Good Green Witch

Your Right to Convenience

2012-02-19T14:52:00.000-08:00

You have the right to have convenience. You have the right to make garbage. You have the right to waste water. You can do whatever you gull-durn please. If you want to triple-plastic-bag your leaky chicken at the grocery store, by good-goddamn it is your right to do so. You want to have a baby, and gosh-darn it, you are going to use plastic diapers, because gosh-darn it, you are going to be tired, and you know what? Shit stinks. And YOU do not want to have to deal with that.

Umm... yuck.

Yeah, I heard that from my own step-daughter. She NEVER planned to use cotton diapers, and now she IS pregnant. Even though the "disposable" ones (quotes on that, because they are NOT disposable, they are just moved away from YOU to another place) are bad for the planet, bad for the kid, bad for... well, ME. Yeah. They are getting added in to MY world. Why don't I have a say in that? Because YOU must have your convenience? Even though you KNOW babies poop and it smells bad, but you are going to have one anyway, but the rest of us have to revolve around that? What about OUR rights to a clean planet? No? Nuthin'? Not so much?

So you have the right to use plastic. And you don't think the government should step in and ban plastic bags, because that is an infringement of your rights, and, after all, where will it end?? You know - smokers as the same thing... no smoking on the beaches, public places, what's next? You're own home? Yes, actually, in some towns you cannot even smoke in your own back yard. Because smoking hurts people other than the smokers. Well, guess what - your water waste is hurting those who DON'T waste. Because, just like we share the air, and you don't want to smell their cigarette smoke, we share the water, and I want to have mine around to use when I want, and since I use it responsibly, YOU should too. But you don't. So we have to put bans and limits on water usage sometimes. But guess what? I have to follow the same bans and limits, even though I wasn't the problem.

Likewise, because YOU can't be bothered to ease up on the plastic, MY Earth is polluted, even though I have been enjoying it responsibly. Your gross dirty diapers are in my environment, even though I had nothing to do with them. But there they are.

So, I ask again: where does your right for convenience end, and my right for a healthy planet begin? It doesn't seem to matter, so long as things are easy for the masses.

Man, I would LOVE an answer to that one...

Whatever Happened to One Thing at a Time?

2012-02-19T13:57:00.000-08:00

Are you an awesome multitasker? I am. I can multitask with the best of them. Women, I suppose have been doing it for ages in the home.... back when women were homemakers and that was it. Cooking, cleaning, taking care of kids and pretty much everything. Now, we are expected to do it all the time, everywhere. You are not an efficient worker if you cannot do 15 different things at once, and dammit do them all flawlessly.

Why must we move so fast? Are our lives better for our doing so much all the time? I don't think mine is. I long to just do one thing at a time and do it really well. I can see the benefit of doing many things at once if we were all getting to a better place. But all we are is more tired, more cranky, more anxious, more stressed.

But I don't have this many arms

Can we slow down a little? Appreciate things more? Care more? When I multitask, I am not all into ANY of the million things I am doing. It has its place, sure it does, but I fear we've taken it too far (as usual). Now it's expected in all aspects of our lives, it's expected of us in all we do. Doing one thing and doing it well isn't good enough. We have to be great at everything all the time and all at once.

In my o-so-humble opinion, I believe this is a big part of the problem. We want more-more-more, we have to do more-more-more so we can get more-more more. Except happiness. We don't get more happiness, we just get more stress. And in this all-consuming drive, we forget to appreciate the small stuff. And it's all small stuff. Small stuff adds up to big stuff.

This is when I yet again ask, Why are we here? For what do we do these things we do? If our insane schedules are not going to making our lives more enjoyable, then what's the point? And don't give me that nebulous future-building thing... sure, there is a point to that, and yes we need to secure our livelihoods... and make sure we do have a future... but remember our grandparents? They weren't nearly as crazed as are we with our cell phones and computers doing everything all the time always within phone reach always answering the phone always needing to to be doing something always in touch with everyone... and they were able to retire. Comfortably, a lot of the time. I'm not saying they didn't work hard when they worked. And maybe I am over-romanticizing things. What I do know is that the rats seem to be running faster and faster and yet falling further and further behind.

I, for one, am turning it all in. I want to enjoy my time here. I want slower, quieter, more appreciative times. I do not think we have to chase our tails quite so much. Because it isn't very much fun. And I look around... we surely are NOT making the world a better place to live.

Let's start doing THAT.

Waste of Resources - Waste of Life

2012-02-19T11:59:00.000-08:00

Sooooo many questions on my mind this weekend. The following is harsh. Maybe it's where I live. But sometimes, I just look at someone and think, "Damn, why does that person have to be taking up MY resources?"

You ever feel like that? I'm surely not talking about someone sick, or infirm, or handicapped - no, no, no!! Nothing like that. I'm talking about those people who don't give a crap outside their own little circle and their own well-being. People who can't think beyond their own nose. The entitled. Those who don't think twice about the double-plastic-bag even though the rest of us are all screaming at the tops of our lungs about it. With their plastic bottles and nary a second thought. No, nary a first thought. Do those people ever get to you?

Imagine if we had listened then, where we would be now.

They get to me. What's the point to life if you are not working to make the world a better place? If you are not enjoying your time here? If you are not making a positive contribution to the race? WHY are you here?

I know, I know, I need to move to where people are less all about themselves... and their cars and hair and clothes and.... blah. What's the answer? Will people ever change? Can we change them? Do we try? Do we just hang around like-minded people instead? That can't be right, then we wouldn't have any impact on those around us. It has to be a balance. We need to be able to run to our groups, I guess, when the rest of them get to be too much. Balance.

I feel like we really really lack balance these days. It's like... it's like it's all or nothing. Full force. Full speed. Full time. I'm not sure what the point to that is. Again, if we aren't enjoying the ride, why are we on it?

Let's start asking random people that very question. When someone is whiny or complainy or just plain miserable to be around - I mean, constantly, not when someone is just having a bad day - let's ask that! Oh, hell, let's just ask it all the time! MAYBE - and I know this is quite a stretch here - maybe people will stop to think. Just a little bit.

It's a start. Even if it just makes ME a little less crazy. Ha.

It's a Choice

2012-02-19T07:37:00.000-08:00

OK, back to the business at hand.

We make choices every day. I have chosen to have a glass of wine this evening. I choose to not use plastic any more than necessary. Some people choose to use single-use bottles, plastic throw-away bags. It's a choice, right? I choose my thing, they choose theirs. We all go our own way, right?

Wrong. When someone's choice is to the detriment of the rest of us, it is no longer just their right to go their merry way, is it? If someone is choosing to waste water, that hurts us all, does it not? Can we not call out those people on their choices?

The other day, I really wanted to get some ranch dressing. I love me some ranch dressing. Mmmm. Ranch. I wanted to put out veggies and have some ranch for some dippin'. So there I stand, probably quite comically, in the dressing aisle, tapping on the bottles to see which ones were plastic and which were glass. (I've long since stopped caring what people think of me in such situations.) Every single brand of ranch was, alas, in plastic bottles. So a made a choice to NOT enjoy ranch with our snacks. It was a tiny little choice. Does this choice make a difference? Well, if we ALL made such choices every time they presented themselves, then yes, it would make a difference.

Do we need government to legislate plastic bag use? Yes, because we do not make the choice to NOT use them. Apparently, we must be forced to give them up. Is that right, fair? It is what it is. People do not stop to think, to make a small choice. Could the 3-5 minutes I stood there puzzling over something as insignificant as to ranch or not to ranch have been better spent otherwise? Sure. Would it have killed the planet for me to buy that ranch. No. Could I have eventually found some in a glass jar in another area of the store? Probably. but I was over it. I survived not having ranch. LOTS of our choices, IF we stopped to make them, would be just like that. Maybe not monumental, maybe completely insignificant, but... maybe not.

It's all about the choices. Let's start making some, shall we?

Non-Mothers Need Not Apply

2012-02-18T18:40:00.000-08:00

A celebrity died. I shed a tiny tear at first, because it was a great waste, but I really felt she did it to herself. I felt she could have turned it around if she really wanted to. She had more opportunity than do most. I've never gone through anything like that. I've had misfortune, I've had relatively bad things happen to me at times, but mostly I do pretty well. I never had an addiction, so I'm sure I don't know and maybe I have no right to comment.

Comment, though, I did. Silly Rhonda. Silly, silly witch. And after much goings-on back and forth, I was finally told I do not have the feelings a mother does. It would change me.

Wow.

So I get to thinking, as I frequently do, why I do what I do. Why I give a shit. Why I bother to have compassion at all. After all, I don't even have a womb anymore. What do I care that the world will not be fit for us to inhabit if we don't change? Why should driving down the street and seeing homeless people, forgotten elderly people, litter, stray animals... why should that hurt me every single day? Why should I get choked up every single day about random things? I should not have these feelings; I am not a mother.

Wow.

I can't get around this one. I really can't. I thought writing it out would help, but nope. Why DO I do what I do? What don't I just run around using as much plastic as possible, because, after all, why should I care? I'm not a mother. I should just hang it up.

I'm stuck. I'm stymied. I started to write something else altogether, but I couldn't go on. Oh, I'll get over it, but it may take a few. Days. Hours. Weeks. Dunno. Silly me. I thought I loved too much. I thought loving the whole world was good enough. I thought that mattered.

Apologies for the pity party. I'll buck up soon and be back to snark in no time. Thanks for reading.

Let Them Eat Horse - Misplaced Concerns

2012-01-30T10:30:00.000-08:00

Do you remember a few months back, when people got all up in arms over the administration lifting a ban that would seem to lead to everyone eating horse meat?

I LOVE horses. Love love love them. No, I don't even ride, I've never properly learned, but I love them. I love being around them. I don't even mind the smell of their manure. (Cows, stinky. Horses, earthy and mild.) My favorite job was on a horse farm, just me and about 100 horses for 8 hours at a time. No humans. Just horses. And the occasional rat or skunk. I learned horses actually DO lay down to sleep when they feel most comfortable and safe. I learned that mother horses are FIERCE about their offspring, and actually teach them manners, often better moms than some humans I have seen. I found that there is almost nothing quite so comfortable and comforting as leaning up against a horse as it contentedly munches on hay.

Did you really think this was horse?

So was I outraged when, back in November, it was announced that the Obama administration was somehow incomprehensibly clearing the way for people to eat horse meat in this country? No. I was actually amused (if not more than a little annoyed) at the reaction of most people. 1) Most people have little or no idea what the reality of the situation was. 2) It wasn't like this little piece of legislation was going to have horse meat appearing at your local grocery store. 3) There are so much worse things to be concerned about in the food industry, yet these things go largely ignored.

Let's examine these points, shall we?

1) Here's the reality of the situation: They lifted a 5-year-old ban on funding horse meat inspections. Did anyone catch that part? This is not a new situation. This lifted a relatively young and new ban on FUNDING INSPECTIONS. Most people got all up and huffy thinking (incorrectly) that suddenly the Obama administration said, in a bill, "Go eat horse." No. It did not even allocate money for funding the inspections. And with the USDA being woefully underfunded, nothing was going to happen immediately anyway. Reality: There was a slaughterhouse in Illinois that butchered horses until 2007. Where was the outcry then? (Oh - that's right - we didn't have Facebook to get all up in stupidity about stuff we don't really research.)

2) Reality: there WERE slaughterhouses open when no one thought about it, but the meat went to other countries. As it is now, if such a place were to open, the meat would still get sent elsewhere. And it would only open after a lot of controversy and opposition anyway. But, again, injecting reality in there: I have been to livestock auctions. I have seen what goes down. It's not pretty. You get a cow or horse that is too old to be of use to anyone or anything... it's not a nice warm-fuzzy situation. At present, horses get shipped to Canada or Mexico to get slaughtered. Where's the outcry for American jobs on that one? Huh? (Yes I am being facetious.) Lifting this ban does NOT change the FACT that consumption of horse meat is still under another ban in most states. California is one.

3) People I know got their undies in a huge wad from this. And yet, Monsanto goes unknown, BPA is everywhere, and high-fructose corn syrup and other unhealthy things are consumed left and right. We're getting better with the Monsanto thing, and BPA is getting more well-known, but we still eat and give our kids the crappiest stuff. But by all means, let's get up in arms over the sale of horse meat, which isn't even a real problem, while these things and SO many more ARE real problems. Let's focus on buzz words and false panic, while we continue a ban on growing industrial hemp. Let's blow things out of proportion while stuffing cancer-causing chemicals and additives into our obese kids. Where's the outrage over much, much, MUCH worse stuff going on in our foods???

Nothing to see here.

Just Because We Can, Doesn't Mean We Should.

2012-01-26T10:15:00.000-08:00

What's better, what's worse? Veggies not in season shipped from far away, or locally-grown, sustainably, ethically raised meat?

No such thing, anti-omnivores say. You can't have meat with ethics.

In a previous post, I talked about "Tomatoland" and how our demand for out-of-season fruits and veggies needs to be examined. but no one examines it. Everyone just tromps right on down to the store and gets bent if their produce they want RIGHT NOW isn't there and pretty.

Let's think about times past. The Midwest... the East Coast.... Native Americans and early settlers. Were they vegetarians? Hardly. They would have starved by February. They had to plan ahead, and grow as much as they could and store as much as they could and - here's the big part - rely on what was readily available around them at the time. That meant your diet was filled with grains and roots and whatever Pa brought home from the hunt at certain times of the year. (Yeah, I pretty much did a Little House reference right there.) Can you go out and buy lettuce whenever you wish? Of course you can! That's what's so great about modern times! That's what freedom and choice is all about! Dad-gum it, I have the gull-durn right to march down to my grocery store and buy me my completely out-of-season cucumbers! Because I'm a gosh-darn American, and that's what we do! Because we are superior and evolved!

We can do this. Should we?

Shipping *stuff* from wherever so we can eat it whenever involves a lot of used-up resources. Start with the crap needed for growing the produce. Pesticides galore. Forcing crops to grow in places they are not usually grown, without the nutrients they usually have. (But jobs!!! Giving people jobs!!! Nope. Fail. False.) Skip a few steps and think about the shipping of said product from Florida or California to, say, Ohio. Fuel. Fossil fuel, that is, consumed for what? So you can have your out-of-season stuff. (But... jobs??) Because you deserve it. Let's think about all the packaging. Unnecessary packaging. Of course it is unnecessary, because it is NOT necessary for you to have that tomato just because you want it.

Is this an easy problem to fix? Well, yes and no. Yes because we have the power to do it, no because it would take such a huge shift in consciousness and lifestyle that it surely won't happen any time soon. Do we need to? Yes. Look at where we are heading. We need to change a lot. We need to be local local local and we need to stop taking so much for granted. We need to look at what we do and why, and how we can change that.

You know why cucumbers used to taste SO GOOD to me in the summer? Because I could only have them in the summer. Because I didn't take them for granted. We need to get back to being more like that, or we may as well forget it. Mother Earth does NOT need us. We need her.

Juice Boxes = Bad, But Not Why You Think

2012-01-22T17:31:00.000-08:00

I'll start right out with it: I do not like juice boxes. I find them pointless. I find them lazy. I find them wasteful. Oh so fun, oh so cute with their little plastic straws. LAZY. A quick way to get kids to shut up and get them full of sugar. The juices in most of those isn't even very good for kids. Proof? Right here in an e-mail I got, asking to get the FDA to change regulations.

Here's some text from the e-mail:

Every child enjoys a juice box with her after school snack. But what parents don’t know is that a disturbing number of juices contain unsafe levels of lead and inorganic arsenic that can lead to serious health problems for children. While the government has rules in place to limit lead and arsenic in our drinking water, there’s nothing to stop companies from making juices and other children’s drinks that contain unsafe levels of those poisons. A new study by Consumer Reports found that at least 10% of apple and grape juices sampled had more arsenic than what the government says is safe for drinking water -- and even more had unsafe levels of lead.

Now it’s up to the Food and Drug Administration to make rules to regulate how much arsenic and lead can be in juices, like they do for drinking water.

While not lethal, that kind of sustained, low-level exposure during early childhood "carries the most serious long-term risk," according to researchers. The dangerous effects of unsafe levels of inorganic arsenic and lead in children are shocking:

Inorganic arsenic is linked to cancers, heart disease, type-2 diabetes, and immune system problems
Children exposed to drinking water with unsafe arsenic levels had decreased intellectual function
Low-level arsenic exposure is "significantly related to poorer scores in language, visuospatial skills, processing speed, and immediate memory," among other problems
Unsafe levels of lead were found in 25% of juices sampled, and lead exposure is linked to brain development and behavioral problems

If lead and arsenic are unsafe for children in their drinking water, the same poisons should be regulated for the juices that so many children love. -Change.org

Why? WHY must the government step in for this? Why do we not just put this information out there and let parents actually make the CHOICE to stop giving their kids crap? People clamor all the time about too many government regulations. Here's another one. Do we really need this? Comparing drinking water to JUICE BOXES is, in my ever so humble opinion, absurd. Drinking water is kind of on the side of necessity. Juice boxes are on the side of POINTLESS.

But... but... fruit! And juice! And vitamins!!! BULLCRAP. Sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, artificial colors and flavors... how about all those? How about NOT giving your kids stuff that is bad for them in packaging that is wasteful and bad for the planet? Sure, I too have the uber-cool totebag made from re-purposed juice pouches, but do we really think the vast majority of those are being reclaimed?

Bottom line: No, the FDA does NOT need to regulate what is in these juices. Parents need to regulate the crap that goes in their kids. Period.

Exploit Humans, Not Animals.

2012-01-16T10:49:00.000-08:00

Do you reject all animal products because you do not believe in exploiting them? Well, good for you. Are you enjoying that tomato on your vegetarian sandwich or on your Gardein burger with the soy cheese? It's good, isn't it? Hang on a second, it's January. Where is that tomato coming from? It's surely not in season. Your own greenhouse? A local hothouse? Oh, wait, it's OK, they grow them in Florida where they can be harvested all year long, and look! - it gives people jobs, too! Woo hoo economy! Your tomato is giving someone employment!Great.

Let's look at that. Is your simple slice of tomato more humane than my grass-fed cow burger? Obvious answer: yes. Real answer: snort. (Sorry, I could only manage a derisive snort for a second there.) My cow was local and sustainably raised and fed with care and avoiding pesticides and antibiotics at all costs. Your tomato was shipped from miles and miles away and was coated with pesticides and harvested with the cost of human health.

If you are not aware of where your food is coming from, then you cannot call yourself concerned about the well-being of anything. Do you not exploit bees for honey, or worms for composting, or hens for eggs, or animals for ANYTHING, yet you can allow humans to be exploited because... why? Humans have "free choice" and allow themselves to be exploited? Or, hey, it's a job? People need jobs? Yeah. Check out the book I have put here down below. People are suffering and dying because you have to have a tomato out of season. And this is just a tiny example. Don't tell me you are concerned about other living creatures when you have your head buried in the sand about all else.Oh... sand. Yeah - that's what they grow tomatoes in down there in Florida. No nutritional value from the soil AT ALL.

The long and short of it is this: unless you are growing all your own food or everything local and eating what is in season and not full of processed crap, then I can't take you seriously. You spout your beliefs but you don't even follow them. Yeah, I'm angry. Don't lecture me about my meat-eating unless you can tell me exactly where what you are eating comes from and how not one thing was harmed to bring it to your plate. I know exactly ONE person like that. He walks his walk. He gets a pass. All you others that feel you can pass judgement on me? Consider yourself served. I got my eye on you, and I know stuff. Bring it. If you don't care about the exploitation of humans, but are all over not using bees... well. All I can say is please don't procreate. Thank you.

You Are Still Using Bees

2012-01-16T09:12:00.000-08:00

And again.

Bee keeping... I always think of it as one of the best things you can do. Any beekeeper I ever met CARED about their bees, each and every hive, and looked after them with such great care. You have to. Healthy happy bees are the key. And oh do we need bees. Honeybees bother no one in their daily lives, really... only defend their hives. I stepped on them regularly as a child, as they collected among the clover flowers. Ouch. But I also would park myself right outside their hive in the wall of our garage and they simply flew around me with no concern. I just watched them. But, bee keeping is apparently another one of those anti-vegan things. Even though... well, let me get into it.

I'll say up front I am NOT an expert. Most of my knowledge is gathered along the way and some of it is, I am sure, anecdotal. For instance, all bees you see out and flying about are female. They do all the work. Thus: worker bees. The men stay at home and service the queen. Drones. Bees are great. We cannot exist without them. They are the main pollinators of everything we eat. Try as we might, we as humans cannot possibly duplicate what bees do for our food supply. Here's the hardline from the vegan perspective: "In common with other animals kept to produce food products bees are farmed and manipulated, and the honey they produce for themselves is taken from them. Vegans do not eat products taken from any animal, including bees, because it is neither desirable nor necessary to exploit animals in order to obtain food for humans."

Exploit? Aren't you exploiting bees by simply eating ANYTHING? After all, they worked for it. They worked hard. I just want to know where the line is drawn. If you give bees a home on your property, is that expecting something from them in return, even if you aren't taking their honey? Keeping bees is a wonderful thing. I don't eat a lot of honey myself, but I would keep bees just to pollinate my garden. This, apparently, is not correct. I would be enslaving them. Again, I fail to see how providing creatures with a good place to live and benefiting from their labor is such a bad thing. It's symbiotic.

Honey and bee pollen is amazing for our health. Mother Nature provides something that is so good for us, but because commercial practices are bad, the whole thing is bad? I go back to the beekeepers I have known. They won't take more than they should, and they are very careful about everything. And I feel they know more about Nature and the ways of things than most "gimme processed soy product" vegangelicals. What if you are NOT exploiting them? What if you have that symbiotic relationship with them? Why is it still wrong? Commercial ANYTHING is pretty much bad, so can we take things case by case and quit overreacting to everything??

Bees need our help. They have problems. How many people know about Colony Collapse Disorder? I do. Beekeepers do. And they try to protect their hives. Isn't that a good thing? Or must all bees be free-range because of that whole expecting something from them thing? Wild bees are in trouble and keeping hives might help. So if it is said that no bees should be kept, yet they all dies because no bees were kept and protected, well then...

Say goodbye to your food. When the cannibalism hits because all plants are dead, certain people will go first.

Just sayin'. :)

You can tell me I'm full of crap and to quit picking on non-omnivores. Fine. I just want answers. Because this defies logic to me, and I want logic. Be logical and I will leave you alone. But right now, I just want answers. Anyone?

Worm Slaves

2012-01-05T20:20:00.000-08:00

"Here she goes again." It's OK if you think that. I can see how it looks like I pick on vegans. It could be because I've been lectured one (ten?) too many times. It's a hazard of the trade. I accept it, but I do enjoy giving it back.

I love worms. Always have. Don't like fishing with them; hate to have to kill them to put them on the hook. Always pick them up from the sidewalk where they are at risk of drying in the sun or getting trod-upon. Never been grossed out by worms. Never ate one either, by the way. I guess kids do that sometimes when dared. I avoided that fate. I would love to compost with worms, but it seems daunting. Especially in an apartment. But it seems like a great thing to do.

So, imagine my amusement when I came across a debate on Facebook about whether or not composting with worms, or vermiculture, is vegan. Imagine my chuckle as some vegangelical came across and said, "NO! You are enslaving worms!!! You are making them serve you!" (Oh, and bee keeping is ALSO not vegan, but that's another post. I promise.) I did a search, and came across this from a vegan-ish board: "vermiculture is not vegan. vegans don't use animals or animal by products, compost from worms is an animal by product. the worms are working for you, they are not pets like dogs and fish because they are kept for an end result, poop. even if you keep them in the best conditions and treat them with respect, you are still harvesting them for your own purpose."

Seriously? Um... So, giving them a nice warm home and lots of great food and keeping them from harm and giving them the best life ever... that's... well... that's not a good intention, it can't be vegan because you are using their poop? It's OK to eat things that grow out in the wild 'cuz them worms is free-range type worms? The poster goes on with a little more clarity: "i understand that it is nearly impossible to find out what type of compost was used to grow food and plants, and that most food is grown with animal manure or compost with animal by products, however these methods or unnecessary because vegan compost works just as well as vermicompost and other composts with animal by products. we get to choose how we fertilize our own plants at home, choosing vermicompost is not vegan."

Frankly, I'm confused. Someone please enlighten me on this one, because I REALLY don't get it, even after this enlightened explanation. It could be this particular person is just a crock, and this isn't an all-encompassing feeling. But I have seen it more than once, and so that tells me I need to address it. See, extremism scares me. I wish to understand. I want to know. Inquisitive mind, remember? Someone please tell me why providing worms with a good place to live and lots of free food and protection from birds and the elements is WRONG? We're using their poop. They are using us for all the things just back there in that sentence right back there you just read back there. It's a SYMBIOTIC relationship. And those are good. By this crock (IMHO) line of reasoning, we should flush all the e.coli out of our systems, because we are using them for our own health. How very.

Look, live how you want, but please learn some logic. I wish for there to be logic. Because my brain hurts, otherwise. And I like my brain. I give it a nice home and it gives me...

Wait... I'm USING my brain for my own purpose.

Mm hmm.

How Far We Aren't

2012-01-03T10:05:00.000-08:00

The industry through which I earn my pay is not a very sustainable one in any way, shape, or form. I knew this. But it really hit me a few weeks ago. Pull up a mouse, let me tell you my tale.

Hollywood is all about image. In casting offices all over, images are printed out again and again and again. Computers have helped cut out a little of the massive mounds, pounds, reams of paper, but not by much. It's about holding the image in your hands, making up boards, discarding. (And since it's about paper, it's about ink cartridges too. How many used? Hard to know. Color printouts all day long.But that's another topic.) I noticed, in one such office, two giant blue barrels, into which the discards go. I gently inquired how often those hit overflow-point. I was informed, it isn't too bad, they get filled and emptied maybe every other day. At this point, I am still slightly horrified by the waste, but not completely dismayed yet.

No, that came shortly afterwards. The tale goes on that the bins are taken by a shredding company. After all, these pages contain personal information that would be very bad to get out, and for some reason, shredding this stuff is not enough. And here's where the horror comes in: because simply shredding the personal information is not enough (???), it is far too dangerous for the shredding company to do anything with that shredded stuff. So they keep it. Yes, they keep these bags and bags and bags and bags of shredded paper and material in storage. In storage. It never goes anywhere. It just sits there. this prime paper (that I at least thought, well, it's going to get recycled) just goes to some storage place somewhere and sits. Moldering. Rotting. Just... sitting. Ignored, soon forgotten... pointless.

Not that I should have been surprised. I've seen first-hand what so-called recycling is really like. We think so long as we throw plastic in the bins, everything is hunky-dory. it's not. That stuff, IF it even gets processed, just gets shipped overseas. We don't DO anything with it. Someone in China might, or it might just get dumped in some third-world country. All we know is it's gone from our sight.

One office in one town in one state in one country. Multiply that by all the offices you can think of that shred documents then multiply that by towns and cities you can think of off the top of your head, and now you can start to get a sense of what I felt that day.

We're taking on water. And we are not bailing fast enough.

Time to Try Soap Nuts

2012-01-02T16:20:00.000-08:00

Laundry is done. Well, OK, the laundry hamper is empty for at least an hour, anyway. Give or take. Good second day to the year.

Have you tried soap nuts yet? Why not? Does the "nut" part freak you out? Do you need your laundry to smell like fake fragrance and chemicals, instead of nothing at all? Can you just not wean yourself from the liquid stuff? Stuff in plastic jugs? What do you do with all those jugs, anyway? Did you know you can throw the spent soap nuts in your yard where they can just quietly bio-degrade? Can you do that with your plastic jug? I triple-dog dare you. Even with the smallest possible container, aren't you still just left with a plastic thing and chemicals in your clothes and on your skin? Even the most "natural" brand... what's in it? Have you looked? Will you now? Do you think your clothes are cleaner than mine? Don't you think Mother Nature would give us whatever we need, that we don't need to MAKE stuff like this?

Anyway.

We were ordering our soap nuts from a place in Canada, until I discovered a wonderful little local company. (Well, local for now) Eco-Nuts has really high quality product, you can visit http://econutssoap.com/ to look at all their great stuff! I encountered the company at a green event, and I contacted Mona about getting a sample. She sent over the "nuts" (they aren't really nuts, they are the shells, but whatevs, right?), which were definitely of the quality that was promised. She also sent some liquid detergent. I had never tried that, but I loved that it came in a little recyclable aluminum bottle. Their products don't come in plastic, and I love that. I have been using the nuts, so I did not get around to using the liquid. Today, I found it and thought, well, why not. It's a tiny bottle; I figured it was just a sampler size. That's a quarter there in the picture. The cap is about as big around as the coin. SO, how much of this do I dump in? I looked at the instructions... ONE little tiny cap-full! That's it! Less for an HE machine. Which, in an apartment, I'm lucky with the crap machines in our laundry room.

I think I love the liquid stuff. I'll keep on with the nuts themselves because I love those too. I love knowing the are made by Nature, and clean my clothes gently and leave less pilling and NO smell.

Hit up Mona at Eco-Nuts. Tell her Good Green Witch sent you. Hopefully, you'll try them and never go back.

Do I Even Need to Point This Out?

2012-01-02T13:31:00.000-08:00

"Kimberly-Clark is looking to shake up the toilet-paper accessory category with toilet roll covers from designer Jonathan Adler.

To boost awareness about a new formulation of its Cottonelle toilet paper that it says is 30 percent stronger, Kimberly-Clark Inc. decided to forgo traditional advertising. Instead, it's offering limited-edition boxes to hide your backup rolls. Who knew you needed such a thing?

It's the latest effort by consumer product makers to spice up stagnant categories with eye-catching design."

'Cuz, you know, toilet paper needs shake-up.

I cannot figure out if these are made from paper or plastic. I guess I'll have to check them out in a store. Either way... Sigh. Really? I mean, come on. One more stupid thing to collect dust and to throw away when you get tired of it. Totally not necessary. Can we stop? Can we stop coming up with pointless crap and get back to the important stuff? Who buys this???

Are they made in China? THAT would be the icing on the cake.

Not Fit For Human Exposure

2011-12-31T17:48:00.000-08:00

And by that, I mean me.

It's amazing how a simple shopping stop can be so trying. I don't mind crowds, I don't mind traffic. What I mind is looking around at people in check-out lines and seeing just how much plastic is going on around me. Here I am in a not-quite-Whole-Foods-but-actually-better store, a more natural store where the more health-conscious types shop... good meats, nice produce, lots and lots of homeopathic type stuff. And yet... The woman in front of me gets everything double-bagged. This, while every single little bit of produce is in it's own plastic bag. I don't bag things like the kale I grabbed; it doesn't need to go in one. Neither does my spinach. It was all I could do to maintain a civil expression on my face. I almost asked why she didn't feel the need to put her bananas in a separate produce bag. (I didn't.)

Other checkout lines... more produce bags. More plastic bags. It's a Saturday. Were people not planning to stop at the store? Where are the reusables?

I thought we were further than this. I thought we were making progress. I thought I was in a store surrounded by educated people who cared about stuff. They have a whole section of gluten-free, for crying out loud! Are we not advanced?

I guess not. Maybe I just shouldn't go out in public anymore. maybe I just need to not look around at anything or anyone. Maybe... ah, never mind. Maybe 2012 will be better. Maybe we'll learn something. Maybe people will start to hear as well as listen.

Maybe.

Nature Made or Man Made?

2011-12-30T09:29:00.000-08:00

Sea sponges are really cool. I've always liked them. They are kinda weird. I looked them up: "The Sea Sponge is not a coral, and is not a plant, rather it is classified as an animal which has neither brain nor central nervous system. Sea Sponges live on the ocean floor, they attach themselves permanently to a solid location under the water and they do not move around." Cool, right? They reproduce by budding or breaking off or just catching errant free-flowing sperm from one another! They fascinate me. And sponges are everywhere in our lives, but mostly the fake kind, not the real "animals".

Someone gave me a real natural sea sponge for use in the shower. I'd been using a synthetic one that was also given to me. I've used a loofah before too, but those can be really scratchy. But I like them because they are natural. As, of course, are sea sponges. I really hadn't used one before, I guess, because after trying it, I had to wonder why I don't always use them. It's the perfect blend of soft and scratchy. Mother Nature provides. But, then I got to thinking. I think a lot in the shower. Good ideas come up in there.

Sea sponges are animals. Does that mean vegans are against them? I brought the question to social media, as I have lots of vegan acquaintances. Hazard of the trade. (Little joke there.) I mean, if using worms for composting is a no-no because you are "enslaving" worms by doing that, then surely being so bold as to use a dead animal to exfoliate is a giant oops. The discussion was pretty... enlightening. I thought I would share.

It would seem loofahs are preferable because they are plants and sponges are animals and animals are a "no" even though they really have no brains or awareness... just basic functions. About as alive as a plant, right? So where's the line? Is wool a no? That comes from an animal. But no animal is killed for it. Someone said, no, sea sponges are taken from the ocean and are over-harvested. (Isn't everything?) Another respected friend said, why not use a cloth? Well... there's a sticky wicket. How eco-friendly is cotton? Not very. MASSIVE amounts of pesticide there. Organic cotton? Well, better, but... Bamboo? All these things still require processing which takes chemicals and energy. Sea sponges require... harvesting and drying. They are insanely regenerative, and if harvested responsibly and properly, they are fine. Plus, I would think, an added bonus is the desire to keep the water where they live and breed clean and free from pollutants. So, that's a good thing, right? You don't genetically modify them, you don't pump them full of chemicals or growth hormone, you just let them grow. You let them grow in a healthy ocean environment. To me, that's better than producing cotton. There is incentive to keep their home pristine. That's pretty high up there in my book.

And did I mention that they are the perfect blend of soft and scratchy?

None of the points against really washed for me. (Small pun intended.) Cloth instead? No, manufacturing cloth is probably bigger harm in the long run. Over-harvested? Not if done properly and sustainable, which is easy to do. Animal? I wear leather, I eat meat, so that's not really there for me as an argument. Loofah instead? Maybe sometimes. To me, it boils down to this: Man manufactures, but Mother Nature provides. Why not take care of her so she can continue to do so? Awareness, people. There it is.

I shall continue to use my sea sponge with my Dr. Bronner's soap. And I will thank the Mother every time. (And Dr. Bronner too, I guess.) Will I run out and buy another when this one has finished? Maybe. I'll find a place that harvests them responsibly, of course. Synthetic sponge? Nope. Natural? Yes. Do I need them for dishes, for make-up? No. There are other good things for that. But for this, Nature provides, and I'm good with that.

Good info found on: http://www.seasponges.com.au/information/sea-sponge-facts

Quickie on Chemical Smells

2011-12-26T17:40:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a day of vegging out on the couch with my cousin, whom I rarely see. We saw a few "Extreme Christmas Lights"-type shows, which were horrifying and we couldn't stop watching, but I digress.

It was a commercial, and my cousin's remark that got me. You know the commercial... people are blindfolded and brought into a disgusting mess of a place and asked what they smell, as the place was doused with *insert product name here you know what it is (hint hint it's pictured)* right before they came in. People swear it smells like fresh fields and flowers and everything and are then completely horrified and just plain blown away when they take off their blindfolds. I've long been irked by these commercials. I may have snorted or something. My cousin said, "I don't know what's scarier: what's in those rooms or that the chemicals cover it."

She's brilliant. She nailed it in that statement. We should be completely flabbergasted that whatever is in those cans is SO laden with CRAP that it can cover that stuff. Do you really want that in your lungs? In your child's lungs?? Pets?

We see things so wrong.

Amazing.

Oh - and those Christmas Light shows? Just - wow. A whole other blog.

I Have Questions.

2011-12-26T17:20:00.000-08:00

My mother tells me I was always crazy-inquisitive. I think my "why" phase is still happening. So, I have questions. They don't stop. I don't always have answers. I'm going to put a bunch of 'em down here, and work on answering them in the next few blogs. Maybe someone will answer a few for me. I tend to come up with the ones that don't *really* have answers. Not so much hypothetical, just... not so answerable.

Why don't we think ahead anymore? How'd that happen? Did we ever?

Why is it "whatever jobs, now, and damn the consequences" and not "better jobs that are better for the future"?

Why is there a new kind of mascara ever other day? Don't they all pretty much work the same? Does the mascara technology really advance that much?

Why do people use throw-away plates and utensils at home?

Why do we still use plastic when we know better?

What happened to these humans between 17-31-ish? How did they totally miss the boat on everything and why are they so clueless?

Why does anyone have more than 2 kids?

Why do people have more than 2 kids when they can't spend quality time with them or give them healthy stuff?

Why do we think chemicals smell clean?

Do vegans use sea sponges?

Why do some vegans oppose composting with worms?

What is up with vegan dental floss??

Why must omnivore restaurants offer vegan dishes but vegan places don't offer omnivore choices?

Why do pagan bookstore carry christian material but christian bookstores don't carry pagan material?

And mostly: Why do we completely ignore the evidence that is right in our face?

I guess the short answer to all these things is: It's just easier. Right? It's easier to just think of the now, easier to take the jobs that are handed over rather than demanding better ones with a healthy side of change, it's easier to throw things away and use plastic and clean with the cheap stuff that everyone else uses and well hell we just want kids and we'll figure it out later.

These and more keep my brain a-spinnin'. I'm going to be working on them for awhile. Feel free to chime in anytime.

Where Have You Been All My Life?

2011-12-26T16:17:00.000-08:00

So I have overcome the brain-washing and the duping and have learned that a cast iron skillet does wonders for the simplest most humble grilled cheese sandwich, and everything else, too. And I have this base desire to own a whole set of Le Creuset in yellow - no, green - no, yellow... well, whatever. That will have to wait until I have my own TV show or something.

This holiday, though, found me gifted with a beautiful enameled 5 1/2 quart dutch oven. (My coworker listens to me when I talk!) We have a plain cast iron one, but you can't do just anything in those. So this was a welcome addition to my kitchen. And I did not wait long to try it.

How I feel about mine!

I'm convinced I will not have awesome pasta sauce again until I make it from my own home-grown tomatoes and I jar it for a supply over the winter (this IS the plan for next winter), but I thought, well, let's see what we can do here. Chopped my onions, chopped my garlic, got my chicken "sausage" ready. Put my onions in with a little oil. Oh, this is troubling, look, it's getting brown stuff stuck on the bottom. Well, I guess this will take some getting-used-to. Can't be great and right the first time out all the time. Garlic in. OK. Definite stickies. Sigh. I'll do better next time. Sausage, in. (Meanwhile it smells extra good, I AM noticing that.) But wait... what's this? The brown goodness stuck on the bottom came right up and off! Could it... could it be... stuff doesn't STICK to this when used properly????

The lid, so nice and heavy, is keeping all that flavor in! That iron is keeping the heat so nicely distributed! OK, so I still have a little mark on my hand because I had the heat up a LITTLE high and the bubbling sauce got over-zealous. But I am pretty sure that is the best sauce (I'm not from Jersey, it's sauce, not gravy) (and it's not "red sauce" it's just sauce) I have made while relying on those horrid jars of crap. (Yes, I do feel dirty, why do you ask?)

It's the wonderful beautiful heavy pot that made my sauce extra good, I know it. I just made chicken noodle soup in it today. My Hunny got a cold for the holiday, and what better excuse to try it out on soup from scratch? Yes, it rocks.

So where has this stuff been all my life?? Yeah, it's pricey, but with good care, it will last probably the rest of my life. Remind me again why we stopped using this stuff in favor of lighter cheaper just-plain-crappier crap? Because I cannot remember. Piece by piece, I will grow my collection. And when I make sauce from my own home-grown tomatoes with my own home-grown garlic and my own home-grown onions and herbs, it will be EPIC. :)

Learning That Waste Begets Waste!

2011-12-15T11:16:00.000-08:00

Ahh, the yearly office holiday cards. Sure, there are "eco-friendly" cards with envelopes made from recycled product... blah blah woof woof... and yeah it is a nice sentiment and people appreciate it... Sigh... and really what else do you do, it's expected, it's the "proper" thing to do, it's rude if you don't, and oh it makes people feel so nice for, what? three seconds? Maybe I'm not giving the whole thing enough credit.

Nah.

Some traditions can go away, slip away into the great night, never to be heard from again. If I can get myself past the thought of the cards themselves (which I can't anyway), then looking at the waste AROUND the waste is enough to send me over. Think about it: You got the cards. You got all the packaging the cards came in. You got the plastic that they wrap around the bundles of cards to keep them fresh. (???!) You got the boxes.

THEN... you print out the labels. Printer cartridge waste created. Then you have the empty pages of non-recyclable stuff the labels were peeled from. And then you have the strips of crap from the envelopes that cover the sticky part because, you know, who the heck wants to actually have to lick or moisten the envelope to seal it?

If we look and think just a little past, beyond... then the obvious waste is even more wasteful. Can't we re-think some of this stuff? Must we keep on in the same tracks and habits? Who is profiting? Who is gaining? Who is losing?

Where do YOU see more waste that goes below the surface of it all?

Un-learn Cards - Do You Realize?

2011-12-05T09:10:00.001-08:00

Used to be a card-sender. Now, not so much. Here and there. And I almost never go into a drug store, and even less wander into the greeting card aisle when in a drug store. So, as I walked through that very area the other day, I was surprised at how many musical cards there are now.

They are fun. They are cute. My cousin loves to send them. They make people smile, laugh even. Happy! Good times.

Do you realize that every single one of those cute, fun, happy little things is considered e-waste?

But it's so small. So what? It's harmless. Am I really going to be this nit-picky? Well, yes. Because this is just one of those things that is a tiny useless piece of e-waste that will add up. How big of a pile is a million of these things? And because they are cards, no one thinks anything of throwing them in regular trash, when actually they are NOT regular trash. Tiny bits of chemicals... precious metals... for what? 2 seconds of "Oh ha ha how cute" then immediately forgotten? What's really the point?

Sure, it's so small it may as well be harmless. But where does it end? We aren't learning anything. We aren't changing for the better, we aren't improving, we just keep going in the wring direction. Here I was, in one aisle in one drug store in one small part of one big town in one big state, so let me think of how many times this scene is repeated. How about those that aren't sold, and just end up in a heap because they don't work anymore?

Staggering, isn't it?

Sure, they are NICE. They are pretty. They are delightful (for 5 seconds). WHAT'S the POINT? Do we need these? Can 't we enjoy a nice, full, satisfying life without these? Are you going to die thinking, "I'm so sorry I never sent or received a greeting card that played music."

I surely hope not.

This is another case of the big greeting card companies making scads of money on nothing-really-useful. And it's not like they are creating jobs. Some little factory in China surely makes these. Are they enriching our lives so much that we cannot do without them?

There are other ways to show love or spread a little smile. Better ways. They might take a little more time and effort than buying a card and sending it, but isn't that part of it? Am I being overly picky? Maybe. I'm OK with that.

Un-learning Gift Wrap

2011-12-04T15:03:00.001-08:00

According to Hallmark research, the gift wrap industry accounts for approximately $2.9 billion a year in retail sales. (Source: Hallmark Industry Estimates, 2009)

Gift bags were introduced in 1987 and, according to Hallmark research and sales history, they have been the number one way consumers choose to present gifts since 2002.

Hallmark is credited with founding the gift wrap industry in 1917.

I almost don't feel like I need to say anything after that. But you know me. I will.

We spend perfectly good money on something that is going to be torn up and thrown away. Sure, it's pretty for a few days. But what's the point? Pretty? Pretty is the point? Ugh.

I cannot and will not understand that line of thinking anymore. There are so many ways to present presents that do not involve buying a wasteful product that will only end up as garbage. Plastic covering it before you buy it... trees felled to make the inside tubes, and the paper itself, unfriendly ink and dying processes... there's so much wrong and unnecessary about wrapping paper, and really nothing redeeming. Oh, wait, it creates jobs. I forgot. So long as we create jobs, we can do anything. Damn the consequences to the future.

You can wrap things in material, bandannas, newspaper, brown paper that can be decorated... reusable shopping bags, t-shirts... SO many different things! It might be different if there was some irreplaceable need for wrapping paper, but there is not! It is NOT a necessity! It's one of the least necessary things I can think of! $2.9 billion??? SURELY that money is better spent in other areas. No? Just me?

Someone, please, explain this to me if you would. Because, for the life of me, I can't come up with a reason for wrapping paper except that Hallmark likes money. It doesn't matter if you find it at the 99 Cent Store; it's waste and it is not needed. The only way it is good is if you have kept and re-used it for years. There are a few people who manage that, but it's still going to be waste in someone's house somewhere, some time soon.

Don't get me started on all the plastic ribbons.

Re-Learning Common Sense

2011-11-28T10:37:00.001-08:00

The main thing we know about common sense is that it is no longer common. I don't know if we have over-protected or bred it out of ourselves of if something in the water blocks it, but it sure is scarce these days. We shouldn't need to be told to not hold hot coffee between our legs while driving, or not to text while driving, or that plastic bags are bad... yet, here we are.

And we really shouldn't need to be told to toss on a sweater instead of the heater. Isn't that something our grandparents just knew? I saw a picture posted on Facebook by one of my greener (I thought) friends of his absolutely otherwise adorable wife... in front of the heater, freezing, warming herself in front of it, while all she had on was a t-shirt and SHORTS. Oh, and warm slippers. Umm...

Frequently, I am silently horrified by such images. I refrain from commenting, because, after all, I try to get along. I try to not piss off people with whom I am normally friendly. I often pass up a chance to point certain things out, because... well... it can be off-putting. All I really wanted to say, though, was, "For frick's sake, try putting on some warmer clothes before you crank the heater and waste energy!!! Don't you KNOW that already???" Sigh. When I am chilly, I put on warmer stuff. If I am still chilly, and just on the couch or such, I add a blanket. If it is still really cold, THEN the heat. Common. Sense.

It's not about "Oh, so what, it's their heating bill." No. It's all our energy, and the distribution thereof, and the need for more and more and fracking and drilling and ALL that. There are two empty units in the building across the street from us, right up front, and they have lights on in them 24/7. It makes me crazy. It's their bill, but it is OUR energy. The whole planet's. They are getting that energy from UTAH from a coal-burning plant. Should some family in Utah suffer the health effects of coal-burning because YOU can't toss on something a little warmer or be bothered to turn off useless lights?

Didn't think so.

And to anyone who feels the snarky need to say yes to that, please pull over, put down your keys, and step off the planet. We're better without you. Thanks. You are excused.

The Process of (Un?) Re-Learning

2011-11-27T12:48:00.001-08:00

The more I look around, observe, read, learn, the more I realize the depths to which we have been led around and duped. It's so much that there will be a series of these over the next few weeks.

One such moment came up as I used our trusty, not very old but definitely favorite, cast iron skillet. We pretty much leave it on the stove all the time, since we use it SO much. I think back as to why these have been replaced in most of our lives. Cast iron pots and pans last forever. In fact, the longer you use them, the better they get. The cheap crap pans we use nowadays, the light, "non-stick" things, do not last very long at all. And you have to use plastic spoons on them. Which also need replaced all the time. Unless you use bamboo, but I don't know of a majority of people who do that. (They should, those things are great.) It's a vicious cycle, and the manufacturers, corporations (can you say DuPont? I can) prefer it that way. Am I hinting of a conspiracy theory? Not so much but yes. (LOL) I was an X Files avid viewer. Let's just say that, over time, as we know, most things we use that used to last forever have been replaced by planned obsolescence. This is not a new statement for me, you know that. But I'm really starting to laser-focus in on it now.

Like my pan, as I pondered it today, as my onions caramelized nicely... When did we move away from them? And why? What were the reasons? Let us examine:

1) Stuff sticks.
No, it really doesn't. Once that pan is properly prepared and seasoned, nothing sticks to it. And I mean nothing. DuPont just wanted to sell Teflon, so they spun it, and we fell for it.

2) They are heavy.
Yeah, they are. And we are WEAK. Heck, I lift it for a good core exercise. I realize that older or infirm people would have a hard time with them, but your average everyday homemaker should have no problem. We are weak and lazy, and that is that. Heavy shmeavy. Get a backbone.

3) They are SO hard to clean.
*Insert obnoxious buzzer sound here.* Couldn't be further from the truth. It takes a few times before the thing is properly seasoned, sure... but then, it is the biggest piece of cake to clean that thing. Oh... and no detergents or chemicals needed, so there's another incentive for the big companies to get rid of cast iron in favor of their stuff.

Some other pluses that are seen as minuses by those who want to make money off of us:

1) This thing keeps the heat very steady. I actually HAVE to use a lower flame to cook with it. Therefore, I save gas. That's bad when you want people to use MORE gas and energy.

2) Since nothing sticks, I don't have to buy stuff like Pam etc, thereby saving money and keeping chemicals out of my food. Another bad thing for those who sell all that crap. They don't make money if we aren't buying their crap.

3) It will last me the rest of my life.
Enough said.

Maybe you can't use them on those glass-top stoves. But I never liked those anyway. Restaurants use some awesome pans that are good and light and expensive and they use them til you can see through them... and that works... but you notice THEY don't use non-stick pans that we buy every few years. Those were sold to us under false pretenses and we fell for it and we are still falling for it. Let's stop, shall we? Let's UN-learn what they have spun around us and RE-learn what we used to know better.

And I have to say, I have NEVER had grilled cheese sandwiches that taste as awesome as out of this pan. I'm in love.

What are you un-learning?

Perfect Re-purpose

2011-11-26T15:54:00.001-08:00

So Turkey Day is over. The food was great. Lots of leftovers. The stupidity of Black Friday is over. I avoided it. Now, it's the weekend and it is time to tackle the remains of that turkey. Reusing and re-purposing all over the place.

I think my post-T-day soup is what I look forward to more than the turkey itself. Well, very close. Right now, the remains are happily reducing on the stove in a big old enameled stock pot.

Making stock is the ultimate in using everything around you instead of throwing it out. You throw in the parts of the bird you would otherwise toss. You throw in tops of celery and ends of onions that you would otherwise toss. It's the old days. It's using everything because you have to and because it makes good sense and because there is no other way. That, and it kept the house warm.

Naturally, I like to chop up my soup veggies all at once ahead of time. But you have to put them in to the saute pan at different times, not all at once. This means a whole buncha' bowls or plates... kind of a pain. I sighed as I got multiple containers out. Then I thought, Hey...

Yeah, I had picked up, in a hurried situation, for a party, one of those darn veggie trays you get in the store, you know, everything all ready and cut and with the dip right there. It was convenient. Snort. But I did NOT throw out the tray. I figure I could do something with it at some point. I was right. It's perfect for separating my onions, which go in first, then my garlic, which has to go in after the onion or it'll burn... and so on. It was perfect! I love it! I shall keep it for just this purpose til it wears out.

Oh, that's right, it's plastic. It won't wear out. It might break and then become useless, but it won't wear out.

Yeah.

But, I am really enjoying this whole process. I want more. And I kinda love that my hands still smell like celery and onions!

Quick and Easy, No Purchase Necessary

2011-11-19T16:47:00.001-08:00

File this one under Major Duh.

I've been fretting over my water bottles. They were getting grungy inside. My lovely Libre Tea bottle, as well... I just couldn't get my hand down in there to scrub them and I didn't have any bottle scrubbers. They got grungier and grungier. Surely, I would have to go buy a stupid plastic thing to get down in there. Wait,t hey make good, eco-friendly,, well-made ones too. Just have to get to that store... Nope, still getting grungy. And damn those fancy eco-scrubbers are pricey. I hate having to pay a lot for green. It's such a pet peeve of mine. But what else to do? I'm not going to buy plastic junk just because it's convenient...

Finally, I looked at my scrubby sponge and I looked at the bamboo spoon in the dish drainer. Um, wait, I can just do this. Uh huh, yeah, just stuffed the sponge into the WaterGeeks bottle I love, and smoosh it around with the handle of the spoon. Wow, that worked so well that it might just get the tea stains off the inside of my Libre. Sure enough...

I don't know what's worse: that it took me so long to come up with that, or that I even pondered buying something to scrub out my bottles. I mean come on. I'm smarter than this. I'm embarrassed for my own brain.

But happy that I have clean bottles now. Tee hee. I guess we all have a long way to go.

Viva la Via

2011-11-18T10:01:00.001-08:00

It was doomed from the start.

Starbucks... now, I love me some Starbucks, I really do, lots of people take issue with them, but I worked there in NYC and pretty much had a good experience and they do a lot of philanthropic things and treat their employees decently and damn I love the coffee. (Which may explain that run-on sentence after a few cups this morning.)

But Starbucks came out with Instant Coffee. Do I hate instant coffee? No. I don't drink a lot of it but I have nothing really against it. Hell, I've added instant coffee to my coffee. Yeah I'm just that hooked. What I hate is that they felt the need to put their instant coffee in single serve convenient packs. Of plastic something material. So it's convenient.

With that in mind, I would never have purchased Via to try on my own. But they put a sample on their pound-bags of coffee, so that we may be hooked by its convenience. So I gave it a try, as it came on the pound-bag of coffee we bought for our French press. It's the fair thing to do.

Back to the first statement, though... it was doomed from the start. I must have had it in for myself. I spilled a little of the coffee while opening the packet. The teapot splorged boiling water everywhere when I poured it into the cup. The agave syrup splooshed everywhere and gave me the stickies the rest of the day because it got everywhere around my mug before I realized it. I splashed the coffee out just stirring it. (This was after I DID have coffee previously, so we can't blame it on that.)

While that may have had an effect on my experience, I'll attempt to be objective. Was it delicious? Sure. It was. Better than most other instants? Probably. Is it worth it? Absolutely not. Do we need pre-packaged little bits of instant coffee in ours lives? Nope. These are no better than those stupid plastic pods of coffee that are STILL all the rage (and still causing me rage).

This is definitely a to-avoid product.

Now, if you don't mind, my French press awaits...

It's Still Flowing.

2011-11-13T17:51:00.001-08:00

Documentaries are usually something I avoid. Seriously, I'm usually angry and hopeless enough without being proven right. But, I made an exception and went to see The Big Fix. (Trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg_fpr6XBFM&feature=colike )

Blurb: "The scathing documentary 'The Big Fix' investigates questions of corporate negligence and political corruption surrounding last year's Deepwater Horizon oil spill and its lingering aftereffects on the Gulf Coast." Yup. Pretty much sums it up.

Did I cry through the whole thing? Yup. Was I disgusted and despairing? Oh heck yah. I'd seen the couple who made this film before, and hearing them speak was very enlightening and uplifting. Josh and Rebecca Harrell Tickell (They made the documentary "Fuel") are two seriously cool people. This is, I am sure, not a film they wanted to have to make. It can't be in wide release soon enough. The truths that are exposed are so important to get out there.

At the risk of blowing any surprises, here goes. Think the oil was stopped? Wrong. Still leaking. Think they stopped using Corexit because it's COMPLETELY toxic and forbidden by the EPA? Wrong. Think they aren't STILL using it to hide the still-leaking thing? Wrong. Think the seafood from the Gulf is OK to eat, that the water is OK to swim in? Need I answer that?

A cool part of the screening was that a couple from the area affected, Kevin and Margaret Curole, came in from Louisiana on their own dime to speak to us. Kevin said the shrimp were coming up without eyes, with deformed tails... Margaret said (and this really got me) that the mom dolphins are bringing their babies to the docks, carrying them in on their beaks, as if to say, "Help, we don't know what else to do." I take it even further in my brain that the moms are saying to us, "Look what you did, look what you did to my baby." Miscarried dolphins have washed up in mass numbers. It breaks my heart. Margaret thinks her son, who went in early to spray Corexit, will not outlive her. Corexit is a known toxin and they are STILL carting it in and spraying it and dumping it in the Gulf under the cover of night to hide the oil stuff still flowing.

Documentaries can either inspire you or make you want to slit your wrists. I asked a friend on the way in who had seen the first showing. She said, "Oh wrist-slitting for sure." The film was excellent; the knowledge and information was horrid. Josh and Rebecca - inspiring. I know what I have to do now. I know why I am moving back to my home town. And I'll do what I have to do. When I need strength I will think of Josh and Rebecca and Margaret and Kevin.

What can YOU do? See this movie the minute it's near you. Spread the word. If the movie isn't going to be near you any time soon, educate yourself about what is still happening down there, how screwed up the ecosystem is and will be for awhile. Talk about it. Ask questions. Make other people aware.

All this Occupy stuff around... we got lots more to talk about for sure. It's all tied together. Thanks for reading.

How Green is Green?

2011-11-12T07:46:00.001-08:00

So this product floated across my field of vision yesterday. It's claiming to be eco-friendly because it eliminated the need for staplers and staples. Now, I don't know everything, but I really wasn't aware that staples are high on the environmental destruction list...I know you don't want 'em in the microwave. But really, never gave them that much thought. But here is a product that - well, here, I'll let the text from the site tell you:

The Eco Cat Stapler free stapler staples papers together without staples!
No kidding!
Here is how it works:
The Eco Staple Free Stapler cuts out minuscule strips of paper in the corner area of your paper files and uses these strips to "sew up" up to five pages of standard paper together.
No more metal staples (so that's good for the planet and your wallet). Safe and better for paper shredders too.
3 x 3 x 2.5 inches
Environmentally Friendly
Kid Friendly
Stitches up to 5 pages together
Creates no paper waste.

It seems like a cool idea. It super-cute too. And apparently not a new idea, but now in fun shapes and designs. But, "environmentally friendly"? How? It's plastic. There is nothing environmentally friendly about plastic. I questioned it and was told hey it'll last forever and there's no need to buy staples which are made from steel and less packaging and product over time.

OK. But when it breaks? All things break. And when a plastic thing breaks, it is not repairable and therefore becomes landfill junk. So is that green? Friendly? I think I want my stapler of Wayback, that metal hunk that lasted and lasted and could be used as a weapon, too.

In the meantime, I am not buying this. That's buying as in literally and intellectually. And the site I saw this on sells all kinds of kitschy plastic crap anyway, so I am doubly not sold.

Can we all just step back and try to recognize the important? Don't sweat the petty stuff, just pet the sweaty stuff? Yes, there are LOTS of bigger issues out there in the world, and we are dealing with them, (finally) but it's also made up of all the little things, the petty things, we do every day. Wake up. Focus.

And quit buying this sh*t.

Eh, Not Convinced

2011-11-06T14:50:00.000-08:00

I must really be a tough sell. I'm just not convinced.

A great wonderful cool Green Festival was last weekend at the LA Convention Center. Similar festivals and expos have failed, but this one was VERY good. I chose to focus on the good booths and try to ignore the greenwashing, which, thankfully, was not in abundance. A little product did catch my eye, though. Biodegradable wet wipes. Um, OK. I'll look.

Well, let's get past the plastic packaging and the little plastic container that is somehow necessary to use this product. Let me give it a try. It's a little pellet of dried "natural fiber"... a little dried thing of what she said was rayon. Yeah, I'll get back to that. she puts a few drops of water on it and POOF it's a wet wipe. Normally I am charmed by these things. I find them slightly magical. (What can I say, I am easily amused) OK. Great... I have a wipe. Great... it's biodegradable. Now what? I'm sure this is a great thing, they say it's superior because regular wipes dry out and go to waste and these start out dry.... so... Um... Yay? Am I excited now? Do Harold Angels sing when we make these wet? No?

Yeah, not convinced. Let's re-visit that rayon thing. Rayon is "natural", sure, but are you aware of the chemicals that are involved in getting rayon fiber but it's a lot. Rayon is from cellulose, and it is a buttload of nasty stuff that it takes to make that cellulose into nice fabric. I used to love it til I knew. So unless they are making these from leftover rayon scraps and threads... yeah, no, I can't even sell myself on that one. Rayon = Not So Eco. Make them out of something else and ditch all that horrible packaging, and I MIGHT be halfway convinced that this is a valid product.

In the meantime, I surely can do without. I know, no kids, when you have kids, you NEED wet wipes. Uh huh. Go ahead with that. It's all fine. Nothing to see here. I just fail to see what is so "green" about this product. To me, it's just another piece of plastic noise that we don't need.

Who needs a house out in Hackensack?

2011-10-25T11:11:00.000-07:00

Is that all you get for your money?

Thank you, Billy Joel. You've been in constant play in my car for over a month now. The words leading up to that: "Mama Leone left a note on the door, it said Sonny, move out to the country. Working too hard can give you a heart attack..." A house in the country? Is that all you get for your money? "If that's movin' up then I'm movin' out." Yeah, this gets me thinking. Moving up? What IS moving up? For what are we striving? What's the fight, here? The struggle? What is the goal?

This is something with which we all wrestle, of course. I've been thinking about it more because my husband and I are planning our Great Escape. We are done with the city, we are done with Los Angeles, and we are heading back to a simpler, quieter life. So, I've been wondering if I have failed at the "Goals", if I am turning tail and fleeing back to my hometown, if I am not a "success". So now, we must define these terms. What IS success? Chasing money so we can buy things? Or is it a nice, comfortable house with a garden outside, and time to enjoy it? Bigger house, more expensive car, more stuff??? Is that what I am supposed to want?

It's not. I WANT to dig in the Earth in the summer, I WANT to can and jar my own stuff and live where there is less traffic and especially less noise. And most of all, less people. Many less people. I'm sure it won't be perfect, and it won't be easy, but it'll be quieter. Because I just don't get it. Is it me? What do we want out of life? What IS progress? More debt, more storage more crap? Maybe I'm getting old-fashioned in my middle age, but I don't see the point to that. Wasn't technology supposed to give us the time and ease to improve OURSELVES? I don't see that happening. We're not getting smarter, that's for sure. We are not being better stewards of the planet, that's for DAMNED sure. We're working harder, that's for sure. But I don't know why. Can someone answer that? I want time to read, to write, to get dirt under my fingernails. Do you think we can turn this all around, or are we all just going to keep on the path of destroying this place we live in/on?

Yeah, I'm dropping out. And I consider THAT to be progress. I want to be in a community where I am adding something positive. I don't want to be just another rat on the wheel. I want to enjoy the simple pleasures again. My grandparents worked hard, sure they did. But they had a nice house and good values. Can we get back to that? I'm sure going to try.

What say YOU? Does this make sense at all? What do you see as progress?

My brain is in a twist these days. Love to hear what you think...

Envirosax - Some Good Words for a Change!

2011-10-23T13:49:00.000-07:00

Let me begin by saying no, they are not paying me or bribing me. I love my Envirosax bag all on my own.

What do I love the most? (How do I love thee? Let me count the ways! LOL) Is it that it rolls up so small (They say on their site, the size of a piece of sushi!) that I can carry THREE of them in my admittedly huge purse and still have room for everything else, so that I am never without a reusable bag? Is it that it is SO strong that I have to make sure it's not too heavy for me when I pack it full of stuff? Is it that the handles are big enough to sling over my shoulder? Is it the flourish with which I unsnap and unroll it, with the beautiful colors causing people to notice, so I can look at them with a "Yeah I bring my own bags, you should too" look? Is it the admiration of the cashiers, who almost always comment on it?

I think it's the flourish. That's the part I love the most.

Envirosax (http://www.envirosax.com/faq) is a strong, sturdy, pretty bag that is HUGE but folds up SO nice and small. It's waterproof. It's made out of polyester.

Wait, what??? Yeah I know. Polyester bad. Why am I carrying this bag, then? Because I know it is going to last for YEARS. Literally, years. That's a lot of plastic bags I won't be using. It's a much more sustainable thing. And the company itself is a very environmental gig. They have other products that aren't made of polyester, and that's a good thing too. But I'm OK with my bag. It's very durable. It's easy to hand-wash it and it dries quickly. It is a move in the right direction, as they say in the FAQ's. I agree. The material is good for the bright designs and colors that make them attractive to people, so maybe they WILL use them more. The inks and dyes are eco-friendly. And if your bag has gotten past its prime, you can send it back to them and they will recycle it.

So, yeah, it's made from polyester. And I will continue to use it. And I will gift them to people. This is one of those times when convenience isn't an evil word. It is VERY convenient to toss this bag in my purse, in your backpack, your messenger bag, laptop bag, etc... it is easy to roll up, people notice and and maybe think about getting one too. I totally love the look people get on their face when such a small little thing becomes this huge bag that holds everything. I love that my husband is OK with carrying it because it isn't too girly. And I love that this company is trying to do things right.

Holidays are coming. This is a Good Green Gift alert. The company started in Australia and yes the bags are made in China... PLEASE go to their FAQ page to find out how those are good things. The link is above. Not everything made in China is completely evil, either. Expand your knowledge. It is your best arrow in your quiver.

And start your holiday shopping at Envirosax. Sure, I'm a big fan of the bags, but they have other cool stuff to check out as well. If enough of us use things like this, then we are teaching by example. When we whip out these bright bags, people will be curious and maybe even ask. If we gift them to people, they will use them instead of plastic throw-aways. (Well, we hope.)

These guys and this company and this product CAN help. So, yeah, I have some good things to say for a change. Nothing but good. And my Yuletide gifts? Guess!

Why Bother?

2011-10-15T22:19:00.000-07:00

My early-20's stepdaughter had moved in with us. She knows how greenly we try to live, but it seemed like she didn't quite know why. I feel like there is this whole age group who is just completely oblivious to certain perils in the world. I could be wrong, but it seems that 18 to about early 30-year-old's by and large do not feel the same sense of alarm, don't see the effects, don't care to do anything. Naturally, this is a generalization, but I'm just going by my experience.

Actual boxes o' stuff from the bathroom.

See, the stepdaughter moved back out but left a lot of her stuff here for awhile... I packed up her bathroom (well, because I want us to be able to use it again!), and I am alarmed. This is all from one person. It's more than my husband and I have combined. Way more. If this is all the plastic she has here in our place, how about where she is now? Does she have doubles of all this stuff? She must. All these containers, all these chemicals... it's everything I rail against on a daily basis, and here she brought it right in! And left it behind! Am I pointless? Am I useless? It kind of boggles my mind. This is the age of people who should be most concerned, because it's their children who will have a real problem, even more so that the rest of us. The young children are getting a good education about all this in elementary school. But did we miss a group? I stayed in someone's home a few months ago during a visit. The amount of STUFF in plastic containers was truly horrifying. I feel like I am in a vacuum, or I am just spoiled to hang around and talk to people who ARE aware, and that the reality is what is pictured here. Or is it just that I have seen a few bad examples?

Is there a point to all I say and write? Is it going to help? Is anyone hearing us? Are ENOUGH people hearing us? Are we past the point of no return, is it just simply too late? Are the marketing companies and corporations winning?

I have the news on now and I see that people are nowhere near stopping the use of plastic bags. It's all over the news to cut back, and yet, nothing happens to get people to stop. I talk to people every day who have never heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. What does it take? WHAT??

Just gotta keep going, one person at a time, if necessary. Well, at least I didn't introduce an additional person into the world to have to suffer through it. As for the stepdaughter... well, I can hope a little bit spilled over.

Good Witch Gone Bad

2011-10-15T16:32:00.001-07:00

It's so hard being surrounded by Green people. You'll undoubtedly find people greener than yourself. This is good, of course. No one is perfect. I'll be the first to admit I have a long way to go. But wow, did I get taken to task for my little shameful habit...

Gum.

I know, I know!!!! It's so bad! The wrapping, the plastic, the packaging, the plastic, the fact that it never will really go away, the plastic. But it's so small! But it's so bad!!! What's a green witch to do??

Gum.

Should I chew peppermint leaves instead? Mints? Drops?

Have you ever heard of tetracycline stains on teeth? A certain age range of you out there will know what I am talking about. I had them. I obsessed over and hated my teeth for decades. I was finally able to fix them at great expense (it's considered cosmetic so no insurance would help.) ALL of my teeth are coated, topped, capped, crowned or veneered in porcelain. I love them. I smile big for camera. The downside of a lot of dental work is that no matter how much I brush or use some kind of mouthwash (I do not use mouthwash anymore; chemicals and/or plastic bottles) or use my Water Pik (MIRACLE machine), I frequently have a super-nasty taste in my mouth. Baking soda and water works nicely but it's not something I carry in my purse. Mints, I am tempted to chew them and that is bad for my dental work and besides it takes of lot of them to conquer what one piece of gum does. Sprays? Drops? Nah. I just don't know anything that helps like poppin' a piece of gum.

So, back to the place where I got chastised. I was going to be speaking on stage, so I needed to rid myself of my gum. It was one of those events where they put out bins for everything, and you disposed of whatever accordingly. Facing all these bins, I realized my little gum could only go in the one marked "Landfill". It was a sinking feeling. Someone standing nearby definitely felt it necessary to make sure I felt the proper amount of shame for my little piece of gum. (I'll not criticize them for the supposed "Compostable" bin where people were putting plates that had CHEESE on them that is probably not great in there... but that's deflecting. I digress.)

I try to buy gum that comes in the least amount of packaging and plastic. I split sticks in half so it lasts twice as long. I do what I can. But I have not been able to give up the gum. I don't chew it obnoxiously, I don't crack it, I don't pop it, I just let it make my mouth taste better and my breath not offend.

I swear I'll try something else that would be more eco-friendly. I just haven't fully investigated it. So, in the meantime...

Gum.

Like I said...

2011-10-09T17:38:00.000-07:00

"New studies reveal that levels of BPA are massively higher in humans than previously assumed, causing major concern for what has been downplayed by the packaging industry as a false alarm."

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/033821_BPA_chemicals.html#ixzz1aKe6rl9k

The article points to canned goods as well... which, I guess, when we were little, cans were not lined with BPA. I don't know. Maybe. We didn't really have a lot of canned goods that I recall. Some. Not a ton. Of course we never ate that canned spaghetti and ravioli crap. We MADE food. But I know. It's so convenient. And we're SO busy.

Why should we be concerned? "BPA, or Bisphenol-A, leaches into food from plastic packaging and from the linings of canned foods, causing cancerous tumors and developmental disorders, including learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder, and deformations of sexual organs, especially in newborns." Um, sound like it could be a valid point, and what IS happening?

If you can't do away with it altogether, just cut back. And keep cutting back. There's no need. Soda is not anything you need every day. It's bad for you. They sell it in glass; insist on glass. We can make these companies stop using plastic. Demand it. The government will have to step in again to protect us from ourselves when it should not have to.

I honestly don't know what it is going to take to get people to cut back on plastic. We know it's bad for us, we know it's bad for the planet, and yet we just keep at it blithely, without thought. We have to turn this around. We are the only ones who can do it. I get sick of sounding like a broken record (wow, there's a phrase that will not be understood in the near future!), but the message is just not sinking in. At all.

What can we do? I enjoy the comfort of my groups of green people who know this stuff, but it's far from the vast majority. What do we do? And why have kids if we aren't going to protect them from this kind of stuff? Having kids makes us too busy to care about their health and future? Is it just me that thinks that is crazy-backwards?

Thoughts?

Less Plastic is Not Better Plastic

2011-10-08T20:27:00.000-07:00

"But it's BPA-free!"

"But it uses LESS plastic than the other bottles!"

It's still plastic, people. I could stop there, but you know me, I must continue.

Plastic is plastic. It's not going away. Even though there is less of it, it's still IT. It's still gonna float around in the ocean. It still sits in the landfills. It still breaks and then becomes useless 'cuz ya can't fix plastic and you still gotta throw it away. How about NO plastic? Can we try that for at least a little bit? Maybe just in spurts at first? Maybe?

It can be done. Sure it's not as cheap or convenient, but what is at stake here? I am quite sure I don't have a normal household. I've been to other homes and - maybe I'm overly sensitive to this kind of thing, but - I am ALARMED at the number of plastic bottles of CRAP found there! DO we even think about it?? Or do we just go about our days with nary a thought?

What can we do? What do we say? Living by example clearly doesn't work well. Do we say something? Do we point it out? Do we just continue to write and hope some of it bleeds through?

I was given a bottle of "special" water. I was in a situation to be polite, and the water was very good, and the bottle was BPA-free and made largely from RPET (recycled plastic)... but it's still a plastic bottle and it still isn't going anywhere. Just stop the madness. We need to cut way back and just get it over with. I've said it before, I'll say it again, the only way to get rid of the 5 Gyres is to stop adding to them. People are taking stuff from the Gyres and making other stuff from it, and that is a good thing, but on our end, can't we just... stop?

Stop. And now I will.

More Chemicals for your Washer

2011-09-25T16:33:00.000-07:00

Because, well, you know, you don't have enough already. What with your detergents and your softeners and your dryer sheets, buy this, too.

Downy has introduced a new wonderful product. Oh, don't fret, they still have you using Downy Fabric Softener... this is IN ADDITION to Downy Fabric Softener. You know, cuz we NEED even more crap sticking to our clothes and sucking into our skin.

"Use a little or a lot—you decide how much scent you want. That’s part of the fun."

Fun??? FUN????

You toss these in before you start the wash. They only make 2 scents right now... I'm sure they'll make more if enough suckers - er, uh, I mean consumers - buy them. Some people seemed to be griping a little at the price. I can imagine... Tide at 10-some-bucks PLUS Downy Regular Crap PLUS this stuff PLUS (I'm guessing) dryer sheets? Did I get it all?

Do ya see a trend here? Maybe a little bit of an issue?

I'm trying to think what they can come up with next. How many different scent things do we really need on our laundry? Someone please answer me 'cause I really don't know. I know my laundry smells like nothing, but apparently detergent+bleach+softener+dryer sheets needed one more thing.

I'm out.

Dishwashers

2011-09-18T14:55:00.000-07:00

After my last post about the whole Jet-Dry crap, and subsequent washing of dishes by hand, and the comments by all yinz (getting back to my Western PA vernacular), I got to thinking a little more. I haven't had a dishwasher in YEARS. My parents have one, and I never know how to load the damn thing, and somehow there are always complaints about its performance. And manufacturers are taking the phosphate out of detergents, because it's kind of bad stuff, but then the dishes don't get very clean. You have to rinse them well and hell by then you may have as well just washed 'em by hand, right? Seems like an awful lot of extra water to me. Rinsing them off... then all the water even in your "water saver" mode... hmmm.

People say washing dishes by hand wastes more water. I say no, not necessarily. You just have to be a little conscientious and judicious when washing by hand. For instance, don't fill up the whole damn sink THEN start washing. Wash while filling. Don't rinse one thing at a time. Stack them then rinse quickly. Don't use too much soap; then you don't have to rinse as much. And most importantly, don't turn the water on full blast when you really don't need to.

SO THEN comes in the argument about TIME. My favorite. Greenie, I don't have time to do dishes. I'm too busy. I have kids. We make a lot of dishes. Um, that's what kids are FOR... to do dishes. If you have kids and they ain't doin' dishes, you are doing something seriously wrong. They're too busy with all their activities?? YOU are doing something seriously wrong. Chores are FOR kids. Kids are for chores. We all did them. It made us better. I know a certain 22-yr-old that can't do dishes to save her life. THAT is WRONG. Kids on step-chairs to reach the sink to do dishes? THAT'S more like it. We juggled school and homework and playtime and still were expected to do our chores. Period. We earned an allowance, we didn't just get it handed to us, or get "rewarded" for behavior we were supposed to exhibit anyway. Kids should do chores. I will not back off of that opinion, no matter how many people try to say I have no idea what it's like because I don't have kids. I was a kid. I did dishes. Every day. Get over yourself and get over your kids and figure it out.

Then there's my other favorite thing: families who use paper or Styrofoam (??????!!) plates at dinner because they don't have time/can't be bothered to do dishes. See the above paragraph so I don't have to repeat myself. There is NO excuse to use anything disposable at the dinner table. Hell, I ain't even giving a pass on lunch. PLATES. Clean things when done. Repeat.

This is what we call progress, Folks. Disposable lives and no time to do BASIC things that we used to have to do, but now we don't have time because we are too busy running around and stressing out to do the most basic things in the world. Make it into family time. Catch up on the day over dishes. You're spending time together, who cares if it's a "chore"? Whatever. Just frickin' do something.

Wait, wait.. we have free time now and we're happier and oh so much more productive and life is so much easier.

Oh. Wait. No it's not. No WE are not.

Let's go back, shall we?

UGH the commercial I just saw...

2011-09-17T19:16:00.000-07:00

...sent me straight in to my computer.

The new Jet-Dry commercial... or whatever the heck they call that stuff now (don't have a dishwasher, son't want one), shows a chick pulling a glass out of the dishwasher and getting thoroughly disgusted by "spots." She then proceeds to THROW the GLASS in the GARBAGE CAN. (Which, by the way, is nicely lined with a black trash bag. Subliminal sales.) Oh, but don't worry: they flash the word, "Dramatization" at the beginning, and they also say "Don't try this at home" as she flips the wine glass into her nice stainless steel garbage can.

I know. Just a commercial. But what is this saying???

Nothing, Rhonda. It's not saying anything. It's just a dumb commercial trying to sell a chemical that takes spots off your glasses that wouldn't have them on there if you washed them by hand. But we're too busy. It's a pain in the ass. My hands might get dry from the detergent. I'm too busy. Dishes are germy and they have to be sanitized in the dishwasher. There's just not enough time. It's a pain in the ass to have to actually WASH dishes. Oh, wait, I repeated myself in there somewhere.

Do you even know what's IN that stuff??? I don't. What makes your glasses dry ultra-fast after they get bombarded by other chemicals? More chemicals, that much I know. Really? So that we don't have some harmless stupid spots on glasses? So that we don't have to towel-dry stuff after it goes through the dishwasher?

I've never really quite gotten on board with the whole piling chemicals on top of other chemicals to do something I'm too busy/lazy to do. Oh, wait, here's what's in it:

Water	Diluent
Trideceth-4	Nonionic Surfactant
Magnesium Chloride	None
Propylene Glycol	Solvent
Alcohols Alkoxylates	Nonionic Surfactant
Sodium Cumene Sulfonate	Hydrotrope
Citric Acid	Complexing/Sequestering Agent
Zinc Acetate	None
Sodium Sulfate	Filler
Benzophenone-3	Other
Tetrasodium EDTA	Complexing/Sequestering Agent
Magnesium Nitrate	Stabilizer
Acid Blue 9	Colorant
Methylchloroisothiazolinone	Preservative
Magnesium Chloride	Stabilizer
Methylisothiazolinone	Preservative

Any questions?

I'm good.

Garbage In Garage Out Part 2

2011-09-15T18:45:00.000-07:00

A lot of people seem to have a deep concern for the safety of their garbage. Either that or they are too nancy to deal with a little mess. When grousing against plastic bags, the inevitable question comes up... what about my garbage can?

Yes. What about it?

Well, I need a bag in there to line it.

Why?

Well... it's...

Gross?? It's garbage. Of course it's gross.

Well don't you...

Nope. I know I can rinse the wastebasket out with very little water if I need to. And ya know what else? I bet you don't have a shortage of bags from other places... chip bags, bags from frozen foods... if you have to be so dainty about what you are throwing away, why not save those for the messy times? Are we SO worried about our garbage that we have to make sure it is tied up and saved for all posterity in plastic in the landfills? Not everything you throw away is gross and messy, so why not assign those to smaller bags? Or if you MUST line your can, why not just dump the garbage out of that into the bigger can, if it's not so terrible?

Ohhh... wait, yeah that's right, I just realized. That might be inconvenient. Because, see, then you would have to bring the can out then bring it back IN to the house. You couldn't just run it out on your way to somewhere. It might take foresight, and planning, and some thinking. That just won't do. What was I thinking.

The water used to rinse out your can a little every so often (I hear the argument already) is nothing compared to the water used to make/transport the bags. So you are reusing ones from the store. How about not ever getting them from the store? The little bit of water used to rinse the can (reasonably, mind you, and I know, that too is a stretch) is nothing compared to disgusting amount of plastic floating in the ocean. And sh*t's not breakin' down in landfills, because we have to protect our garbage at all costs by confining it to plastic bags. Look, the garbage pick-up NEVER touch the stuff anymore; y'ain't protectin' THEM from anything. And the truck don't care neither.

And the title here and in the other? My dad used to write GIGO on the calendar every Thursday. We asked him why. It was to remind him to take the garbage that was in the garage in cans down to the end of the driveway. Garbage in garage out. That was before wheels on cans, when, bless his heart, he had to lug the METAL cans down one at a time. Talk about inconvenient. I feel like maybe we made less garbage in those days.

We were thinner, that's for sure.

If the bright lights don't receive you...

2011-09-14T19:30:00.000-07:00

When do you know that it's time to give up?

People have told me, you have to stay where you can do the most good, where you can change people, not where people already have the same beliefs as you. But isn't it nice to be around people who believe as you do, and not have to fight all the time?

I'm done here. I'm done with the "big city". I need more quiet. I need open spaces. I need to be able to bury my hands in the warm Earth as I plant my garden. I need less horns and fewer helicopters and less entitled people. I need to be where people might hear my message and actually try to change, rather than people hearing it and knowing it but ignoring it because they are so wrapped up in themselves. Is it really "giving up", or just trying something different?

Are we running away, or running toward? I think, a little of each. It's OK to run away from noise and stank and self-absorption. It's OK to run to hard but rewarding work.

I didn't think I would ever want to leave palm trees and mild winters. But I'm ready. Everywhere I look now, I see ugliness. I try to see the pretty stuff still, but it's falling away quickly. My tolerance is slipping.

It's funny how priorities change as we age. I'm OK with it.

OK, got that out, now back to the everyday stupid stuff that makes me crazy.

White After Labor Day, Or Never?

2011-09-06T10:57:00.000-07:00

I heard my step-daughter ask for bleach today. She wanted to do her whites. We don't have bleach in the apartment. I do not have need for it. This made me think, therefore I blog.

Contradiction.

White clothes. I have a few white tees. They don't really stay bright white very long. Because, you know, I don't use bleach. What's the purpose of white clothing? Chef's whites, painter's whites, lab coats, white gloves... does white mean clean ? Pure? I think that's funny, considering the amount of chemicals it takes to keep things bright white. White snow... freshly fallen, bespeaks of purity. Yes, white IS pure. Clean. We are dirty. Life is dirty. There is dirt and dust and grime everywhere. It just is. I'm OK with it.

What material is pure white in the first place? What do we have to do to cotton to get it pure white? I mean, I know keeping it white takes a lot. Is it worth it? Should we phase out white clothing? (In our personal lives, that is. We shouldn't need a LAW.) Do other people have the "right" to have this clean-fetish obsession with white clothes to the point of chemical-dousing the rest of us? There are other things to use to brighten clothing... Lemon, white vinegar, baking soda... how white does white have to be? I know my socks are a touch on the dingy side, because I really don't care so I don't really do the lemon or white vinegar. If someone's judging me on the whiteness of my socks, well then they are the ones with the problem. Not me.

It's pretty easy to avoid white, and then just not really care that much if your socks aren't blinding. I say we re-think the whole white clothing thing. Our priorities are skewed. They really are. You know who loves white clothes? The detergent and chemical companies. Clorox LOVES white clothing. That's about it.

Now you'll be looking around seeing all white clothing. My gift to you today. You're welcome.

Must Blog

2011-09-05T11:49:00.000-07:00

I blog because I must. It helps me deal. Otherwise... it's the clock tower.

I go to green events. Green fairs, green gatherings, etc, blah blah... Some of them are good, some of them are chock-full of greenwashing. Most times, I pick up a ton of literature and go through it later. That's what I am doing today - going through it all. And yes, some of it I pick up, just so I can rant about it. And yes, THIS will be one of THOSE times.

I came across a card of a product I really did not remember. 100% organic cotton clothing, made in Los Angeles. Sounds good so far. I still don't remember stopping by the booth. I go to the site. Looks good. I like the clothes. I'm pretty much a dress-for-comfort kind of person. All about the slouchy soft stuff. This stuff is made from hemp and organic cotton and looks oh so comfy. OK. I'll bite. I'm pretty sure it's gonna be somewhat pricey. Maybe I will be pleasantly surprised.

I'm not. I'm actually more horrified than I thought I would be. The least expensive thing on the site is their tank top. I love tanks. Their tanks are $68.00. (Oh, there IS one tee for $62. Yay.)

If I EVER think it's OK to spend $68 (actually over $70 when you add the lovely CA sales tax) on a tank, you have my permission to take me out. Out. As in, out of the population. Hell I don't even want to be gifted one of these things. Now, I have heard it all and I am sympathetic to certain realities, like organic cotton is expensive and if we bought more products made from it, it would go down. Things made in the US are pricier, and if we all bought more stuff made here, prices would come down. That being said, it is NOT OK for a tee to cost $74. Not in any world.

This is where the critics of Green are right. It shouldn't cost this much to have eco-friendly clothing. I realize these guys are going after the assholes with more money than sense, but seriously??? They're hurting the cause. They're contributing to the divide. Good for them making a go of it, and they do donate a percentage of their sales to stuff. But really? Is it just me? Yes, I suppose it is.

What's my point? I don't know. I give up. This stuff gets my brain in such a twist that it's kind of all I can do to keep going. Moving on. Next card. Next literature. Next possible outrage. Next proof that quantity and not quality has been in place way too long.

Garbage In Garage Out

2011-09-05T08:59:00.000-07:00

Just as I was sitting here planning to write a blurb about garbage, a commercial came on that stopped me with my fingers over the keyboard.

Yes, never fear, no worries, your problems with your garbage are over. I know, it was scary there for a second, it was touch'n'go. But you're good now. Hefty has the answer. BLACK garbage bags. Yes. I know. It's about time. Here's their spiel from a marketing sheet: "While stainless steel is the bigger trend in appliances, black is a bigger deal in trash cans, said Lisa Smith, marketing manager for Hefty waste bags, primarily because black cans are less expensive than stainless steel or chrome. Consumers also find black bags look better with stainless steel than white ones, she said. Delving deeper, Hefty discovered trash also looks better, or at least less messy, in black bags."

Our trash looks messy. Mmm hmm. Definitely a problem. I know my whole day is just ruined when my garbage is too messy. And when my garbage bag doesn't look good with my $100 designer garbage can... well just shoot me now. I may as well not take up space on the planet if my garbage is too messy or my trash bags look bad.

Really? Is this what we are now? From their site: "Keep your kitchen garbage out of sight and out of mind!" Some of the other quips are even worse. This is just more of the same problem: don't do anything about ANYTHING, just hide stuff. It's OK if I don't see it. One of their "customer quotes" actually says, "My kids don't see when I throw their art projects away." Really??? Sigh. I almost don't know where to go with that. That's a selling point? I'm farther gone than I originally feared, I guess.

How about instead of hiding our garbage, we instead do something moderately constructive with our waste? How about we make an attempt to NOT make a lot of mess throw so much away? How about we compost the messy stuff instead of putting Time Capsules of Junk in landfills? Oh I know I know, we don't have TIME. We're too busy working too much and having warped priorities and running off to soccer games and ballet and way too many activities for kids who really just need to have being-a-kid time because we're trying to live our failed existences through them because we feel so unfulfilled with what we've done and therefore have to live vicariously through them so naturally we are way too busy to make sure they have a planet to actually enjoy when their kids are trying to live although it might not matter too much because with all the cancer running rampant in children we'll have much bigger problems by then so sure it's OK well and fine now to go ahead and hide that mess instead of dealing with it because we're pretty much doomed anyway.

Wow. And that was all before my second cup of coffee.

There's many a man has more hair than wit.

2011-09-03T16:10:00.000-07:00

This one'll cause a stir...

It's been a long time since I last colored my hair. I've colored it black (did that for awhile), I've tried the whole Sun-In thing on it back in the day (what a rip-off) and I've covered the emerging greys. Heck I tried to get it to platinum for a time. Hint: very dark hair does not go gentle into THAT good night. I burned it with bleach, I very nearly shaved it off (that was actually a very fun look - I discovered I have not one cow-lick and a very nicely-shaped head!), and since have enjoyed a very short cut. So now I don't have to blow it dry, or iron it - it was just wavy enough in this dry climate to be annoying instead of "pretty" - or condition it or use a ton of products. Suffice to say, my hair is very green. Not in color, but in upkeep. I had perms when those were all the rage. I've used everything conceivable on it. Ugh. So many chemicals, so many products, so much plastic...

Do I miss long flowing locks, my hair blowing in the breeze, my hair getting stuck under my purse strap, shaking my head and feeling my hair flow? On occasion. Mostly I just like my easy hair. I like that I do not use a lot of product. I wash it with baking soda and rinse it with apple cider vinegar. I use a little stuff in it. I enjoy every single grey hair and I wish I had more of them. I can't wait til my hair is completely white. Want. My hair is frosted by Mother Nature and kissed by Time. And I love it.

This puts me in a weird place, though. I can spot a color job a mile away. (Many times, dyed hair does not reflect light and just looks plain bad. I even have my husband seeing it.) When I see someone of an age that SHOULD have grey hair and does not, I get a little... a little... what do I get? Well, I wonder WHY, I guess. Oh Vanity. I certainly don't disparage people for coloring their hair, after all, most people I know do so, but I just... yeah, I just wonder why. What's so wrong with grey? White? Why this thing, so prevalent in society? Brazilian Blowouts?? That's formaldehyde, people. It's TOXIC. Hair color? Chemicals. Chemicals that burn and you have to wear gloves to handle. And we willfully and joyfully put this stuff ON our SKIN. THINK about it. All for... what? Because Society has this weird notion about grey hair?

But it goes on and on for me from there... Hair is any easy thing to change when we want to do something different. That's probably grist for another post, though. I could go on and on. And, you know, it's certainly not for me to say what YOU want to do with your hair.

Or is it? People can't smoke cigarettes in places because it affects the health of others. What about this? That a whole lotta chemicals going into MY environment, not to mention the plastic... the water usage... when is it for me to say? When is what our right to say something about something? What's the line? Where's the line?

Interesting.... Looking forward to some good comments here.

Oh, and thanks to Bill Shakespeare for the title.

Sophistication in Snot

2011-08-31T07:24:00.000-07:00

It's Kleenex-bashing time again. They just make it so easy.

Kleenex has a new-ish product... it may not be VERY new, I tend to skip that aisle completely in the store, so it could have been around for awhile, but only lately have I seen a friend of mine using it. Kleenex Expressions... Yes, just their facial tissues but it a spiffy new box. Oval. Oooooo. So what's the big deal? Their description: "The oval box shape adds a little extra sophistication, and the prints and colors are inspired by trends around the world." OK. Big deal. So what? Well, see that little ring around the top of the sophisticated oval box? It's a ring of plastic. To add rigidity. Or something. There is not a similar ring around the bottom; the paper is folded in such a way to make it strong enough. But around the top, the designers at Kimberly-Clark decided there needed to be a ring of plastic. You can't re-use or refill these boxes; they are perfectly throw-away-able. One use. 'Cuz they're preeetty. There is absolutely no purpose for this piece of plastic put into the world except for people to have pretty pretty snot-rags in their home.

It's no secret I think Kleenex products are pointless and avoidable, and that Kimberly-Clark is pretty much inherently evil, but really to buy these in particular is the pinnacle of silliness. It just goes to show that we don't pay attention at all. That it still doesn't register with people to avoid plastic. This is not getting recycled. It's just ending up in the oceans. And for what? For what??? It serves next to no purpose AT ALL.

Our facial tissues are sophisticated. Great.

I give up.

No Green, Merely an Observation

2011-08-30T10:00:00.000-07:00

It's a long way to the 2012 elections....

I have never understood when people vote for a candidate because "He tawks lahk me, I kin unnerstand him." Meaning, that candidate is not too hi-faluten' and doesn't use big $10 words that go over their head. Never understood that. Personally, I WANT my elected officials to be more intelligent than me. I WANT them to know more than me and have more education than me. I want them to know what they are doing. I want them to have a stellar vocabulary so that they can hold intelligent discourse with other best'n'brightest leaders from around the world. I want them to understand when scientists give them reports. Don't we want the head of the class to represent us, not the class clown, the least likely to succeed? Don't we want to feel we are in capable hands? I know I do.

Naturally, I am thinking about presidential candidates that "don't believe in" climate change, evolution... that think the natural disasters are "God's way" of sayin', hey, stop yer evil ways... that CO2 is a naturally occurring thing that isn't bad... that our oceans are fine... on and on. We have a year+ of all this.

Call me silly, but I WANT to be the dumbest jamoke in the room. You know why? Because I know by the end of the day, I will have left that room learning something. I will be better for the experience.

That's all. I just needed to get that off my chest. (Brain.) Thanks for listening. (Reading.)

Nothing's Fine, I'm Torn

2011-08-28T15:41:00.000-07:00

Here's one of those times when I get all mixed up. A seemingly good thing that is really actually bad? Or what I think is a bad thing that really is good? I'm really confused. Perhaps it is that I have lost perspective. Maybe I never had any. Maybe my brain just isn't wired right.

Flipping through a magazine (I KNOW, there I go again. I was on a plane. Gimme a break. I couldn't focus on my book.), I came across a fantastic product: disposable cloth napkins! ??? Good! Wait, what? These are rolls of tear-off cotton napkins. You know, for when you want to be elegant. Sophisticated. "Less pricey than linens" they say. They last for at least 6 wash cycles, they say. You can use them once, or wash them to use them again. They say they are natural, biodegradable and recyclable for other uses. Maybe, like, cleaning cloths, I suppose? That's good, right? Cotton good... so long as it is organic cotton... But I can't tell if it is... I don't think so, or they would say so... So... um... Let's look at them: they come 15-20 to a roll, and they run $25-36/roll. How much are linen napkins? See, I don't even know because making them ourselves is so very easy.

I GUESS these are an OK alternative to paper napkins? You know, no, I can't even get that to ring true as I type it. I think, in the end, I find these unnecessary. Yes. That's it. It could be argued that they are better than paper and on the right track, but I just can't buy into the idea. They are pricey to me. They might seem too easy to throw away... cloth napkins are so easy to have and use and wash and keep that I just can't wrap my head around buying them to use them 1-6 times.

Torn, but definitely learning towards NOPE.

Slacker.

2011-08-26T10:23:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged in awhile. I really, really want to. What happens when your every-day life, your strive to pay the bills, takes away from your desire to get the word out? To be green? To talk? To follow your passion?

Dunno. I guess... you change? We recently went back to my hometown in rural-ish Western PA, and I remembered what I really wanted life to be like. A big garden. Hands-on stuff. A fireplace. Crickets and cicadas at night. A slower life. Nature close at hand.

We are re-examining a lot of things right now. I'm still going to be way to stupid-busy with the petty stuff, and I hate that, and it chips away at me every day, but I'll try to hold on to the good stuff. Forcing myself to be HERE on this page more will help.

Welcoming comments below on how you deal with it, Readers.

Blessed Be.

Hey, Slob, Did You Know Your Washer Stinks?

2011-07-13T19:56:00.000-07:00

Thank you, P&G, for pointing out yet another problem that never used to exist. And thank you, especially, for giving us a miracle product to combat this new problem.

Yeah. Did you know your washer stinks? In fact, the worst offender is that super-pricey uber-amazing HE machine on which you spent thousands of dollars! Yes, it is particularly susceptible to the Stinks! Oh my! What to do? Fear not, Bad Housekeeper, we have chemicals for that.

It's not enough you have to shell out mega-bucks for Tide. It's not enough to have a high-efficiency washing machine. Nope... these thing will not ensure that you ahve a stink-free laundry room. Apparently, Tide alone will not keep everything smelling good. No, apparently, we are now in danger of some horrible residue building up where, for decades upon decades and washing machines used for years without incident, there never was a problem before. See, HE machines use LESS water, so there is the terrible danger of stuff not getting washed away. So now we need Tide Washing MACHINE Cleaner! To use more water to clean the machine! Thankfully, Procter & Gamble is around to provide this! SHEW!!!

I could not find exactly WHAT chemicals are in here from my casual search. I do know there were bad reviews for it on their page and they did try to answer away or deflect them. I do know they say that everything must be removed from the machine and this product shouldn't actually TOUCH any clothing. Some sort of "powerful oxygenated bleaching system"... hmm, sounds fancy. I know it leaves a fake fresh clean scent behind to reassure you that all is well and the Stinks are gone.

What I suspect is that this is another case of creating a product for filling a niche that 1) they kinda sorta made up and 2) could be fixed, if it DOES exist, by much more natural means. Cheaper mean. Say, like, white vinegar. Or baking soda. (Not at the same time, of course) But here, they suggest you 1) waste water and 2) use chemicals. I'm not surprised. Well, I was. But only for a bit, then I moved quickly to dejected resignation. Yes, this product will sell. It will sell very well.

Ya got us again, P&G. You clever dogs, you. I tip my hat. And I'll be waiting for my smelly-dryer product next. Oh yay!

Why Does Everything Come in Plastic?

2011-07-10T16:55:00.000-07:00

Now, intellectually, I KNOW why. But I still think.feel/say it countless times a day. Remember some decades ago? I do. There wasn't that much. There really wasn't. Stuff came in cans. In glass. In paper. But oh the miracle of plastic. It's so light! It's so cheap! We can save money using it instead because it's so cheap and it weighs so much less that we can save money in shipping too! So I know. I'm not being naive. It's just My Lament. How far does it have to go before the rubber band snaps back? I don't know how much more time we have.

And you can hardly avoid it. There are things I feel I need but there they are, in a plastic container. We really have to search for the alternative. There is a lot I will not buy, because it's in plastic. But those of us who do that are few and far between. (And already reading this. Hah.) Why can't more people think about it? How do otherwise perfectly intelligent people still accept a plastic bag at a store? How can otherwise perfectly intelligent people NOT realize they need to carry reusable bags? Reusable bottles? How do otherwise perfectly good parents still indulge in plastic crap for their kids? It's that whole "recycling" thing, isn't it? I've discussed THAT to death, that it is really a complete fallacy, a sham, a pretty lie we tell ourselves to sleep better. What is it going to take to change this? How much cancer, how much waste, how much sickness, how much death?

I do not have the answer. So, daily, I lament, Why does everything have to come in plastic? And why does everyone have to be so cavalier and blithe about it? How is this not at emergency proportions?

The "unincorporated" areas of Los Angeles County just had the plastic bag ban come into being. Why not all of LA? Why not the whole country? And why do people get angry and fight it like it's some infringement on their personal rights? You have the right to bear plastic... nope, not in the Constitution. Why DO we have to even BAN things instead of people knowing enough and better to just NOT do it?

Yeah, I know, I'm just ranting at this point. It's where I am right now. I'll be better sometime. Surely. Right? Right. Just about the time I go a whole day without seeing someone carrying a plastic bag home from a store.

Cling

2011-07-10T16:05:00.000-07:00

Ahh, the laundry room of our small apartment complex. My love/hate relationship with said room. I enjoy having multiple washers and dryers to get stuff done quickly, and I know I might miss that when I am in my own house with just one machine. (Nah. Not really. I won't miss it at all.)

The funniest thing about sharing washers with a dozen or so other people is that EVERYONE else uses chemicals and we do not. This was particularly obvious to me today when I went down to the dungeon, soap nuts and baking soda and quarters in hand, to be faced by a whole array of almost-empty bottles of Tide with Downy on the utility shelf. It's hard to guess why. There are multiple plastic jugs of nearly-gone goo on that shelf at all times. It's like that's where detergent goes to die instead of getting to the landfill (ocean). Being thrifty, I would use the last of it all, but I don't put smelly clingy chemicals in my laundry anymore. Did someone leave those bottles there because they will use the last of all of them? Like I used to do... filling them with water to get the last nasty bits and every last penny? I thought I would hasten the process for whoever left these there by emptying all the dredges into one bottle.

Now, I NEVER used Tide back in the day. I find it to be way overpriced. So being in such close contact with it was a new experience. I'm older and wiser and I see even more clearly how they get us. I put a little water in the bottle to swish it around then transfer from bottle to bottle. Imagine my surprise when I notice that a little water really doesn't do it at all. There was still SO much product stuck to the inside. I swished more. There was no getting that crap outta there. Now, they charge you for this part too. But you can never use it. And the fact that it clings so disgustingly to the innards of the disgusting plastic bottle... think how it clings to clothes. To skin. To cells. And then it clung to MY skin, just from handling it a little. I washed them and they still reeked of all those chemicals.

Well... I don't know why all those nearly-empties were there. I doubt the owner will thank me much for trying to consolidate said bottles. I enjoyed re-learning why I like that my clothes smell like nothing. And that I am not wasting money on built-in waste, designed specifically by the company who makes the stuff. (You do realize, of course, that the lines on the measuring lids are completely misleading, right?) I'll dream of my own washers that will never know the ick of chemicals within their shiny parts. Hell, maybe I'll go back to the hand-crank thing. We already air-dry a lot of our clothes, by-passing the dryers that stink of other peoples' dryer sheets...

Nah. Those new machines are just too pretty. I'll still look longingly at them in Home Depot until such time as I can be fascinated by my own in my cozy clean bright SMELL-FREE laundry room...

It's STILL a Plastic Bottle!

2011-06-09T19:14:00.000-07:00

Every day, to and from work, I am treated to billboards proclaiming Dasani Bottled water, in new PlantBottles! I get them each way. I can't miss them. Have you seen this? Yes! So exciting! Purified bottled water now in a better plastic bottle! "PlantBottle: Up to 30% made from plants. Still a 100% recyclable bottle." Oh good. Yay. Because I was worried that, since it was still a largely plastic bottle, that it might end up in the ocean, not get recycled. Oh wait... it might very likely end up in the ocean anyway.

But it's OK to use it! They are saving precious resources! They say so right on their site! They are using corn-based ethanol. I think. Yeah. There's some kind of plant material mimicking the plastic in there... mixing with the PET... so they are using less actual petroleum... so... hmm... it could be they are saving money on petroleum-based plastic with a cheaper plant-based plastic that is still plastic and looks like plastic and acts like plastic.... and feels like plastic... and floats in the Gyre like plastic... um, GREAT! It COULD be that they are just saving themselves money and trying to get the "green" angle to MAKE more money, too... naaaah. CocaCola Wouldn't do THAT.... They CARE about the PLANET... not the bottom line! Really!

TreeHugger site had an article that mentioned, "It is estimated that we have 6 times more plastic than plankton in our Oceans." Does that alarm you? It alarms me. Sure, these great terrific new bottles from our friendly friends at the Earth-friendly company of Coca Cola use less petroleum, but... that's about it. You know the old saying: "If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck..." well, this looks like plastic and acts like plastic, so, therefore, ergo, et cetera.

Don't be lured into thinking this bottle is any better. It is not. TreeHugger says in the same article, "Plastic bottles always suck, even if they're being recycled. That's because the energy it takes to recycle them is mind-boggling. It's no simple task to melt down all those bottles, and the plastic is usually degraded in the process and can't be used for food-grade products again."

There is only one answer: continue to avoid these bottles at all times.

I'll stick to wine. It comes in glass.

My Under-$3 No-Plastic-Container Hummus!

2011-06-03T19:17:00.000-07:00

I LOVE hummus. No, you don't understand. I LOVE hummus. I call it "yummus", I love it so much. I could probably eat an entire container, if I did not practice restraint. But darned if I didn't get The Guilts by getting it in those little plastic tubs. Major guilts. That, and it can be pricey, depending on where you buy it. But mostly, it's those tubs. Even re-using them a few times doesn't really assuage the guilt for me. I'm not a good assuager. (Google Chrome tells me that's not a word. I care not. Take that, Google Chrome.)

I set out to make my own hummus. Can't be that hard. Not that many ingredients, really. Garbanzo beans, garlic, tahini, lemon... OK. Well... where they heck do you find tahini? Not so easy to find. And when I did find it... yup, you guessed it, it was in a little plastic tub. Well THAT kind of defeats the purpose. Bummer. No hummus. Nummus.

Imagine my surprise and delight when I found a GLASS JAR of ORGANIC tahini at my local 99 Cents Only Store!!! OK! This is awesome! So, I have my 7oz jar of super-wonderful organic tahini in glass (regularly $7 in any other store) for 99 cents. (Actually, 99.99 cents, if you want to be exact.) I can get, like, four batches of yummus out of one jar. No, five. I got my organic garbanzo beans (yes, they are labeled organic as well), also from the 99 Cents Only store. (I know, BPA-lined can, I have to choose my battles sometimes. I'll get the can this time.) We aren't even at $1.20 yet. I have my lemon which came three in a bag from yes the same place, and my crushed garlic from Gilroy, CA, garlic capital of the world, also in a glass jar, also for 99 cents! We still haven't even hit two bucks, folks. The pricey ingredient is the olive oil, which I get on sale at Henry's Marketplace, and only use a little of in this recipe. A spin around in my Magic Bullet, and voila. Not even 10 minutes, not even $3, and I can eat the whole darn container if I wish. (I don't. It's actually kind of a lot.) Oh... sea salt and parsley don't really add to the cost much, but got those at, yes, 99COS.)

And I shall enjoy it with either baby carrots (yes, same place) or my Thin Wheat crackers. Guess where I get those. They taste better than Wheat Thins and are healthy, no trans fats, baked, etc. I have saved LOTS of money and I have sacrificed nothing except a few plastic containers. And I hardly call that a sacrifice. I'm getting better at making it; it can be tricky and it almost never comes out the same, but it's tasty and I love it. I did once put a lethal dose of garlic in it, but I'm Italian and garlic doesn't stick on me for long. My body is used to it. :)

I feel better about this. I would rather bring this to a get-together or picnic over store-bought stuff any day. I'll someday branch out a bit and experiment with some nice oils and flavors, but for now, I'm good with it. I cross fingers that my favorite store continues to score these deals. Could be I was lucky, and this was a one-time thing, but I'll keep looking. I wish tahini kept longer. But it's OK. Someday, I will get fancy and stop using the canned beans, and use dried instead from the bulk food section at Henry's. I'll make it with zucchini instead of beans. I'll add flair. For now, I'm just going to enjoy feeling good about my hummus and enjoy eating it. What was once something I might have treated myself to on very rare occasion, I now have to my heart's content. And it's healthy. And I am not contributing to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. And it does not take long at all.

Feeling good, yes I am. No magazines for me today! Just good food. I do, however, solemnly promise to not breathe on you after yummus-time.

Why Things Cost More Now

2011-06-02T17:30:00.000-07:00

Same magazine, different page. Yeah. I know.

"The Headlines, Explained" in the May issue of Real Simple. "Why do some staples cost more now?"

I don't really need a blurb in a magazine to explain that to me, but here we go. It'll be fun. The little 1/3 page article (not a Real Important topic, I guess) goes on about why food and clothing and energy costs more all of a sudden. According to Vera Gibbons, supermarket goods are going up 3-4% because recent crop failures and an increased demand for food in some countries has left the said demand ahead of the supply. Hmm. Um. A case of too many people on the planet? Hasn't someone I know been saying that? Why yes. Unfortunately, the only answer to this is to try to shop smarter. The writer's advice on this is to seek out discounted gift cards online. BUT WAIT! We can actually GROW our own food, too. We have that technology. We do. It's shocking, yes, but there you have it. We can get back to gardening and canning, like we never should have stopped doing in the first place. Because, and call me crazy here, I have a sneaking suspicion we're going to be in this for some time coming up.

Ms. Gibbons moves on to clothing. The last two years of cotton crops have been destroyed by bad weather. (Climate change much? No? OK.) This will lead to 20% hikes in clothing prices. She goes on to say designers will use cheaper fabrics to mitigate the costs. Her advice on this one? You're gonna love this: "Consider buying garments made of synthetic blends, like rayon or polyester, because they will be priced lower than cotton counterparts." This is about the time I am sure I need to stop reading Real Simple altogether. Seriously??? That's your advice? Buy clothing made with petroleum products and other super-chemicals. How about THIS advice instead: clothing swaps, thrift stores, NOT buying clothes you don't really need, doing a little tailoring on existing clothing. Now that sounds like good money-saving advice to me. Call me prejudiced for liking my own advice. I'm OK with that.

We round out these pearls of wisdom (snort) with energy prices. Higher gas and higher airfares etc. I bet you can't wait for this advice... Fill up at places like Costco, or a grocery store that offers discounts to shoppers through the reward cards. Uh huh. Good stuff, there. That's really helpful to people who don't have those options in their areas. And have you SEEN lines at the gas stations at Costco or Sam's? Holy crap!!! How about... and I know this is controversial... DRIVING LESS. *Gasp!* Or, I don't know, getting organized with friends and neighbors, and carpooling? Maybe a few fewer activities to drag the children to all the time?

You know what all three of these things have told me? (Yeah, besides the fact I can't respect this "writer", whoever she is. I'm sure she knows her stuff... in some universe) They have told me we need to SLOW DOWN, stop for a bit, breathe, and get back to the real things. We can do with fewer clothes. LOTS fewer clothes. We can be OK with hand-me-downs again. We can spend time gardening and growing stuff again. We can stop with the 42 activities per day for the kids and let them have a little time to themselves and, well, just be KIDS for a change. It worked for us. I loved my free time. It encouraged my creativity. Why do we have to keep kids active and occupied from dawn til dusk anyway? Slow down.

Is it irony that these things I suggest - in a complete and polar opposite from the "advice" in the article - also make for a healthier environment? Stunning.

To summarize: 1) I need to stop reading Real Simple for sure this time or my head's going to explode; 2) We need to go back to things that always worked before. You know why? Because they worked. It will help in many different areas of Life to bring these simple ideas back. Real simple.

Yeah, I know you know I know I won't stop reading it. It's much to fun to tear the stuff apart. Wherever would I get my material, elsewise?

We Just Don't Get It

2011-06-01T16:26:00.000-07:00

No, no, it's my fault, it is, I went and read a magazine AGAIN. My bad. I should know better.

But I expect better from Real Simple. I like this magazine. It usually has sensible stuff in it. So imagine my horror when I saw a blurb under "Moneywise - how to save in May".

For a better bottom line: "Stockpile Paper Goods." (Really? Do we learn nothing??) Here's their big idea: Just before Memorial Day, many stores slash prices by up to 50% on picnic products (paper plates, plastic utensils), says Joanie Demer, a cofounder of thekrazycouponlady.com, a coupon site. Pick up enough supplies now to see you through barbecues and birthdays for the rest of the year.

Sigh. Cofounder? More like confounder. So not only are we encouraging mindless consumerism, we are giving a giant green light to loads and loads of garbage and waste. Plastic utensils??? Are we HEARING anything out there??? Hello? Is this thing on?

It's my fault. I read a magazine. I really just should have left it at the doctor's office and been blissfully ignorant, but no, I had to go and read it. (Oh, hey - did you know that's a cool thing to do? I take magazines given to me by my mom to my doctor's office. It's my OB/GYN and he has a horrid reading selection. Mostly parenting and baby mags. Um, some of us are there for opposite reasons. I figure people like me need a tiny bit of variety. I even brought in a Fitness just to amuse myself.) Anyway... I'm really kind of horrified that we still have this mentality. It's so last decade. How to save in May and the rest of the YEAR and beyond is to invest in some bamboo plates or some mismatched dishes from a thrift store and use them again and again. Oh, wah, boo, those need washed. Tough. Wash them. You have kids. Stop spoiling them with unspillable snacks and make them clean up something for a change.

Yeah, see? I shouldn't be given magazines. They make me snarky.

Unspillable Snacks. This is Where We Are.

2011-05-31T18:46:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, I am flipping through a magazine, and I see things that pretty much make my head fly off. This was one of those times. I retrieved my head and thought I would blog about this new cutting-edge snacking food miracle product. It's snacks... in individual cups... with a membrane over it that kids can reach through and springs back into place - well, here it is:

"Magic, Less-Mess Munchcup! Our sweet and savoury nutritious finger foods are all served in the unique anti-spill, MUNCHCUP – which means your child embarks on an adventure in independent eating every time they tuck in... and there’s less mess for you to clean up! LESS MESS ON CAR SEATS, PUSHCHAIRS AND CARPETS!

"Healthy, convenient and less mess...... now there’s a helping hand for busy parents."

This is a British product, and I am hoping it does not make the trip over here anytime soon. The magazine blurb assures me we WILL see it soon. In fact, their quote is "similar snacking tech." Snacking tech? We need tech in snacking? Oh... I see... I get it. We're very busy. Kids are messy. Our minivans and SUV's get trashed because we would rather use "snacking tech" than actually attempt to encourage our kids to be neater or have to spend time cleaning up after kids we knew would be messy when we had them. I don't really recall this being a problem in the backseat of our metallic green Plymouth Duster. We were fairly neat. We also didn't always have to keep snacks around at every moment of every trip to keep us happy and behaving. We actually knew we were supposed to behave automatically. Shocking, I know. Unheard of. It's so much more convenient to use plastic upon plastic to keep our lives clean. Kids? Vacuum? Unheard of!

KIDS ARE MESSY! Sometimes it's cute, sometimes it's not, but it IS a certainty in life. If you are so anti-mess, perhaps you should re-think the whole reproducing thing. Seriously. It's part of having kids. Maybe... you know, just maybe they don't need snacks at EVERY moment of every day on every trip anywhere. Maybe they can NOT have to be quieted with snacks, maybe instead of giving them snacks every time they whine, maybe we can watch Supernanny instead. I don't know. I of course don't have kids (because they're messy, see?), so naturally I have no idea what I'm talking about. Kids are hard. Shut up, GG, you'd want convenient snacks too if YOU were a mom.

Uh huh.

Blame TV

2011-05-31T14:28:00.000-07:00

Which came first: the problem or the commercial?

I watch a fair amount of TV. Always have. I love TV. I credit Hodge Podge Lodge with giving me my first awareness of Mother Nature. I watch it very closely. And it makes me wonder... is it influencing our decisions or mirroring our habits? I'm guessing a good part of both.

Take commercials... toothpaste ads glob on the stuff... no one needs that much toothpaste on the brush. We all know that. Or, um, do we? How ARE we supposed to know that, if every time we see a commercial or ad, they have that much stuff on it? Oh sure, it SAYS on the package to only use a pea-sized amount. But I know their game. They are counting on people not being a voracious label-reader like me. So what does the average consumer do? Why, they do what they see, of course. What they see over and over and over again. It's drummed into their heads, not even remotely subconsciously. Blatantly. So this is on purpose, for sure. You'll use more than you need and have to buy more product than if you used it the way it is supposed to be used. You know, according to the tiny print on the package no one reads. They ain't dumb. They're out for a buck. Your buck.

On commercials and TV show, they run the water while brushing teeth. Always. Why? I was watching a sitcom where, not only did they have one scene where the couple very obviously ran the water the whole time they conversed over their tooth-brushing, but in another scene, the same woman used a tissue to wipe a little makeup off her face and then flushed the tissue instead of throwing it away. It was made obvious because it was part of a joke set-up: the toilet clogged. I'm wondering what the writers of this show have against water. I'm not sure why they feel the need to run water like that. Is it because we do it, or do we do it because we keep seeing THAT? Why can't the writers be a tiny bit more aware and responsible? And does it affect the toothpaste commercial if they DON'T run the water the whole damn time? And might we subconsciously pick up the message to turn off our water?

I know. Here I go again with the little things. "Oh, GG. You're so... picky." Yeah. I am.

Then, there's that Glad Trash Bag commercial that just sets me off every farkin' time. Those two boys on their oh-ha-ha-cute-funny pretend news show where they talk about Mom and the slipping garbage bag as she throws away the meatloaf-oh-yuck that no one ate. ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? WHY is it OK to talk about/validate SO much waste of food??? In what world?? And it's supposed to be CUTE and funny?? Can we stop already?

So I ask... do they have commercials like that because they think they have us pegged and are reflecting OUR waste and stupidity, or do we think it is OK to waste and be stupid because of THEM? Hmmmm....

Yup. Just another thing that makes me crazy. Heck, I'll never run out of material. No worries there.

Meat Monologues Part 3: Hug a Vegetable

2011-05-30T16:38:00.000-07:00

Lest it come across like I am vegan-bashing today, let me just get this part out. I'm an omnivore. I still eat meat. I'm going to have hot dogs in an hour, actually. I have cut back on my meat intake. Are vegans and vegetarians greener eaters than I? Yes, of course. Over and above, no question. I fully freely admit that. (I would question some of your items for their packaging, but that something else for another time.) I give it up to them. And generally my posts are not aimed at vegans because they are already doing good stuff for the species. If I lash out sometimes, it's against the militant ones, not the ones I personally know and like lots. And in these recent posts, I was just getting stuff out of my head that had been rumbling around in there.

But I do have one question that whispers when I look at vegan food. What's UP with all the imitation food??? Fake meat, fake bacon, fake cheese, fake burgers... if I didn't know better, I'd say you were envious of "our" food. Your magazine industry recently took a hit for using real meat products in their photos, to look all appetizing etc. The vegan I most respect is a raw food vegan, John McCabe. He has written several books on the topic (http://www.amazon.com/John-McCabe/e/B001K81LGI/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1306797776&sr=8-1), and they are good. He doesn't go for all that fake, processed, maybe-I'm-meat stuff. He goes for real actual food. If I did it, I think I would do it like that.

Why you gotta copy our stuff? Do you miss it that much? Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery... nuh-uh. If you don't want to eat bacon, why you gotta eat something that tries to taste like bacon? If you don't wanna eat cow, why you try so hard to make it seem like cow? Chicken? Whatever? If you are so into non-meat, why not just eat what isn't meat or near-meat or wannabe-meat?

I understand John. I don't understand the other part. He's the greenest eater I know, with the other raw food vegans. Will I do it? I don't know. Not now and not in the foreseeable future. But is that the way I would do it? I think so. If I'm gonna not eat meat, I'm not going to tease myself with not-meat-but-sure-trying-to-be processed FOODSTUFFS. I would be a consumer of fruits and vegetables and grains and nuts and whatever wasn't meat or anything like meat.

Just sayin'. Just another one of those things that makes me wonder. Now, where's that BBQ?

Meat Monologues Part 2: I'll Show Ya Suffering

2011-05-30T14:28:00.000-07:00

It's an old argument between those who think hunting is cruel, and those who love venison. I bet you can guess which group I'm in, huh? Yup. I love me some venison. It has been forever since I've had it. Pretty common in the towns I lived in back in PA, not so common in Los Angeles. Where I come from, men hunt. And then we eat what they hunt. Seems pretty straightforward. No "sport hunting" I knew of. We were also known to go fishing for food too. One of my favorite meals ever was fresh-caught river trout, hard-won, pan-fried when we got home. YUM. This was a great way to get food. I've even cooked bunnies into a lovely stew. You hunt, you kill, you eat. It's the equation with which I grew up. Someone I knew even had a great relationship with the local game warden, and when a poacher was caught, that guy got the deer. You see, the poacher couldn't keep it, but something had to be done with it... and it got ate, believe you me.

Are they getting closer?

OK, wait, where was I? Oh yeah, the argument. "Hunting is so cruel" versus "If we don't hunt the deer, they'll overpopulate." Allow me to REALLY break this down for all y'all. This is the reality in which we live. This is how it is. Feel free to debate, but... well, I'm right. Deer populate certain areas. Those areas used to have their predators to keep their numbers in check, but because we humans have encroached so much, we tend to knock out the deer's predator because the predator poses a "threat" to us and our way of living, too. So, with Nature's control gone, deer are free to roam and proliferate. Which they do. So then THEY get out of control and eat stuff we don't want them to eat, like OUR crops. So now we have to control their numbers, as we have interfered with Nature and her control. We hunt them. We eat them. It's a controlled hunt; we don't go all out and slaughter them, but we keep their numbers manageable. I'm OK with this, because, as stated, I love me some venison. Cruel?

Yeah, you say. Cruel. I'll TELL you what "cruel" is. We stop hunting altogether and abruptly, because hunting is "cruel". But no: cruel is a bunch of deer, untouched by hunters, protected and free to do as they please, suddenly populating as they would anyway, suddenly faced with a major shortage of food. They are starving in the woods. They raid our fields and gardens. That's not cool, but what to do? Higher fences? Snort. They compete with all those cows we just set free because it was cruel to keep them. Now everyone's starving and SUFFERING and dying. Dying because they are starving. Because we thought it kinder and happier to let them be. SUFFERING. Think about the starving animals. I'll wait.

Sure, sure, the population will eventually balance, if we just left well enough alone. But when, how long? Plus, necessarily, we would see an increase of the predators as Nature tries desperately to balance her creatures. Now there are more predators killing our cats and dogs and cows and horses and chickens, not to mention our children playing in the back yard. What happens to them? We can't be cruel, so we can't kill them either. So I ask, how much starvation and death and stalking predators equals the sudden compassion and "civility" of not hunting anymore? How many years of waiting for that cycle to correct what we humans have effed up in the first place? What is the acceptable, palatable number here?

I'll wait. Go ahead and think on it.

And as you finish reading this and think, "Hm, what's green about THIS topic, GG? Do you have BBQ on the brain today, or something? This isn't your usual green fare," I say this: Green living to me means living WITH Nature, according to Nature, respecting the rules of Nature. Those rules are pretty clear. All other creatures on this planet live with Nature, by her rules. We do not. So now there are too many people and too many dogs and too many cats and too many deer and too many people (yeah I know) and not enough predators and the equation is skewed... and we hunt. And we can't just plain stop. THAT would be cruel.

I just want people to think beyond their own noses for a change. There are consequences to things.

Go ahead. I'll wait.

Meat Monologues Part 1: Zuckerberg Method

2011-05-30T13:40:00.000-07:00

Vegan Monologues was already taken. I'm not talking about meat here. I'm talking about vegans, and I'll probably get some flak. Oh well.

So the news that shook up the food world this past week was that Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, revealed that "he is currently only eating meat from animals he has personally killed himself." To that, I say, good for him. That takes some huevos. Vegans, however, are horrified. How can he??? That's BARBARIC!!! How is it different from eating an animal someone else killed? Well, let's see, shall we? For one, he is living an understanding of where his food comes from and is appreciating it more, and is cutting back, and is living much more sustainably. I wish we could all live in such a way that we got rid of factory farming and were much more in touch with our food. (Oh yeah - we could, if we weren't hell-bent on such needless useless rampant over-population. Oops, separate post. I digress.) It's funny to me how an admitted omnivore makes a mooooove (SORRY! I really couldn't resist. I did try.) towards healthier, more sustainable, more of a vegetarian-based diet, and all the vegans can do is be all horrified and condemn him instead of applauding him.

I'm not saying I will never be a vegan or a vegetarian. I have cut back on the meat, but I have yet to even think about wanting to give it up. I try to be responsible about where it came from. Mr. Z doesn't eat meat in restaurants, just vegetarian foods. Why can't this be a good thing? How about we moooove (didn't even try this time) some of that ire and outrage back to Go-Daddy founder what's-his-name, for needlessly killing elephants? (I could look up his name, but I refuse to give him that much thought. Please look it up. THAT'S bad.) Here, we have someone trying to raise his own awareness, and we have to turn it into a bad thing. OK, not "we"... "they". Yes, I will put up that wall right here.

Aw hell, I just think it's funny they are lamenting this ON Facebook. Now That's irony. Thoughts?

Nothing Special

2011-05-28T08:31:00.000-07:00

We have so much these days. Of everything. Right at our fingertips. Whatever we want, when we want it. This is progress. This is moving forward. This is making sure it's better than it's ever been. Better off than past generations. We got it better than our parents, grandparents, on and on.

Here's the rub: In a world of plenty, nothing is special.

Used to be, growing up in the Northeast, that we waited for certain things. As in, when something wasn't in season, like, say, cucumbers, we did not have them. Sure, we could buy them at the store if we wanted them, but they were coming from far away and so they were a little more expensive and so we did not buy them. They didn't taste as good anyway, grown in some sterile hothouse. We waited. And when they were in season and plentiful, we had them. My first bite of cucumber (likely from our own or a neighbor's garden) was the sure, unmistakable, wonderful sign that Summer was here. That first bite of cucumber-y goodness was Something Special. Exploding taste. So pure, so clean. That went for corn, for watermelon, etc. Yes, sure, I can get anything anytime now, but I feel maybe I can't appreciate the little things like I used to. The specialness is somehow diminished.

We don't wait for anything anymore. Our demand for everything, right now, has left us... kind of empty. We don't value things. We don't treasure the simple pleasures. Our demand for things like beautiful flowers for purchase all the time every day has left us with huge gorgeous roses... that don't smell. I'm not sure what the point of it all is if you see a vase of roses and you go over and stick your face in them and take a deep inhale and get rewarded with... nothing. It's like a big fat lie to me. I once asked someone in the flower business why roses don't have fragrance anymore. He said, because the same thing that makes them smell good also makes them not last as long. So in order to get them to last, to get your money's worth, I guess? is to sacrifice one of the things that made them worthwhile to me in the first place. What IS the point of a great big vase of roses if they are only half there? I feel cheated. I am disappointed. But we want them all the time, we want them to last forever, and so we don't care anymore. They aren't special anymore. They are an empty sham. Would it not be better to maybe not have them so ready, so right there, but be WHOLE again? And maybe, just maybe, appreciate them more?

Is it possible to go back? Is it remotely possible to "give up" and "sacrifice" some things, not have everything right there right now instant gratification, to make things special again? Is that really even a sacrifice? And why is it so important, to go back? I'll tell you why. Because we are losing our appreciation for everything. We become jaded. Nothing means anything. Look at this younger generation. What do they value? Cell phones? So what if they lose it or break it or whatever. Just go get a new one. Food? there's nothing special there. They never had to wait, anticipate. It's all right there in the grocery store. Go get it, what's the big deal? Everything is new and now and nothing is special. Nothing is appreciated because it's all just part of the same noise.

We're losing something here. I don't know, maybe it is where I live now. Maybe I'm just not seeing it. Maybe I need to live somewhere else. But I don't think so. I think we're in danger, if not already past the point of no return. If we just go back to that, we can look around and see that we're in real trouble here, and maybe we see the planet again, what it is, what it gives, what we're doing to it. How WE are in trouble.

What do we need to do to get back to appreciation? How do we make the good things special again?

It's a symptom. I promise so much would be helped if we returned to that. Appreciate the small stuff. 'Cuz it's all small stuff.

Something Vegan This Way Comes

2011-05-26T18:21:00.000-07:00

And I liked it.

I know. Don't go into shock.

This past weekend was World Fest LA, a vegan gathering that was open to us omnivores, as well. I did not sample much of the food. And actually, I'll be writing more about vegan food in another post. This post is for praise. I got a goodie bag, and in it were these tiny little samples of some energy bars. I usually find vegan, gluten-free stuff extremely mealy, bland, weirdly textured, etc. So I did no open the Bearded Brothers Colossal Coconut Mango Energy Bar sample with very much enthusiasm. But you know what? For once, I was pleasantly surprised! This tasted very good!

I'm not all anti-everything-vegan, I'm really not. (Just seems that way most times.) But I don't expect much in the way of taste when I look at packaged so-called vegan anything. These raw bars have good texture and taste wonderful and really do make me want to try more. "100% organic snack food company. Handmade with love and joy, in Austin, Texas." Austin is actually intriguing me lately. I hear it's great. These guys are intriguing me. I think I'll hit them up. Sure, they are a little pricey for what I think, but then again, I don't know much about vegan food products. They could be very reasonable. And I'm... frugal. (almost said cheap. which could be true.) But, yes, I am intrigued. Downright yummy. I applaud them. I was ready to go off on the packaging, but I think I will save that for the vegan-food rant I have cooking in my head. (cooking - with bacon grease heh heh heh.) I'm just going to simply like these guys for awhile.

Here's their site: http://www.beardedbros.com/ It's not what you'd call high on information, but it's simple and straightforward, perhaps, as I suspect, they themselves are. Um, straightforward; I don't want to call them "simple." Hah. Yikes, almost got in trouble on that one.

So, there it is. Take it for what it's worth. I won't be this nice in the next one, you can say that twice and mean it.

Screw the Planet, Save Ourselves

2011-05-26T17:20:00.000-07:00

There is an article that has been making its rounds of Facebook pages, as many do. This one has me a little torn. You may have seen it; it's in greenbiz.com. The gist of it is... well, here's a paragraph:

Suzanne Shelton, president and CEO of Shelton Group, also responded to the NYT piece as well as a more recent article by GreenBiz Executive Editor Joel Makower, who declared green marketing dead. While Shelton acknowledged that marketing products with an "it'll save the planet" message is dead, she added: "Very few Americans have ever bought stuff because they want to save the planet. As I've hammered home in this blog countless times, people buy green products for a host of other reasons -- to feel more comfortable, to gain peace of mind, to limit the chemicals their families are exposed to ..."

My first reaction to what many were saying, "Wow, good article," was to get a little pissed. (Naturally. I mean, it's me, remember?) I got in a little bit of a snit that people are so damn selfish and don't care to ever think about the effect on the planet. But, so what? Doesn't the end justify the means? Who cares about their reasoning so long as they buy the good stuff? Right? Even my tag line is, "Saving the Species, Not the Planet". So... why so snitty?

Image from article. Heels? Really?

Good question. I may or may not have figured this one out. We'll see. Together. I think I just feel like it should all be one in the same, you know? Why do we have to make a distinction? How about, "I buy this because I care about my kids. But I also care about other people's kids. I care about the health of my home, and my home IS the planet." Is it just THIS tiny little thing that is bugging me? What IS it that makes me give a crap about why people do what they do? They're still buying the good stuff. Take what ya get, shut up, and get on with it.

But now comes my AHA moment. I think. Yes, yes, this could be it. Making this shade of a distinction speaks of the bigger problem to me. That problem is that we do not have a "global concern." We still don't care about what our neighbor is doing, so long as in OUR little household, WE'RE buying cleaners etc. that are healthy for OUR kids. I must really, really be reading WAY too much into this. Something. This shouldn't bug me this much. But, OK, heck yah I'm going to read into it. See, it's a dangerous attitude. No, not mine. The attitude of which I speak is this pervasive subversive idea that all I care about is me and mine. I just see it too much everywhere about so many things. "I got my healthcare, screw everyone else." "My kid goes to a good school, screw anyone else's kids." "I got mine, that's their problem." This... circling of wagons into tiny little groups alarms me to no end. And this seems like more of it. It makes me think things don't end well for anyone.

At this point, I fail to know if I am making any sense. I like to think I am. Something just troubles me about the way this is stated, that's all. Yay for people buying green products for whatever reason. Boo me for thinking anything untoward about the whole thing. It's all good, we're fine, everyone's fine, nothing to see here, no worries.

And yet....

But I Need Garbage Bags

2011-05-24T15:44:00.000-07:00

STOP USING PLASTIC BAGS.

This is pretty straight-forward to me. There is no need for these bags. Do not get them at the grocery store, the drug store, Wal-Mart, Target, anywhere. We do not need them. Period. They become garbage that never ever ever goes away.

Ah - wait - garbage. This seems to be the biggest argument I hit when discussing plastic bags. "I need them to line my garbage can. I'm re-using them, what's the big deal? Isn't that the point? Re-using? I'm not just throwing them away."

Well, let's stop to think about this. Why do you need to line your garbage can at all? Why are your protecting and bundling your garbage? Are you trying to make garbage a neat, tidy, compact little thing? How can garbage ever break down if it's all tied neatly in plastic bags? Don't we want garbage to break down? Are we saving it for posterity's sake, so aliens who visit our (dead) planet in the future can see what we threw away?

"Garbage is messy, the garbage can will get messy and gross if I don't line it." Here's some news for you: You can actually clean out a garbage can. Yes, it's true. We stopped using bags to line the can some time last year. Two years ago? I'm thinking you have to be a serious prima donna if you can't deal with your own garbage. Really. I mean that. Otherwise, think of it this way: some of your garbage IS messy, yes, we all get that. But, aren't there other things you get that come in plastic bags anyway? Bread, cat food, dog food, potatoes, those kind of things... are you just contributing those to your garbage? Why not save THOSE smaller bags, and put messy things in those but keep the can unlined? It's easy. Because not ALL your garbage is messy, right? Just some of the stuff. If you want to say, "Doesn't having to wash the can waste water?" then I say, no, not if you aren't going crazy with the washing. You don't have to. There's no need for bleach and Lysol. (Why do you think your garabge is that bad? What the heck are you throwing away? Medical waste?) And when you think of the water that goes into the manufacturing of the bags in the first place... well there ya go.

Let's come to terms with our garbage, shall we? What happens to things when you throw them in the can that makes them untouchable in mere seconds? Why are we so dainty? Why can't we own up to our own garbage anymore?

At least, at the VERY LEAST, if you still just HAVE to line the can... do NOT take the whole bag out if there is no "mess". At least try to re-re-use it when you can. At least, that. It's kind of funny, really. We're becoming such a society of feeling entitled to get something for free, that we wouldn't couldn't dare think of actually BUYING other bags for garbage can liners (remember buying bags?) or the biodegradable bags for dog poop etc... no, we have to have our bags free and clear from the grocery store. In fact, double-bag it, please. I need more bags. It is owed to me. (That's something that stymies me too - bag manufacturers making bags so thin we have to double-bag everything. Why does THAT make sense???)

Just... stop. Stop selling out the future just because we've forgotten how to handle anything that might be remotely messy. Stop.

Pure Chicken-y Goodness, Individually.

2011-05-24T14:05:00.000-07:00

"Perdue Introduces Chicken That's Perfect For Everyone"

Really? How so? Perfect, because your chickens are mass-farmed? Given growth hormones for more attractive breasts? Given antibiotics? Is that what makes this chicken perfect?

"Each piece of chicken breast cooks quickly and evenly, in only 10 minutes. Additionally, each portion is individually wrapped making it extra convenient to cook the desired amount and easily store the remainder in a reclosable bag for later use."

Ooooohh.... THAT'S why it's perfect. Look - right up there - my favorite word. "Convenient." So... chicken, wrapped in plastic, wrapped in MORE plastic. Um, why, exactly? Let me guess: so we don't have to break them apart. Because we don't have time to mess with separating stuff. Because there's no good reason to prepare more food to have leftovers for lunches or another dinner. Um... wait, I'm still trying... Oh, because everyone is so picky that we have to fix different things. Because, umm... because.... I got this, I swear I do... nope. I got nuthin'. I can really truly seriously not think of one really good really valid reason that we "need" this and what makes it perfect and why anyone would buy it. Admittedly, I avoid Perdue. I eat chicken, I love chicken, chicken yummy. But I prefer mine from small, local, sustainable farms. (It tastes far better, too.) I'm pretty sure most everyone should avoid Perdue. But definitely really, REALLY avoid this. There is no reason for this. The best thing is to get this out of the marketplace as soon as possible. In fact, feel free to express your displeasure directly:

By Phone:	1-800-4-PERDUE® (1-800-473-7383) Monday - Friday, 9:30 am to 6 pm EST
By Post:	Perdue Farms P.O. Box 1656 Horsham, PA 19044-6656

Famous for Nothing, Richer Anyway

2011-05-19T18:01:00.000-07:00

I'm not a shoe-whore. Oh, I love me my boots and suffer a lot of boot envy, and I'm not turned OFF, per se, by shoes... I just don't feel the need to have a whole ton of them. I don't faint in DSW or Off Broadway. I like to go in, but generally it's just when I need to replace a pair that has worn out. Because of this general attitude, I was not paying much attention to ShoeDazzle.com. This is a site by one of the oh-so-famous for no-reason-whatsoever Kardashian sisters. I guess it's been around for a few years. It JUST got a major investment infusion of 4 million dollars. For those of you good, cool people who aren't aware of this stupid company, here's the nutshell... apparently, you sign up, handing a credit card over before you even see pictures of shoes, and you are given a "personal selection" from someone who tailors the choices right to you (uh huh), and for this $40/month you get a pair of shoes that you pick from that selection.

Why should I care? So what if people buy shoes? $40 for a pair of shoes may not be bad. Unless they are super-cheaply made crap shoes. I'll tell you why I care. Because I suspect they ARE cheap pieces of crap, from the looking-around I did, and they break easily so they'll just get tossed, and they are mostly made in China, who knows if by exploited workers or what. I care, because aren't we supposed to be stopping this kind of thing, rather than throwing money at it? Aren't we supposed to be moving towards fair trade and quality? Did I miss a point?

(I think all I missed was greed. I generally miss that.)

I hesitated to even talk about this, because, you know, I hate to publicize things that suck... but then the whole needing-to-make-good-people-aware-of-the-bad always overrules. MY PEEPS! Call to action! WHAT can we do in the face of this line of crap?? Cuz I'm at a loss. All I can think to do is write about it. And not use the site myself, of course, but my not sending $40 isn't going to do much in the face of the 4 million dollars. Karma? Anyone? Anyone???

Guess we just sit back and continue to be annoyed by this stuff. Geez, I gotta get famous so I can fight on a level field.

Hee hee.

Big Oil and Big Corp Out of My Life

2011-05-16T13:06:00.000-07:00

Big oil is all over our lives in ways we rarely realize. Petroleum products abound in the most subversive places. Just look in your shower: petroleum in your shampoo bottles AND your shampoo. Big corporations that care nothing for the environment make your liquid soap in more plastic bottles. Disposable razors. Scrubbie poufs of plastic. That little tiny area in your bathroom is full of the worst of it, when you stop to think about it. Forget the rest of that room; the shower has enough horrors. Right down to the toxic chemical cleaners you use to clean it, the detergents on your towels, the frequency with which you wash said towels... (Seriously, anyone who uses a towel ONCE and puts it in the wash needs to leave the planet. Seriously. If you know someone like this, please feel free to push them off during the next rotation.)

I feel pretty good about my shower area. I've done away with shampoo and conditioner, having replaced them with baking soda and apple cider vinegar, neither of which come in plastic containers. I will NOT use liquid bath soap. I'm not sure why this particular product is so incredibly popular. (Please tell me if you know!) Full of petroleum products and other chemicals. And fake fragrances. I've thought about it, and really I can't see why bar soap is not just plain good enough. It's surely cheaper. We do pay a little more for ours, because we just love Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap in bar form, especially in tea tree or peppermint. We are OK paying a little more for this all-natural soap because, frankly, we are saving so much not buying shampoo that it's basically a wash. (HAH! No pun intended.) I make sure to use a razor that only replaces the head. I use them forever, and I've had the same handle for, I think, 4 years now. That comes out to be cheaper than the disposables, too. I use a natural loofah instead of a scrubbie-pouf. Those bug me. They work great with liquid soap, I suppose, but, see above. And I've done away with moisturizers in plastic containers with suspect ingredients: I have a little container in my shower with a bit of olive oil. I put some on my face after washing it, and the remaining time in the shower lets it sink in SO nicely. Turns out I really don't need to spend $20+ on something that only sort of works. Thank you, Mother Nature. Hugs.

So, I feel pretty good. I am not giving money to companies like SC Johnson and Dow; instead supporting the smaller companies. I am not throwing away countless plastic bottles every year. And I am not using petroleum on my hair and body. What can you do?

It's the little victories. And they add up.

***Aside anecdote: I have a few little hotel bottles on the sill of my shower window for just-in-case times. (And because I prefer to eventually slowly use them than throw them out!) I recently had surgery, and one of those very same just-in-case times came up: I dropped the soap, and could not bend over to pick it up! Ack! No worries - I used the liquid soap from the little sill-bottle. HOLY CRAP did that stuff dry out my never-dry skin. I love being given irrefutable evidence that I am doing the right thing. Nice reinforcement. But luckily I can bend over again, in case I drop my Dr. Bronners again. Shew.

Why Do I? Do you?

2011-05-10T16:32:00.000-07:00

I'll say this one right up top here: Our demand for ease and convenience is killing our future generations. I'll warn you, too: there won't be much funny or snarky here. Small departure this time around.

It's well-known I don't have children, so maybe I'm out of the loop. So let's say I am going from a place of casual observation in what is all over our youth: increased asthma rates, cancer of all kinds, ADHD, autism, disorders of the brain, cancer... yeah I said that twice. It's that alarming.

How many people know a kid with cancer? In high school, we had one classmate who had cancer, and she died before we graduated. One, out of hundreds of kids. And that was tragic. Now? I almost can't think of it. Pediatric wards are FILLED with LITTLE KIDS with cancer. How is this even remotely not making every single one of us run around screaming and pulling our hair out? How has this become part of our reality? How do we just... accept it? "Well, no, G-Dub, we aren't accepting it, we hate it too." Then why do we persist in our ways? Because it's OK if it happens to other people's kids, but not ours? I don't have kids and it's not OK to me. I want the terrible nasties that make our kids sick to go away. That's why I do what I do. Just because I loved my eggs too much to fertilize them doesn't mean I don't care about the future. I'm a paradox. I accept this. (Ok, a little snark in this one.) I am by no means saying I'm the only one that gives a shit, I know I'm not, but damn it, why aren't we all giving more of a shit??? Pardon my English!

The problem is that people are NOT looking around and realizing that their chemicals and products and things they MUST have to make their lives oh-so-much easier are KILLING us all. We spray chemicals all over our homes. Febreze here, Lysol there, Glade over here... and our demand for more and more power dumps more toxins and mercury and crap into the environment, causing how many developmental disorders? Autism: misdiagnosed for decades or crazy-on-the-rise? And why would these things be on the rise? What has changed in the last 40 years or so?

That's kind of a rhetorical question. I know what's changed. Maybe your kids are fine. Great, that's a blessing and you should be grateful. What about their kids? Do you want to see your grandkids suffer and die before they hit 11? Is it worth it to you to step away from the plastic bottles to see your grandkids healthy? Is it so hard to remember your reuseable bags that you spent a buck on, to know that your kids won't have to suffer through suffering of their kids? Can you slow down and go back to cooking real and healthy foods, for the sake of the future generations? Can you swear off plastic diapers, plastic pudding cups, plastic straws... fake fragranced sprays and detergents... paper/disposable everything? Can we think ahead, see what is happening, make it slow down?

If not, why?

How Can Fruit be Bad?

2011-05-10T13:05:00.000-07:00

I'll be frank. (Well, that's my dad, actually.) These things confuse me. I think they are delicious, and they're fresh good healthy fruit, right? There can't be anything wrong with that, can there?

I'm talking about Edible Arrangements. A great and novel alternative to sending boring old flowers. Nice! But then, I see all the silly plastic sticks we have to throw away. So, um, good healthy fresh fruit, dozens and dozens of plastic sticks. I'm so torn!!! What to think? Good, but bad. Can the company take the sticks back to re-use them? Is that illegal because of some health code? Would people largely not return them anyway? Why can't they use something else, like bamboo? It's not like the fruit is meant to stay on the skewers for very long. Is there a splinter issue? Is the plastic just plain cheaper? Have they tried other things? Is it a focus group thing?

It's kind of sad how a fun delicious little gift can cause such angst in my life. Pathetic, actually. It doesn't help that I know certain fruit juices can leech chemicals out of the plastic, not that they are on there very long, but still.

It seems like a good idea and a good company, if they would only ditch the plastic sticks. I mean, I could make a helluva green smoothie after receiving one of these, especially if they use kale for accent. And those chocolate-covered bananas? SOOO yummy. But then the guilt of all those sticks. Sure, I can find some good way to re-use them, but what about everyone else out there who doesn't?

I want to give this two brooms' up, but I think it has to get thrown in the cauldron as a fail. What say you? Too harsh? Simmer down? I'd feel better if there was some kind of exchange program. You know, return the sticks, get a discount on your next delivery...

No, I stand by the bad. Fruit good. Fruit on plastic sticks bad. Easy.

Keep Yer Grubby Mitts Outta My Trash

2011-05-09T16:06:00.000-07:00

Ah, the garbage ritual on my street. I've touched on it before. The dance of the trucks... it's quite magical, actually. Watching the ebb and flow and organization of it all...

Were we thinner then?

My street is lined with fairly sizable apartment complexes. Each building has two or more giant dumpster bins. We all have gated garages; the garbage trucks of course do not go in there. The bins have to come out. That's where this almost-insect-like ballet of cooperation begins. First, the Little Red Trucks come around. They zip into the gated garages and bring out the bins to leave them there on the street for the Big Trucks. BUT WAIT! Before the Big Trucks can come lumbering down the street... here are the Little White Trucks. What are these? These are trucks with little men in them who park their trucks and jump right into the dumpsters to go through them to salvage anything that might be worth anything.

I LOVE these guys. The back of their trucks are full of trash/treasure. Others look down on them and think it's disgusting that they do this; I admire them. I'll say it (cuz it's my blog, after all), they are of a majority Mexican. You know, because we sure couldn't expect "real" Americans to get all dirty like that, right? Gross. Climbing in a dumpster? Should be ashamed. Nope, I think they are awesome. They are pulling stuff out of there that would likely end up in the landfills, and they are DOING something with it. Reselling it for scrap... it will be recycled/re-used/re-purposed. Energy will be saved. Resources will be saved. I love these guys. Finally the Big Trucks come by, and the ritual is concluded for our street.

Which brings to mind an anecdote... we were wandering a lovely farmers' market on Sunday, and they had helpful nice local policemen there to answer community questions. Nice community close to the ocean... nice people. Over comes this nice resident of the nice community to talk to the nice police. He looked fit and ready to spend the afternoon yachting. He wanted to know why the police wouldn't do anything about the homeless people who went through his recycling bins after he put them out to his curb for collection the next day. Those darn homeless people had the nerve, nay, audacity to rummage through HIS good garbage. That was HIS garbage and he paid GOOD MONEY for that garbage collection. He pays his taxes, darn it. He shouldn't have to tolerate some unworthy person sucking off the teat of society using his good garbage to make a tiny bit of money.

I really wanted to say something. And I think the cops were trying their best to be respectful to Mr. Tax Payer, too, but they sure seemed to want to point something obvious out to him. I don't know. Why should this encounter have bothered me so, stuck with me so? Why was I irritated? I LIKE that there are people who go through the recycling bins, you know why? Because then I am really sure that stuff will GET to a recycling center. And the CRV is going to (somewhat) good use. You know what, Yacht Guy, Mr. Tax Payer? Why don't YOU care as much about your recycling as those less-than-desirables in society? That guy and also that lady that goes up my favorite hiking spot to pull bottles out of the garbage cans up there? Hell, they're getting a work-out AND doing good by the Earth. GOOD for them. You've thrown it away, why do you care what happens to it now? And would YOU climb in that dumpster? No: you've already thrown that item away and missed it's value that someone else recognizes. Leave them alone. No - admire them. They earn it.

I salute you, O Dancers of the Dumpsters. And I thank you. Moreover, I really, really respect you. Does that mean anyting to you?

Meh. Prob'ly not. Oh well.

Better Than An Apple

2011-05-09T13:24:00.000-07:00

Here I go again. Trashing an otherwise perfectly respectable, pretty much good-for-you product. What is WITH me?

I recently attended the Natural Products Expo. It is a super cool event, filled (really filled, that event is HUGE!) with so much natural stuff one hardly knows where to turn. However, from the first second hitting the floor, I had to remind myself this was a "natural products" gig and NOT a green event, per se. The two ought to go hand in hand, yes I agree, but this is not the case. And that's that... you can't quite call it greenwashing here... Oh I wanted to... but you can't quite.

Case in point: the first display I saw. VitaTops. Apparently these things are great for losing weight and are wonderfully healthy and oh so delicious. Everyone loves them, they have all kinds of seals of approval... GREAT. Super. Wonderful. What stopped me dead in my tracks was this huge sign on their display that said, "Better than an apple!" Dead serious. My immediate reaction was, "In what world??? Plasticland???" While these delicious little morsels are the perfect size and calorie count, they are all perfectly wrapped in individual perfect plastic pouches. Yes, that IS much better than an apple. Not. What's the dead giveaway? What's the phrase that jumps out in a warning? The very first thing they say under the VitaTop's product page is: "VitaTops. Deliciously Convenient."

"No time for your vitamin-fortified cereal this morning? Tired of chewing yet another nutritional bar, but still want your vitamins and minerals and 4-9g fiber with very little fat?" Really? This is what we've come to? Yeah, I know, I'm not really surprised either. (Nutritional bars are hard to chew??) How lazy are we. No, that is not a question. I know we are. Chewing is hard work. So is exercise and eating right. Hard hard work. Convenience is definitely the key to losing weight.

So, anyway, this is a good and quality product. I'm sure it is. I'm totally overreacting. Come on. Is there no other way to package it? None? No? Then it has to go in the "reject" pile. Because this is not cool. You cannot recycle these wrappers. They just end up in the ocean. And why? What for? Because eating right is just too plain hard and inconvenient, and we are all too fat and have to lose weight, and damn the consequences to our children's children?

That's what I thought.

You Got Your Garbage in My Almond Butter!

2011-05-09T12:11:00.000-07:00

Just one more example of sliding backwards. One step forward, two steps back. I would be wholeheartedly for this product. In fact, I'm sure it's an awesome healthy thing. Almond butter instead of peanut butter. Yum, good, fine, wonderful. Whatev's. But please sell it in a wonderful glass jar, you know, the way peanut butter used to be sold before greed and convenience really caught hold?

But, alas, no. We need even more convenience than plastic jars. We need on-the-go, super-spiffy wonderfully convenient, single-serve SQUEEZE packs. I wish I was kidding. Can someone please explain this to me? Can someone let me know why this is even a product we "need" in our lives? Is it so much to have to think ahead and pack a little cup of this stuff from the larger jar at home? Are we so far gone we can't think around THIS? Do we really need to add this kind of trash to the mounds out there? Do we need to applaud the amount of resources it takes to manufacture and fill these stupid little things? Do we have to be able to whip our almond butter out of a cute little pocket? Do we need to teach our kids to get used to these things?

Apparently.

I got nuthin' for this one. Just... and I know, I am the one introducing them to y'all... boo for me, I really did wrestle with that one, but I feel the evils of the world need to be seen so we can recognize them for what they are. "It's just a little thing.. no big deal, G-Dub." (my new nick-name!) But, these are ALL little things that add up in a big way. But back to the "just..." Just DON'T buy them. And when you see these things, maybe take some names and maybe spend a few minutes a week tossing off an e-mail to these companies, saying, "We don't care for these irresponsible products." It could help.

Maybe not. Sometimes, I think we are too far gone. Give me some hope, someone. I'm fresh out and they don't put that in a super-slick squeezee-pouch.

Friends Don't Let Friends be Un-Green

2011-05-08T14:44:00.000-07:00

I have a lot of green friends, 'natch. Well, acquaintances. My circle of "friends" is really small... you know, those people who visit you after surgery or that chick you can call to hit the mall with you or some peeps to grab drinks with after work... those people? Not so much around me. I'm a loner. Ask anyone: I don't really like "people". It's true. Which is weird, because quite honestly, I am unfailingly gosh-darn pleasant to everyone. It's kind of sick how nice I am in person. Sick. Nauseating. But I digress.

Back to it: I am lucky to know so many green and aware and awake people. VERY lucky, and I treasure them all. But what about if you have a friend who doesn't so much share your brand of awareness? You may have them in your life... those who just will NOT stop using plastic bags or single-use bottles... those maybe even in your family who think you're a little cray-cray and don't listen to anything you say because they already wrote you off as a tree-hugging Birkenstock-wearing Patchouli-smelling non-showering non-flushing hippie, even though you're really not? Hell, you don't even own a pair of Birkenstocks. Do you keep patient and keep trying? Do you shut down and shut up (funny how those are two such different things, isn't it? LOL)? Do you just not see those people anymore, gently excise them from your life?

Or, let's go even a step further, since we ALL know people who think we're a little over-the-top. Say you have a friend who has a job or business that is completely non-green. Like... bottled-water delivery. Plastic diaper seller. A catering business that uses plastic utensils and Styrofoam. A salon that goes through crazy chemicals or - gods forbid - Brazilian blowouts. What do you do? This is their money, their success, their livelihood... what to do? Stop being friends with them, because they can't/won't change, and you simply can't associate with them any longer? Or do you gently urge them to mend their ways? Or do you nag them enough that they finally shut YOU out?

Some people that know me will actually be afraid to do things around me or will hide something from me that they know I will frown upon. And, you know, I'll take that... because at least they are thinking about it. They are more aware. But, again, I don't have a lot of people like that in my life, because... well, I guess I just don't. Do you? I'm really curious about this one. There can't just be "Us" and "Them". There has to be a "We", right? Apparently, I am the one people just humor if they don't share my concerns. Or they tune me out. That's disheartening. But I know it's true. I can only hope to just be like that tiny, irritating little piece of sand in the oyster, and maybe pearls will follow.

It's all I got.

What say you?

So, My Steamer Breaks...

2011-05-08T14:04:00.000-07:00

...no big deal, right? It's just a steamer. They're relatively cheap; I can get another one.
After all, clothing steamers are great. Easier than ironing, keeps clothes from needing to be dry-cleaned as often... and heck, it lasted a few years. Great.

No, not great. It's a GIANT hunk'a'plastic that is now good for NOTHING. A few years??? C'mon!! And I know what's wrong with it - it's not boiling water anymore! This is a quick fix, right?? WRONG! These days, stuff is made so damn cheap that it's far easier - AND less expensive, even - to just junk it and get a new one. I can't even figure out what to do to repurpose it!

Well, woo-hoo, that's good for the economy, right? WRONG! It's good for some 3rd world economy somewhere (not even, really) where the stupid things are made. Cuz they ain't made here in the US. So please tell me what economy we are helping. Bed Bath & Beyond's CEO's personal economy? Here's an idea: how about jobs we used to have, you know, actually FIXING stuff?? Appliances lasted a long time. Decades, even. And if something twitched in them, we took them to the local guy who could fix pretty much anything. Toasters, sewing machines, mixers, vacuums... or when the bigger things went down, he came to the house to fix it. And we kept it. Now, you don't even keep a microwave. Too cheap and easy to get another one. Hand mixers? Like Kleenex. Blenders? Pfft.

We cry out about jobs all the time. So someone please explain to me how this Planned Obsolescence things is good for our economy. I don't think it's working so well. Could be just me. Can't we just go back to making quality products, and to fixing them and keeping them around? Isn't that better?

In the meantime, forgive my wrinkled clothes. My steamer broke and I haven't been out to replace it with another. Maybe I'll buy two for when the next one breaks. Yeah. That's it.

Just doing my share for the economy.

Why this last thing? O Vanity...

2011-04-06T18:36:00.000-07:00

Doing great. Got rid of my shampoo and conditioner. No more petroleum-based stuff in plastic bottles. No more buying deodorant. I still wear make-up, but minimally, and I try to be good about it too. Hair product... well, could be better there but I'm trying. I like my spiky-ness. My "perfume" is essential oil based if I wear it at all. No more hair color. At all. So I'm doing OK. Pretty good. Great?

Nope, NOT an author portrait!

So, why this one last hold-out? I stopped believing everything all "they" would have us believe about pretty much, well, everything. I do not need their products in my life. We've cut so much "store-bought" crap-chemical products from our life that it's hard to scale back any more. But one thing I kept right on using: Moisturizer.

I've read so many things... our skin does what it needs to do. Yeah OK. If you strip the oils from your skin, it will over-compensate and produce more oil. Yup, sure. Skin naturally will lose elasticity etc. Yes, for certain. Time marches across our faces. Miracle creams abound. All criticize the others for not really working. New ones come out every 2 seconds. (That might be a slight exaggeration. We women all know only mascaras actually come out every 2 seconds. Moisturizers might be every 5 seonds, really.) New, improved, better, this works that doesn't, new technology, new ingredients, better, stronger, gentler, SPACE AGE! I finally stopped to think: almost every other product is full of lies and false promises. Why should I believe the anti-wrinkle people above everyone else I have put to the side?

Hmm. Good question. I have openly embraced my grey hair. In fact, it's not turning white fast enough for me. I've never worn a ton of make-up so I'm OK with keeping to a minimum. So why the continued obsession with moisturizers? Why the worry that if I skip it, I'll burst out into severe wrinkles immediately? I use a very natural soap that doesn't strip the skin of its oils TOO badly... still feels a little dry right after the shower, but all in all, I've discovered that if I skip the stuff, I'm actually still OK - the same - all fine - by the end of the day. I feel no different. It's only been a short time now, and I'm not yet convinced I'm in the clear, but all in all I... cautiously... think I might be just fine. I have not exploded into crow's feet. I don't notice any difference at all. But really, should I care? I'm all for looking as good as I can. For sure, I am blessed with my naturally oily Italian skin that keeps some aging at bay... but really, have I held on to this last social hang-up for no good reason? Do I really care how wrinkled I get? Do I care who knows my age or guesses it or even cares?

I'm trying to get in better shape, I'm eating better, I'm exercising more... I do want to look good. I have sun damage/age spots that I know betray me, and I would like to fade them. They do bug me. I try fade creams. They seem to work. I try to not obsess too much. It is what it is, ya know? I know there are natural products out there, I saw most of them as I wandered through the Natural Products Expo. But I was still left to wondering, do I really NEED this? Might my skin be fine on its own? Unfortunately, only time will tell, and by then it will be too late. But I really am tempted to just STOP. Yeah, again, sure, I may be lucky with my skin type that still grants me zits at an age I thought I would be long past them, but, I really think I can plain old stop. Or cut back, at least. Because, yes, those wonderful all-natural (all EXPENSIVE) products out there may be the tits (and I'm thinking some of my etsy friends out there do have GREAT natural products and not crazy-pricey! You know who you are!! Pipe up in the comment section!), they still lots of them come in plastic containers that I prefer to not have to use in the first place. I want to simplify. I want to STOP.

Can I? Should I? Would you, could you? Meanwhile, I have a lot of soul-searching to do to figure out why I could continue to fall for this one last great lie...

Progress.

2011-03-26T17:01:00.000-07:00

Remember when Sundays were actually Sundays, a real day off, and no one worked, and almost nothing was open, because it was a day off? And we were OK with it?

Remember when...

...we didn't have to work seven days a week?

...we didn't have coffee to go? We just drank it when we got where we were going, we didn't buy it in shops to carry it around, or if we did, it was the exception, not the rule?

...when we did carry coffee, it was in a Thermos, from the pot we made at home?

...we didn't have to carry water around at all times, as if we were going to die of thirst at any moment, and we had to wait til we got home if we were thirsty? If we were outside, we ran in to grab a few gulps and then go right back out again? Because it was a nice little break to take from whatever task at hand?

...we raked leaves and shoveled snow, and it was actually good exercise?

...we didn't have access to everything RIGHT NOW, and we knew how to wait?

...things weren't so convenient, so things meant more when we got them?

...we ate dinner together?

...we ate dinner at a real time? Off real plates? With real metal utensils?

...we made lunches for the week, or brought leftovers in, instead of buying stuff wrapped in plastic and Styrofoam? And we didn't eat at our desks?

...we didn't belong to gyms, because we actually got enough exercise DOING things?

I do. What do you remember? Not having/doing these things anymore is what we call "progress". Is it progress to have less time for each other, for our families? Is it progress to trash the planet? Is that progress? Is it progress to not have time to lay on a chaise lounge in the summertime under a nice shade tree with iced tea and a book? How is it progress if we are more stressed, more tired, more depressed, more poor, more fat? How is that progress? How is it progress to work ourselves to death? Where's the enjoyment? How is it progress if we're not very happy at all? How is it progress when the pediatric wards are full of kids with cancer? Is that the price of progress? Is progress so blind that we stop caring about other people, that the elderly are forgotten and neglected and people that need help don't get any because we are too busy chasing ours?

Shouldn't progress mean we are ALL better off?

I guess not.

Human or Cow?

2011-03-26T16:07:00.000-07:00

I finally figured it out. It's not the preaching. It's not the superiority. It's not even the intolerance. I can pretty much handle that from Militant Vegans. But I finally did figure it out what it is that does bug me.

Before I go on, let me be specific. I do not hate vegans. I eat meat. I'm not gonna tell anyone what they should eat, so please don't tell me what I should eat. I'll encourage better habits, sure... but I don't insist. I wish you would not waste water because that does affect me, but I won't insist. I don't keep Kleenex in my home, but if you have them in your purse, I won't object. (Out loud, anyway.) I may scorn your for your plastic water bottle, and offer you an alternative... well, OK, that one, I might get a little strident on, but generally, most people know how I feel about stuff and so I am content with letting their own consciences be their guide. I'll be the little voice whispering in the ear. But I won't preach to your face. If you ask, I will tell. And I certainly won't tell you, Random Vegan, that you should eat meat. So don't tell me I shouldn't. I admire your commitment to a better planet, but please just co-exist with me and don't preach. I know it. Go ahead and give me that look as I peer over my In 'n' Out burger. It's still yummy. So, no, I have NOTHING against vegans. I have vegan friends. (Well, maybe not after my radio show dated 3/26/2011!) But I cannot be around the militant vegans.

Why? Here it is: because they are not all-inclusive in their compassion. (Am I making broad sweeping generalizations? Of course. But it's my blog. I can do that.) The militant variety them will look right past a human in need to rescue a Kobe Cow from its existence. Kobe Cows do NOT need rescued. We should all live so well. THAT'S why it bugs me, that's what it is about them. There is so much human suffering out there, and yet they have made the choice to worry about someone eating an egg that a chicken was going to lay anyway. If they were so overflowing with compassion for their fellow creatures, why not humans? Maybe it's my point of view. Maybe I'M the one being intolerant. Aren't we all trying to save the world? Aren't we all in the same mindframe here? Maybe they have just chosen different battles. I feel like some of them will say, "Of course I'm not going to help THAT guy. He had his chances. He had his choices that he made. These poor defenseless animals didn't have a choice. I would rather help them." I say back: To what end? Why bother making the planet a better place if that homeless guy on the corner is still going to be homeless and hungry? Can you promise me that once the last animal is saved, that you will give a shit about that guy? I am tempted to think your opinion will not change much, and you'll still feel no compassion for him, and that you'll still snort derisively and say, "He had his chance."

And, then again, I could be WAY off base. These are just the musings of a person who has time to reflect on too much while driving the same route home from work every day, seeing the same sights, having way too active an imagination. Some could say, well, what are YOU, Green Witch, doing for that homeless guy? Why should you be able to say anything about THEM when YOU aren't doing anything either?

Easy: I am not preaching compassion towards all things living while ignoring the guy down the street. Maybe I'm no better. No, strike that, I definitely realize I am no better. I'm not trying to be. I'm just trying to be a little better myself, and make the world a better place for the kids coming up behind us. Maybe I was completely incoherent in this, hey, feel free to take shots at me, point out where I was wrong, whatever. I can handle it. These things come up in my head and I write them. I'm just venting. The wonderful good people I know who actually are vegans don't understand when I say that, as a meat-eating greenie, I am put down by certain groups of vegans. Well, of course they haven't heard that because they are on that side! Eat a hot dog and see what happens...

In the end, I really just want us to all get along. I want us to work together to save the species. Not save the planet, it'll still be here, but save the species. Because we WON'T be here if we keep going like we are. I guess I just need to write off the militant ones and put them in the same place I put the uber-religious... the uber-anything, really. Balance. We just need balance.

Which will lead me to my next post....

Irony: Using Babies to Sell Plastic?

2011-03-05T15:52:00.000-08:00

A good example of irony: using babies to sell a product that is horrifically terribly bad for the environment they get to inherit, and the bodies they have yet to grow into.

I have wanted to say something about this for so long! Luckily for me, this stupid commercial never goes away. Everyone thinks it's so damn cute. It has made the rounds of Facebook so many times, I've lost count. Just when I think it might have gone away, someone posts it again, or I see a bus ad with it. Therefore, I feel within my rights to talk about it. You know the one I'm talking about: the Evian ad with the roller-skating babies. Cute? Creepy? Both? Hilarious? I actually cannot force myself to watch it all the way through. Part of it is of course that I do not find babies cute. Anyone who knows me, knows that about me. Do not hand me a baby. I do not want to hold it. Ever. We've already covered the fact that I have no biological clock. Never had, never wanted, never thought they smelled great, in fact hate the smell of baby powder, find them to be messy and loud and somehow always moist. But I digress. Evian used music entitled, "Think Young". I think the point they are going for (again, not really sure, because I just don't get it, period, anyway) is that their water is so good that you should drink lots of it because it will keep you young. ?? Yes? Is that the point to this?

All I get out of it is: here's the future. Here's who gets to inherit the planet. Here's who has to clean up all the plastic bottles from your stupid bottled water!!!! Here's who has a future with a water supply that is completely compromised and scarce. I know, I know, I think too much, I see insidiousness where there is none, I can't just let go and enjoy, I'm pure evil. Say what you will. If more people thought a little bit beyond OH-CUTE-BABY-hey-something-shiny and actually looked around at consequences, then these adorable little guys and girls would have a chance. Let's follow them through their lives, these little tykes in this video, and see how many of them have cancer by the time they are 20. Harsh? Not hardly enough. I'll stop being harsh when 6-year-olds aren't filling cancer wards. Deal? Deal. Do me a favor, meet me halfway, and next time someone tries to pass this video around again or mentions it, please at least say something like, "Yeah, that's a really ironic commercial." They might ask why. Maybe we can make people think more next time. Maybe?

I bet they're even wearing plastic diapers under there.

Can you call yourself an environmentalist when you...

2011-03-02T20:21:00.000-08:00

...eat meat? Use plastic? Drive a regular car? Have more than two kids? Flush every time???

These are the questions that plague me. Maybe I think too much. Scratch that: I KNOW I think too much. That old kids' question game where you give choices like, if you had to, would you rather be blind, or deaf? Oh, blind, please. I can go without seeing the horrors we humans create, but don't leave me alone in this head with all these thoughts. I need music just to drown me out sometimes. I want to hear the birds and the rain and the wind - they help.

I do eat meat. Does that mean I don't care? Of course not. I try to be responsible about it, where I get it from, the farms on which it is raised, etc... I refuse to eat veal (cruel), and I know our days with certain tunas are numbered, so I abstain... we've cut back for sure. Vegans and vegetarians would be at constant odds with us omnivores. But aren't we all working towards the same goal?

The kids thing, though. That really sticks for me. Bear with me; I'm just a little witch trying to figure this whole big world out. I don't have any, myself. My clock never ticked. Maybe that's why I have this big disconnect. It could be. But having a child is the biggest carbon footprint you can make. In my terribly humble opinion, one is great, two is OK, three... STOP. It's... just not necessary. All the plastic diapers and other plastic products that come with a baby? Aren't there enough children already in this world? Can't we just adopt a homeless person instead? That can be just as rewarding! Right? And you can give all that love to one or two, a third or fourth or eighth, well, someone's going to get neglected. Seriously.

Actually, sometimes I feel we just need to stop adding more people until we are better to the people that are already here. And better to the planet. Maybe we should learn some things before we add extra population. Maybe we could learn to live WITH Nature like every other successful species on the planet does. Maybe we need a time-out to learn some things, to learn to HEAR... to listen... before we're allowed to bring more in. You know, the old learn-to-keep-a-plant-alive, then a pet... then...?

We need to slow down. We need to slow down on many fronts, on many things, in many ways. What we think of as progress and moving forward isn't necessarily "better", just because it's new. We need to pause, reflect, look back, slow down, listen. We need to stop for a second.

Let's stop. And think. And breathe.

I am a giant fraud.

2011-02-23T17:32:00.000-08:00

Let me tell you why. It's because I am a fake. I am misrepresenting myself. See, here I am, decrying the use of plastic, looking down on people who keep useless plastic in their lives, and yet I have to stand in front of the mirror every day and realize that I AM plastic.

Some years ago, before I became the person I am now, and when I was in a relationship with someone that I could have (should have) know better about, I went and did something terrible to myself. I got plastic surgery. Yes, I walk around with plastic bags of saline in my chest. To the credit of my wonderful doctor, they are actually extremely natural-looking. No one would guess. Of course, that's because I've plumped up to a weight where they could be the right size, thanks to my PRESENT and wonderful relationship (he's a great cook and we love life, and we eat!), so no one really thinks to question me the way they used to when I was a wisp of a size 0-2. ("Are those real?" What a dumb question.) So, yeah, they got me some great tips while bartending. In fact, I passed up a great opportunity in my professional life because Me 'n' the Girls made such a great living for my then-husband. But that's another story liberally sprinkled with loathing and regret. Now... now... every minute of every day, every time I look down or look in the mirror or go to sleep and re-adjust to get comfortable, I am aware that I am not natural. I am the antithesis of natural. And I did it to myself. And fixing the situation is twice the cost of getting myself into it. (Irony. Or, a really good lesson.) And I don't have that right now. I have to wait. The guy is gone from my life, and I am a different person than I was then, and I like me whole lot better now, but the person from back then still lives here in me too and I can't do anything about it.

So, who am I really to preach? Someone who has learned a lesson the dumb way? The hard way? The idiot way? Someone who has been there and speaks from experience? I'm just me, really. And I'm not asking for sympathy. I can only talk about the way I see things now. I'm just...

Well, I guess you could say I'm just getting it off my chest.

Yeah. Couldn't resist.

Steamed.

2010-12-10T10:54:00.000-08:00

...and I don't mean me, for once! I said I would sing praises of things for a few blogs, so here I go again.

Steam... powerful stuff. And so can anything really clean better? It kills pretty much anything. In my search for chemical-free cleaning, I thought these new steam mops that use nothing but WATER to clean might be worth checking. Always one for a bargain, I ran to Big Lots the minute I saw the Dirt Devil Steam Mop at a good price. We snagged the last one. I tried it out immediately. What's better is my husband also tried it out immediately! I'm not the most diligent house-cleaner. My floors get away from me every so often. OK, all the time. But just one pass with this steam mop over my kitchen linoleum had me hooked.

And it's just water. No chemicals, no smell, no residue, nothing to worry about my cats walking through or smelling, easy, quick-drying... I can't say enough. I'm done! No more spending money on cleaning stuff for the floors. (Although when I do want to use anything, it's always Better Life's Simply Floored - now THAT smells great and no harm) No more plastic containers that hold the cleaning stuff. No more contributing to the Gyres for no good reason. (And no, cleaning supplies are NOT a good reason.) (No, no they are not. Did you not just read what I said about steam doing a better job??)

I say it over and over... I do not need my home to smell like fake pine tree courtesy of chemicals, I do not need to anti-bacterialize myself out of existence, I do not need bleach or ammonia or even fake lemon. I like my clean to smell like NOTHING at all. And if steam is killing things I want killed anyway...

This is a no-brainer for me! Unfortunately, that's what we Greenies run into a lot out there... no brains.

But seriously. This is a cool thing and I recommend it or any brand you choose. They are simple machines that should last a long time with minimal care, and NO MORE BUYING all that other stuff. Win-win sitch.

Duped by DuPont

2010-12-07T10:09:00.000-08:00

Non-stick cookware. Revolution of the 20th Century, right? Makes life so easy. So convenient.

For the sake of this conversation, we're going to completely put aside the FACT that Teflon is actually hazardous to human health. That should actually be common knowledge. Unfortunately, we know all too well that knowledge is rarely common. But we are putting that aside. Just type the word "Teflon" in Google, and you'll immediately get results about the dangers.

That aside. We had non-stick stuff, and of course I wanted to go greener in our cookware. Sure, I would love the super-beautiful enameled stuff, a whole big set of it, but it's a little cost-prohibitive. So we started getting regular good old cast iron, nothing fancy, one piece at a time. My husband immediately fell in love with them and takes care of them very well. Better than I, in fact. I admit, I was a little intimidated to start cooking with them myself. "Stuff sticks so bad!" I thought. "Such a mess!" I thought. Then, I cooked an egg.

These pans have been lovingly seasoned the proper way, and I used a touch of butter, which I used in Teflon pans anyway. To my complete surprise, there was NO sticking. Clean-up is not difficult. And the food tastes better and is healthier. I got to thinking, WHY have we turned away from this? Because it's heavy? (Oh boo hoo, we could all use a little more of a freakin' workout, people.) Because it's a pain to clean? (Nope, we're just that lazy.) Because it's a little INCONVENIENT? Bingo. It's not, but that's the bill of goods we were sold. We were told this is what we wanted and what we NEEDED because we are so so busy and oh after all cast iron is SUCH a hassle.

BUT IT'S NOT!!! But we were so easily led astray! We fell for DuPont's marketing for no real good reason whatsoever. They don't care about our time. They don't care about our health. They want profit. Of course they do. And that's all they want. They do not give one good gash darn that you have easier clean-up.

Let's open our eyes!!! Let's stop falling for this crap!!!

Meanwhile, we are building a nice set of cast iron cookware that we will NEVER have to replace. Oh. look, saving money in the long run, and not adding to the garbage on the planet. How often do we have to replace non-stick? Too often. Oh... and now, we cannot use plastic spatulas etc... bamboo and good old-fashioned metal work nicely. Less plastic for everyone. Good side-effect I had not seen coming.

Accentuate the Positive

2010-12-02T13:57:00.000-08:00

Wait, has someone taken over my page?? LOL

For December and the holidays, I want to focus on some good things. Not to say I won't still snark out from time to time, but ya know. Gotta throw some good in there too.

So for my next few posts, I'm going to talk about what is working for me, and hope that, by sharing, it might work for you too! Got things to share? Please do!

The one I'll sart with is what I promised back in my lipstick post. I got my little lip "stain" gloss whatever you wish to call it. I do love it. All pure ingredients, nice color, makes my lips soft, and comes in a little metal tin. I found it on etsy.com, on t.w.i.nk. beauty. http://www.etsy.com/people/twinkbeauty?ref=ls_profile I so totally agree with what they say: If you can't pronounce it, you shouldn't put it on your skin. TRUE!!!!! So I love my lip stuff from them and will go back for more. I was a touch disappointed that, to promote their other items, they ssent along some product in little plastic bags. I appreciate the thought, but... you see what I mean?

Of course, another GREAT shop on etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/5seed Can I say enough good about my friend Yancy? No!!! She's awesome!

OK, now if you haven't come up with some BRILLIANT gift ideas here, you're hopeless. LOL Listen in to my radio show on http://newdissidentradio.com/good_green_witch.html on the 12/4 show for some great green gift ideas. Michelle GreenQueen Carroll and I will be discussing.

See? Happy happy!

Ugh. :)

Trader Noe's

2010-10-31T13:41:00.000-07:00

All environmentalists shop at Trader Joe's, and Trader Joe's is the best place for all crunchy granola-eating sandal & socks-wearing tree-huggers to shop.

Uh...

Thank you, but I'll go to another store today!

I used to LOVE Trader Joe's, before I knew better. I'd still go there if my only other choice was Whole Foods, but it would be a push. They really do have good food, they really do... and I love their alcohol prices. A lot of their prices are really quite nice and some of the products aren't terrible, but they import a hell of a lotta crap from other countries, and that's not very green. But that's not what finally got me.

What finally pushed me over the edge was a very delicious salad I had for lunch one day. It was full of extremely delightful ingredients, and it was perhaps the most perfect salad I have had in weeks. So what was wrong with it? Besides the fact that it, like so many other food items there, came packaged in a single-serving plastic container? Right there in the package, IN the package, was a completely unnecessary plastic fork. WHY??? (BTW, someone had purchased it for me. I would have passed if I had seen it in the store personally. But, damn, it was delicious.)

For some time now, I have been frustrated by TJ's packaging. Brown rice? Sure! Get in in our frozen package, single serving, all neat in plastic! So convenient! There's no need to MAKE brown rice, it's sooooo hard to make it yourself! Pasta lunch, single serving? Sure, right here in our plastic container! (Oh, and a fork, because it'll be there whether you need it or not. Oh, and you should NEVER need it. Right?) Lasagna! Ravioli!! Stuffed peppers!!! So many things so conveniently packaged so you, the one who has NO time to plan a lunch and why should you need to what with TJ's making everything so easy, YOU don't have to think EVER.

OK, yeah, whatever. We live on the go, and Trader Joe's is simply providing what our busybusybusy lives demand. But really? A fork? Can't you AT LEAST give me the option of NOT needing it? Must you make it so easy to contribute to the plastic vortices in the oceans? Can't you give me the chance to say, "No, thank you so very much, you are too kind, but I will use my OWN actual real fork today."

Mr. Trader Joe, why can't you be the store we'd like you to be? Why can't you reject this kind of mindless consumerism and take the higher road? Why do you cave to those who mindlessly pollute because they can't be bothered to plan ahead for once in their pathetic lives, and why must you drag the rest of us down with them? Your fun signs and colorful shiny happy people don't fool me anymore. You don't care. I thought you did, but you're just like the rest of them. You lied. I deserve better. But I know. I can't change you. You've tasted success at the hands of the lazy, and you don't think you need me anymore.

I'll shop elsewhere, thank you. Have a nice day. I wish you well. Oh, wait, who's this? Well, hello, Henry.... Joe Who?

Zen and the Art of Spinach Maintenance

2010-10-30T16:12:00.000-07:00

After my radio show today, the sunny but chilly afternoon stretched luxuriously out before me. What to do? Laundry? Nah. TV? No, I want to DO something... I don't often have the chance to stay home all day, as I have to go out to work like most people, so something to do while kicking around the homestead is kind of nice. Kitchen. I can be in the kitchen and do useful things. We have all that organic spinach from Farm Fresh to You that I had better get ready to cook, or it'll go to waste. We got a whole ton of greens this week in our delivery, and I want to make sure it all gets EATEN for a change. We sometimes have a waste problem. I'm working on it.

Into my ears go my earbuds and my favorite mix of songs on my mp3 player. My sunny yellow kitchen, where I can look down and out onto the street as I do what I do. Mp3 and musings. And spinach. Well, while I'm getting the spinach out, let's clean the fridge. Yikes, waste. But less. I dream of the composter I do not yet have. My cats join me in the small room, because that's where their food is too, and they think if they hang around, they'll get some treats. They are usually correct. The kitten thinks the stems from the spinach leaves are fun, so I give her one and she plays with it for a long time at my feet. I muse. I used to work in the restaurant industry, so I know it is best to strip the stems so that you pull them mostly completely out of the leaf. I muse. Do other people know this at all? Have they ever handled actual spinach, or just the stuff from the plastic bags? I muse. I kind of go all Zen as I listen to tunes and pull stems. Yeah, it takes time. Yeah, I sorta had to talk myself into taking the time. But it's nice. Tunes, cats, sunny kitchen, spinach. I am relaxed. I know this spinach will be very good, and I am not begrudging the time it is taking to de-stem it. We have gotten away from giving time to such simple activities. I could do things like this more often...

I'm enjoying the time in the kitchen so much that I go ahead and clean the place. Without chemicals. Hell, even the toaster is clean now. And it wasn't a chore. It was purging and relaxing. My fridge is clean, stuff is put away, and now I can go back in and try my hand at some recipes I have been meaning to try. I swear I am going to make that hummus from scratch today and stop being intimidated by the thought of it, so I can stop buying it in plastic tubs. I'm going to make a nice dinner that includes spinach. Fresh, organic spinach.

That's it. I just wanted to share a simple Saturday afternoon with all y'all. I want to have more afternoons like that, but I know they will still be at a premium for now. I want more people to want afternoons like that. Can we just get some simplicity back? I swear, it would be so good for all of us.

Bed, Bath, & Beyond Wastefulness

2010-10-28T11:46:00.000-07:00

My first in a series of naming names and calling these peeps out.

The New Ad came in the mail today, and I, like many, eagerly grab it to flip through it. I love ads and circulars. They're pretty. They're full of Stuff I Must Have. I actually grabbed this flyer out of the recycling bin, exclaiming, "Oooo - Bed Bath & Beyond!"

That's actually kinda funny, because the last time I was IN one of those stores, I was mostly disgusted. It used to smell good in there to me; now it just reeks of overwhelming chemicals. Do I LOVE some of the stuff in there? Hell yeah. But, lately, it seems I cannot leave that store quickly enough. Still... here's the flyer in my hot little hands. Page 4-5: a veritable porn-worthy display of single-serve coffeemakers with single-serve little plastic cups of uselessness. That was a past post. But there they are. Disgusted, but undaunted, I go on. Page 6 forces me into the realization that we really have jumped the shark. Our world is filled useless stupid crap being shoved down our throats. Yeah yeah yeah. I know, I knew that already. But aren't we supposed to be moving the OTHER direction by now? Do we really have to sell plastic cupcake plungers?? Do we NEED to core out cupcakes and fill them with frosting, and do we really really need a plastic piece of crap to do this? I gotta say no. But there they are. Page 8: Touchless hand soap dispenser. You know, because you don't want your hands to get germy BEFORE you wash them by touching the soap dispenser. Oh - wait - hey, there's a nice product... monogrammed napkins. Yes! Now that's more like it! Ohhh... but then, boo. 30 Piece Value Pack of Monogram Paper Guest Towels. They aren't even calling them napkins. They are towels. You know, disposable. Because, by all means, let us make having guests over as CONVENIENT as possible, instead of a nice event to be celebrated.

Am I saying BB&B is an evil empire? Of course not. Is it their fault for offering this stuff? A little, but the onus is really on US to STOP BUYING IT.

I can't think of a better way to kick off the holiday season than to vow to stop buying senseless throw-away crap. Pass it on.

Next time: why I avoid Trader Joe's like the plague. Yes, Trader Joe's.

If it says "Starter Kit"...

2010-10-23T14:19:00.000-07:00

Bill Maher, you're safe with your "New Rules." Not that you were concerned about little ole me. But we finally came up with a name for the Good Green Witch redes: Can't We Just Agree?

First of these that comes to mind is pretty much a true and binding FACT of life: If it says "starter kit" on the package, you WILL be throwing stuff away and buying new things to use and throw away. If it says "starter kit" on the package, it is the beginning of a cycle of waste and disposable STUFF. If it says "starter kit" on the package, you WILL be spending more and more money on it, for ever, ad naseum, in infinitum... whatever. Sounds Latin. I didn't take that language in high school.

First to mind is the ever-popular but incredibly ineffective and sucky Swiffer WetJet. I have one of these. Please don't judge; I did NOT buy it, and I refuse to use it. I even found this picture that has the NERVE to use my favorite witch of all time. I'm nauseous. That's completely gross. And, OK, OK, I HAVE used it. All the better to find out how poorly it actually works. The dusters are decent enough of a product, they really do pick up dust, but in reality, they are completely unnecessary. Yes, they are simply convenient. My favorite word. How many plastic handles to these things live in the world today? I do not want to know. Everything you see pictured here must be purchased and thrown away and re-purchased, and they are NOT inexpensive, as you probably know.

Now for the WetJet, which, again, I say works much less effectively than ANY other method I have EVER used to clean a floor, I would rather slide across the floor with fluffy socks on than use this again... where was I? Oh, yes, the WetJet... with its practically-a-diaper "cloths" - you know, plastic-lined and never-going-away pad-things... its non-refillable chemical-laden horrible cleaning fluid... yeah, don't refill it, just toss it and buy a whole new plastic bottle of the toxin. Sigh.

Here's a fun quote I found: Swiffer is a line of cleaning products by Procter and Gamble. The brand uses the popular razor-and-blades business model, whereby the consumer purchases the handle assembly at a low price and must continue to purchase replacement refills and pads over the life of the product.

Uh huh. What I said. Not cool. That's how we got here in the first place. Let's get away from it. Let's find a new place.

So, to sum up. Green Witch Rede #1: If it says starter kit, don't start.

Pretty simple. I can live with that. Hopefully, we all can.

Just Once Bitten

2010-10-23T12:56:00.000-07:00

The Good Green Witch is a fraud. Yep, I am a big old fake-a-roo. Why would I say that? Because I still wear make-up. I do. I haven't given it up. I don't plan to. What I wear is very very minimal and I try to get better at what I buy, but my big old failing that makes me cringe every time is... lip color. Yeah yeah I still use it. If you look in my purse (please don't!), you will find several - GASP! - containers of gunk in little plastic junk-tubes. I am a sucker for the ads, and I love thinking about which ones to purchase. I stand in the cosmetics aisle staring at them all, trying to not pay too much... wondering over colors... and most recently I succumbed to Revlon's latest offering. I am full of shame. This new product, Just Bitten, has wonderful ads and promises lasting color. Lipstain on one end and balm on the other and a whole lot of plastic in between. Oh, and I'm sure, plenty of petro-chemicals all through. I hang my head.

This innocent-looking little tube is pretty much pointless. The "stain" is not very stain-y. It's no better than anything else out there, it goes away easily, and it really isn't even very colorful in the shade I chose. Shame on me. And what happens when we buy one of these and find it's just not right? Well, we can return it, sure, but then what? It still gets thrown away. Boo. I am ashamed. I WILL use this until it is gone, because I have it now and I may as well, but it has become way past time to change my ways.

Onto the Internet I went. What would Beth Terry do??? (LOL I may have to use that a LOT. Someone tell her. Hah!) Surely a gal can still have her silly pretty-stuff without being all Evil Plastic Girl. I found something that I cannot wait to try - as soon as it gets here... I'm stalking the mail carrier. It's vegan (even though I am not!), it's natural, and it comes in a METAL container, which apparently I can send back for refills, or, knowing me, use for something else. I can be Queen of Re-Use when it's not some un-re-useable lipstick tube. It should be here any day, and it wasn't even expensive. I swear I'll give a report the minute I try it.

So, there ARE alternatives. We just have to look around a little. I can't (don't want to) give up my stained-lips habit. At least I can try to find a better way to have my lips and stain them too. That's all I'm really asking... that we TRY a little harder. I am. Can you?

You can never have too many shoes.

2010-10-22T10:56:00.000-07:00

Except that... you can.

I came across this picture one day somewhere. I don't even remember what it was for. Did it instill me with envy? Wonderment? Awe? Nope. I was filled with disgust. This is not an image of a store; this is someone's home. In what world does anyone possibly need this? I know, I know, it's not about "need", it's about "want". Seriously? I look at this and think, THIS is actually a disorder. My judgement call? My humble opinion? No. This is gross. This is an abuse. This is a disease. It's not cute, it's not enviable, it's sick. Plain sick. And bad for everyone.

Unfortunately, it is a disease that we are encouraged to have every day from every side. TV, magazines, billboards, ads everywhere tell us THIS is what we want. We DESERVE it. An article I read some time ago mentioned that walk-in closets are a fairly American concept. Many "average" Europeans do well with fewer and higher quality clothes. I personally have a serious love affair with boots, but I do not own 50 pairs. In fact, I've been holding on to a gift card with plans to buy what would be my 3rd pair, replacing another pair that are more utility than dress. I can't seem to pull the trigger on purchasing them. Surely there is something else more practical I can buy! Even my husband says, nearly daily, "Did you order your boots yet? Why not?" (I love him!) While the message out there is to have more buy more trash more, I'm cool with keeping things simple.

Why the American obsession with having more more more bigger bigger better? Why the walk-in closets that are bigger than some apartments? My husband and I like to dream of our own home, so we go to open houses on the weekends in our favorite little town. Most every place we look at has huge closets. Sure, I love them, but they make me laugh, because I know how empty ours would be. Room for all the towels and linens, for sure. Then what would be in the linen closets? We laugh. And yet there has been, as you have noticed, such a growing abundance of storage rental facilities. Seriously??? No, I can see the need for those when you are moving and need to stash your stuff for a month. Tops. But keeping a storage unit for months and months and years?? I don't get it. First, our garages are too full for our cars because we have too much stuff, and now we overflow into storage units. Why? Safety in stuff? Longevity through belongings? We moved from a one-bedroom to a larger 2-bedroom, and actually, we got RID of stuff. I have empty cupboards. It's a nice problem; I like it. I feel no need to stuff them to overflowing.

Gross and unnecessary consumerism should not be written off as a personal choice for some few sick people. It's dangerous and it's a drain on everyone's resources. It affects you, it affects me. We need to make better choices, we need to stop being slaves to the whims of ad agencies and big corporations who say buy more more more or you're a loser, and we need to instill better values in the next generation. I get the feeling they are going to look back on us and say, "What were you thinking???"

We weren't. But we can start now.

Hot Water on Demand

2010-10-21T12:34:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of things I can live without. I hardly miss paper towels, I barely think twice about shampoo and conditioner, and never having to buy deodorant again is quite a pleasure. I have great substitutes for all these things. One thing I prefer to keep in my life, however, is hot showers. It's my downfall. I love me some nice hot steamy shower time. Recently, we had our old terrible dripping water heater replaced in our complex, and... let's just say the hot water wasn't greatly forthcoming after that. Turns out the whole works needed a new pump as well, and now everything is fine and dandy. Burn-worthy, actually.

This small experience gave me lots to think about, though. For a few days in there, I contemplated life under a lukewarm shower. I realized how much I took for granted the pure simple joy of hot water, and how grateful I would be when it came back. I thought how the new heater was probably so much more efficient than the last, and would save energy, but if we did not get it working right, then the gross waste of water would more than overshadow that benefit. I was so annoyed by something that people around the world don't even have.

Mostly, I thought that we really could apply this to things in everyday life everywhere. "You don't know what you got til it's gone" is more than just an AWESOME '80's song. It's true, I live in probably the most selfish and self-centered cities there is, but is it like this everywhere? Are we so used to having whatever we want that we don't really care about or respect anything? I watch people go through phones and iPods and all that stuff like it's nothing. It IS something. We really need to go back and realize what it is to live without something so we can appreciate those things again. We've really lost that somewhere along the way. Is it entitlement? I was reading some comments online after a question was posed,"Do you shower in the morning or before you go to bed?" Simple question, many answers, but I was stunned by the number of people who said, "Both!" ??! OK, if your two showers of 5 minutes or less rival my one of... well, slightly longer, but are we talking 2 full showers a day? I digress a bit, but it all falls under the same general area of not being aware of the world around us. Do we know how fortunate we are to HAVE water available to us at any time? Do we realize it might not always be that way if we aren't more careful? Do we know what a waste it is to flush clean water down the toilet, and how stupid it is? Are my future showers in jeopardy because some ass-clowns out there think they NEED and are entitled to 2 showers a day? Do these same people wash their towels and jeans after only one wearing, and do they use hot water to launder things?? So many questions. No answers.

My hot water is back. My showers were probably a touch shorter in the lukewarm days, but I try. I don't linger. I save water in other areas very well. But what's the point if not everybody is doing the same? We're in dangerous times, here. And I don't think enough people are aware of that. Sadly, they will not suffer alone or bring the crap down only on themselves; the rest of us will get pulled in too. We HAVE to get everyone's attention, and we have to do it soon.

Right vs. privilege. Time to re-learn what it is to do without sometimes.... suggestions?

What's so "alt" about Alt-Cars?

2010-10-09T14:59:00.000-07:00

With high hopes and expectations in hand and mind, I gamely headed over to the Alt-Car Expo in Santa Monica last weekend. Nothing against the event itself... it was a nice gathering. But it was completely bogus.

Pictured here is what we did NOT see at the Alt-Car Expo. THAT car, the Tango, is a true alt-car. Most of what was actually AT the Expo was more of the same by all the same companies. At a place where I expected to see mind-blowing MPG's, I saw mostly hybrids with 31-51mpg. Seriously??? Shit, my 1998 Hyundai Accent (white, 4-door, all manual but I loved it) regularly got 33mpg. I know it did. I kept track religiously. It was a matter of pride. So now the major players trot out cars bragging about 30-40mpg, and I'm supposed to be impressed??? Um, NOT. Show me 150mpg. Show me a car that runs on algae. Show me an electric car that charges itself by solar. THAT'S "alt". What they had was just another car show.

There were some cool things there. I test-drove the Nissan Leaf, which, while I still wouldn't buy it, was really fun. It had impressive features, it had great pick-up, and it was whisper-quiet. I got back in my car and nearly went deaf. So it felt, anyway! So yeah it was cool, but I still want my smartcar. Electric, preferably, but that probably won't be available here in the States for awhile. Boo.

TRUE alt is the smartcar (http://smartusa.com/index.aspx), the think ( http://thinkev.com/ ), the Aptera (http://aptera.com/). Where were they? I'm not fooled. You shouldn't be either. Demand more. I was at a talk by the creators of Fuel (http://thefuelfilm.com/), and they had arrived in their Prius that they had converted. It got 150mpg, and those gallons were algae bio-fuel, not petrol. Now THAT'S "alt" for sure.

Even the electric cars, which are seriously impressive, still run off the grid. They still suck coal power and nuclear. Unless you have a total solar set-up, you're still contributing. Sorry, but it's true. Unless you are riding a bike or walking, you're pretty much still contributing. Oh, by all means, you are doing better, but we're still not THERE. We can demand to be there. We really can.

And it's up to us, cuz ain't no one gonna do it for us.

I blame cheese.

2010-09-27T10:25:00.000-07:00

All this pre-packaged have-to-have-it-ready-now goodness. Where did it start? Where did it come from? How? Why?

I have to blame Kraft, I think. Remember when Kraft Singles first came out? Little individually-wrapped slices of fake food product. Weren't they SO neat? Yay! Yummy! Cool! Different! So easy!

I'm trying to think why this was ever such a good thing. Luckily, I found an actual ad from 1969 (Wow, they've been around that long???). Here's the text: "Carefree. Progressive. New. That's the thinking behind the packaging of Kraft American Singles. Each slice individually wrapped for freshness and convenience in a wrapper that comes off neat." Ahhhh. There's that word I love: convenience. Because, you know, it's SO inconvenient to take cheese out of any other "group" package.

It's so hard to go to the deli counter and ask them to slice your cheese of choice. It's so hard to keep it in some container and just peel a slice off when you want it. It's so much more superior and progressive to put really seriously needless useless plastic into the environment. Please explain to me what part of this is carefree when we look at the state of things today?

It doesn't even taste better than the stuff from the deli. Neither does pre-packaged Jell-O, pudding, fruit, lunchmeat... shall I go on? IT DOESN'T TASTE BETTER. And it's barely real food.

I don't know how we stop it. We're so automatic at this point. Do I feel better that I figured out where it started?

Maybe a little.

Bottled Water, Delivered

2010-09-24T11:01:00.000-07:00

When you are too lazy to go to the store for your needless pollution...

I was driving to work the other day and happened to be following an SUV that advertised a bottled water delivery service. I was annoyed. I decided to look them up to see if I should be more annoyed. I was not disappointed in my annoyance.

I was tempted, for a moment, to admire the ingenuity of a small business filling a niche, but I came to my senses quickly enough. We don't need to admire filled niches that don't really need to be filled. This company offers a wide array of "specialty" waters, delivered right to your door, so you don't have to bear the unbearable task of carrying heavy flats of bottled water yourself. Great. Now we're wasteful AND lazy.

If it's specialty bottled water, they have it. They even carry the oh-so-wonderful selection of kids' water. You know, for when you really want to teach your child to be irresponsible and disrespectful to the planet. Many. if not all of their waters are at or over $1 per bottle. Am I alone or in error in finding this a gross waste of income? In these sorry economic times, should we really be glorifying in overly expensive and unnecessary bottled water products? Why are we making it even easier for people to use plastic bottles?

You all know my answer to that. No. Here's their blurb:

"Our goal is to bring LA's urban dwellers and businesses premium select waters (artesian, spring, structured, and oxygenated) delivered to your door. The ***** ***t [name excluded, don't want to GIVE them business] acknowledges the lifestyle you have chosen and wants to provide you with a service that will suit your daily needs. You will no longer have to carry heavy cases of water from the market to your home or office!"

Hmm. How about drinking... oh, I don't know, WATER? From the tap? Filtered easily and cheaply at the tap? This kind of needless, wasteful extravagance is what has gotten us in this mess in the first place. So, I say REJECT. Can't we stop the madness? Should I applaud the waters they sell in glass, and say, "Well THAT'S better." No. This is so completely needless that I just can't get past it.

Thanks for listening (reading, really). That was truly bugging me. What's getting to YOU this week?