trying to do my part

Today is Blog Action Day, as I posted in the video before. I've struggled with what to write since joining on, but made the commitment in order to force myself to come up with something. I don't consider myself a great environmentalist or 'granola' type person by any means, but living in Texas it doesn't take much to sound like a broken 'liberal-tree hugger' record. I attempt to buy recycled, take my reusable shopping bags to the store, recycle and reuse as much as I can.
I haven't researched into all the ways that climate change is really affecting me, but wanting to take care of the earth has just always been a part of me. When I was a child it was my responsibility to crush the coke cans and when the bags got full, mom or dad would take me to the collection place and I'd get my couple dollars. I don't know if we started this tradition as a young lesson in earning money or saving the planet. But, it worked as both. I don't recycle to make money anymore but just to be a better steward of my world.
What I struggle the most with now is buying organic, recycled, etc good for the planet products (I've not yet figured out how to go cold-turkey on consuming, though I've made cut backs) because they're often more expensive. As I've entered the stage of living paycheck to paycheck and even to credit card when the banks are empty it is hard to buy in a climate conscious manner. I was pleased just yesterday to find a package of four 100% recycled material AC filters for 2.98 when just 1 filter ran up to 4.98.
So, my blog action post today is not filled with any great scientific knowledge or leads on good products or great call to action. It is simply the average 20-something, living in partnership, trying to make it in the world and do my little part at the same time. So, I challenge you to take the extra moment to put the can, cardboard, empty cereal box in the recycling container. Take the extra moment to compare the product you're buying with environmentally friendly equivalents. Take the step to spend a little more now that will save you in the long run, like a better light bulb, when your air conditioner breaks or the fridge stops cooling-replace your appliances with EnergyStar and the like. Buy the 4 pack of 100% recycled AC filter. There are so many better options out there today..easy to find..the packaging is usually GREEN. Buy a whole pineapple instead of a pre-cut pineapple to avoid consumption and trash from the plastic container. Say NO to Plastic or Paper and bring your own reusable bags. If we each make some simple changes on our own, we'll make a global difference together.

Blog Action Day 2009

Holy Weekend

This morning started with dark skies and just a few rain drops. Raindrops like bittersweet tear drops of that which must happen, which in the end will be good, but at the time just seems bad. The day cleared and then came the smoke. As the afternoon went on our skies turned grey, then orange as the sunset, though the sun no longer shone. Just thick smoke and the smell of burning and ash. Not the good smell of when fire places start up in late fall as the weather turns cold, but that of devastation. Warnings to close your windows and keep your asthmatic kids inside.
All this in the midst of Holy Week. I sat in our service tonight a combined experience of the last supper and the 7 last words and heard with new visions the reading of that moment when Christ breathed his last and the skies went dark for three hours. The depth and sacrifice hits a new level tonight as I see the images of devastation and remember that smell and orange sky of this afternoon. How different it is for me to feel this darkness and know that not just Sunday, but Easter is coming. That there will be resolution/resurrection. But, what about the whole communities that burnt to the ground today? Not just a single home, but a whole town burned. A community that will have to scatter just like the community Jesus built scattered upon his death. I can't imagine anything was ever the same after that night. Nothing for these communities will ever be the same. But, what happens for them on Sunday? Will their days go dark for three days and then resurrection? Will Ty and his Extreme Makeover come in and rebuild entire towns?
I am even more grateful in this Holy season and this Holy Week that not just this Sunday but every week there is an Easter. There will always be the resurrection for me. My prayer is that in the next days that will be so dark for some they find hope. Hope in tomorrow's full moon. Hope in the rains that will come Saturday. Hope in the Sonrise on Sunday.

Violent squirrels

I would like to know where they passivist squirrels are hiding out and how to get them to move into my neighborhood. I'm not home much, but when I do pull in I'm welcomed by a bombing of pecan shells from above. I don't believe they are simply falling, but coming down at such a force that something (like a feisty squirrel) must have propelled them. First, I am thrilled that a Pecan tree is going to drop its lovely bearings on my front steps and cannot wait for them to be ripe. However, getting from my truck to my front door has become a bit dangerous. I have wondered if they drop all the time and I'm imaging little vengeful squirrels stock piling shells all day then barraging me with them as I dash up the steps. There is a definite Disney Chip n' Dale episode that has given me the fuel to imagine scheming squirrels firing down rains of pecans on innocent me (or Donald Duck). So, today I'm home. I sit on my couch, typing away at the computer and looking out my window to the Pecan Tree and firing area in question. I am not hearing the patter of shells hitting the deck and vehicles below. Why are these squirrels so angry? What have I done? They have plenty of food in the boughs of the great pecan tree. TCU had squirrels like these too. I wonder if they're just equipped with a good shell pitching arm or if they train?

when ike grazed dallas

I was building a house. We were loading and raising trusses (the triangles that sit on top of the walls to form the roof) to be exact. I was mentally prepared for some pretty intense wind and rain, so what we did get really didn't seem so bad. Don't get me wrong, its was gusty standing on the wet framed walls holding up trusses and nailing them in. I think it is good for people to get out in a little inclement weather. In some ways I even prefer today to a hot and sunny summer scorcher. A lot of mud and water and I didn't even melt..mom has some explaining to do. I also kept thinking how ironic it was that I spent eight hours building a house in the midst of a storm that was simultaneously destroying so many.

The recorded history of the planet Earth!

"It was a full nine degrees hotter in Oakland than it has ever been on any May 15 in the recorded history of planet Earth, the weather service said." says the SFChronicle. I have been critiqued for writing papers that read like I cut and paste, but this article is a beauty in the area of lack of transitions. Its like it gets a little hot and we are only able to report in one-liners.

Earth Hour

Join in tonight from 8-9pm your time. Turn off the lights, the computer, may be even unplug all those little things on standby power.