Don't be afraid of the dark, we weren't when we participated in Earth Hour; but it appeared ALL of my neighbors were. How disappointing. Spot lights on when they let their dogs out, dogs don't need spot lights to see. In fact they probably see better without a bright light blaring at them. And who wants to be light up with a spot light during a private moment? Not me. Anyway, back to the point. Earth Hour came and went. I was sad to see lights on in almost every room of every house around us. Lights on in and out of the house, far too many lights on for people to be in everyroom really in need of the light. Here in lies the problem. People are wasteful. I know people weren't in everyroom, I know how few people live in some of these houses and I know how many lights I saw on.It took some doing; but we were 100% off the grid. Seriously, we went room to room and unplugged everything we could find. Hubby checked the meter and it still showed we were pulling some juice. We retrace our steps room to room and found the clock on the microwave was still on. It's apparently wired separately, as is the censor for the garage door. We pulled the circuit breaker to get those off, rechecked the meter and bingo! We were now completely off the grid. We were pulling no juice. We remained outside enjoying our wine by our fire pit long past the mere 60 minutes of the "official Earth Hour". I doubt we made up for all those around us; but we gave it our best effort. It was a learning situation for us, who knew some of those censors stayed on when you clicked the lights off at night at the switch? We didn't. So it was a good exercise for us; caused us to be more aware. Much like when I ware a pedometer to see how many steps I walk, it causes you to be more aware.
I spent some time yesterday at Staples learning about special breakers that can sense when something isn't in use and shut off electric to it. I plan to check further into this and will keep you posted what I learn.
Why should we all practice some of the lessons from Earth Hour? The above Tree came to mind. The World is Beautiful, we must protect it. The pretty tree is one such example. I'll close here with my favorite poem of all time.
TREES
- I think that I shall never see
- A poem lovely as a tree.
- A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed
- Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
- A tree that looks at God all day,
- And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
- A tree that may in summer wear
- A nest of robins in her hair;
- Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
- Who intimately lives with rain.
- Poems are made by fools like me,
- But only God can make a tree.
So today I'm sharing with you my love of trees and nature through a favorite poem, and asking you to be gentle on this Earth. Take care of it.
REDUCE...REUSE...and RECYCLE
I must have been asleep at the switch. My week was so hectic and difficult that I missed this whole thing till it was over with. (sigh) I have to say, in my defense that I usually support this sort of thing.
ReplyDeleteDid not know (or remember) about this, but doubt I could have gone completely dark. It's such a pain when you unplug some things - you have to reset clocks and reprogram remotes etc. But the big things - lights, stove, oven, dishwasher, washer, dryer, a/c, TV. Those I could have shut off for an hour. I would never stay completely in the dark as that would terrify me, but a nightlight or flashlight would be ok for an hour.
ReplyDeleteHI SANDY,
ReplyDeleteYOU DESERVE AN EARTH DAY MEDAL. YOU DID A GOOD JOB. I AM ALWAYS GOING THROUGH MY ROOMS TURNING OFF LIGHTS. PEOPLE DO NOT REALIZE HOW IT ADDS UP (ALL THAT ENERGY) WITH ALL THE RAIN WE WERE HAVING HERE IN NJ, IT DAMAGED A LOT OF OUR POWER LINES, WE HAD NO PHONE, AND NO LAP TOP FOR ALMOST 8 DAYS.
BUT.........WE GOT THROUGH IT. TAKE CARE. RIZZI