Manifest Green

Events in Atlanta, for those interested....

May 2-Arthritis Walk Atlanta at Atlantic Station

Watch the video:
 

May 3-Walk Now For Autism also at Atlantic Station

Watch the video:
 

Happy Earth Day!

Once again it is Earth Day.  And once again this means that for one whole week out of the year everyone is an environmentalist.  Though that may sound pretty shitty to say, it is still very accurate.  Today is the day, and this week is the week, that you will hear and see more about doing your part in protecting our planet and it's future (along with the futures of our lineage, et al).  So far I saw a bunch of stuff on The Today Show and if you go to their website they have two teeny tiny areas that discuss how to "go green".  Of course, going green for them is earning green, so how much of their crappy 30 second interviews with "environmental specialists" I buy into is only half as much as I am willing to trust in my neighbor to not wake me up in the middle of the night by hacking and coughing his lungs up whilst yelling at his dog.  Another channel that has decided to focus all broadcasting on Earth Day associated broadcasting is Current.  Now don't get me wrong, I love this channel and they run viewer created shorts on the environment all year long.  But today is different.  Today pretty much every single show is for Earth Day.  And they admit it on their website.  I would actually recommend checking this site out the next time you have a question about a current event (hence the channel name).

Anyway, so for the lovely Earth Day, I present you with an Earth Day/Earth Week post.  Are you ready?  "Cause here we go:

First we are gonna start with some basic information that you, the reader, can actually read up on your own, but for the lazy people I will put it here and you can feel free to hit the links if you need more information or you just don't believe me.

Earth Day was first celebrated on April 22, 1970. 
Earth Day is celebrated April 22 every year. 
Gaylord Nelson founded Earth Day.
He also made it so that when you get a OTC or PO it has to include those little side effect papers.
If it weren't for him thinking that more people cause more problems, he wouldn't have presented us with this one special day to act like a bunch of hippies.

That's a short list, I know, but I don't want for you guys to be lazy and not look it up and I don't want to seem to busy and knowledgeable, so i in turn will be lazy and just not type it all.  You can look it up here on Wikipedia or you can actually visit the Earth Day website where you have the change to use their resources to find out how you can make your life environmentally friends and make a better impact on the world around you (or you can just donate to their cause if you don't want to take any responsibility yourself). 

I want to move on to some things I found while I was hopping around on the internet.  Whether or not these effect you to actually do something to help out, I don't know, but they should.  Even you, Mr. Eighty-Year-Old-Pessimist-Who-Is-Dying-Soon-Therefore-You-Don't-Give-A-Shit-About-What-Happens-To-All-Those-Hippies-And-Their-Planet-Saving-Ideas.

From Energy Crossroads Documentary, their Eco-Facts:

 

ENERGY

1.    The average American consumes five times more energy than the average global citizen or 10 times more than the typical Chinese.

If the typical Chinese consumer used as much oil as the average American uses, China would require 90 million barrels per day—11 million more than the entire world produced each day in 2001.

Worldwatch Institute

2.    Today, transportation is the world’s fastest-growing form of energy use, accounting for nearly 30 percent of world energy use and 95 percent of global oil consumption.

The most significant driver of rising energy consumption for transportation is growing reliance on the private car. About one fourth of those cars are found on U.S. roads.

West Europeans now use public transit for 10 percent of all urban trips, and Canadians for 7 percent, compared with Americans at only 2 percent.

Worldwatch Institute

3.    It takes less gasoline to restart your car than it does to let it idle for more than a minute. If all the cars on US roads had properly inflated tires, it would save an estimated 2 billion gallons of gasoline per year and improve your gas mileage 3-7%.

University of ColoradoEnvironmental Center, 2003

4.    If every car carried one more passenger during its daily commute, 32 million gallons of gasoline would be saved each day.

Natural Resources Defense Council, 2003

5.    Aggressive driving (speeding, rapid acceleration and braking) wastes gas. It can lower your gas mileage by 33 percent at highway speeds and by 5 percent around town.

U.S Dept. of Energy

6.    Worldwide, people use about a third of all energy in buildings—for heating, cooling, cooking, lighting, and running appliances. As homes become bigger, each individual house uses more energy. The average new American homes grew nearly 38 percent between 1975 and 2000, to 2,265 square feet—twice the size of typical homes in Europe or Japan and 26 times the living space of the average person in Africa.

Worldwatch Institute

7.    Indoor lighting use is highest during the hours of 9 to 5, even though the light bulb was invented to help us see in the dark.

University of Colorado Environmental Center, 2003

8.    Global wind power capacity jumped 24 percent in 2005, to nearly 60,000 megawatts. The growth in wind power capacity was nearly four times the growth in nuclear power capacity.

Worldwatch Institute

9.    In 2005, worldwide production of photovoltaic cells jumped 45 percent to nearly 1,730 megawatts, six times the level in 2000

POPULATION

10.Between 1850 and 1970, the number of people living on Earth more than tripled—yet the energy they consumed rose 12-fold.

Worldwatch Institute

11.Today the planet adds 77 million people each year, the equivalent of 10 New York Cities.

Worldwatch Institute, 2002

12.The population grows as much every three days as it did every century, on average, for most of the last one-thousand centuries before the Industrial Revolution.

Worldwatch Institute,1999

13.Industrialized countries, such as the US, represent only 20% of the world’s population. However, they consume 80% of the world’s resources, 85% of the world’s forest products, 75% of the world’s energy and produce 75% of the world’s pollution and waste.

Trash to Cash, 1996

RECYCLING

14.Percentage of energy saved by using recycled instead of raw materials to manufacture:

40% glass    40% newspaper

60% steel    70% plastics

95% aluminum (75% when recycled back into aluminum beverage cans)

Natural Resources Defense Council, Aluminum Association

15.Replacing one wasted can requires the energy equivalent to light a 100-watt light bulb for 5 hours or to power the average laptop computer for 11 hours.

Container Recycling Institute, 2001

16.The energy saved each year by steel recycling is equal to the electrical power used annually by 18 million homes—or enough energy to last Los Angeles residents for eight years.

Steel Recycling Institute, 2003

17.Glass can be recycled again and again with no loss in quality or purity. Glass containers go from recycling bin to store shelf in as little as 30 days—again and again.

The Glass Packaging Institute

18.Extracting and processing petroleum into common plastic containers (polyethylene terephthalate, PET, and high-density polyethylene, HDPE) takes four to eight times more energy than making plastics from recycled plastics.

GRRN, Wasting and Recycling in the United States, 2000

CLIMATE CHANGE, AIR & THE ENVIRONMENT

19.The average global temperature in 2005 was 14.6 degrees Celsius, making it the warmest year ever recorded on Earth’s surface. The five warmest years since recordkeeping began in 1880 have all occurred since 1998.

Worldwatch Institute

20.Economic damages from weather-related disasters hit an unprecedented $204 billion in 2005, nearly doubling the previous record of $112 set in 1998

Worldwatch Institute

21.75% of China's energy production is from burning coal.

China is set to overtake the US (at 21%) as the biggest producer of greenhouse gases by 2025 unless current trends are modified.

World Wildlife Found

22.A single mower puts out more pollution than 73 new cars.

CNN Onine

23.Each weekend, about 54 million Americans mow their lawns, using 800 million gallons of gas per year and producing 5% of the nation's air pollution and a good deal more in metropolitan areas.

Environmental Protection Agency

24.The number of cars in the world increased at an annual rate of 2.8 percent between 1980 and 1996, faster than the annual rate of population growth during those years.

AAA Atlas of Population and Environment, 2001
Again, this was taken directly from www.energyxroads.com/ecofacts.htm.

I also decided to repost, for those who may have missed it, from January 27, 2009 titled:

Money vs. The Environment (aka, A Stream of Consciousness That May Not Make Much Sense)

The other day I had a customer come in and, for whatever reason, start in on the amount of money it costs to recycle, compared with just continuously buying.  Where this came from, I haven't the foggiest, since I never(rarely) preach my opinions at all (at least not at work...unless the person/people are being total nincompoops).  Anyway, his thinking is that it cost millions upon millions of dollars to recycle and therefore would be cheaper to NOT recycle and that way America can save money (this he includes the fuel to pick up recyclables, ship them to the center, the actual recycling, etc-which, I would love to point out that, if you take paper for example, it cost money to chop down the trees, ship the trees, process the trees, turn them into paper, ship the paper to stores, etc.).  True, it cost money to recycle, but the problem now is that not many people recycle as it is and this is causing our landfills to fill up, which in turn is not good for our country, let alone our planet.  This guy seems to think that because almost everything decomposes, that it's ok to keep buying more and more fancy-schmancy water bottles and throw them away and it's a-ok.  Well, for your pleasure I present a decomposition chart that I have decided to quote from Keep Athens Limestone Beautiful.

Item in Question                                        Time of Decomposition (give or take) 

Cardboard Box                                            2 Weeks

Paper Towels                                              2-4 Weeks

Paper Bag                                                   6 Weeks

Cotton Glove                                               1-5 Months

Waxed Milk Carton                                      3 Months

Cotton Rope                                                3-14 Months

Photodegradable 6-Pack Ring                       6 Months

Biodegradable Diaper                                     1 Year

Wool Glove                                                  1 Year

Plywood                                                      1-3 Years

Painted Wooden Stick                    `            13 Years

Tin Can                                                       50 Years

Foam Cup                                                    50 Years

Styrofoam Buoy                                            80 Years

Aluminum Can                                             200 Years

Plastic 6-Pack Ring                                      400 Years

Plastic Bottle                                               450 Years

Disposable Diapers                                       450 Years

Microfilament Fishing Line                            600 Years

Glass Bottles/Jars                                        Undetermined

(I know my indents are terrible)

So, doing some simple math we can determine that it would be possible that his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren may one day come across a plastic bottle he throws away now (and this is averaging that he may be about thirty now and he has a kid now and their kids kids kids kids and all have kids at 30, so on and so forth, yada yada yada.....).  Or he can do the smart thing a recycle that stupid bottle NOW and it can continuously be reused.  According to Scienceline the cost of  "PET virgin bottle resin pellets between 83 and 85 cents a pound, compared to only 58 to 66 cents a pound for PET recycled pellets". 

Ok, so I know that last paragraph was all about the bottles, but that was just an example.  But some facts that come to us from Eco-Cycle:

 

 Recycling 1 ton of paper saves 17 trees, 2 barrels of oil (enough to run the average car for 1,260 miles), 4,100 kilowatts of energy (enough power for the average home for 6 months), 3.2 cubic yards of landfill space, and 60 pounds of air pollution. Trash to Cash

Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial fleet of airplanes every 3 months. Environmental Defense Fund

About 80% of what Americans throw away is recyclable, yet our recycling rate is just 28%. Environmental Protection Agency

Over ½ million trees are saved each year by recycling paper in Boulder County. Eco-Cycle

There are more roads in our National Forests than the entire U.S. Interstate Highway system. National Forest Protection Alliance

Recycling creates 6 times as many jobs as landfilling. Colorado Recycles

Recycling glass instead of making it from silica sand reduces mining waste by 70%, water use by 50%, ad air pollution by 20%. Environmental Defense Fund

Reycling just one aluminum can saves enough energy to operate a TV for 3 hours. Eco-Cycle

If we recycled all of the newspapers printed in the U.S. on a typical Sunday, we would save 550,000 trees--or about 26 million trees per year. California Department of Conservation

The energy saved each year by steel recycling is equal to the electrical power used by 18 million homes each year - or enough energy to last Los Angeles residents for eight years. Steel Recycling Institute

If every household in the U.S. replaced just one roll of 1,000 sheet virgin fiber bathroom tissues with 100% recycled ones, we could save: 373,000 trees, 1.48 million cubic feet of landfill space, and 155 million gallons of water. Seventh Generation Co.

The U.S. is 5% of the world's population but uses 25% of its natural resources. Environmental Protection Agency

Want more Eco-Facts? Click here.

Eco-Cycle also has a .pdf of 10 Reasons to Recycle.

Now, I am not the Queen of Recycling.  And no matter how hard I try, I always end up with trash bags filled with...well, trash.  I try, but I never seem to really get stuff out to recycle, because I am too busy trying to keep as much stuff from ending up in the apartment that has to be thrown away.  I fail miserably.  So, for the whole month of February I am going to separate all of the stuff that gets disposed of and take inventory for 28 days of what goes where.  And I want everyone else to do the same.  See how many plastic trash bags you go through then.  I am hoping that perhaps there will be less than one.  This will save ME money.  A few opinions of mine(and if I am wrong in anyway, shape or form, go ahead and email me):

I DO NOT use those little plastic bags in the produce department.  I think they are pointless and I have a sneaking suspicion that, no matter how light they are, they are adding weight to anything I buy.

I think that most all of prepackaged food comes in way too much packaging.  Like Perdue frozen chicken.  The are not only individually frozen, but each chicken breast is individually wrapped in it's own PLASTIC WRAPPER.  What the hell is the point of that?  Do people not know how to seal a bag back up?  If you get a bog of 10 chicken breasts, then you get 10 little bags and 1 big bag (I know about this because I bought a bag not realizing at the time they were individually wrapped.  And it's a bitch to get the chicken out of those stupid little high-tech plastic encasements.).  And you know, you just know, that the people buying that shit on a REGULAR BASIS are not recycling those little bags.  The are buying them up and loading them into their H2's and driving home and then throwing the bags away. 

Ok, I got off track...let's get back to the point of this blog.

Recycling is not just for those items listed above.  Recycling can be finding a new home for something.  Or finding a new use for something.  Art is a way to recycle.  Goodwill and homeless shelters, too. 

Actually, this brings up a whole different subject.  Do we actually need everything we own?  Do we need everything we buy?  Hmm...that's another subject for another day.

Ok, gear up for February!

(I apologize for misspellings.  The 'puter is slow today.)

So, what are you gonna do?  Here are a few ideas to get yourself started:

Start recycling.  I know, I know, it's redundant.  But it's something so easy you'll wonder why you never did it before.  All you need is a receptacle for paper, one for metal and one for paper.  It seems like a lot, but trust me, it can become second nature.  I know there are also some communities out there that you just throw all of you recyclables in one container and they separate it for you at the recycling center, so you can always do that, you know.  I remember in Colorado we had that service.  And to show that they were serious, when the garbage men came by, and they saw you had a box or something in your garbage can, they would actually put it in your recycling bin for you, along with a note on your front door that was not always a friendly reminder.  So just try it.  Maybe you can start small.  Like just collect paper for recycling at first.  Or cans.  Or plastic.  Whatever it is, just try one thing for a week or two, and then add on something else.

Another think you can do is start using products to clean your home or your body that aren't harmful to the environment.  And by environment, I mean humans, animals and planet.  As always I am a huge fan of Dr. Bronner's Castille Soap.  You can clean anything in the world with it, minus your eyes.  And I am sure some other things, but you can clean nearly everything, from your car to your teeth.  Laundry and dishes.  Dogs and cats.  You get the picture.  Another one of my favorite companies is Nature's Gate.  The shampoos and conditioners leave my hair soft and clean and all of their products, from shampoo to lotion, make my hair and skin feel great and smell wonderful.  And one of my all time favorite bar soap companies is Pangea Organics.  When you buy their bar soap you get something a little extra!  You can plant the packaging and get a shrub, a tree or a flowering plant.  And their products are  good for the earth.  According to their website the Pangea products start to biodegrade within 48 hours.  Which means that once they wash down the drain they won't be hanging around for another several centuries.  As for home cleaning I still think castille soap is the best, but I have been trying out new products on the market, as you can check out any reviews.  But sometimes the best products are the ones we have laying around in the first place (and I have on here what else you can use them for besides cleaning!):

Lemon:  gets rid of odors, helps with stains, repels animals and insects, helps sharpen blades in a garbage disposal (and makes it smell way better), lightens freckles, lightens hair while adding shine and natural highlights, makes a great astringent, some sugar can juice and water added mixes up a refreshing lemonade, put some in with your iced tea, homemade lemon drop shots!

Baking soda:  pour some down a clogged drain with some vinegar to clear it out, makes a great paste with water or lemon juice to clean stains and grout, use with hot water and aluminum foil to clean silver, helps get rid of grease stains, great in the laundry as a fabric softener, sprinkle over carpets before vacuuming to rid it of odors, mix with shampoo to remove build up in your hair, mix with warm water and rinse with cool for a hair conditioner, great for brushing your teeth, helps in soda breads and other baked goods.

Vinegar:  clean the windows (some say cut it with water, but I use it straight out of the bottle), clean almost any surface, minus wood or marble, by cutting it with water, wipe and rinse, unclog a drain using it alone or with baking soda, white vinegar makes a great hair conditioner as does apple cider vinegar (apple cider vinegar with give you slightly red highlights), repels insects, great to put a teaspoon in your dogs water bowl to help repel fleas and ticks (when your dog sweats it out)

Really the only other thing I can think of that everyone has around the house that can be useful for cleaning a lot of things is hydrogen peroxide.  It's a disinfectant, so if you feel you need to disinfect, dab a little on where needed with a clean cloth.  And it doesn't take much.

Ok, so there is your Earth Day reading material.  Remember, it's not as hard as you think to get into the swing of things.  It takes humans 2 to 3 weeks to develop a new habit.  So what better time than now to start?

Happy Earth Day!

 

Third Day Off, What To Do? Write a Cleaning Review!

It is noon.  And I have been lazy.  I did get up and clean the bathroom, just as promised, and started laundry.  I am now trying to come up with a good idea for the craft challenge due May.  This one is craft with plastic Easter eggs.  I have some eggs and I am ready to go.  But I can't figure out what I want to do with them.  I have had several ideas, I'm just not sure which to do.  I'm thinking that maybe if I go and clear off room on my art table I will come up with a fabulous idea that will awe everyone.  Actually, I just had an amazing idea.  I just need to think it all over before starting it.  I need to collect everything I will need for it.  Oh boy!  This is gonna be super cute.

Anyway, back to the cleaning issue.  I think I may have made mention of the Clorox Green Works Cleaners before, but I can't remember.  Anyway, I had bought some and half tried them, but today I used them in the bathroom, and I figured a little review would be in order.  So, here we go:  I started in the tub with the Green Works Bathroom Cleaner.  I sprayed down the inside of the tub, the grout and tiles, the soap dish, the edges around the doors and the doors themselves.  It kind of has a weird plasticy, fake citrus smell, maybe a co-mingling of the plastic and lemons, which is far better than the bleachy smell of most cleaners.  I still had the bathroom window open, though.  The website claims " The plant and mineral-based ingredients cut through soap scum, hard water and rust leaving your bathroom naturally clean."  I don't not agree with that, but I can't fully agree with it, either.  I left it to "penetrate" for about 45 minutes whilst I gathered laundry and all and then watched some Still Standing.  When I went back up to check on it, I ended up having to put a lot, A LOT, of elbow grease into scrubbing away mildew and ring-around-the-tub.  It left it smelling nice, though, and I guess the 15 minutes I spent scrubbing it wasn't too long.  Anyway, I then moved onto the sink with the same cleaner and then, finally, the toilet.  Both the sink and the toilet were super easy to clean with it, but seriously, who gets their toilet and sink that nasty anyway to warrant having to use something much stronger than soap and water?  Anyhoo, I then used the Green Works All Purpose Cleaner on the mirror and the chrome.  It has the same strange smell, but again it is much better than Windex, but it doesn't clean as well as lemon juice or vinegar.  It left faint streaks on the mirror (I tried this because it said All Purpose), but I can handle those streaks.  The way it left them was so when I looked at myself it was almost as if I were in misty portrait looking airbrushed.  Me like.  And on the chrome it did really well.  I cannot clean a faucet to save my life, even with a toothbrush, but what I could get was so sparkly I'm gonna have crows and squirrels trying to break in to steal it.   I still need to try it on the kitchen (stove), but I think it will work out well.  A few points from the website:  the products are not 100% natural.  Apparently some of the preservatives and colors are fake, fake, fake.  They say they are trying to work on that, but I wonder why work on it?  Vegetable based colorants are out there (and why color it green?  Just make the stuff eco friendly and you don't need to make it more appealing).  And as for preservatives, well, if it's a cleaner then let it be a cleaner.  Vinegar last forever (and sometimes you can make it yourself if you forget to put your wine n the fridge!).  I get that they want it to be shelf sustainable, but honestly, I can have the same bottle of castille soap forever and still clean with it.  I will admit this, though:  it was easier to clean the tub with the Green Works stuff than with my beloved castille soap.  Shhhhh....don't tell the soap!  Anyhoo, the website also claims that the stuff doesn't disinfect.  This is about to get me on a whole 'nother issue (that would be a bit of Southern, right there!).  Lemon oil, which is in both products I used is a natural disinfectant.  Now, maybe they don't use enough of it to say that is is, but it actually is.  I will use Organic Facts Dot Net as my source, and I quote, "Cleaners: Lemon is a good cleaner; therefore it is used for cleansing the body, metal surfaces, etc. It is also a disinfectant and hence it is used for cleaning surfaces such as butcher’s knife and block that can get contaminated easily."  Other disinfectants they can use in their products would be other oils, such as tea tree oil, and other natural cleaners, such as the aforementioned vinegar, which you can read about at Care2.  I am all about the citrus, though, because it is supposed to keep dogs and cats out of and off of things you don't want them in or on (of course when I tried this it only worked as long as the dining room table was wet, but it didn't seem to effect Scallop after it dried.  Bummer.).  Of course, I guess I am kinda jerky, because they do make mention on the site that they can't find dyes or preservatives that are sustainable in cleaning solution yet.  So I will leave that alone for now.  They don't test on animals, though, and that is fantastic.  They are recognized by The Sierra Club and the EPA for the Design for The Environment program.  So I guess it's not all bad.  The scrubbing I could do without, or more like, if I'm gonna scrub like that I might as well used my castille soap, baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice, etc.  They do have a myriad of products to choose from to clean your home with (or office, or whatever), but those were the only two I bought.  It does smell pretty, if plasticy, though.

Ooop, gotta go check laundries.

Ok, that's going well.

Well, I suppose I should plan out how to do my crafting.  I hope you have enjoyed this review.  I am willing to take suggestions!  Just send me an at ManifestGreen AT yahoo.

Oooooh....

Today I discovered a show on Comcast On Demand called Stuff Happens with Bill Nye on Planet Green.  I only watched one episode about cleaning out closets (due to my self diagnosed ADD) and it was pretty neat.  Without going into too much detail at the moment, I learned that Cashmere Goats cause dust bowls in China, shoes are recycled into playgrounds (Nike has a program called Reuse-A-Shoe), old blue jeans can be turned into insulation and the wire coat hangers that people throw out (NO MORE WIRE COAT HANGERS!!!!!!!!) can be recycled into...well, anything requiring steel.  I knew about the shoe recycling, but the bit about the cashmere I didn't know about.  Maybe because I don't wear cashmere.  I don't like it.  And I didn't realize about the wire coat hangers.  Because I don't' use those, either.  And I didn't know about the denim.  But that was super nifty to learn about.  Yeah denim!  I tried to find it on youtube, but I couldn't, or maybe I'm just too lazy to search through however many pages to find something other than what happens with all of the trillions of cigarette butts littering the world (leave my smokes alone!  I don't litter!  I do throw them away, however...hmmm...I know, I should quit.  Wait until the price goes up even more!).

Anyway, let's see.  I bought another book today.  It weighs about 500 lbs.  It's a flower book!  Silly, I know.  But I am going to get another tattoo and I needed some reference.  I haven't gone through it yet because I am afraid my arms will fall off when I pick it up again.  I need to build strength first.   I can't wait!  I'm going either Tuesday or Wednesday.  I haven't decided.  Watch me be too looking forward to laying around to go get it done.

I also watch a couple of movies today.  One was The Spiderwick Chronicles.  It was ok.  Not super, but ok.  I guess I expected more.  Actually, I don't know what I expected.  More.  The other movie I watched was My Life Without Me.  I found this movie to be not so great, either.  The main character came off as extremely selfish.  She kept her dying from everyone who loved her.  And the end...well, I won't ruin it for anyone who wants to watch it.  The acting was ok, but I don't think it's a movie I would watch again, nor did it make me want to run out and buy the book or short story or whatever it was adapted from. 

Wow, my life must be really boring right now.  Al I did today was go into work.  Read Post Secret and Fark.  But then again, I read Fark throughout the day EVERYDAY.  Then got home and did the above mentioned activities.  Oh, and I ate.  Soup.  And Crackers.  What is wrong with me?  Maybe it's the allergies making my dull.    

And if allergy season isn't bad enough, according to several different weather peoples (like they know what they are talking about) there is a chance of snow tomorrow night.  Why yes, those who get to deal with snow often, everyone in Atlanta is freaking out and stocking up on bread and milk.  You know, for the possible snowflake that might fall.  Somewhere.  And the newspapers are making it out like this shit happens all year, every year.  It doesn't.  As the AJC says, " Monday, we have a slight chance of-get this-snow showers.  To newcomers: This is so Atlanta".  Thanks Donna Williams Lewis.  But no it isn't "so Atlanta".  It's more Colorado.  You know, 70 degree one day, 25 degrees the next.  Especially this time of year.  But not Atlanta.  As I recall Atlanta is also known as "Hotlanta" (especially to middle aged women going through menopause who think that taking a trip to "the city" with their friends to see The Vagina Monologues before heading over to The Coronet Club to get tipsy and give tipsies).  This is not only because Atlanta is "hot" as in super great fun, a bad ass place to be" but also because the humidity mixed with the temperatures makes it ridiculously hot and unbearable from about May though...well, January, really.  So the thought of "snow" isn't something people here think a lot about.  Well, they don't think about it happening here, I mean.  And I wouldn't really call it snow.  Ice is more like it.  Maybe it snows in the mountains (hills, really), but not here in Atlanta.  It also rarely storms in Atlanta.  And when I say in Atlanta, I mean IN Atlanta.  Brett and I watch the Doppler Radar and we noticed that the storms will come toward the city of Atlanta from the West, then they will split off, going around to the North and South, and then meet up again on the East side (moving on up!).  Really.  We watched the weather reports on the news one night, all night, because it took over the tv stations.  It was all about these horrible storms coming through Georgia that were damaging, possible tornadoes and whatnot, and we got a 5 minute downpour here.  That was it.  It cause tons of damage all around the city, but none here in the city.  How goofy is that?

But I digress.

Another issue I feel the need to bring up is the abandonment of pets.  There was an article in AJC about it.  HERE.  A guy came into the salon the other day and was going on about a dog he found that had been dumped.  The dog was chipped and I think they should have found the dumping owners and jailed them for neglect.  How on earth can someone do that?  It's as bad, too me, as dog fighting, dog abuse, etc.  These furbabies are supposed to be family.  Not just a possession to throw away when you can't afford them anymore.  And honestly, it does not cost that much to take care of animals.   Unless they have a serious medical issue.  Would you adopt a child and then throw them out on the street when you lose your job?  No.  It's illegal.  Some people see animals as just animals.  But they have feelings too.  And they don't understand what's going on.  And they don't understand when the people that they love and trust just dump them out, never to see them again.  It's cruel.  I wish I could take all of them.  I wish I had the space and the time for every single one of them.  I feel so horrible and sad for them and such anger towards those people throwing them out like a piece of trash. 

Again, the weather.  The news is saying rain and tornadoes tonight and snow tomorrow.  Ooooh, I hope Miranda is ok.  They are showing her area for tornadoes.  I hope Brett is ok.  He is at hockey until about midnight or so.  Sigh.  I have though about what to do if a tornado comes towards us.  My only choice is to somehow squeeze two dogs, a cat and two adults into the tiniest bathroom in the world.  It is so small in the downstairs bathroom that you hafta sit on the toilet sideways.  I mean, there is room to sit forward, but then you have Albert Einstein staring at you, and that's just kinda uncomfortable.  

Ok, now I am starting to ramble again.

Good night.

15 Pounds of Ground Turkey

Update 1:  I am so fucking tired of being at work.

Update 2:  Jennifer just got out of the hospital in Mobile yesterday.

Update 3:  Someone at work is annoying the piss out of me.

Update 4:  My feet hurt really, really badly.

Update 5:  Scampi is the cutest, sweetest dog on the planet, possibly the universe.

Update 6:  15 lbs. of ground turkey is a lot of turkey.

Ear

So I had an earache this morning when I woke up.  The same type of earache I had just about a month ago.  It was very annoying.  Now, I don't like going to the doctor, mainly  because I feel like I could be using the money that I give to him for something better, instead of paying for his kids private school or his new car.  I could use it for books.  Or puppies.

So anyhoo, I go to the doctor and pay him $20 copay.  Then I go and give Brenda my dr. note.  Then I come home.  Brett goes across the street to get my prescriptions.  Nope.  He can't.  The total is over $100 and they tell him my insurance was cancelled.  Wait, what?  No no no.  I call the insurance company.  They say it had lapsed.  I call Brenda.  She assures me that it has not lapsed and she has been paying it.  Brenda calls the insurance company.  She calls me back.  She is pissed.  She paid for my insurance, but they cancelled it for some stupid reason (someone can't do their job, apparently).  She assured me that I would be reinstated soon.  Until then keep receipts and I will be reimbursed. 

I can't wait for the doctors office to realize this!  Actually, when they do I am supposed to have the bill sent to Brenda, who will then pay them and the insurance company can reimburse her.  I got one prescription for $40.  The other is $80 or so.  I didn't get that one.  I figure that when I leave work on Friday I should have enough to get that one, then I can give her the receipts for both at the same time.

So to make a long, stupid, boring story short:  I have a sinus infection.  And bronchitis.

I already took some stuff to try to clear it up.  I hope I don't fall asleep too early.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!

Morgan Spurlock 30 Days-Off The Grid

Very interesting. 

Morgan Spurlock 30 Days

This is the episode of 30 Days featuring a hunter and PETA.  It's pretty long, so to watch it you might want to turn off your screensaver and sit back and relax.  I apologize for the commercials in advance.  And some of the footage is kinda harsh, as is some of the language, which is why it is rated TV-MA.  And really, whether or not you agree with vegetarianism or veganism the message is really good.  Just be prepared to cry.

Another Pet Food Recall

Mars Petcare US has decided to do a pet food recall due to a potential salmonella outbreak.  To check to see if your dogs food is on the list you can go HERE!!!!!!!!!

Also PETA has a list online of cruelty free pet food companies, just in case you decide to switch.  You can find that list HERE!  

Oh, and speaking of PETA, I forgot: 

And also September 26 is Hug A Vegetarian Day.  So Tash will be getting a hug that day.  And Bethany.

Why Fark.com Is SOOOO FANTASTIC!

It may be a bunch of people making snarky comments about non-news, but they did something great.  And you can read about it HERE!  I cannot for the life of me figure out why Children's Miracle Network isn't helping out.  That's what they are there for. 

Sooo...

Last Thursday Jenn and I went to Scottish Rite Children's Hospital for a seminar and tour for The Children's Miracle Network collection month coming up for our salon in October.  It was far more insightful than just reading the information that gets sent to our salon, but I couldn't do the tour.  It isn't just because of it being a hospital, but I can't handle hurt and sick children.  The same goes for animals.  There is a reason I am not a vet or a pediatrician.

On the up side I did find out exactly where the donation money goes.  And it goes for a lot.  It's actually really good that they collect.  They need the money.  Badly.

So Jenn and I are putting together our plans to raise more money for them this year than we did last year.  As long as they keep using the money for what they say and not for crap they don't need.

Bird News Article

I wish I had seen this AJC article before rescuing the the poor broken and battered bird.  It wouldn't have taken so long to figure out what to do with her.

Calculating your carbon footprint

I did this for myself last night and also for Brett and myself together.  Just myself doesn't make a large number, but I know I could bring it down a lot.  Adding Brett makes a dinosaur of a print.  The main reason is because of how far he has to go to work, and his vehicle.  It takes a lot of gas, but at the same time it is a Honda, so it will last forever and a day after forever.

Anyway, if you want to calculate your carbon footprint then go HERE.