note to self: don't try to do it all at once

starting 10:41 a.m.
one hard number so far: electric usage the last 12 months for us was 6,663kWh

that's higher than i thought it would be, but that also includes about 10 months when we had regular christmas lights on our bannister that were on 24/7. we used two air conditioners all summer long last year, even leaving one of them on during the day when we were at work (for the pup who was crated in our bedroom that heats with the afternoon sun). we had all regular bulbs in our house until two months ago. now our usage in the last two months is in the 100-150 range instead of the 300-400 range. interesting to see where it goes from here.

we've vowed to do our best without air con this summer. this time last year, we had the bedroom unit blowing already because the mosquitos were rampant and our screens were holey. we replaced some of the screens last year, and this weekend we replaced the rest of them. next step is taking the bedroom unit out of the window to let the breeze in through both sides of the window. baby steps. we're going to leave the kitchen unit in the window for now because cooking in there does heat it up something royal. i hate to use energy to heat up food while using energy to cool the room at the same time. argh. but that's just until we baby step our way to not needing both things.

next i want to make a list of things to eat and how to eat them. that sounds simple, but i almost cried in the stop n shop because i felt like i shouldn't be buying a lot of the things i was buying but then i also didn't know what i COULD be buying to feed myself. it was my first moment of overwhelmingnessosity. i got through it.

i also got some [clear] kool aid mix to make popsicles once i find something to use as popsicle molds. buying popsicles is so wasteful, but they're so tasty! all that plastic individual-wrapping. *sigh*

sharon has a nice essay up about how to eat seasonally. i'm not yet in a place where i think that way. i'm working on it. at the market this weekend there was an abundance of radishes and asparagus. i bought some asparagus, but not radishes. to eat seasonally, i will want to get a bunch of what's available NOW instead of thinking "what the hell will i do with a ton of radishes??" and "why can't i get celery yet? what will i snack on?" without putting two and two together. mindshift.

i noticed when i bowed to convenience this weekend. we ate pizza friday night. i took the bus home from the farmer's market instead of walking the mile or so like i usually do (it felt effing hot that day and i had got a sunburn. stress is one thing that will make me bow to convenience, i'm finding). we ordered in on sunday while we were cat-sitting jack and stevie. we ate breakfast out on monday morning on our way home from cat-sitting. we drove over monday night to feed jack and stevie because we had taken that same damn bus three times already throughout the weekend, and waiting for that particular bus takes a looooooong time, plus there's the walking at the other end to get from and to the bus again. plus more waiting to get home. that's the first time we've used the car in the last week, though.

there's good and there's less good. and there's baby steps. it's ok when it's a baby step.

sixteen minutes!