Earth Hour

Earth Hour will be here in one hour and twenty minutes. As I type the beautiful late afternoon sun that was shining in as I began wanes over my left shoulder. The light from the laptop screen is sufficient for typing. The furnace is running, because I have simply reached a point where I am so tired of being cold that I have decided to be warm. Not in keeping with Earth Hour, but there it is.

For decades I have lived frugally, partly out of commitment, primarily from necessity. Disability impoverishes people because of the weird health care system that we have and the lack of access for those who are disabled unless they are willing to submit themselves to the indignity of institutionalized poverty that is our so-called benefit system.

I think that I might be happier with Earth Hour if those who invented it would link the over use of energy (and perhaps other resources) to the rising costs of these things and the effects that has on the lives of those who are poor, including those who are made falsely dependent because of government benefit programs that are really forms of entrapment.

Nevertheless, I will put the heat back a degree or two for the requisite hour; turn on only the most necessary lights (as I do anyway) and power down the laptop. The television, that gobbler of energy, can stay off for this evening and I will work at the other computer. I will be grateful for my blessings and that I can join in this symbolic effort.

In addition to conserving energy, I believe that we need much greater and systemic economic change in this country. The Fall will arrive all too quickly--with cold weather again and higher energy needs. Let's join together to see if we can do more than just symbolic moments to make Earth livable for everyone; to eliminate poverty not only in the Third World but in our own country as well.

Monday again

Thanksgiving can't be over so soon! How did this happen? It was, of course, a week early this year. Still it does seem to have gone by too quickly.

I am still reinventing my desktop computer. It came back to me with no anti-virus or free firewall or free anti-spyware software. Hard to believe! Probably they just got tired of it. Still it makes for more work for me... Reinventing the dsl is also turning out to be a pain, but hopefully perseverance will pay off. I am learning more than I ever wanted to know about how the computer works! Not the first time. If only I had known to set a restore point before fooling with the software a few Saturdays ago, I would not be missing the controller for the cd-dvd drive on the laptop. Life would be so much easier! Why can't I make it easier?

I do seem to have a propensity for making things more difficult for myself. It would be good, now that I am officially old, to overcome this. Serious work ahead!

As I watched the news this weekend, I was struck by the incredible waste of energy poured into "Black Friday". Is it really necessary to have everything open, running full steam, lights blazing in the middle of the night in order to have good economic forecasts? We are a nation concerned about global warning. Or are we? The energy blitz of the this shopping frenzy certainly didn't show it. Gasoline is more expensive than ever, so there were people with their headlines on (of course, it was the middle of the night after all) circling the parking lots looking for a space, while helicopters flew overhead documenting it all for the news programs.

The same news programs showed the gridlock on Wednesday of people fleeing the Bay Area to drive somewhere else for Thanksgiving. (These were the people who weren't, presumably, going to shop on Friday. Maybe they shopped elsewhere and brought their bargains back with them, weighing down their vehicles and getting even poorer mileage.) More people than ever flew somewhere for Thanksgiving. Wouldn't it have been more sensible to give thanks in place? Wouldn't the Turkey and the trimmings taste just as good without all the travel?

We are almost six years into a war that most of us do not support, but that is costing us every day. At some point we do have to pay for it. Some effort to truly conserve energy would help a great deal, I think. If everyone would drive less it might show up in the demand at the pump and prices, if they didn't fall, would at least hold steady for a bit. We are paying more for everything that has to be transported, probably even the presents so eagerly purchased last week. We need a national time of reflection on more of this, but instead we are going to have a national spending frenzy to try to bolster a weak economy and stave off recession. In addition, we will have election primaries held too early, so that none of the real reflection and debate will occur--just the cosmetic, surface stuff of the elections as usual.

Well, that is enough rant for one day! Time for another cup of coffee!

Giving Thanks

On this day before Thanksgiving I am reflecting on my blessings. Today is a cold day, colder than the preceding ones with a touch of winter in the air and in the chill from the floor under my feet.

I am grateful for

The furnace which is doing its best to warm my house.

Wool socks. A trick I learned from a friend the first year that I was a graduate student in Chicago ("and the weather today is cold, 10 degrees colder by the lake"). Wear two pairs of socks. Make sure that at least one of them is wool. It is better if they both are wool. This makes a difference inside too, especially if you are sedentary. A hat helps too, so I wear a knitted hat indoors even when I am sleeping. The goal is not only to spend less on heat, but to leave a smaller footprint on the earth. It really does make a difference, for I can set the thermostat two degrees lower than I would need to otherwise.

Space heaters. They help heat one room at a time so that I don't have to heat the whole house for just me as I move through the day from room to room.

Back yard garbage service. A service of my local garbage company. They come in, take out the cans, and bring them back in empty. A service for disabled and elderly people. My doctor was only too happy to write the note signing me up for this service. As I write this, I hear them outside coming and going for today is our recycle day as well.

My friend who brought Thanksgiving dinner early as lunch yesterday. Yummy food and beautiful fellowship. Thank you, F.

The eggnog, which I actually kept in the fridge since last Friday. That is also something to be thankful for. That I didn't just slurp it up over the weekend and have nothing left with which to celebrate! Gratitude for patience maybe?

The companies that deliver packages as I anticipate more goodies for my small business. Some should come today.

Computer technology! I am not a geek, but the number of hours I spend on this thing is amazing.
How many more things will I think of before tomorrow? I will try to keep track and post more.