Using free money from the government to do good: Yesterday I was doing some online research at work and was stunned to discover a mainstream site that serves nonprofits is encouraging readers to put 10% of your economic stimulus check to work doing good. This was the idea I proposed a couple of months ago. I was floored when I read this and thought, hey, maybe this idea will spread even further!
Walking my own talk: So AuntieM, how are you going to use a portion of your stimulus check to do good? Well, so far I have made a contribution to my preferred political candidate, I have purchased reusable bags to use for grocery shopping to reduce the number of plastic bags used and thrown away, and I will use the remainder to pay for the new dishwasher and high-efficiency washer necessitated by my appliance woes of a couple of months ago. Hey AuntieM, isn't that sort of a cop-out, using the money to pay for appliances you already bought and claiming it's a way of walking your own talk? On the surface it may look like a cop-out, but part of what I wanted to do with the economic stimulus money is find ways to make my home greener and more eco-friendly. If we hadn't already switched to compact fluorescent bulbs I would have done that, it's a great way to spend $30-$60. A programmable thermostat can be had for $45-$75 and would also be a great thing to do, but we did that a couple of years ago. By the way, don't be afraid of those, they're surprisingly easy to install. The new washer will have long-lasting environmental benefits such as using only 10 gallons of water to wash a whole load, so while using stimulus money to pay for this washer may seem like a cop-out, the long-term environmental benefits justify it in my mind. After all, I could have spent half the money and bought a standard top-loader that uses triple the water, and banked the difference, but I chose to spend extra to get a more environmentally friendly machine, so no, I don't feel that it is a cop-out to claim using the stimulus money to pay for it as a way to use free money from the government to do good.
More on the washer: I also had to switch detergents because you have to use high-efficiency detergent that is very low-sudsing, or it's like putting dishwashing liquid in a dishwasher - explosion of suds! In the process I discovered that most national brands of detergent are made from petroleum products - that's right, oil - but I found a couple of different natural brands of high-efficiency detergent that are plant based and have switched to one of those. My clothes are just as clean and I'm happier knowing that my detergent is made from renewable materials. The brand I switched to is called Seventh Generation, and uses plant-based surfactants and enzymes instead of petroleum-based chemicals. It costs about the same as the national brand detergents, but I feel a lot better about using it. I have a lot of detergent allergies and this stuff comes in a no dyes, no perfumes formula that has worked well for me. Out here in Colorado the air is so dry that during the winter everyone suffers from dry skin. Since getting the new washer and switching to this detergent I've had significantly less dry skin and my clothes feel much softer too.
Speaking of Colorado, Wednesday (April 30) was gorgeous and warm. We cracked the 80 degree mark. I wore capris and Crocs to work (I love my job!). After I got home Hubby and I went to the big-box home improvement store and browsed the garden area, enjoying the sunshine while pricing out materials for landscaping projects. Yesterday (Thursday) was May Day, and it was more of a "m'aidez!" with temps barely above freezing and heavy snow all morning and into the afternoon. My commute to work was a slow one becaues of near-whiteout conditions on I-70. I think the highs went to the upper 30's, so we had about a 45-degree swing in temperatures from one day to the next. This morning there's still a little snow on the ground, but the weather folks say we'll be back into the 70's by Monday. Life in Colorado.
A shout out for Hubby: Wednesday before we went to the big-box home improvement store, I started some beef stew in the crock pot for Hubby's dinners this week. After being in the gaming industry for a while, casino food is simply disgusting. It's nearly impossible to get a healthy meal as a casino employee, especially if one's casino prohibits employees from visiting the buffet where salads and fish may be had quickly. So long before I left the gaming industry, Hubby and I established a routine: on the last day of our weekend I would cook a large batch of something tasty and reasonably healthy for us to take for lunches in the coming week. Even though I'm no longer in that industry, the routine hasn't changed: on Wednesdays I cook something for lunches for the coming week. This week it was a crock pot full of beef stew, which turned out amazingly well if I do say so myself. I did hit a snag but Hubby took care of it like a champion: I shoved the carrot peels and celery ends into the disposal, ran the thing and it clogged up. Hubby saw what the problem was - a clogged drain line - took the pipes apart and presto, there was the clog. Apparently I tried to dispose of too much at one time, and the peels formed a solid mass. He cleared the clog, put the pipes back together, and the problem was solved! I was ready to call a plumber which would have cost us a chunk of change, but he fixed it in about 15 minutes. The really stunning part was, he hasn't done much plumbing at all and he's not exactly familiar with plumbing issues, he just looked at it and figured it out. My hero!
My absences from this blog seem to be growing longer and longer. I assure you that I'm not losing interest or losing focus on discussions to create positive social change. I'm just way busy right now, as in I should be writing a paper this very minute instead of blogging, but sometimes you just gotta. I'm still totally loving my job, sometimes I wish I could spend more time there. I have started a new project, a manuscript inspired by a conversation with my friends M and S. This one is nonfiction and has to do with communication between siblings in nontraditional families. I'll say more about it later, right now it's still in the very beginning stages but it's starting to develop into something.
My semester will end in a couple of weeks, and then I'll have about two weeks to catch my breath before diving into summer session. You think I've been scarce the last few weeks? Wait till summer session, I'm taking a crazy-heavy load, 12 credit hours. No I haven't gone mental, I had a brilliant idea. Taking a massive course load this summer will enable me to graduate with my BA in May 2009. And I can do anything for eight weeks (my new mantra). This timing means I should be able to start grad school in Fall 2009, and hopefully graduate with my Master's in May 2011, which has been my goal for a while. The reason behind this is in May 2011, Hubby will have a milestone birthday. We tend to go all-out for milestone birthdays, and combining a milestone birthday with a graduation would be gigantic combined woo-hoo to which we will invite friends and family from all over the country. Plus it would simply be cool.
"Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so." - Douglas Adams
Peace,
AuntieM
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