One of those days . . .

You know how sometimes you have the best intentions, but things just don't go your way? In the grand scheme of things, it's nothing major, but several moments today were a comedy of errors, embarrassing moments and lack of productivity.

I had big plans - a list a mile long of tasks to be accomplished. Errands, marathon training, household chores and cleaning to be done before we have friends over for Monday night football.

Up early and out to lake to meet friends for a run. Had to leave Dakota home, since the plan was to run 14 miles and she hasn't run in a few months. The more dedicated members of the group were absent, so the rest of us decided to shorten to 10. At mile 4 my knee started hurting, so I whined and walked. 8 miles complete and I came home to Dakota looking at me like she knew she could have come all along.

Off to run errands. I took Shiner with me even though I had the top down in the car. Trying to go the extra mile in the green department, I planned to drop off a large piece of glass at the framing shop. I had broken the corner and the shop will cut it down to reuse in smaller sizes. On the way in the door, Shiner barked at a lady, causing me to turn around quickly and drop the glass on the sidewalk outside the store. Of course, it breaks into many pieces - probably all too small to be reused. Poor worker guy has to come out and help me pick up the pieces. Basically, I just brought him a pile of trash and extra work. SUPER EMBARRASSING!

Off to drop off a bunch of bags at the charity shop and there is a festival between me and where I need to go. Streets closed, detours, traffic jams. Smart people would have gone back another day. Not me. 40 mins later I made it just in the nick of time. Items dropped off and the scenic route home.

Picked up some pictures that I had enlarged for framing, and didn't look at them in the store - dumb, huh? Got them home and 2 out 10 have splotches on them. Guess I am going back tomorrow, because I think that I am staying home for the rest of the day!

New Green Habits

Not so long ago in a galaxy no so far away . . .

A person walks into a store to buy stuff. The clerk says "Paper or Plastic?" Person says, no thanks I brought my own. Clerk says "Huh?" "Really?" or "Why?" Clerk tries to wrap things in plastic before putting them in the reusable bag. Clerk puts 3 items in each reusable bag and then tries to put the rest of the items in plastic. Person gets tired and sad of always explaining the merits of reusable bags to clerks.

Now, it's much more common to see people carrying their own bags. Or declining a bag when they buy just one or two items. Hallelujah! Praise God, Jesus, Allah, Buddha, and Brad Pitt. It's about time! Sure, there's still a LONG way to go, but we are making progress.

I have been carrying my reusable bags to the store for years. I was hit and miss for a while, but I made a conscious effort to focus on making the task a habit, and lo and behold, it became one pretty easily! (The key is having lots and lots of bags. Leave some in every vehicle at all times and hang them on the doorknob to the garage after you unpack so that can't help but put them back in the car.) If you leave them in the car while you are in the store, make yourself go back outside to get them.

For my first new green habit, I thought that it would be fitting to kick it up a notch. I had seen people using them, but never managed to get any of my own. I would try not to use produce bags, but sometimes it was inevitable. Now I am the proud owner of these re-usable produce bags:

I can highly recommend them. They are lightweight but sturdy. Get over to www.3bbags.com and get some of you own!

Back in the compost groove

Behold the coolest new compost pail in all the land . . .

We have had a compost pile for several years. We dutifully stored our kitchen scraps in a plastic bucket under the sink and carted them out to the compost pile every few days. I added fallen leaves and straw and this and that. We had a pretty good thing going for a while . . . then we got two puppies.

They started off their lives on a bad note. Someone pitched them out onto a highway in a cardboard box when they were six weeks old. A kind woman stopped and grabbed them and took them to a shelter. We had been looking for a dog for a few weeks. We lost the best dog ever - teddy - a few months before and Shiner (our crazy white mutt) was feeling lonely, so we had been searching. After a few tearful trips to the shelter, I just couldn't go back. I told the Rock Star that I would trust him to find us a dog whenever and wherever. A few weeks later he called and told me I needed to come home for lunch, and I opened the door to find two puppies galloping around at full speed. A few days later they had names - Deuce and Dakota - were feeling like part of the family, and had gained a sense of adventure.

If you took your eyes off them outside they would wiggle through, under or around the fence and head out to visit the neighbor's horses, or their swimming pool, their dogs, their trash cans, their BBQs, anything and everything. After several unsuccessful attempts to contain them, we surrendered. The access to the compost pile had to be blocked off. After that, I needed a ladder to climb up and over the fence to get to it, and well . . . you know what happened.

They are older and wiser now, and no longer try to escape at all times. So, the walls came down and we are back in business. It took about 3 days for composting to go back to being second nature. Our nifty new compost pail sits under the sink again waiting for scraps.

It's good to be green and task 20 is COMPLETE!