My Daily Impact: August 31, 2011

My Daily Impact: August 31, 2011

This is the twelfth posting to my blog.

Yesterday, I did get breakfast at Ikea, and I enjoyed it. Beside the napkin in the trash, there was the washing of the dishes and the travel that the food made.I rode over on the e-scooter which was solar charged at home, so at least there was zero impact from my trip. I did purchase a lamp at Ikea. It is a desk lamp with an LED bulb. This type of lamp is bright for its 4 watts of power consumption, and at $ 9.99 is a good deal too.

I completed installation of the second window in the garage, and I am pleased with the results. Not only does my garage look better, I now have a better cross breeze going through there. I have not disassembled the old windows yet, but the aluminum will be recycled. One of the panes of glass is broken, so it goes in the trash, but I am not sure what I will do with the other three.

Dinner was at home thanks to Green Giant and Gordon's. I am not sure if frozen food has a greater impact than other types, but probably. I just like the convenience of having good food that can be stored for a decent length of time.

Total grid power use for Tuesday was 9 KWh. The house had not seen that low of a number since the beginning of July.

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

I had the usual glass of OJ (from a can of concentrate), a banana, and some cereal. I also made some coffee before going over to my neighbor Jean's house. She found some documents that her late husband Carl had concerning our lake and the construction of the road between us and Universal Studios. I was able to find proof that the City of Orlando agreed not to drain into our lake. This was agreed to in 1988, and my neighbors and I intend to keep them to this promise.

We are fortunate to live on a lake with clear, clean water. The city wanted to alleviate the occasional flooding that happens on our road by constructing a five-foot diameter pipe putting all of that street runoff into our lake. If they were going to attempt to clean the water first, it may not be so bad, but to just dump all of that nasty water into a clear lake is criminal.

I rode the e-scooter down to Panera to write this blog, people watch, and have some more coffee. I'm using my own mug, but I used a napkin and a plastic stirrer which will go into the trash. Maybe I will take the napkin home, because it did not get dirty!

Later today, I will caulk the outside of the new garage windows, and do some yard work. I hope that I can keep power use down today, and perhaps have a second single-digit KWh reading tomorrow.