I am feeling Eco-riffic!

Today is Earth Day, the day we, as humans and citizens of Earth, should consider and reduce our environmental impact. What do I do to save the planet? As much as I can afford to. I am all for being "Green", as long as it doesn't cost me any "green", if you catch my drift. For instance, I recycle about 75% of our household waste. It doesn't cost me a thing.

I use CFLs, but only because I read that they would save money over the long run. I don't know why no one mentioned how hard they suck when it comes to their main (only) function, which is providing light. Now I have to wait 13 years for the stupid things to burn out before I replace them.

I try to use reusable grocery bags. I have quite a few of them, and I even have them in my car at all times. I have succesfully imported them to the store two times. Why don't they have a sign on the door? "Did you remember to get your bags out of the car?" That would be so nice. Of course, they would sell fewer of those 99 cent bags.

All things being equal, I will choose locally produced food over trucked-in food, and organic over conventional. The thing is, local, organic food costs two or three times as much as genetically modified food from faraway lands. We have a "poor-ganic" diet- we eat healthy foods when they are on sale.

I could do more. I could unplug all my chargers, which are electricity "vampires". I could build a rain barrel. Actually, that rain barrel looks awesome. Especially if I could turn it into an automatic dog water reservoir/ dispenser...

Speaking of dogs, here is my 2009 Earth day project, the golf club cozy:

We have a problem, or rather two problems, in our garage. Our two big dogs, Gus and Murphy, have free run of the garage, via a large dog door. Mind you, we keep no cars in the garage, it is just where we store our bikes and tools and junk. The dogs bring in large amounts of dirt from the back yard. The dirt gets all over everything out there. We have to clean golf clubs, bicycles, the motorcycle, lawn chairs- everything- before we can use them. Quite a pain in the ass.

Recently, Atta Boy canged their 50 pound bags from paper to a woven plastic material, similar to a tarp. I've shuddered every time I put them in the trash, thinking they will never decompose. I started to save them, thinking there must be someway to reuse them... maybe make shopping bags, or weed-prevention fabric... Then, it struck me. I'll cover all the stuff in the garage with custom made, recycled dog-food bag cozies! I'm starting with golf clubs, bikes are next.

Happy Earth Day.