Category Archives: Not Green

Finally Bike Somewhere Day

Well, this week (May 16-20) was Bike-to-Work Week and today was Bike-to-Work Day.  Since I am usually off on Fridays, I celebrated this day last year by biking to work with Matthew, with a stop at one of Trailnet’s refueling stations.

No such luck this year, which found me headed to work (in the car) at the crack of dawn.  In fact, I spent an inordinate amount of time driving to and for work this week, a grand total of 368 miles.  Ugh.  (My normal baseline, of commuting to/from work four days a week with no extra driving is 128 miles.)

Exhausted from the marathon of a week, I seriously considered taking the bus to meet Matthew and his dad for lunch today.  The midday sun and heat, and threat of rain, weren’t making biking any more appealing, but I pulled BUB out anyway, and we had a lovely little ride.  BUB snuggled with Matt’s bike while we ate lunch at Gokul, a vegetarian Indian restaurant (their new location in The Loop).  It was not as good as the Indian restaurant in Rome*, but not bad, and I managed to avoid overdoing it and making myself uncomfortable (it’s a buffet).

On the way home, I swung by City Greens (which would have been much less convenient sans bike) and picked up some eggs for the week, as well as some ‘shrooms.  They had lots of various lettuces for sale, too, but we have tons of that in our garden now.  The eggs made it home safe and sound, at which point I enjoyed a much needed nap!  One challenging week down, one challenging weekend to go (but not this one, thankfully).

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*Hmm, I was going to link to my post where I mentioned the restaurant in Rome, but apparently that post doesn’t exist.  Trip coverage here has been woefully inadequate 😦

In case the environmental impact of the flight itself weren’t enough

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, which is great, because I really don’t want to waste brain power writing much about the airplane “meals.”  In short, the tray contained as much plastic as food, and that’s being generous and not putting any of the food in the plastic category.  The flight attendant was quite annoyed when I insisted on returning the plastic wrapped plastic utensils and the bottled water.

Fortunately, the food did get better after this, though it was not always amazing, and I was not pleased with the scarcity of whole grains and vegetables throughout the trip.  Suffice it to say that I am very glad to be back in the kitchen!

Between the ridiculous amount of plastic waste involved and the uninspiring food, we passed on the meals altogether on the return flight, opting instead for the pizza we purchased the night before.

More effective than caffeine for getting my blood pumping

Sometimes I hear something on the radio that makes me want to pick it up and throw it across the room, something that makes my blood  boil.  Of course, the news that encourages such behavior is not the radio’s fault — it’s just the messenger.

Case in point from listening to NPR yesterday morning, news that Republicans are reversing the green initiatives in the Congress building.  According to a brief NPR report, and this source, House Speaker John Boehner tweeted “The new majority – plasticware is back,” in reference to plastic utensils replacing biodegradable utensils in the building’s cafeteria.

(The fact that the “green initiatives,” put in place under the Democrat-controlled House, still used a form of disposable utensils, albeit biodegradable, is a whole issue unto itself.)

Anyway, in the name of good investigative reporting, I went to Speaker Boehner’s Twitter feed, and did not find said tweet.  Did he (or his handlers) realize that such a comment could be a PR disaster and retract it?  Was it never said?

Regardless of what was or was not tweeted, the party now in control of the U.S. House of Representatives is demonstrating their ignorance and blatant disregard for the earth.  These are the people who are leading our country.  And I can’t blame the radio.

In which a crazy pregnant lady goes dumpster diving

It all started out innocently enough.  With the warmer temps, I spent some time cleaning our sun porch on Friday in preparation for being able to use it again soon.

In the process of breaking down a cardboard box for recycling, I pulled off the packing tape, and since I was already outside on my way to the recycling bin at that point, I decided to put the tape directly into the trash dumpster.  I opened the dumpster lid and saw a bunch of brand new looking books.

Unable to just close the lid and go on with my life knowing that some perfectly good books were headed for the landfill, I started pulling them out and piling them on top of the dumpster.

I found about 20 middle school teachers’ guide math texts that looked like they’d never been used.  In the dumpster!  I was tempted to just leave the books piled on top of or next to the dumpster and hope that someone would come along and rescue them, but, realistically, people only tend to pick up furniture and other large objects.

If I left them there, they would probably just sit and end up getting water damage from rain, and then they really would be trash. So I brought them inside in two huge armfuls, found a box in the basement as a temporary home, and posted them on ReUseItStLouis (formerly known as FreeCycle).

They had not generated much interest by Saturday, when I made the mistake of visiting the dumpster again (with another small trash item).  Guess what?  More books!  Same topic and condition as the books from Friday — clearly the same culprit.

My shoulders sagged in defeat.  I could (and did) pull out these books, but this is one dumpster, in one alley, in one city, and I’m one person.  Every day, all across our country, perfectly good and usable items, like these books, get sent to the landfill.

I understand that taking the time to find new homes for items we no longer want does require some effort and can be frustrating, we just went through it with our couch, but taking the time and effort is part of being a responsible consumer.

In this case, the books I rescued would be perfect for a math tutor or a family that home schools.  While this story is not finished yet, I received two emails about the books, including one from a person who seemed very interested.  If all goes well, the books may have a new home by the end of the day, which would turn my distressed expression in the photo into a smile.

MP3 player — to buy or not to buy?

That is the question that I’ve been pondering for months.  Months turned into years, and I do not own an MP3 player.  Since I made it through all this pondering time without one, I obviously don’t NEED one.

So why am I considering purchasing an unnecessary THING in the first place?

I have the special inability to do anything other than sit and stare straight ahead when I am in any kind of moving vehicle, be it a car, bus, train, or airplane — no reading, no crossword puzzles, no movie watching — I can carry on a conversation, but I won’t turn my head to look at you while doing so.   That’s correct, my motion sickness is so sensitive that I can’t even read on airplanes.

Fortunately, I don’t spend much time on airplanes (as flying is almost always the least green transportation choice), but a flight in my future always brings up the MP3 player subject.  Now I’m about to make a trans-Atlantic journey, the longest flight of my life, and while I hope to spend a good chunk of that time sleeping, some form of entertainment might be nice, not to mention possibly having a calming effect on my unmedicated self.  (I usually take Dramamine when I fly, which I won’t be using this time due to the pregnancy.)

So what do I have against MP3 players?

An MP3 player is just another THING, engineered, like most things these days, for planned obsolescence.  Most articles tell you not to worry about the non-replaceable battery wearing out, because the battery will last 2-3 years, and by then, you’ll “need” a new player anyway.  Strangely, this reasoning fails to comfort me 😦

Aside from lengthy trips (of which I don’t take many), I don’t know that I would use an MP3 player all that much, which makes it hard to justify the purchase, both in terms of environmental impact and the impact on my wallet.

Well, writing thoughts down can be a great way to take a new look at an issue and find new solutions.  Now I see that maybe “buy” or “don’t buy” aren’t my only options here.  Since I want to use an MP3 player for a specified, finite period, borrowing one would be ideal.

Do you have an MP3 player you want to lend me for a couple of weeks?