Week Two - Wasting energy?

10/19/2007 - Friday

Hi ... I guess it's gonna be gripe time.

My goals have not been achieved this week. And, I feel sleep deprived, too. If I were feeling wide awake and had accomplished lots of other things I would be very upbeat, but to be dealing with two negatives is not my idea of a good end to a week. Nonetheless, I am looking forward to a decent weekend. I don't have much work to bring home with me for a change, and I did solve an issue with my 3-month-old computer. Here's the story on that one. While packing up my papers and computer equipment to go home on Wednesday, I felt something strange on the back of the computer and noticed a crack on the bottom left-hand corner of the case of my new HP laptop. Needless to say, I was upset; I didn't want to add that computer to my "a-bag-a-day" plan! How the crack occurred is still a mystery. I do not think it was in that condition the previous day; it must have occurred on Wednesday. But how? When I took it out of my carrying case in the morning after a short drive to my office, I would probably have noticed the crack because I would have held it in a similar way to when I was putting it in its case at the end of the day. Analyzing the events around that computer for the day revealed nothing extraordinary. I put in a locked drawer when I went to my lab-classroom lab to teach, and I took it out of the drawer in the afternoon and used it for about three hours. It was obviously cracked at that time, unless when I went out to the restroom, maybe one time, or out to see others in my department, maybe one time, something happened that I wasn't aware of.

Luckily the computer was still working fine, no problems with any of its operations. So, I checked out if it was still currently being sold; it was, which meant I could buy a replacement computer and keep parts from the other for later catastrophes. Upon reflecting on this, I realized how stupid that solution was, just eventually adding more clutter of plastic and metals to the earth unnecessarily, in addition to wasting money. But, I wasn't looking forward to going around with a cracked computer for three years, the length of time I usually keep a computer and find it to be useful. Also, the crack looked like it would jeopardize the overall strength of the case for protecting the electronics inside. I needed to find another solution. And, that solution would not be disposing of the computer. Yesterday afternoon, I looked for HP replacement parts and did find the part was available and HP would replace the back of the case for me. That will happen next week, but I will need to pay for it. The cost is less than the accidental damage plan would have cost me. That should make me feel better, but somehow it didn't.

Today, I went into my classroom lab and it was boiling. I mean the temperature was maybe 10 degrees warmer than the hallways or my office. Is there a way to recycle the excessive heat that was being generated in that room? I might tell you that the room is already environmentally unfriendly; it's an energy-consuming area filled with student computer stations, a teacher computer and other peripherals, along with a central unit controlling the equipment that enables teachers to display students' work on a smart board or on any of the computers in the room. A considerable amount of heat is generated by all that equipment, which is always on except during breaks. If today's heat were due to the AC not working in that area of the building, it may be that energy was saved, but it was sure an unpleasant experience teaching in the overheated room. I was more fortunate than many of my students who'd worn rather warm clothing for the gray day with rain showers we were having. I had heard the weather report that morning and knew it would be warmer than normal for October even though the day was gloomy. I wore only a light shirt and slacks. My teaching style includes movement and I ask students to be active as well, so we were all sweating after a while. My students and I saw not only electrical energy generating heat that was unwelcome and wasted but also human energy that was being consumed needlessly.

Stopping here without achieving the goals I'd set for this project, I am satisfied that today we disposed of more than enough energy calories to fill several bags, and saved at least one computer from the refuse heap. Enjoy the weekend.

Week Two - Much More to Do

10/17/2007 - Wednesday and 10/18/2007 - Thursday

I have been consumed by work; with four classes to teach, I find myself working over 12 hours a day. I don't think I will want to volunteer to take so many classes in the future. Two of the courses meet everyday, that is 5 days a week, and the other two meet 4 days a week. But I have not forgotten my downsizing project.

When I get home this afternoon, I will be looking for things that are relatively easy to add to my recycling bin. In our area, house to house collection is only available for paper, cans, bottles, and cardboard. There is a sizable collect of papers I have saved and store in a book shelf in my study. I will go through that to decide what can now be recycled. And, I will feel all right when I've got one shopping bag full for Wednesday and one for Thursday this week.

On the topic of recycling, I ran across some great information on what can be recycled and where it might be done by one of the contributors to Blog Action Day. You might want to check it out, too, at Dumb Little Man - http://www.dumblittleman.com/2007/10/items-you-never-thought-to-recycle.html.

Week Two - Living With Fewer Things: A Bag At a Time

10/16/2007 - Tuesday

I am living with less stuff in my home, but this is not yet obvious to the casual observer. Two of my closets and drawers definitely look better now. Today’s picture is one of my closets with clutter shoved to the back before I started downsizing. Today, I brought in three bags to the Goodwill; the receiver looked happy that they would have a salad set, some decorative plates, and some party supplies to put on their shelves. After looking more carefully at the jacket I had brought home yesterday, I concluded it needed to be relegated to my rag pile. And, if that rag pile gets too large, I guess I will need to either put some in the trash or find a place that recycles cloth. I will need to do more research on just what can be recycled.

Week Two - Monday, Blog Action Day

10/15/2007 - Monday

I'm in the second week of my downsizing project and feel okay that I've done what I set out to do during week one. I'm learning that the very visible clutter is much easier to dispose of than the "hidden" stuff, some of which at least at one time in my life was considered important to save. But, today I'm going to consider our environment -- the environment that is larger than my own private home.

I usually try to walk with my dog, a blue standard poodle, for at least 3 miles every day. When I first started doing this with him almost four years ago, I noticed papers, cans, bottles, and other trash strewn at the side of the road. After observing this for several weeks, I began collecting as much as I could comfortably carry along with me on our walks and disposing of it properly. This keeps the road ways looking nicer, and I was contributing most of the "trash" to recycling. An added benefit was that many items were deposit bottles and cans that I could redeem. At first, I would stuff my pockets with the items but could not carry many and if they were somewhat larger than my pockets, they'd fall out. And, I looked a bit weird with cans, bottles and other trash protruding from the various openings in my clothing. One day while at a Dick's sporting goods shop, I saw fishing vests featured. After inspecting them and noticing that they have a full-back pouch, I bought one and have been wearing it on my walks ever since. I'm tall, but not too large, and the S-M size I bought fits over a tank top in the warmer weather as well as over a parka in the coldest weather. The fishing vest has many pockets that work well for holding various items such as an mp3 player to listen to while walking and dog treats. Of course, it’s also great to carry bags for collecting dog droppings and even the collected droppings themselves. Back to the point, the full-back pouch is large enough to carry 10 to 12 regular-sized soda or beer cans and bottles, or 3 to 4 larger-sized ones. One more aside, I’m not the first to find fishing vests useful for walking with dogs; when I stopped just west of Toronto at a dog park one afternoon, I saw pictures of the members of the dog park wearing similar fishing vests!

Now, mind you, I won’t get rich on collecting other people’s trash or even collect enough for a simple meal most days. But, once in a while I can collect 10 to 12 items that yield enough to buy a bag of legumes with which I can cook a hearty soup and feed a small family for two days. My typical daily find, after the first few days of picking up what had been on the roadsides on my usual path, is now 3 to 4 items a day. So, after collecting for a week or so, I can buy a bag of dried legumes or even a treat like my favorite candy bar. There are still always more items on the roadsides after I've been gone for a while. On several occasions I've found discarded music CDs, I suppose thrown out by students riding the school buses or by people driving by. Most of the CDs are damaged or ones I’m not really interest in, but some are okay. I have added CDs of Blondie, The Phenomenauts, and Nine Inch Nails to my collection to enjoy.

This morning, I picked up a jacket that had been lying on the roadside for a few days. If an item seems not to have been deliberately thrown away, I will usually try to make it visible to the person who may have lost it by hanging it over a tree branch or draping it over a mail box. This particular jacket did not appear to be in great shape and after three days I claimed it. I need to see if it's still good enough to wear and could be donated to a charity or if it should be relocated to a rag pile to be used for cleaning.

Day Five: Making Space

10/12/2007- Friday

It’s Saturday morning here, and I have a few minutes to write about yesterday’s experiences with my “A Bag A Day” project. I have uploaded pictures for the last two days and will continue to include pictures when I think they add to the interest of what I have to report to you. Last night, I set about thinking how I might store the family heirloom dishes sent to me a few days ago. My first thought like all good capitalistic consumers was to go out and buy a small credenza or china cabinet to add to my dining room furniture. Then, I reflected a moment and thought how my mother had stored these dishes. Yes, she did have a china cabinet, which my son and his family now have, and this cabinet doesn’t have any “show off” windows in the doors. It has drawers and solid wood doors. I looked at my china cabinet and saw the shelves with “show off” windows; the shelves are already full. But, there are drawers and cupboards below those shelves. Taking a look in these hidden places may be risky because we often just put stuff there that is never again seen or used. I remembered that there were zippered covers for china that I had used when moving several times before. These would be ideal places in which to store the heirloom china. I fished them out; they were nested together and proceeded to put the dinner plates, cups, saucers, and salad plates in these protective cases. I still had dessert bowls, soup bowls, gravy boat, sugar and creamer, serving plate, serving dishes for which I had no cases. I thought I could fit all of the china set into the two side cabinets if I were to remove the other schlock haphazardly stored there. So, I got several bags and began to decide which of this stuff I could downsize.

I ended up with several bags of things to donate to a charity. There were many unused party supplies: napkins, plates, candles, banners, etc. Also, there were also wooden dishes and a platter for serving appetizers, which I had never used, and four decorative plates that I had previously had on my walls. I put the bags in a larger box and will donate these items on Monday. Also, in these cabinets were items that I wasn’t ready to part with, six 2000 stem glasses and three commemorative plates that had never been used and were still in their original boxes. I did have to remove these items from the cabinets to have space for the heirloom china. So, they sit on the floor and may serve as possible holiday gifts. As you know from reading above, there are also drawers in my cabinet. The bottom two drawers with table cloths and napkins, I left alone. The top drawer had more left over, unused party supplies that I added to the bag already containing such items. I was able to put some of my parent’s serving utensils in that top drawer. Now, only the flatware service, which is in its own box, and several decorative pieces are left to store. My dinner table is mostly free of the items sent by my brother-in-law and I feel I have accomplished something. There are three bags from tonight’s efforts. I will see what next week has in store on Monday. Until then, I will enjoy the weekend reading the exam papers my students turned in on Friday.

Day Four: Coffee Table Books

10/11/2007 - Thursday

I'm busy today planning exams for tomorrow's classes and I figured I could hedge a bit because I have downsized my personal belongings by more than one bag each day so far. However, then I saw a shelf in my living room with old coffee-table-sized books and knew it would be easy to eliminate one bag load of unneeded stuff today. Let me tell you a little about these books. Most are pictures of nature, good pictures, but the kind we can easily view on the Internet today. I bought some of these books myself, I think from the price-reduced tables at Borders. But most of them were gifts from children and friends. I think I have looked at if not read most of them, but never opened them again after that. And when their job of adorning my coffee table was over, the books were retired to the shelves by the wall. Surely, they will be better appreciated by a local public library patron. So off they'll go this afternoon to their next destination.

Day Three: More Hidden Around the House

10/10/2007 - Wednesday

Last night after finishing some work and chores, I took another look around the house. I came upon a closet with deep shelves. The things in front of the two shelves I considered were being routinely used, but there was a clutter of things in the back of the shelves. What did I find? Well, the most interesting was a bottle with about 8 seventeen-year locusts from the early 1970s preserved in formaldehyde. I had a long, hard think to decide if that was something I was ready to dump now. Surely no one would want it, but it reminded me of my first husband and our townhouse apartment we were renting in Evanston while attending graduate school. We'd never seen locusts like that before, and we decided to save them so perhaps one day later in our loves, we might take a few moments together to reflect on our days long past. Well, he's no longer on this earth, and there'll never be a time for us to contemplate our early days together. So, I just tucked the bottle back into the corner of the closet for another day to decide on the fate of the locusts.

However, there were many other knickknacks among the other clutter on those shelves including old vases with little chips, various small decorative pieces long abandoned, coloring and painting implements used by my children in their younger days, as well as parts of holiday decorations. I easily filled two plastic shopping bags with the things I thought Goodwill-type stores could put on their shelves. They would be my bag(s) for today. And, I did take pictures of those. This weekend, I will work on adding pictures to my blog.

Yesterday, my hopes were to check out eBay for some of the old magazines I’d save. I did go to eBay, but was distracted when I remembered the china I received from my brother-in-law, and began hunting for that. It is possibly rather rare china because it was made in the former country of Czechoslovakia prior to WWII and then when the Germans occupied the country, the china was stamped by the Germans. I did not find the exact pattern, but did find lots of Czech china on eBay, much of it not dated, but some of it dated only as early period. Another project is looming; I need to get back on track with today’s A- Bag-A-Day. However, at 12:30 AM, I also need sleep so I can be awake, alert, and perceptive in the classes I need to teach tomorrow.