I was thinking yesterday that I'm more than likely never going to be one of those people who can make a huge difference in the world - the kind you read about in awe of in magazines and on Oprah. I'm not going to go some refugee country to help (scared of dying, scared of bugs, scared of running out of lotion, scared of lack of undereye concealer); I'm not going to give all the comforts of my American consumers lifestyle; I'm not going to sacrifice and shower every other day; etc. I'm just not that person, even if I admire the traits in other people. Given that, I still would like to be a more conscientious citizen. Therefore, I have decided to come up with 5 ways that I can be slightly less of a resource hog on the environment and stick to it. I have three so far. I can come up with a ton of different ways that I'm wasteful, but I truly want to stick to whatever I commit to, so I have to be sure I pick things I am fairly confident I can stick to. Here are my small three things so far:
1. No more hot wash cloths for washing my face. One down side of having our bedroom on the top floor and having the hot water heater in the basement is that it takes a long time for the hot water to reach the upstairs. I cannot take cold showers, so I must let the water run before getting in the shower. I also like washing my face with hot water. Unfortunately, that means I have to run the water for what seems like forever every night when I wash my face. Starting today, I will not do this. I'll just have to wash my face with cold water.
2. I'm going to see how long I can make it before turning on the air conditioning. This one will actually impact D more because I'm 99% sure I could make it all summer with no air conditioning. I love heat and despise air conditioning except for the first 10 minutes when coming in out of the heat. Anyway, this means I'll have to open the windows at night. To some people, this seems normal. Somewhere along the way, I got all messed up and it seems very weird to me to have windows open. Anyway, we did this last night when the house heated up and it worked nicely for the evening. I know I could go without it during the day, but the question is whether D can handle it at night because I know it takes a lot more energy if you're always turning it on and off vs just letting it run all the time. We'll see. But I'm going to do my best.
3. No more using the jets in the whirlpool tub. How does this help anything you ask? Well, I found out at xmas what everyone else probably already knew: when you have a whirlpool tub, you have to clean out the jets in a very particular manner to avoid getting all sorts of icky bacteria build up that can cause issues. My almost-step-mother-in-law told me this is why she didn't get a whirlpool tub in her house. Well, I put off actually doing this cleaning until this month (I don't use the tub much, so it's not that gross ... and I cleaned the tub, just not the jets). Anyway, I look up what it takes to clean the jets and you have to fill the entire tub with hot water, then add some Cascade and bleach and run the jets for 15 minutes. Then you empty the tub and fill it AGAIN with cold water and run the jets. You're supposed to do this twice a month! So, in order to have the luxury of taking a bath (I consider it that because when I do it, it's at night and not so much to clean as to relax... I've already showered for the day), I not only waste the tub water that I sit in, but then I have to clean it with two tubs of water. I can't possibly justify that. I need to do research to see if the bacteria still builds up if you don't actually use the jets. That would be a nice compromise.
I'm still thinking of 4 and 5.
Turtle did just fine on our walk again today, so the other day must have been a fluke. Let's hope so!
I know what you mean about being an 'Oprah' person vs. being a normal person. I will definitely never be an 'Oprah' person. It rather annoys me, actually, that people like Angelina Jolie are lauded for their humanitarian efforts and voted 'most beautiful woman in the world', etc. On the one hand, she could just be like Paris Hilton and do nothing for other people. On the other hand, she is able to do what she does because she has starred in a lot of entertaining but shallow movies. I mean, if I was a multimillionaire, I would probably be starting schools in Africa too. But people who just work hard aren't appreciated very much. Okay, so I'm personally very bitter about work right now. But I think these oprah notables are rather overrated and I wish we'd get to see more stories about every day types who help other people.
ReplyDeleteI'm not so bothered with the whole praise given to the Angelina Jolie's, mainly because Paris Hilton's exist. If you're going to get paid obscene amounts of money to act and be famous, then least you can do is use your fame to draw attention to worthy causes. I guess it's about accepting that we all play different roles - MB's a doctor, VM helps people find homes and then sends them candy to thank them (rocking!), RG is the WBPM (world's best project manager), and I blog lots of text to give really bored people at work something to read (oh, and I walk my dogs). :)
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