Wednesday, October 21, 2009

No Trash Day of No Impact Week

(this is for October 19th...just got to a wifi thingy to post it)

Well, not so much success today. I wasn't supposed to make trash. I wasted about 5 sheets of paper at work and 1 foil teabag at home. I put the paper at work into the shredder. I can't recycle it because it had to be shredded. And I was a bit peeved about that teabag. I thought it was paper or I wouldn't have used it.

Then I realized that is a BIT of a tempest in a teacup if you will. I had already bought the tea bag so no point in letting it age for years with the tea in it. More loose tea from here on out.

And of course the private lady trash ... discussion of which and reduction strategies thereof I will keep to myself.

Tomorrow is transportation day and I'll have trouble cutting back! I already walk around town. I don't know how to have a lower impact than walking around town on resoled shoes. I suppose that technically does cause wear and tear on the pavement so perhaps I could just lie on the floor trying not to breathe too much (C02 you know...). Then again, perhaps I can just be happy that I can live 3 blocks from work again and no longer spend 2.5 hours a day in the car just to get to and from work.
I do have one trip I need to do to a field site at work. This will be with another person in a truck. My subaru gets better gas milage but it won't make it to the site. I am looking for ways to combine field site trips at work which will help some. We're checking several sites at once by having the guy who knows where they are drive. Hopefully that is close enough.

NOW: I did just read in the no impact week instruction manual (which I didn't print out...just reading on my computer), that the average American spends 1000 hours per year in the car. That is pretty impressive to me. Working a 40 hour a week job is a total of about 2080 hours per year. People are spending 50% of that much time in the car! That's 20 hours per week. I'm not sure I've done that...ever. When I drive to Iowa it's over 20 hours and I do it in a week then sometimes have spent that long in a car while there. But even when commuting 12.5 hours per week and driving another 4 hours every second weekend, I didn't make it up to 20 hours per week because once I was home, I parked the car. Now I spend about 5 hours per week in the car. 2 hours every other week going to/from the radio show, and then some driving for work. There are seasons and years when it's more, but 20 hours!!!! That's a lot. No wonder Americans are fat. We must also have hemrhoids. Sit in the car for 20 hours. Sit at the office for 40 hours. Sit in front of the TV for god knows how long. Then lie down and rest up from all that sitting (she spouts as sitting on the couch typing in front of the tv playing a dvd...just an All American Girl...with an all american giant butt).

On the other hand, I ate all homemade food today and it was good. Left over pancake with peanut butter for breakfast. Rice and beans with salsa for lunch. Buffalo soup, fresh sourdough bread, kale chips, and tofu-fudge-cicle for supper. All with lots of tea, water, and a bit of instant espresso. I did spend some time staring at my officemate's butterfinger candy bars but successfully resisted.
So, that was nice. I'm going to be so healthy after a week of this I won't be able to stand myself.

Another interesting thing: Money spent today: $0.
Without buying donuts to share or food for lunch, I didn't need to spend anything. Also, trying not to buy anymore stuff this week. I could use a roof rake before winter (no more letting 3 or 4 feet of snow pile up on the trailer roof) unless someone knows how to "make do" with something else. I'm not climbing up there. A broken leg or neck would cost way more than a roof rake.

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