Do you Have Hazardous Household Waste?

Our local landfill has a hazardous waste collection day twice a year. I knew that things like pesticides and motor oil are considered hazardous waste. I also knew that I had a few cans of spray paint that I should drop off. I went on-line to see if there was anything else to take. I was surprised by all the basic household items that can be dangerous.

Did you know that video tape you made in college and decided to destroy poses a risk to the environment? I didn’t. I was surprised to discover standard gypsum drywall produces Hydrogen Sulfide gas when allowed to decompose in a moist air free environment – like a covered landfill.

Household hazardous waste is a common addition to landfills all over the US. When it is not disposed of properly it is more likely to cause problems.  Simply leaving a can of paint open to dry before tossing it can make a difference.  I decided to take advantage of the household hazardous waste collections day and make better choices about what I throw in the trash bins.

Here is a list of common household items that are considered hazardous. There is also a search engine to find a disposal location near you.

Why I Read a Blog

There has been a lot of discussion about how to blog so people will read you. Even more about what people like in a blog post. I’ve been trying to figure out what makes me click the -Add to Google Reader- button on some blogs and skip past the others. Here are my thoughts

I’m fairly indiscriminate when I click on a blog to read. I have never limited myself to reading mommy blogs or homeschool blogs or any blogs that focus on one aspect of my interests. I am just as likely to read a blog about vegetarian cooking as I am to read a blog post about corned beef and cabbage. I looked through my subscription list hoping to find a clue to my blog reading psyche and I found a few recurrent themes.

It’s a Blog About Places I’ve been or Places I Want to Go
Sometimes reading a blog soothes the wandering gypsy aspect of my soul. I have lived in the same house for 13 years but I can’t stand to be home for too long. Reading a blog that talks about places I have been reminds me of the many memories I have collected over the years. I enjoy a sketch of Duxford Airfield in England or a photo of the gargoyles on St. Patrick’s Cathedral in NY. A shot of grandma exploring the rain forest in Equador reminds of all the places I still have to visit. It’s nice to have a break from the everyday.

I Enjoy the Bloggers View on Things
I get tired of reading the same opinion over and over again. If you have something new to add go for it. Otherwise just link to the post and move on. When people add their own personal story or a unique opinion to a topic I enjoy reading it. If they just restate the obvious I get bored.

They Make me Think
I may be nerd, but when I have to type a phrase into the search engine to learn more about it, I feel like my time reading the post was well spent. Bloggers that can use their words to make me want to learn something new are gifted teachers. I have tremendous respect for gifted teachers. They usually end up in my daily reading folder.

They Have a Way with Words
Add a few intelligently humorous phrases to a post about cooking pot pies and I’ll be reading about it. I love when people use words to paint a picture. Oddly phrased descriptions and unusual adjectives make me want to read more. Throw in a few off-beast cultural references and I’m hooked.

They Represent Something I Want to Be
I’ve always been attracted to people that are where I want to be. The only way to get where you want to go is to point yourself in that direction and start moving. I wouldn’t know how to bake a delicious loaf of bread if I hung around with people that didn’t know how to bake. I also wouldn’t know how to peel off a fully intact Budweiser label and stick it to my forehead if I hadn’t spent my teenage years with rednecks. It’s important to choose your path. People that are on a path I want to follow go in my reader.

I Feel a Connection to the Blogger
Sometimes people write about topics that touch me. I appreciate a thoughtful honest post about topics that I face in my life. I also like to read about topics that I have faced in the past. It’s good to know there are other people with the same problems. It’s heartening to see someone overcome life’s difficulties. I tend to read blogs that make me feel like I can overcome anything that might slow me down. But I can’t stand when people overdo it. I don’t want to get depressed every time I read someone’s blog.

The Blog is Visually Stimulating
Blogs that take the time to add pictures to their posts make my day. Let’s face it, the walls in my house are only so exciting. Reading a blog full of words is the equivalent of reading my Marine biology textbook minus the pictures of the whale vertebrae. It’s too much like work. Give me something fun or interesting to look at while I’m reading your story. I will not only get to the end; I will most likely remember what you wrote.

Another thought on this is breaking up what you write into small chunks. When I see a wall of words my eyes glaze over. The paragraph tag is this blog reader’s best friend.

Those are my thoughts. What makes you want to read or not read a blog?

The Thanking Resumes

[Continued from this post. Better late than never]

After a short break to put the tater tots in the oven and type up another blog post, I will now resume my thanking.

A small thanks to the splog that keeps pinging my Two Handed Twirling Bird post. Have you read that? It has nothing to do with baton twirling. I’m sure some people would love to see that particular move re-created in the yearly Christmas parade. I am not one of them. I so enjoy getting up every morning and deleting your comments.

I can’t forget to thank Mamazilla. She is the originator of the ‘Mrs. Claus is really Santa’ conspiracy theory. Even though she is currently hiding from an assault squad of angry elves, she continues to stop by my blog and leave wonderful comments. Thanks Mamazilla and stop by anytime.

Then there is Whit. Any guy that would consider covering his ass in Nair deserves a thank you or something similar. Don’t you think? I’ve read some of his posts at DadCentric but he saves the good stuff for his personal blog. Thank you for caring enough to write about the hair on your ass.

Since I mentioned DadCentric, I’d also like to thank Jason for his Fettuccini Alfredo Day post. You could have let me know BEFORE the day had passed. Don’t you think I have enough guilt? Now I have to live with the fact that I forgot to celebrate Fettuccini Alfredo Day. I fixed tacos that night for Gods sake! My kids will probably need therapy.

And a thanks to Julia Buckley for giving me something to tell my daughter when she asks, “Why do people blog?” Also for inspiring my series of thank you posts. There are a lot of good blogs out there to link to. Now stop reading this and go work on your book.

That concluded my thank you’s to people I’ve never linked to. Now a thank you to two of a handful of people I’ve been reading since I started reading blogs.

Of course I have to thank Non-Working Monkey. Why? Because she has a monkey gallery. It is proper in England to thank someone that has a monkey gallery. It’s true, the Queen told me. He was sitting on a newspaper drinking wine out of a paper sack at the time. But he did tell me he was the Queen of England.

Since we’re on the subject of monkeys, thanks a whole drunken bunch to Chris who puts up a beer review of Golden Monkey Ale, makes my mouth water, and doesn’t tell me where to get it locally. I don’t even like beer. Yet I am looking for it everywhere. Thanks for keeping me sober.

I’m going to call it quits for now. There are many blogs out there that still need to be thanked. Don’t worry, I’ll be thanking you soon.

Now wasn’t that a long-winded way to make a blogroll?

Warhol Wasn’t a Parent

Originally I was going to name this Warhol Wasn’t a Mom.  Then I realised that didn’t give credit to all the dads out there that spend their days in the trenches taking care of the the kids and the house and all the other little things that people usually consider a moms job.  So, I changed it.  Lifes great that way.  You can change things as you go along. 

New Love, Old Love, and an Old Green Couch

I was 19 and had been dating Bobby, off and on, for almost two years when I met “him”. He was older, he was handsome, and I was scared to death of him. I wasn’t scared of him in the sense that I was afraid for my safety. I felt perfectly safe with him. I was scared that he wouldn’t like me. I was afraid he could look right through me and see all of my faults and shortcomings. I can’t recall ever feeling that way before. I can’t recall ever meeting someone that made me tingle all over when they shook my hand either.

I came home from work that night and told my mom all about him. I told her about him for over an hour. I thought I was being honest when I told her I didn’t think we had anything in common. I also believed completely that I didn’t like him. He made me nervous. My mom just smiled.

A few weeks later he showed me how to use the e-mail system so the sys-admins wouldn’t have a record of what I was doing. I was in awe of his knowledge and I wanted him to sit beside me at the computer all day. I asked a lot of questions and he always had the answers – even if he had to make it up. When he asked me to go to a hockey game with him I didn’t think once about the guy I was dating. I said yes and tried to keep my head from exploding into a million sparkling pieces.

I spent the next two months trying to juggle two boyfriends. It wasn’t the best of times for me. I was honest with both of them but that didn’t make things any better. The hardest part for me was the feeling that I was never where I was supposed to be. When I was with my old boyfriend I missed the new one. When I was with the new one I wondered what the other was doing. Things changed completely when I went to Lurray Caverns with Bobby.

There I was, surrounded by the overwhelming beauty of tremendous underground rock formations. Stalactites, stalagmites, even an organ that played music from rocks and all I could think was – This is all wrong. I don’t want to see this you. I want to see this with him. I want everything that is new and exciting to be with him. I’d never felt more certain.

I told Bobby it was over on the drive home. I was lucky he didn’t toss me out of the truck in the middle of BFE. But then again, I never dated mean men. At least not for very long. It was kinda weird. We got back to his house and decided to go fishing. We sat in silence for about an hour and didn’t catch a thing. Then he took me home. I hugged him. It was over. I felt like a different person.

My mom tried not to look happy when I told her it was over. She never liked Bobby. I did see her grinning out the window when I got in my car and drove like a banshee to my new boyfriends’ apartment.

I didn’t even knock on the door. I walked in and stood in the middle of room looking at him. He looked surprised. Thankfully he didn’t have another girl there. I told him it was over with Bobby but I never told him why. That’s not something you can tell someone you hardly know. We spent the rest of the day and most of night snuggled up on the old green couch he got from the Salvation Army. If that couch could tell stories… I loved that he didn’t mind me crying about things being over with Bobby. I loved that he said he always knew I’d make the right choice. I loved that he knew just how to hold me. I was certain I’d never get tired of his arms around me.

I was right. Sixteen years later and I still love the feel of his arms around me. The way my body fits just right to his. I think of all the new and exciting things that have happened over the past years and I am happy I had him to share them with. I’m happy that we had each other when times weren’t so new and exciting as well.

I also wonder about that old green couch. We gave it back to the Salvation Army when we finally had enough money to buy a new one. I hope it was well loved by the new owners. It really was a very good couch.

Stop Complaining and Get the Photovoltaic Facts

Dominion Virginia Power supplies electricity to over 2,000,000 homes and businesses in Virginia and North Carolina.

According to Huffman Electrical Systems, the minimun expenditure for a home to install a basic system is about $10,000. A full house for about $30,000.

 At the current price that’s about 0.78% of the property value of a new home on Lake Anna.  If you subtract the $2000 federal tax credit it’s only 0.63%

If every home put up a 1Kwh residential grid connected PV system it would reduce the power demand by 2 million Kwh.

[Note: businesses are eligible for 30% of the cost and there is no cap on the amount ]

So, to the 2400+ friends of Lake Anna, where are your solar panels? I was hard pressed to find them last time I cruised around the cooling pond on a boat ride with the kids. “It’s a sad day for the Commonwealth”, Mr. Ruth when the president of a group that calls itself a friend of the cooling pond doesn’t put the responsibilty where it belongs. It belongs squarely on the shoulders of each and every one of us that use the power produced at the plant.

Perhaps this year Friends of Lake Anna volunteers can get friendly with the lake by learning how to install solar panels. They aren’t too expensive when you buy them direct.

Additional Reading:

Consumers Guide – Get your Power from the Sun

Wholesale Photovoltaics

Learning about Photovoltaics

Solar Energy Technologies

Solar panels on Lake Anna would be a great start. But were not finished yet. Next up, I teach the facts to an institution that could most benefit from a little education.

Environmentally Friendly Cleaners Suck - Not in a Good Way.

Two years ago I was on a green home streak. My oldest daughter had allergies, I was tired all the time, and I was worried about all the chemicals I sprayed around our house on a daily basis. I decided to throw out all my harsh chemical cleaners and clean my house with nothing but baking soda, vinegar, castille soap, water, and elbow grease. The web sites said that was all I needed. I believed them because I can be naive that way. It turns out they were lying like a bleached blonde tramp in a poolroom full of whiskey shooting rednecks. Here’s a summary of my research.

Mold and Mildew

First off, I live in Virginia between two major rivers. There is a lot of humidity here. With humidity comes mold and mildew. It grows on trees. It grows on the side of your house. It grows in your shower. It grows on your front door. Before I went green I would add a bit of bleach to a bucket of water, slop it all the mold growth, and return later to find that the mold had disappeared. A quick spray with a hose and I was good for a month or more. No so with vinegar. The web site said it would fight mold and mildew. Maybe it does a good job on pansy ass mold that spends its days drinking wine and eating cheese. My mold is beer-guzzling steak-eating mold. It takes the freaking vinegar solution and makes a tasty marinade for the pig roast later that night. What I’m trying to say is vinegar was ineffective. I spent way too much time scrubbing my front door and showers with an environmentally friendly sponge. It was time I will never get back. Damn you, vinegar solution. I didn’t feel the least bit guilty when I bought the big ass jug of bleach at the grocery store. Bleach is an effective tool in the war against mold and mildew. I’m sorry it has to be that way, but that’s just the way it is.

Windows and Mirrors

Next up were the windows and mirrors. I tried five different homemade solutions. None of them worked. Maybe they would work on the household grime from a family that doesn’t have children and pets. They do not work on toothpaste dotted mirrors and dog saliva covered patio doors. All they do is spread the muck around and rearrange the dirt from a noticeable pawprint or splatter pattern into nasty streaks. I finally tried Method window wash. I have no idea if it’s any better for the environment than Windex. They don’t list what chemicals are in it. It has a nice minty smell instead of a chemically smell so I decided to use it instead. It did a little better than my homemade window wash. Not perfect, but good enough. I decided to skip the harsh cleaners and homemade cleaner in favor of this one. I also bought a pretty blue chamois to clean the windows with. At least I wasn’t killing trees.

Dusting

Dusting was the next challenge. I am proud to say that I am all natural when it comes to dusting. I found that a slightly damp (with water) baby washcloth works great. When I feel extremely ambitious I use orange oil to condition and polish the wood. I’ve also found that the allergen furnace filters, a HEPA air filter, and daily vacuuming can greatly reduce the amount of dusting I have to do in the first place.

Soap Scum

I have two girls. They like bubble baths. They like fancy soaps. They create a lot of soap scum. The amount of soap scum in my tub in any given year could be recycled in enough soap to clean more than one West Virginia coal miner. I’m talking Sunday morning clean not just a Wednesday clean. The best way I have found to get rid of soap scum is with a Mr. Clean Eraser. I start by softening the scum with a spray of very hot tap water and then scrub. It doesn’t take me much longer than scrubbing with harsh chemicals. The only drawback is I don’t get light headed and floaty when I’m done.

Laundry Detergent

Don’t get me started on homemade laundry detergent. Don’t waste your time, like I did, grating up castille soap and driving to hell and back to find washing soda. It’s not going to work. Your whites will not be white except where the soap dries out and leaves soap residue on your board stiff clothing. I’d suggest a front load washer and some HE detergent. I haven’t tried any of the commercial environmentally friendly detergents. If you have, let me know what you think of them.

Dishwasher Detergent

After the laundry incident I decided to not try the dish detergent. I might one day but today is not that day.

Miscellaneous
Tile floor get clean enough with a bucket of water, a little vinegar and a few drops of dish soap. You can add some essential oil for a clean smell.

Vinegar and baking soda works fairly well on copper.

Baking soda and a lemon in the garbage disposal freshens things up quite nicely.

Go ahead and try baking soda and vinegar in a clogged drain. It might work. Don’t hold your breath. It works a little better on a slow drain.

Tea tree oil is reputed to kill germs but I found the smell to be pretty bad and it caused a mild allergic reaction.

Do you have any environmentally friendly cleaning tips? How about a cleaning/not cleaning story? I’d love to hear them. Leave a comment or leave a link to a blog post. I’ll add the links here:

Merrily We Go Around

New Reactor at Lake Anna - Stop Your Complaining!

North Anna Nuclear Facility 

People in the Fredericksburg area are familiar with the nuclear power plant at Lake Anna. Lake Anna was built as a nuclear power plant cooling pond. We call it a lake. Over the past several years people have built houses along side the cooling pond. The asking price of a 4 bedroom 3 bath home located on Lake Anna is currently $1,270,000.

Some of these homes are vacation homes owned by people with enough money to, you got it, buy expensive vacation homes on a lake. That’s why I had little sympathy when I read all the complaints about the facility adding a new reactor in 2015.  This could possibly raising the summertime temperature of the lake to a nice temperature for a bath. (About 3.5 degrees is the estimate)

Don’t get me wrong. I am concerned about our environment. I am concerned about the loss of property value. I do care that we are adding a new nuclear reactor when there are many other ways to produce power. However, I have no sympathy for all the complaining. I have no sympathy because many of these people have the power, money, and ability to make the new reactor unnecessary. 

I can’t help but think time would be better spent providing a solution to the energy needs of our area and less time talking about how bad a new reactor would/could be for the fish.  Maybe we could also stop to consider the environmental impact of non-nuclear power plants as well.

My next series of blog posts will be taking a hard fact based looked at alternative energy and most likely take a few pokes at the folks that most deserve them. As always, your comments and suggestions are welcome.

Look What I Found in my Garden!

I was excited when I walked out and saw the crocus that have bloomed since yesterday.  I was more excited when I realized a bumble bee was anxious to have his picture taken.  You can click on the pictures to enlarge if you want to see the details.  My kids were excited to see the pollen on the bee and the youngest swears she can see eyelashes!