I read blogs. I read the news. I read knitting patterns, the backs of cereal boxes and romance novels, too, but that’s not the issue here. I get a lot of ideas, but many of them don’t work, are laughed at, just plain silly, or cost too much. A few of them are worth the time to make them come about.
Today, I was reading about quite a few great ideas that I didn’t come up with, can’t take credit for. That probably gives them a better than average chance of working out well.
Cleaner Air, Global Warming
I often read Claudia’s blog for the knitting content and “general interest.” I don’t even remember how I got there the first time, but the post must have interested me because I put the URL into my feeder. There’s been posts about local goings-on, some beautiful pictures of Spring finally coming. Today’s post was a Winner!!!! Another of Claudia’s activities is bike riding, and she suggests that we all challenge ourselves to at least once per week bike to/from a task instead of using a car. She suggests errands such as grocery shopping, pharmacy runs, etc. Reduce driving by ONE trip per week. It’s such a great idea on so many fronts:
- Cuts down on emissions into the air we breathe.
- Cuts down on the damn ever-increasing amount of money that must be allotted for gas each week.
- Slows Global Warming.
- Great cardio exercise.
- Great for legs and butt, too.
- Could turn into a family activity
I must admit that my first thoughts were different, and not very environmentally friendly. I pictured my usual grocery shopping. The last time I went into Sam’s Club, a week or so ago, I spent just under $600. I don’t always spend that much in there, but rarely do I spend less than $300 per trip. And almost that much every time I go into a regular grocery store. Unless I just need bread and milk – that only costs me about a hundred or so. That pretty much eliminates using a bicycle as transportation when I go grocery shopping. I remembered my mother talking of shopping every day, as did everyone else back then. This was when she was first married, in the mid ’30’s, before dependable refrigeration, before freezer capability, before 2-car families. Ice boxes, that held a large block of ice, got decidedly warmer as time went on and the ice block melted. No one bought more than could be consumed in a day. She talked of putting my oldest brother in his carriage, walking to the grocer and butcher every afternoon after nap time. Lovely concept I must admit, except in snow, rain, hail, bitter cold or when you or the kid were sick already. And there were wee Mom-and-Pop markets every few blocks. Anyway, the daily excursion to do grocery shopping just ain’t gonna happen in my life. I work full time and I haven’t got that much time that I’m willing to waste. Or energy. Also, the quantity buying saves me money. Which, Oh, God, enables me to keep filling up my SUV. Eeesh. But at least, it’s a very small SUV. Still, I fill the back end of it when I shop and today was worse because Daughter left two damn strollers in the back.
My pharmacy is about 3 miles away. I go there often to get my cholesterol meds, to prevent me from having a heart attack like everyone else in my family. Old woman biking 6 miles to get her heart meds??? This one maybe needs rethinking, too. Heh, I probably wouldn’t make too many of those trips.
I’m often out on the road with the twins, and certainly my daughter much more so. I’m sure there’s many people and situations where it would really be difficult to apply.
But, ya know, all the laughing and negativity aside – if we don’t change our ways, the world our grandchildren inherit is going to be much different than the one we’ve known. And they deserve better.
I’m not gonna go to the grocery store on my bike, but I promise not to fly in any fuel-guzzling jets for at least a year.
Hair
I have hair. I take all my hairs to the hairdresser at least every 5 weeks for a haircut, and a touch-up of my roots, and then re-frosting the whole deal.
I was reading a blog today about how “women of years” should admit that we’re, ahem, over 40, and just let the gray happen. Ugh.
I hate the double standard that causes men to look distinquished as they gray at the temples, and women to just look old and haggard, tired, bedraggled, unkempt, “Look how she’s just let herself go, will ya?” But that’s the way it is. I know we can all think of a few gray-haired women that looked really terrific that way, but the other 99% of the population will add 2 years onto their appearance for every damn gray hair that shows. And we know it. And every form of media screams it out to us. ALL THE DAMN TIME!!! And every one of my hairs is WHITE at the start. My mother’s hair was a beautiful pure white, and she was the envy of the mousy-gray women in the Senior Citizens Complex where she lived – but she was in her 80’s!!! I’m not ready to look like I’m 85.
And then, I thought of the other side of this dilemma. All these chemicals can’t be good for my hair. But the biggie here is – What could I do with all the time AND money I’m spending at the hairdresser, paying for all this? It’s a real pain in the ass, always looking to see how far the root growth has gotten. Must I go this week? Can I put it off until next week? How wide will the “skunk line” be by then? On what I’ve spent on maintaining my hair color in the last couple of years, I could have spent a month in Europe. That sounds more enjoyable that sitting in that salon, listening to women gossip.
As I was thinking all this over, I came to the conclusion that all this hair-coloring stuff is just a rediculous waste of money anymore. The hell with it. Next time, I’ll have them dye it much lighter, to ease the transition, and then no more. I’ll let it go naturale!!!
And then I thought of Pop, and his headful of black hair except for about 6 short gray ones that no one can even see. Without hairdye, would I look like I was his mother?
