My Daily Impact: August 19, 2011

My Daily Impact: August 19, 2011

This is my 8th post in my blog.

Yesterday afternoon, I returned home from my errands, and took Astro for a walk. I wanted to see if his doggy friends from around the corner were available for play time before I took him to the dog park. We walked to Lucky's house, and the dogs were not out. I did see Mike working outside, and I waved to him. As we started back home, I heard Hanna start barking. Hanna is a St Bernard, and she is the alpha dog of the household. As I turned around, I saw Snickerdoodle and Duncen were with her. Snickerdoodle is Astro's favorite girlfriend, a Labro-doodle. She was visibly happy to see her friend was there for a visit. Duncan is a terrier, and also likes to play with Astro.

I let my boy loose, and the three had a great old time. Hanna mostly barks at my boy, and sometimes chases him around, Astro is way too quick for her, and sometimes taunts her by sneaking up behind her and sniffing her butt. I really enjoy seeing them all play together.

Since Astro got some good play time in, we did not take the truck to the dog park. This saved about 7 KWh. After a shower at home, I checked the weather radar to see that I could probably sneak my e-scooter over to meet with my friends at 7 PM. I got lucky and made it there bone dry. Kenny and I went out for bar-b-que after, and I had a huge helping of pulled pork (there is that meat thing again). I have to admit that I let the special of the evening override my ecological side. Pork is especially troubling for me because they are so much smarter than cows are. I also had left-overs, and because Kenny gave me a ride to the restaurant, I got one of those small styrofoam containers.

My ride home was a little bit wet. The major downside of any two-wheeled vehicle is the vulnerability to the elements. I had a poncho, and I was able to keep mostly dry. The scooter sat charging at the meeting room while we ate, so there was about 200 watt-hours of power that were not included in the 12 KWh grid power use for the day.

This morning, I mowed the front yard. I have a pretty big yard, and I usually mow it over two diferent days. For our planet's sake, I sold my gas riding mower three years ago, and switched to an electric push mower. It does a great job, and uses very little power, but the width of 19 inches makes for a lot of swaths of cutting. I would like to see an electric mower with a cutting width of about 30 inches. I may try to build one myself.
After mowing and taking a shower, I rode the e-scooter up to Walmart to return one of the items I bought on Monday (when I lost my wallet). I bought a pair of shorts which were on sale, and this extra pair will help spread the time between summer wash loads. I did the same thing with socks and underware earlier this year so that I can always have a full load in the machine when I run it. Sometimes, it may be almost too full, but an extra rainwater rince/wash before the final fresh-water rince helps get everything clean and fresh.

I went to Panera Bread after returning home from Walmart, and ended up with a new plastic knife and napkin with my bagel. I forgot to order it without, and now have yet another plastic knife to wash. I did have my coffee mug, and at least saved that extra paper.

I will be heading downtown soon to meet with some friends, and will take the e-scooter again. I will complete my day's impact on tomorrow's post