used VERY CAREFULLY.  ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME, MEERAH?  VERY, VERY CAREFULLY!  Sorry, the nice lady’s voice is still ringing in Meerah’s ears.  Maybe I should turn down the space heater.

That is all Meerah’s wisdom for the cold weather right now.

OK.  Now Meerah feels a little better.  I will tell you about my day.

First, Meerah and the nice lady are working again on Meerah’s book.  There is much I could say about this, but I have typed it all before.  So all I will say now is that the nice lady’s brain is very disturbed.  If she reads this and calls me on the telephone with her angry voice, I will not answer.  Also, Meerah has set her answering machine message to this:  “If you wish to speak to Meerah, perhaps to learn some of her vast store of wisdom, please leave a message.  Do not let the beep frighten you.  Speak after it.  If you are the nice lady then, Pppfffppt!” 

Second, Meerah has lost her goat puppets.  This is very sad.  They were nice puppets too.  Meerah found scraps that could be eyes and ears, as well as some nice little twigs that could be shaped into horns.  I glued all this very carefully onto a nice pair of socks I found in my neighbor’s trash.  Meerah was very surprised to find these socks because this neighbor doesn’t usually throw out usable items.  When the puppets were finished I took them to the neighbor’s house and thanked them for throwing out such a nice pair of socks.  (They were very long and white with two small bands of color at the top, right where the collar would be for the goat.  You can now understand Meerah’s excitement.)  The wife seemed too busy to listen to Meerah’s happy story of finding the socks, but the husband listened with great attention.  He even asked to borrow the puppets.  He wanted to show his children.  This made Meerah very happy. 

But now, I am sad.  My neighbor says he left the puppets in Meera’s mailbox the next morning, but Meerah cannot find them.  I have searched the whole neighborhood, but have not found my puppets.  When I asked the man if he could have forgotten or put the puppets somewhere else, he sai, “No.”  I am afraid I will not see my goat puppets ever again. 

Finally, a third bad thing happened today.  Meerah has a nice friend who told Meerah about a funny movie she thought Meerah would like.  It was on the TV one night, but Meerah was going to be busy.  So the friend told Meerah to record the movie.  I told my friend this would not work.  One day Meerah pushed some buttons on the nice lady’s DVD player and smoke came out.  Now the nice lady’s DVD player is a plant stand at Meerah’s house.  So, Meerah’s friend is very nice and offered to record the movie for Meerah.  This made me very happy. 

My friend gave me the DVD last night and I was very excited to watch the movie today.  I put the disc into my DVD player (not one that is a plant stand) and pushed play.  Sadly, my friend did not record the funny movie.  Instead, what Meerah saw was sweaty men in a ring hitting each other.  It was not really that funny.  I called my friend and she said, “Oh no!  I must have recorded Ultimate Fighting Champion by mistake.”  I told her it was all right.  I will try to find the movie in the library – or maybe at Walmart.

So, that is my very bad day.  I have been angry, sad, and disappointed.   And I still am a little bit.  If you have a very bad day like Meerah, try saying, “Pppfffppt!”  It helps a little.  Not much, but a little bit. 

If you see my goat puppets, please let me know.

1. It is OK to go through your neighbor’s trash if you call it “recycling.” 
2. It is not OK to serve your neighbors food that has been pulled out of the trash.  (Of course, if you do not tell them where it comes from then . . . maybe?  Probably no.  This has not ever worked for Meerah because her neighbors ask too many questions.  You try it and let Meerah know how it works for you.)
3. Make sure your mittens are fastened securely when checking trash during winter.
4. It is hard to find a goat around here.
5. It is OK to pet the goats at the zoo.
6. It is not OK to take a goat out of the zoo.  (Even if you offer them a good price, the zoo people still will not sell.  Meerah does not undersand such foolishness.)
7. Zookeepers do not haggle well, so they call the people with the carts and loud radios to drive you out of the zoo.
8. If the people with the carts and radios drive you out of the zoo, you cannot get back in.
9. Even if you try climbing over the gate.  (Ppffpt!)
10. Even if the nice lady talks to them.   (Pppffffpt!)
11. Many months later the zoo will send you a letter saying you may come back to visit in 2010.  (Meerah will find her own goat by then.  Silly zoo people.)
12. There are many things you cannot say at swimming lessons. 
13. Walmart has good frozen burritos.
14. Silver Dollar City is a wonderful place.
15. The Silver Dollar City people mean it when they say a ride will make you wet.  (My poncho is now a lovely wearable afghan.)
16. There is a spider who lives in the world-wide-web and eats Meerah’s e-mails.
17. The spider never eats the nice lady’s e-mails, so they must be friends.
18. Sometimes the nice lady’s brain is disturbed.  (But Meerah tries not to mention this too often because it makes the nice lady very upset and that isn’t good for her brain.)
19. The nice lady’s children seem to have normal, undisturbed brains.  This is good, but we don’t talk about it much either because for some reason, this upsets the nice lady too.  Oh well.
20. I hope the nice lady doesn’t read this list.

That is all.  Meerah wishes you all a wonderful new year.

So I am back.  Even though Meerah has been on a break from her book, I have still been very busy.  First, Meerah has a busy recycling schedule.  Many people have asked Meerah to come and go through their trash before it is picked up by the big trucks.  At first, Meerah tried to help everyone who asked, but that . . . Ppffpt.  It was too much.  Meerah has many other things she wishes to do.  So now, I check my neighborhood only and a few special houses.  If others ask, I tell them, “No.  I cannot.”  But, I share with them many ideas for the things they throw out, so maybe they won’t have so much trash always.

Next, Meerah has enjoyed visiting garage sales.  Here I have found many useful items.  Also, I have the chance to practice my haggling skills.  It is not much practice, because the people in the garages are too nice.  A young child in my village would do much better than they, but it is all right.  They have not been taught well, and sadly, Meerah is too busy to train them. 

Meerah has also discovered something called Farmers’ Markets.  These are wonderful places where people sell fruits, vegetables, and many other things outside.  I have visited a few of these, and they remind me of home.  But still I have not yet found my goat.  Meerah would be very sad about this if the nice lady had not distracted me. 

This distraction was a very good thing because Meerah also would be sad about missing the celebration day for the swimming lessons.  It seems that the nice lady tried to call Meerah, but Meerah’s answering machine would not take her message.  Then, the nice lady’s daughter said, “But Mom, the parents at the pool said that she couldn’t . . . “  The nice lady spoke quickly then to invite Meerah to go with her and her children to a wonderful place called Silver Dollar City.  This seemed good to Meerah, even though I was still confused about what the nice lady’s daughter was trying to say.  I also made sure to call my house three times from the nice lady’s place.  When I got home, I had three messages that said this:  “I am checking this machine.  If it does not work, it becomes a plant stand.”  The machine must not want to sit under plants.  Or maybe it is afraid of the nice lady. 

But Meerah does not have time to ponder this mystery because she is going to Silver Dollar City.  The nice lady tells me what to bring and I am waiting for her on my front step two mornings later.  She looks at Meerah strangely and asks if I will be comfortable in the clothes I have chosen.  Knowing that her brain is sometimes disturbed, I tell her, “Yes,” I will be fine in these clothes.  And we go.

We drive for a long time in the nice lady’s car, but that is all right.  Meerah and the nice lady’s children play counting games and letter games.  Sadly, Meerah is not very successful with the letter games.  English is not my first language.  But the children tell me I did very well, and they agreed that “g’s” and “q’s” can be very confusing when passed at high speeds.  Is is so nice to see that the nice lady’s brain problems have not been passed on to her children.  The nice lady did not seem to appreciate this good news, and we spent the rest of the drive listening to music. 

When we arrived at Silver Dollar City, Meerah was amazed.  It is a wonderful place!  It is like a village market on festival days.  There were shops with skilled craftsmen and women, lots of food and music.  There was even a small place for animals – with goats.  But only to pet;  not to buy,  steal or eat.  Meerah knows that now after the trip to the zoo. 

There were even rocks that made music.  That was amazing, and a little scary for Meerah.  I screamed and spit on the nice lady and her children to protect them from the singing rocks.  The nice lady told me the rocks weren’t really singing.  The rocks are attached to speakers.  This was still amazing to me, but I stopped spitting.  It was hot, and I was getting a little dehydrated. 

We walked up and down hills.  Rode many rides that made our stomachs jump up and down, and saw some shows.  It was a nice day; on the way to our hotel, I thanked the nice lady for inviting me.  She seemed pleased until I said that her brain must be getting better.  We listened to music all the way to the hotel.

The next morning we went back to the wonderful Silver Dollar City.  The nice lady said that on this day we would ride the water rides.  Even though I did not know what that meant, I was so excited that I could not sleep.  Meerah was up and ready to go by 5:00 a.m.  The nice lady and her children took a little longer to get ready, but we were still at the park by 9:01 a.m.  Of course, I had to help them by clapping and shouting loudly, “Get up!  Don’t sleep!  The water may be gone when we get there!”  Also, I banged my shoe on the nice lady’s headboard just a little.  

The children started speaking to me again once we got into the park.  The nice lady spoke to me again after our third ride.  I was beginning to worry about her brain again, but I did not say anything.  That ride seemed to have scared her.  She was sitting behind me and had her arms wrapped around my neck.  She did a lot of screaming on that ride.  I tried to, but all that came out was, “Urck!  Graaack!   Ppffppt!” 

After that, all was well.  We rode more rides, visited more shops, and saw the animals again.  Meerah enjoyed it all and learned many, many news things.  First, a ride called “Waterboggan” and wool do not mix.  My poncho will never be the same.  Second, it is not “acceptable” to curse the magician during his show.  I thought it was “interactive”, but the nice lady said, “No.”  Third, the nice lady may suffer periods of intense brain disturbance, but inbetween she can do many kind things.  Also, her children show many signs of not suffering from her health issues.  Fourth, Meerah enjoyed Silver Dollar City very much.  I’ve already found several other uses for my waterlogged poncho.

Also, the nice lady invited Meerah to come with her to her daughter’s swimming lessons.  This sounded like fun to Meerah, so I asked which ponds had flooded.  The nice lady became very upset by this question and told Meerah that question was very insensitive.  It has been a very wet spring and Meerah thought the question was appropriate.  In case of a flood, it is a good idea to know how to swim.  The nice lady just said she would drive Meerah to the lessons and hung up.  So there was no chance to complete the discussion about ponds, floods and swimming.  I am thinking about whether I should be upset with the nice lady or not. 

I decided not to be upset with the nice lady because I remembered her brain is disturbed.  Instead, I was very excited when the nice lady came to pick me up.  When we reached the place for the lessons, Meerah discovered it was not a pond at all, but a pool.  This seemed very good to Meerah because ponds can be very unpredictable.  Sometimes they are full.  Sometimes not.  Sometimes they are flooded.  Sometimes not.  Oh, the nice lady told me to stop talking about floods at the swimming lessons.  She said I was making the parents nervous.  Pfffpt.  What foolishness is this?  But, Meerah is full of sensitivity, so I stopped.

The lessons were very interesting.  Many, many children had come to learn, and there were many teachers there to share their swimming wisdom with those children.  Sadly, Meerah discovered that there was much swimming wisdom the teachers were not sharing with the children.  What foolishness is this?  Not to worry though.  Out of a heart full of sensitivity and kindness, Meerah decided to share her swimming wisdom with all those at the lessons. 

Those at the swimming lessons were not ready for Meerah’s wisdom though.  The nice lady told Meerah to be quiet in her loud voice, and Meerah is not invited back to swimming lessons until the celebration day. 

So here is what Meerah learned at swimming lessons.  Do not say these things:

1.  Why are you bouncing up and down in the water?  You are not a fish.  Stay on top of the water where the air is.

2.  Don’t worry so much about learning to dive.  It is more important to know how to get out of the water than how to get in.

3.  Pay attention to your teachers.  Learn quickly.  The flood is coming!

So this is what I learned.  Swimming lessons were fun.  I hope the celebration day comes soon.  The nice lady would not tell me when it was. 

First we talk about trash.  Just a little bit, then I move on.  Some of my neighbors have decided it is OK for Meerah to go through their trash.  Apparently I am not “creepy” or “scary” anymore – now I am recycling.  I had no idea.  The nice lady said my neigbors are catching up with the times and being more “earth friendly.”  I say the goat-milk, blueberry muffins are working.  They are very good.  Everyone asks what makes them so delicious, but Meerah never tells.  (OK, I will tell here, but don’t let anyone else know.  I add a teeny-tiny bit of powdered hoof, goat works best.  There are special spices too, but the old lady at the market growls when you ask what is in the bag.)

Now, we talk about Meerah’s book.  It is not going well. 

Next, we talk about goats.  Meerah is still searching for the perfect one, but I have learned to be content in the meantime with goat’s milk and other products I can find in the markets.  I bought a nice rug at Wal-mart that I am sure has some goat hair in it.  The contents list did not say goat hair specifically, but Meerah can tell it’s in there. 

So, we move on to other things now . . . What?  You wish to know more about Meerah’s book?  No, I am sorry.  It is just too painful.  We will talk about something else.  There are many things for Meerah to share . . . Still, you wish to know about the book?  All right.  Such concern and dedication, Meerah cannot refuse.

My book is not dead yet, but I think the nice lady is trying to kill it.  Meerah types and sends an e-mail to the nice lady.  The nice lady types many changes over Meerah’s work and sends an e-mail back.  Meerah calls the nice lady and says, “Pfffpt!”  The nice lady says her changes are good.  Meerah types some more and sends another e-mail, this time putting pfffpt in the subject line.  The nice lady makes more changes and sends the e-mail back.  Meerah refuses to type any more messages to the nice lady, so the nice lady calls.  At this point, the phone calls fly back and forth.  They usually end with a discussion of the nice lady’s health and the disordered state of her brain.  The last time this happened, the nice lady yelled, “Pfffpt!” and hung up on Meerah. 

That was very rude, but Meerah is full of forgiveness as well as wisdom.  So we are speaking again, but not e-mailing.  (I think the spider who lives in the world-wide-web infects those e-mails and causes our disagreements.  I do not know if there is a spider who lives in the phone, but I would not be surprised.)  Also, we have decided not to work on Meerah’s book for a little while.  It is for the best.  Meerah is still a little concerned about the nice lady’s brain.              

The nice lady is helping Meerah with her book.  So I am typing and sending my widsom to her in the e-mail.  This is a good thing some of the time.  I type and save and put the wisdom I have typed into the e-mail and send it out into the world-wide-web.  Meerah is convinced it is a web now and not a nest, because sometimes the e-mail does not reach the nice lady.  The spider who lives in the world-wide-web must eat those e-mails. 

But the spider is not hungry all the time, so the nice lady gets some of the e-mail.  Then she reads Meerah’s wisdom, types suggestions for Meerah and sends it all back in an e-mail.  Somehow, the spider never eats her e-mails. 

The nice lady has many suggestions for how Meerah should type her wisdom.  Some of them Meerah likes and some I do not.  The nice lady thinks Meerah should not type so much about goats.  What foolishness is this?  She also does not like my typing about trash.  And the wisdom I wish to share about families she said would not be “relative” to our “target audience.”  Meerah cannot find enough words to answer such foolishness.  Does the nice lady not understand that families are relatives?  And what kind of fool would put a target into an audience?  Someone could get hurt that way!  Pfffpt. 

Pffffppt.  I say it again . . . the nice lady’s brain must be disturbed.

The nice lady and I have our disagreement.  She still says that her brain is not disturbed.  I tell her I am not so sure, and I hope the spider eats her e-mail.  She says maybe we need to take a break from Meerah’s book.  I tell her maybe she needs to write her own book.  She does not have any words after this, but I hear her counting softly.  She counts for a long time.  I begin to think she is counting something important, so I join her.  At 378, I get bored and stop.  She continues for a little longer, then asks if Meerah would like to visit the zoo.  This sounds better than disagreeing with the nice lady or sending out e-mail to be eaten by the spider, so I say, “Yes.”

The zoo is a great place.  Meerah went with the nice lady, her children and some other people.  The nice lady called it a field trip, but I thought the zoo was more concrete than field.  That did not seem to bother the animals though.  Meerah enjoyed seeing all the animals, especially the ones you could touch.  That part was like home with chickens, pigs, sheep and goats.  Meerah was so excited to see the goats!  I went into the pen to look at them closely.  I picked out one to take home, but a man from the zoo stopped me.  I thought he was trying to get a better price from me for the goat, but it turns out that goat was not for sale.  None of the animals at the zoo were for sale!  This was a surprise to Meerah.  

I tried to reason with the man from the zoo, but he would not listen to any talk of buying or selling the goats or any of the other animals.  Some more people from the zoo came and Meerah tried to speak with them about the benefits of selling some of the animals – especially since they had so many and in such good condition.  I told them that at my home, in the market, many of the goats, chickens, and sheep would be much sought after.  The nice lady interrupted then and pulled Meerah away to look at elephants.  When we left, she told me the zoo people asked that Meerah wait awhile before visiting again.  

I am OK with that.  Meerah needs time to work on her bargaining.  Next time I go – I’m leaving with a goat!  

If you would like Meerah to visit your neighborhood and go through your trash, please send specific directions!  (The nice lady tries, but she is not much help with this problem.  I almost think she does not want Meerah to find these fantastic places.)

Meerah has also been busy typing more of her wisdom.  The nice lady asked to see some chapters for Meerah’s book.  I asked her why she should get to read them before everyone else?  Perhaps she does not wish to pay?  The nice lady started to breathe heavily when I asked her these things.  I was worried that her health problem had returned, so I hung up quickly to give her time to sit down before she died. 

Happily, she did not die.  She called back quickly to explain to Meerah why she wanted to see the chapters for Meerah’s book.  I told her it was not necessary to explain because I understand.  If you are going to die soon, why would you want to pay for books, even books as full of wisdom as Meerah’s?  After this, I could hear the lady counting softly.  I did not hang up because suddenly, it all made sense to Meerah.  The nice lady is not dying – her brain is disturbed.  I told her I would find her a goat and hung up.

Much later, the nice lady called again.  This time she spoke very fast and told Meerah about editors and publishers and the many things that must happen before a book gets to the store with a sticker on it for $19.95.  Meerah did not understand much of what she said, but I stayed on the phone.  I did not want to make her more disturbed.

So Meerah has been typing.  And e-mailing.  And talking on the phone with the nice lady.  The nice lady has many suggestions for how Meerah should type her wisdom.  I asked her many times if she has considered writing her own book.  (This is not a possibility, I know, because her brain is disturbed, but it might give her something to do.)  She always says, no, she is happy helping Meerah. 

I need to find her a goat . . . soon. 

First, the good news.  My other mitten is found!  Meerah is so excited about this.  Though my hand thawed out over the weekend, it got very cold again and I went to check my neighbors’ trash with very chilly fingers. 

 Imagine my happiness when three houses down the street I discovered my mitten.  The neighbors in this house put their trash in a large, rubber container with wheels.  It is very sturdy with a heavy-duty lid that latches securely.  Meerah can see the advantages of this kind of container.  It would keep dogs and other pests out of your trash, and now that Meerah knows how to open this type of container, I can very quickly open it to see if it holds any useful items.

But back to my mitten and my happiness at finding it.  These neighbors with their trash on wheels, put my mitten in a sealed plastic bag on top of their container.  In the bag was a little note, which said:

Meerah,

Here is your mitten.  We found it in our driveway last week.  We thought it might be yours, but asked around the street just to be sure.  Please stop going through our trash.  It was cute at first, but now it’s just creepy.

Sincerely,

 The H’s

PS – Also, please stop giving us recipes for preparing dogs, cats and rabbits.  The animals you see in our backyard are our pets – not our dinner!  Thank you.

Do you see why Meerah was so happy?  My mitten was returned.  My neighbors are so kind, if a little bit crazy.  You should see the things they throw out – every week.  A couple times I thought about sharing with them the many uses I have found for the items they throw out, but I did not.  Perhaps it was good that I did not, because you can see in the note they left me how proud and stubborn they are.  They would not appreciate Meerah’s help.  I gave them my best recipes too!

I had little time to ponder my neighbor’s strange behavior and attitudes because after quickly checking their trash (sadly, for the last time), I discovered something even stranger at my next neighbor’s house.  In front of their tightly-knotted, black trash bags was a slim wooden post, and on that post was a small red sign that said:  STOP GOING THROUGH OUR TRASH, MEERAH! 

I was shocked and slightly angry.  I was so upset I did not even check their trash.  Moving on to other houses on the street I found many other signs and notes asking me not to check the trash.  One house even had a picture of me checking their trash the week before.  They put this picture on their trash container on wheels with a big X drawn through it, then they wrote on it:  MEERAH, NO!

It was a very puzzling and unprofitable trash day.  And the tiny bit of bad news is that Meerah discovered many of her neighbors are crazy.  This is not good.  But Meerah is still happy about finding my mitten.  This is very good.  Maybe I will ask the nice lady about the crazy neighbors.  She might have some suggestions for Meerah.

Maybe the first crazy neighbors would like some recipes for preparing goat. 

At first Meerah did not even know about these trash days.  Any trash that I had was taken care of in my firepit.  It is so hard to get good goat dung around here.  I do not wish to complain, so I make do with cardboad boxes and paper wrappers.  Once I found some nice, small pieces of wood.  They fit perfectly into my firepit and burned very nicely.  This worked very well for cooking and taking care of my trash until my neighbor moved his woodpile to the other side of his yard.  That’s when the nice lady told me about trash day. 

Apparently, you pay some men with a truck to come pick up your trash.  This seems very foolish to Meerah and I told the nice lady I would just keep burning my trash in the firepit.  Then she told me that some of my neighbors had complained about the trash burning in my firepit.  Something about a smell and missing wood . . . much nonsense.  Meerah told the nice lady that there was no smell since I had not been able to find any goat dung.  And as for wood going missing . . . Pfffpt.  I know nothing about that. 

So now Meerah must pay the men with the truck to pick up her trash.  The nice lady set it all up for me and told me to have my trash in plastic bags by the road early in the morning.  She did not tell me what kind of plastic bags to use.  The men with the truck looked angry when they had to pick up 35 plastic shopping bags full of trash from my yard.  I did not want to bother the nice lady again, so the next week I watched when my neighbors put out their trash and saw what kind of bags they use.

I went up and down the street checking my neighbors’ trash to make sure Meerah knew exactly what kind of bag to use and what to put in it.  For some reason, the men with the truck did not want to pick up all of my trash.  One man picked up a bag and threw it down quickly when he saw what was inside.  He and the other man talked vigorously for a long time with many gestures, before they went together to pick up the bag with a stick and throw it in the truck.

So I examine my neighbors’ trash, and while doing that discover something wonderful.  My neighbors will throw away anything!  Meerah came away with a lovely chair, three t-shirts and a machine for making bread.  This was so exciting to Meerah that I decided to check my neighbors’ trash every week.  And that is what I was doing yesterday.  It was very cold, so I wore my heavy coat and both mittens.  I checked all the trash up and down my street and came back with a big armload of very nice and useful items.  The machine for playing DVD’s will make a nice coaster and stand for my breadmaker flowerpot.

But when I got home and began looking for places to put my new things, I could not find one of my mittens.  I looked everywhere inside and outside, but could not find it.  Maybe next trash day someone will throw out a mitten or an old sock. 

Maybe someone will throw out a goat.  

Meerah can hardly wait until the next trash day.