Well, maybe not quite that time just yet, but it’s getting there. The time of year where I start to fantasize about travel trailers. Seems a strange thing to ‘fantasize’ about, but when you have camped in a tent the past few years of life, a travel trailer starts to seem like a fantasy/luxury for someone who loves to camp. Don’t get me wrong, tenting is ok, would be better if we had a bigger tent to do it in, and even better if we had a small trailer. I certainly am not after a 50 foot (or however big they are making those things these days) house on wheels. It’s kinda funny b/c come camping season when people are out and about with their trailers, the boy and I often spot nice little ones that we think would be just great to be able to go camping in. Then again, we can’t exactly tow anything, let alone a trailer with the vehicle we have now, so…tenting it is…for the foreseeable future.

Happy Earth Day 2008!! Since it is the day of the earth and time to celebrate all it has given to us, I felt it only appropriate to ponder, what are we doing to give back to the earth and to indeed keep it ‘happy’. I remember in elementary school, every Earth Day our school (small school in a rural community) would venture out and clean up garbage off the side of the road. I loved doing that and that was our way of doing some small part to help the Earth and keep our community clean. It was actually fun, seeing what strange stuff we could find on the side of the road and wonder how it got there and the sense of satisfaction at being able to see a truck full of garbage and the clean roadways. The best part was all of us working together towards one common goal, and really, isn’t that what Earth Day is all about?

As an adult, here are some of the things I (we) am (are) doing to reduce my impact:
recycle – we recycle our newspapers (which with 5 a week adds up to a lot of paper), and cardboard, we return all recyclable containers for the deposit, and recycle the other ones, reuse plastic bags and have bought the other ones for groceries. Need to do more on this point, recycle glass/tin.

Compost – this is the boys’ favourite thing to do and cuts down on our garbage hugely. And this gives back to us as we then put the compost on our garden, so our food kinda comes ‘full circle’.

Turn off lights and unplug things I am not using. Turn the heat down (off actually) when I am not home. Don’t leave the water running while I’m brushing my teeth. Plan my car outings so I can get it all done in one outing instead of ten separate ones. Try to wait until I have a full load to do my laundry and wash in cold water as much as possible. Buy in bulk to reduce packaging. Use a water pitcher as opposed to buying bottled water.
I know there is more, just can’t think of it all right now, and I know there is more I can do, I am a work in progress, but am proud of all that I do as it is a lot more than many are doing. Take a look around and see just how many people still just don’t get it!! Do your part to make our Earth happy and you will be happy too.

I came across this story this morning and have an extremely hard time believing it’s actually true, but it’s on the MSNBC website, so it must have some element of truth to it, right?  Apparently a guy called police the last month concerned about his girlfriend.  What was the cause of his concern?  When authorities arrived, they found the woman on the toilet, pants around her thighs and as it turns out she had been there for TWO YEARS, her skin had grown over the toilet seat.  Like, seriously?  I can’t quite grasp why someone would want to spend that much time on the toilet, but they stated that her legs had atrophied from being there for so long.  “She was not glued. She was not tied. She was just physically stuck by her body,” Whipple (Ness County Sheriff) said. “It is hard to imagine. … I still have a hard time imagining it myself.”

The woman at first insisted she was fine and did not require any medical intervention, but was later convinced by her boyfriend and medical authorities that she should make the trip to the hospital.  The toilet seat had to be pryed off and transported with her.  She has not cooperated with medical providers or law enforcement officials.  Um, ya, I think she needs a wee bit of help, wouldn’t you say?

Every time I look around I see things I’d like to change/fix and then I promptly put it out of my mind when I then think about how much things cost. It really is quite annoying when it gets right down to it how much even a stupid can of paint can put you out these days. You can get some at Wal-Mart for $19, but looking at how well our bathroom turned out, I’m rather hesitant to go that route again anytime soon. Something that we would love to replace around here are interior doors as they cheaped out when they first installed them and whoever lived here prior to us wasn’t so kind to any of the doors as they all seem to have cracks in them (perhaps from a fist) expect for maybe one. If we ever do get to replace them, or perhaps if we don’t, one thing we could do is make all the doorknobs uniform as I swear there isn’t a matching doorknob in this place. Baldwin has some rather nice doorknobs/handles, so that at least gives me a starting point on deciding what I would like.