Going Green

It worked!

By removing just a few loose thoughts from my head and placing them in my premiere blog entry, I freed up a couple of brain cells. Thus, I was able to accommodate a little rumination over an article I found in the January 2009 issue of Discover magazine titled, "The Post-Oil Era Begins" by Ben Hewitt. It seems that corn ethanol will not be the immediate fix to America's need for sustainable, domestically produced fuel, due to land, water and financial issues. However, hope does lie on the horizon for a 50% reduction in the reliance on gas over the next couple of decades. All we have to do is trade in our current gas guzzlers for new plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) like the Volt, a forthcoming model designed by Chevrolet. Consider the common travel necessity of the weekly grocery shopping trip. As long as the local supermarket is within 20 miles one way, the entire run will be possible sans gas. Barring all questions about what happens when the store is more than 40 miles round trip and the costs involved with such a trade in, I am ready to do the responsible thing and order my new PHEV. Sign me up.

There are some rules involved. I won't be permitted to charge my car while my neighbor is cooking supper on her electric stove, if my sister has all her lights on and her friend is running the vacuum cleaner at the same time that my husband is drilling a hole in our wall, during a heat wave when everyone is blasting their air conditioners. Apparently, with the country's current grid we will need to charge our PHEVs during off-peak hours and promise to allow the batteries to re-load at a modest 120-volt/15-amp rate as opposed to using a heftier, 240-volt/30-amp circuit. For the privilege of plugging in during peak hours of the day, at the higher voltage for a quicker charge, somebody will need to build about 160 new power plants across the nation.

That may sound insurmountable, but as Stan Hadley, a guy who helped write a report about this possibility, says, "The biggest challenge won't be building the infrastructure; it will be changing consumer habits and expectations."

Stan's quote got stuck like a bumper sticker on a wall inside my brain.

Reading the article was really just a procrastination of my need to re-stock our refrigerator, so I gathered my green shopping bags, spent several minutes scavenging around for a quarter and headed out to get more for my money at the ever-exciting Aldi foodmart. Propelled by gas in the tank of my Chevy Malibu hatchback, I caught a glimpse of my own relection in the rear-view mirror with the brain bumper sticker in the background pointing out my own wasteful habits. I wasn't first on the bandwagon to exchange plastic and paper for reusable cloth. In fact the only reason I have green totes is because the husband got them for free at a trade show. Saving at Aldi forces me to use them, since it's a bring your own bag kind of store. I began mentally logging the habits I need to break if I ever hope to become one who is making a difference toward saving the planet: turn off the water until it is time to spit when brushing teeth, turn off the water inbetween wash and rinse time during dish duty, turn off the sprinkler before a lake forms on the lawn. The pattern brought clarity. I'll work on turning off water. I'll worry about sticking to the charging at off-peak hours using the 15 amp outlet rule when I trade my Malibu for the Volt. Methinks I have plenty of time.

Heidi

Let the Blogging Begin

With the husband out of town on a fishing trip and the daughter entertained by a visiting bestie (their word for best friend), it seemed as good a time as any to invite my fellow blogger, 40winkzzz, over to help me set up my new blogsite. I'd been thinking about indulging myself in this writing outlet world for a few months, but every time I'd sign into blogspot.com I could only get as far as the login and password set- up before my mind would boggle with thoughts of failing at bloggle. It wasn't immediately clear to me how to actually view the title page of my blog, let alone type anything on the page. Moreover, I wanted, but had no idea how, to create an intriguing background like the one on my favorite blogspot, A 2nd Cup of Coffee- she has a slick, red coffee machine with coffee actually physically pouring out of a spout at the top of her blog page. When I first saw that I just sat and stared at it stupefied. I thought, I don't even know how to put a picture on a page, in fact, I don't even have a camera, but this blogger has created running coffee. I was aghast at the 500 billion blogs that already existed and wondered if there were really enough people in the world to read all of them. Who would read mine and why? With all of those thoughts crashing around in my head, all I could do was click on the red X in the upper right hand corner of my computer screen and go back to wandering around the house thinking about blogging.

But then the moment of truth came. A revelation from the Teacher of Ecclesiastes- "this (aforementioned stuff) is meaningless.." My blog will be my writing outlet- a place for me to put the words that gather in my head while I'm doing the dishes or vacuuming the living room or driving to work. This will be good because putting those words somewhere else will free up space in my brain, so I will have room to comtemplate the potential environmental threats of land-based biofuels and how it might be that a mere man, Moses, told God to remember His people, as if He was really going to wipe them all out-or was he? If anyone in blogland chooses to read my blog should he or she stumble upon it, I'll feel like an author- that'll be sweet. And if one decides to post a comment about anything I happen to write-icing on the cake for me- I am a communication major, I like dialogue.

So, here I am, two days after 40winkzzz stopped in for coffee and gave me sufficient encouragement, still in my pajamas at 1:45 in the afternoon, plunking out my first blog entry while simultaneously helping my daughter with her Saxon algebra 2 and ACT prep exercises. I'm obviously going to have to get a grip, as shirking homeschooling responsibilities and ignoring personal grooming details are not going to be workable practices for me. The background is a best of the worst pick from only about four choices of blogspot templates and I don't know if or when anyone will ever see any pictures here. I thought the title was my origional idea, but probably at least ten other bloggers already use some version of this Gone With the Wind quote for their blog, which is why I had to use the entire line. I'm signing it Scarlett for now, because I'm still nervous about divulging personal information to the cyberspace world. But- I did it! I churned one out. I'd like to think that my new site offers at least something memorable- perhaps it could be this: the blogsite with the most potential- the most room for measurable improvement. I'll figure out how to jazz it up. After all, tomorrow is another day.

Heidi

Brand New Blog

Welcome to my blog!