Thursday, September 8, 2011

Projects That Will Never Happen.

Since we're all having so much fun with the current family project of energy saving, I thought I'd post a bit about projects that will probably never been seen in the household. Whether we decide on our own what the next family project will be, or post a poll and have others decide for us, these choices will decidedly not be on the menu.

Vegetarianism
This one is not even up for discussion. While we admire vegetarians and even vegans, the simple truth is that (with apologies to vegetarian activists) we eat meat. We even like to eat meat. While the projects are supposed to be at least somewhat of a challenge to us, I would place bets that my husband can’t go a day without some form of meat in his diet, and unfortunately, I agree. To be fair (and before vegans begin waving vegetables in protest), I have tried to be a vegetarian. I made it three days. I also made myself thoroughly sick. So, unfortunately, I will not be repeating the experiment.

Alcoholic Beverages
Okay, again, I’m not knocking those that enjoy a glass of wine with dinner or a beer after a day of working out in the yard. I’m not even trying to tramp on the people that like to enjoy a drink with a sports game. But we don’t drink alcohol. At all…now or, I would imagine, ever. Now, ignoring the fact that this has continued to shock those that meet us and those that have known us for years, allow me to say that we’re not trying to get another amendment for a nationwide Prohibition pushed through. We aren’t temperance workers, and we don’t run around protesting the sales of alcohol, liquor, or even those ready-made margarita mixes in the frozen section of the grocey store. We just enjoy non-alcoholic beverages like Coke or Mountain Dew more. So, a project involving alcoholic beverages, either drinking them or abstaining from them, wouldn’t make much sense for us.

Planking
No. Just…no.

Caffeine
For those that contemplate murder when their morning cup of coffee is taken away or for some reason put out of reach, I’m right there with you. While we don’t drink a lot of coffee in the house (again, that pesky Coke tastes better to us), we do enjoy iced tea, hot tea, and the occasional cup of coffee and hot chocolate, especially in the winter. This, as usual, does not include the amount of soda that we swill down without even looking at the caffeine listing on the label. Therefore, telling us to go without caffeine of any kind during a project just won’t’ happen. As with the vegetarianism, the challenge is there, but the results are just so not worth it.

No Electronics
Well…while I can probably stand to live without electronics for a certain amount of time, it would be rather counter-productive to have a blog during it, wouldn’t you think?

Hand-washing the clothes
Seriously, has anyone ever tried this? I have – not by choice. When you grow up in a house that’s over 100 years old, the pipes have the uncanny knack of freezing solid in winter for days on end. If you want clean clothes, in that case, you have to wash them by hand. Try it sometime with even half a load of what fits into a conventional top-loading washer, and you’ll soon understand why we won’t do it. The manual strength and energy required in even washing and wringing out a regular shirt, never mind a pair of pants or jeans is enormous, and frankly, I don’t have it. So this project just won’t happen. Ever.

Ditching the car for public transport
This one, again, would be counter-productive, as my husband’s place of business is within a community that does not allow use of the Detroit metro-area suburban SMART bus system. Very few communities have ordinances against it, but this one does, and requires those taking it to disembark just outside of the city limits and use a city-owned mode of transportation. It not only costs more money in addition to the already purchased SMART bus fares, but does not run on a schedule that would have him home anytime between dusk and dawn. The other available factors are that the bus stop to get him on the correct line is almost at his place of work, as well as if we both chose to take the bus, we’d have to park the car somewhere in a common lot, leaving us to wonder if we shouldn’t just hang a sign on the car that says “looting, pillaging, and plundering welcome”.  As for our offspring, he already takes public transportation to school, both ways, and the bus stop is a convenient 6 miles from the house. So, while we’re doing our part, doing anything more would cost us more than what we’re already doing. Does that last sentence make any sense to anyone, I wonder?

While we appreciate any and all suggestions for future projects, either short term or long term, as I said before, these aren't even up for a discussion, suggestion, or polite discourse. They won't be happening...now, or ever. Enough said.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

One Week Later...

Well, I'd love to tell you that everything has changed in the week since I posted.

But that would be a lie, so I won't.

Suffice to say, life got busy in a hurry (again). Our son started back to school, which is great for the curent family project of energy conservation around the house, as we don't have a gaming system going at all during the day, or a television. I should also point out that it's bad for any hope of emissions conservation that we have ever had, as we have to drive him to and from school, as there is not a transportation system for his chosen place of education. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, but the gas and car emissions (and the gas budget) has not seen much conservation all of last week.

I also wish I could tell you that, due to him being back in school, everything has been used less, but that would be another lie. Monday and Tuesday were spent putting in so much canning and cleaning time that the stove almost started to whimper when I would walk near it. I suppose I shouldn't put much stock in the gas portion of our energy bill being lower next month!

Friday, and Saturday were spent helping out at a garage sale, so there really wasn't anyone here during the day. We did turn the thermostat up to 78 when the air conditioner was on, which to be honest, wasn't that much this past week, as the weather has rarely been unbearable except for a few hours in the afternoons. So, all told, it's been a pretty enjoyable (but busy) week, with so much going on I'm not sure I've even really stopped to catch my breath yet.

Hopefully with the holiday weekend behind us, things will slow down - but I doubt it :)