Earth Day holds a pretty special place in my heart for a couple of reasons. The obvious would be, it is a day to get my act together, do what I can for Mother Earth and attempt to recycle or clean or live "green"er than I have for the previous year.
Its part of my history actually. My uncle has always as long as I can remember been an embracer of environmental issues. Since his hippie days. And he is right, all along. I remember being a little girl maybe about 7 or 8 and going to his office for something and there was a poster on the wall slamming James Watt (I remember it to this day, I did have to insert the "g" into his name to not confuse him with the other James Watt that invented the steam engine... how about that for weird). It said something like "Watt is Wrong" or "Watt's Wrong" or something to the effect. Then Watt went on to the Regan Administration, go 'fig. My uncle always was a big proponent of Solar Power and Solar Energy and talked about the environment sliding down hill for as long as I remember.
Once compact fluorescent were readily available on the market I switched out almost all my bulbs. Big deal I know. I don't leave lights on in every room, I use dimmers (thank you Bro for the X10 remote system), I upgraded my furnace (ok, again... thank you Bro), I try as hard as I can to be efficient. I won't go to the extreme that some people do (um does the idea of grey water freak anyone else out like me?) but I try. I don't recycle, I know that I should. I really know that I should. So instead I try and use less of what ever it is or reuse. I have about 100 glass jars under my kitchen sink waiting for use. I am going to bag those up and take them out for recycling at the bin at my Mom's house, we don't have a company at my condo complex (they won't even consider it) because they are really just taking up space.
I decided yesterday that I would label all my plugs so that I would know what could legitimately be unplugged and left unplugged until I needed to use it. I found three radios with clocks that I don't use at all regularly, but keep because they have cd players which is a nice feature but do have clocks which are not necessary, unpluggie... I have an espresso maker plugged in which used power but I don't regularly use, so unpluggie... I unplugged my dvd players and vcrs since I don't have any shows programmed for recording (thank you Steevoh)...unpluggie, I have my cell phone charger set up in the car now, unplugged my lcd stick lamp thingie (it has a conversion box on it) and put lamps, printers, my monitor, cable internet modem, camera charger's and bases, and ipod charger on a power strip that I can turn on when I need to utilize it, or because the plug is labeled I can plug it into the powerstrip that is left on...I might though move my monitor plug to the other power strip which has the cpu on it, just for simplicity and unplug it when I know I will go 24 hours without using it. I adjusted my computer sleep mode (and it was really weird not hearing my cpu fan when I went to bed I have to be honest, and I slept like poop because of it). I haven't used my dishwasher in months, since I don't eat at home, I can hand wash a plate and let it air dry. I haven't let water run while brushing my teeth since Bill Cosby made fun of Vanessa back in the 80s. Its all about baby steps.
I opened a savings account Friday so I can save and get a new fridge, the one that I have now is over 20 years old and I am sure big time energy sucker. I want one with an automatic ice maker bad. So I have my account all set up and when I get enough money put aside from the interest I will get a fridge. It could either be quick or slow depending on how much I keep in there. I am living uber cheap now.
Also because I am not buying actual groceries and am eating out every stinken night (which isn't as fun as it sounds) I am going to start bringing in my own takeout containers to dinners out. I have 100s of them laying about the house, ok that is an exaggeration, maybe like 10, but its enough to pack my leftovers in. I did it last night and my Mom gave me "the look"... the patented "you so crazy and I don't know you" Jewish mother look. Too bad. I don't want to have to fill my garbage with Styrofoam containers. Its always pissed me off that I have to use them, you can't cut into your food and if you want to do that you need to dirty up a plate... so Ziploc brand it is baby. I never eat everything anyways and I am more prone to bring in a plastic reusable container to stick in the nasty that is the office fridge than some Styrofoam white container that doesn't stay closed. Let people look at me like I am some freak, I don't care, I also can make sure that I don't get sneezers from some waitress before she hands me the box. I know where my container has been. I know nutty as hell, but it does concern me a little bit, I mean I did wait tables for years, I know what can happen (it can be pretty damn gross and I can share maybe but that's another story for another time).
But the reason why honestly I will never ever ever forget Earth Day or April 22nd... I finally finally after 8 years of on and off again semi-relationship crap with the Dybbyck oh those many years ago, finally got the cajones' to end the relationship once and for all. No sad emotional breakdown, no tears, I had spent all day on campus partying drinking free Student Government (those were the days...) beer, went to his parents house (he was house sitting), drank a soda and just got up, after starting to watch a movie that I didn't want to see (I really honestly can even remember the movie), said goodbye, thanked him for the diet coke, walked out the door of his parents bedroom, walked down the stairs and out the front door. It was GLORIOUS. I will never forget it for the rest of my life.
I have only seen him twice since then. I doubt very much he even remembers anything, outside of my shaving his head maybe or maybe some other stuff, but honestly what I remember the best about him was walking away. It is a good memory for a pretty good day.
What have you done to try and live the Earth Day motto?
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