Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Blog Action Day

Of course I let it whiz by me. Lots of things are getting by me these days! Anyway....what did I do that was environmentally sound???

Here in severely parched North Carolina that's an easy thing to answer. Wake County is in the "exceptional drought" area. I didn't water the lawn. I didn't wash a car. I only filled the bird bath and watered the hanging baskets. I filled the dishwasher to the hilt. I use only cold water in the washing machine. Short hair = short showers. Etc, etc. The grass has greened up with the cooler weather and the shrubs don't look so wilted but the lakes and ponds are drying up alarmingly. Our well is relatively shallow so we're taking no chances. I was keeping a bucket in the shower to capture water for the shrubs but after the surgery I couldn't carry it and now I'm cleared to lift again I can't carry anything because of the car crash....sigh.
I didn't drive yesterday either. I wish I could say we've been using less gasoline but that would be a lie. All this trekking back and forth to hospitals and chauffeuring mom and dad has chewed up a lot. Also the quest for replacement cars has entailed quite a bit of mileage. I was happy with our little 30+mpg MR2's but since the accident I've insisted on moving up to something more substantial (airbags, ABS brakes, size). This is pickup truck country. Last thing I want is for The Tramp to end up under a truck on his way to work. This means more gas, though really not more than the Saturn Vue uses. We bought that car for it's supposed fuel economy and the on demand all wheel drive for getting to work in New Jersey winters. Not much use for that here! The Tramp is ordering trip computers for the cars so we can monitor our fuel economy and drive more efficiently.Unless absolutely impossible, we have those compact florescent bulbs in every light fixture. We have motion detector fixtures waiting to be put up outside rather than leaving outdoor lights on all night. Here's one I bet few people know. The transformers/power bricks/AC adapters on your phone charger, laptop power cord, battery chargers for tools, dust buster type things, etc all draw power when they're plugged in to a power source. Even if nothing is plugged in to the other end! If you leave them plugged in to the wall they are always drawing power! We realized we have a shocking number plugged in ready for use. How many do you have?

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