Earth Day

It's Earth Day today and, around our house, we've been trying to observe Earth Week all week thanks to the relentless prodding of our energy watchdog Carter.

You'd think someone like me, with a gene pool inclination to save everything, would be good at this conserving business. But I admit I don't always keep it top of mind like I should. I try to do my part, though.

Back when we first heard about this mysterious ozone, I switched from an aerosol deodorant to a roll-on. I also backed off on using aerosol hairspray for a few years, but I need the power. (At least I switched from AquaNet!) We also are big recyclers -- paper, plastic, glass, cardboard, whatever we can. In fact, I feel guilty if I am somewhere and they don't recycle!

Carter, though, is big on the electricity thing. When I talked to him this morning, he was listing off all the things in the house he unplugged. I said, "You realize we'll need to plug them back in to use them, right?" I think he does.

The other evening we had all the lights off since the sun hadn't fully set yet. Carter invited me to sit on the couch with him so we could talk. "Isn't this great conserving all this energy?" he said. I replied, "Yep, I especially like the part where we're laying on the couch because I don't have energy for anything anyway!"

I suppose if I would have thought of it sooner, the best way to conserve energy today (personal energy anyway) would have been to stay in bed! Unfortunately, due to a deadline crunch at work, I'm sucking the power grid with two computers running at my desk and we had to drive both vehicles so I can stay late.

As Carter said this morning, "I think you're missing the point of Earth Day."

Let's all do a better job of not missing the point.