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This isn’t a “bucket list”. It’s just a list. Maybe this will be the first in a series of lists.
Things I want to see before I die:
- The Nazca Lines
- The Roman Catacombs
- The aurora borealis
- Penguins in their natural habitat
- Polar bears in their natural habitat
- Victoria Falls
- The Road of Bones from the back of a motorcycle
- A grandbaby’s eyes
- The world from the highest point in Africa
- The winter solstice sunrise from inside Newgrange
What do you want to see before you die?
It was the best of nights; it was the worst of mornings. Usually weekends are a time of rest and relaxation. Friday nights out as a couple. Saturdays with the family. Sunday mornings at church.
It started well enough. Friday night's activity was a shindig at the church for major donors to the grand piano fund. Four hands; one piano. And for two pieces, piano plus organ. The music ranged from unknown (to me) pieces to Chopsticks. Yes, they played Chopsticks for four hands on the piano. No, it didn't sound anything like what it did when we were kids.
Gathering around a brand spanking new Steinway grand piano hearing its A440 quality, ahh, heaven. The music of angels. And sharing the night with Mr. Gaelic. He didn't even rest his eyes once during the performance.
However, trying to eek out a few more hours of couple time on a Saturday morning wasn't the best idea. Well, not in the way it was executed. The local school district held a screening of "Waiting for 'Superman'". It's a very thought-provoking movie. Done by the same guy who did "An Inconvenient Truth". If you think it's all lovey dovey with the teachers' unions, think again. The movie basically rips the unions for allowing bad teachers to remain in the classroom.
Both Mr. Gaelic and I were hot around the collar after the screening. There was a panel discussion following the screening consisting of a teacher, three students, and a parent. Audience members could ask questions. The teacher admitted that she's warmed to the idea of merit pay for teachers. Afterward leaving the theatre, I equated it with choosing your doctor. You want the best doctor. But what about our kids' teachers?
Neither "An Inconvenient Truth" nor "Food Inc." irked me as much as "Waiting for 'Superman'". Mr. Gaelic noted that with the other two movies I can recycle more and buy organic. We have a bit of personal control over those two areas of our lives. As for the local school district, none.
Yep, I'm mad about the way kids in America, my kids, are treated by the education system. And I really covet the school administrators and teachers who are trying to make education work for kids. Just watch tomorrow's sermon be about wrath and envy.
My hair stylist was born in the U.S. to Serbian parents who returned to Serbia when he was a toddler. When he was 20, he decided that Serbia wasn't the place to try to build a life (remember Yugoslavia?). So he headed back to the U.S. to claim his American citizenship before he turned 21 and was no longer eligible.
On one of my recent trips to have him work his magic, the conversation turned to several cities that now charge 5¢ for each shopping bag. Grocery stores were understandable since most grocery stores give a 5¢ or 10¢ per bag refund for each reusable bag. Lots of people are now filling their reusable bags with boxes of cereal, rolls of toilet paper, and gallons of milk. But what about department stores? Would they charge for a shopping bag?
Neither of us knew the answer. But it brought up a discussion of how they did things in Serbia. Every family kept their cloth bags on the back of the door. On the way out of the house, they would grab a few bags and use them everywhere they shopped. Everywhere. Grocery store, shoe store, hardware store.
On my next shoe shopping trip, if I were to ask the shoe store for a bag refund, I wonder if they'd go for it. And I wonder if it would catch on with other folks.
The undersides of both of my upper arms have deep purple bruises from armpits to elbows. It’s the way my arms stopped my fall from a wire 40 feet in the air strung between two trees. There was a harness involved, as well as two carabiners that alternately locked onto the wires.
The stretch of the ropes course trail that caused the bruises was a series of 1X1 slats strung up in a series of trapeze-style “swings” lined up end to end. The object was to walk across the series of 1X1 swings to the next tree platform. It takes coordination, balance, agility, and strength. It’s not a timed course. Thank goodness.
Halfway across my quads and biceps were in need of a rest. I straightened my legs and stood up on one of the 1X1 “swings”. That felt good. My balance was there. My legs were straight. No strain on my quads from reaching for a swinging 1X1 with one foot while the other one was positioned on a different one. All the while the 1X1’s are swinging in opposite directions due to the pressure my feet are exerting on them to swing away from my center of gravity.
Pull those inner thighs together to bring yourself into a standing position rather than letting the 1X1’s get farther and farther apart until you’re doing the splits 40 feet in the air with just your two little (gloved) hand and two biners holding you up. Jumping the back foot to the next 1X1 swing and trying to push into a standing position at the same time threw off my balance. Down my arms came across the support wire.
It didn’t hurt at the time. Adrenaline has a funny way of keeping the pain at bay until you’re safely down on terra firma. It wasn’t until the drive home that I even noticed the bruises. Massive. Dark. Tender to the touch. Some with welts underneath.
But what a thrill ride the ropes course was! The trails are rated like ski slopes with one double black diamond. Next time I’ll try that one. Nothing like swinging in the trees on a gorgeous late fall afternoon to really make you feel alive!
Ever noticed how people tend to go green only when it benefits their own bottom line? Think about all the money saved by switching to CFLs, grouping errand runs, replacing old windows, and a myriad of other cost- and environment-saving ideas.
At one of my favorite grocery stores, they give you a credit for each reusable grocery bag you fill up rather than one of theirs. Our parish has a recycling bin next to the trash can (granted this doesn’t save the church any money but it looks responsible). There’s even the Cash for Clunkers program designed to get inefficient cars off the road.
There’s one place that no one goes when talking about climate change – eating meat. Nobody touches the subject. Like it’s a sacred cow or something. But I read something both interesting and disturbing the other day. According to a 2006 United Nations report, raising livestock produces more greenhouse gases than driving cars.
Chew on this for a minute: Consider how much energy is involved in growing the food that is fed to the animals long enough for them to become large enough for slaughter to feed you and me. (Yes, I’m an omnivore. Nothing better than a rare to medium-rare filet.) On top of the energy used to rear animals, there’s also the poop that leaches nitrous oxide into the air and streams. Don’t forget about the methane that they emit.
Carnegie Mellon University found that the average American would do less for the planet by switching to a totally local diet than by going vegetarian one day a week. Just one! That’s like have a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, some fruit or carrot sticks for a snack, veggie lasagna for lunch, a handful of nuts in the afternoon, a plate of baked beans, corn pudding, and creamed spinach for supper, and some popcorn for a late snack.
When you look at it in terms other than micro economics, you’ll be saving more than money. Meat costs more than vegetables. It also adds more calories to your diet. Save money while cutting calories while helping the environment. All by just going vegetarian once a week.
So if my family eats all veggies once a week, can I keep my gas-guzzling SUV?
Our household wasn't one of the first to jump on the environmental bandwagon. Plastic bags continued to bring the groceries into the kitchen. Incandescent bulbs illuminated the night. Cars made the trips to the grocery store for a forgotten ingredient. Until the economy changed all that.Grocery stores began offering discounts for every reusable bag used to carry your purchases home. CFLs used less electricity, thereby reducing the monthly power bill. And gas prices soared to new heights making walking to the store or doing without the better options. Until living the Green life changed all that.Fact Number One: I'm cheap! I was using the plastic and paper-inside-plastic bags as trash bags around the house. Since the kids are responsible for taking out the trash, complaints were rampant when there were no liners to carry out to the big garbage can. It also meant that the person in charge of the monthly cleaning of the interior trash cans (moi) had a harder time getting them clean. And I wasn't about to spend money on trash bags when I could reuse the ones from the grocery store for free. Fact Number Two: I like bright rooms. Even with second generation CFLs, the quality of the light they give off is far too far behind my adored incandescent bulbs. Even though I spent beaucoup money to switch out all the bulbs in the living room, I hated the way they took so long to warm up. And the light they gave off was too harsh for actual living in the living room. The usurper bulbs have now been replaced.Fact Number Three: It's not that I'm lazy, just feeling the effects of age. Gas prices went back down. Okay, okay, they're up again from a few months ago. But overall, they're down from last summer. We didn't fork over the money for a Prius. But we did give our very old station wagon to the Salvation Army in favor of a very non-Mom car with better gas mileage. Now driving to the grocery store for a forgotten ingredient or even to Starbucks just because is a treat. Not because I'm no longer in an older model gas-guzzling station wagon, but because I have two teenagers who beg to drive me anywhere to get the experience under their belts.But we're not all Brown again. The computers and chargers still get unplugged when not in use. Curtains and windows are used to control the room temperature as much as the thermostat. And my husband still rides his motorcycle to work (over 60 mpg city!). Like today, the annual Ride to Work Day.
Several airlines have announced that they'll start charging passengers who are angularly challenged for two seats if the passenger is too large to fasten the seat belt. [Disclaimer from the editor: The author has several close friends who are angularly challenged and hopes that after posting this blog she will continue to have said friends.]Quite honestly, it's been a long time coming. But the airlines have it all wrong. Most people know that the more weight you're carrying, the more fuel it takes, whether you're in a car, on a plane, or just expending your own calories to walk up the stairs. During the recent soaring prices for oil, it became much too expensive to haul around extra weight. The AAA suggested that people remove all that junk from their cars to lighten the load and reduce the need for gas. Airlines began charging for any checked baggage. Anything over fifty pounds incurred an additional fee.But that was just checked luggage. On a recent flight, I checked my bag because I didn't want to have to lift it into the overhead compartment due to my back injury. I paid the extra cost for the convenience even though the bag was carry-on size and low in weight. Yet the man seated next to me brought on his carry-on suitcase and his computer bag, one of which was stuffed with much more than I carried in my suitcase and purse combined. Then he fought to lower himself between the armrests and fasten the seat belt around his girth. He would have been the perfect candidate for the two-seat rule.I realized that I am subsidizing his weight because the airline offsets the cost of the extra fuel needed for flights carrying more weight by charging more for their tickets all around. If I were the Empress of the World, airlines would have people stand on those big scales at the ticket counter with all their luggage. The airfare would be based on the person's and their luggage's total weight. No more need to charge extra for a second seat if the person couldn't fasten the seat belt.Airlines could be more honest with customers about the cost of flying. People would realize their environmental impact of using more fuel to fly the planes. People wouldn't sneak all the heavy purchases into their carry-on luggage so as to not have to pay the premium for overweight checked bags. Maybe then the airlines could afford to give us real food rather than a bagel and cream cheese and call it dinner.
