August 15, 2011 10:18 p.m.

I apologize for being so silent for so long.  I think I have been encumbered by a severe case of “writer’s reluctance”.  This is a condition in which I found myself thinking about many things, but not especially caring to set pen to paper.  I have to admit, as I continue along with this blog, I find I am getting more careful and selective about what I write about.  In the old days of this blog, about three years ago, I would often write about anything I was thinking about with little filtering.  But now I feel a greater conviction about being selective.

Well, I must tell you about a way in which we were blessed this summer, behind the scenes, with little actual effort on our part.   It was truly the Lord’s doing.  But to understand this, I need to refer you to an old post from two years ago regarding a situation that has prevented our kids from becoming direct students at our violin teacher’s studio.  Basically, she has had a no-compete clause with the owner of a certain music school we’ve been part of for eight years now.  This means that we have been stuck paying the high rates of the music school in order to stay with our teacher. 

Things are a bit different this year, though.  Chips and Sweet Girl have now become the only students of Miss S.  who are still part of that school.  All the rest of her students are her “private studio” students.  In addition, she had earlier notified the school owner not to send her any more new students; that she was only going to take private students from now on.   (Corollary: if our children leave the school, this effectively terminates our teacher’s employment by that school).

We just wrapped up the summer quarter at the music school, and I was dismayed to note how high the tuition rates have gone up.  I asked the school owner if this new price would be sustained into the Fall quarter, and she said that it might be lowered some; that summer brought low volume, so they had to make up for that somewhat.  But at least she realized that we were “price-sensitive”.  I also asked Miss O, another teacher at this school who also teaches violin at our church.  I asked her whether or not she would be able to temporarily (legally) take my kids on as students at our church.  After all, seeking lessons from Miss O at our church would save us $26 per hour of instruction time!   Can you imagine how that adds up in a year?  (We get about 90 minutes of instruction a week).

Well, she (Miss O) didn’t answer my email, and she avoided seeing me at church for a few weeks, so I read that as reluctance on her part to entertain my question.  I knew she had a sense of loyalty to our present teacher, and wouldn’t want to take our kids for that reason alone.

What I didn’t know was what she was doing behind the scenes on our behalf.

When the summer term ended, we went to our supposed “next-to-last” lesson with Miss S and told her that we could no longer afford the high rates of the school and would have to terminate our lessons with her for a year until her contract period was over, before we could go back to her.  In the meantime, I had started asking around to find a possible temporary (one year) teacher.  I dreaded this task, but figured we had no other choice.

And then a miracle occurred.  Miss S told us that a few days prior, the owner of the music school had called her and told her, rather “out of the blue”, that it would be okay for her to take our children as her private students.  Just like that.  Her explanation was, “It’s time.” 

And, Miss S also told us that she would even match the discounted rate at our church!  (due to insurance issues, our church is unable to hire Miss S).

All we can conclude is that Miss O had gone to bat for us with the music school owner.

Well, to say we were happy and relieved  is an understatement.  All I can say is that we have truly been blessed behind the scenes.  The Lord, working in people’s hearts, on our behalf.  He took care of us again.  And the resulting cost differential more than adequately covers the new tuition for orchestra and for additional competitions. 

Simple miracles that mean much.  How neat is that?

March 26, 2011 7:13 a.m.

I guess that tax refund check we’ve got coming has made us giddy or something.  Because when we did our weekly MalWart grocery shopping yesterday, we decided to blow ten buckaroos on the Bark Off humane bark training device.

Yup – this would do the trick; stop our sweet doggie from waking us up in the middle of the night from barking, instead of using a painful shock collar. 

Yup.  Every time he barks now, it will emit a high frequency sound that will annoy him and train him in not barking anymore.  What a deal!  Imagine, peace and quiet for just $10.

Self-Reliant Man and I pondered this for about five minutes in the store, wondering whether it would really work.  Was it as good as it sounded?  Could it be too good to be true?  Since we cannot hear the sound, there would be no way we could verify if it was actually working, etc.  All these thoughts were bounced between the two of us as we processed this grave decision together. 

Okay, we did it.  It was tossed into our buggy.  We had finally found the barking solution.

But as soon as we got the package open at home, and the fresh new 9-volt battery installed, Chips snapped us back to reality with a simple exclamation:


Hmm.  Didn’t think about that.  Did you, Self-Reliant Man, think about that before tearing open the package?

Nope.

Neither did I.

February 10, 2011 4:32 p.m.
Alas, today is a sick day at our house.  No lessons, just library books, videos, and naps.  Both children have the flu and are spiking fevers.  When one is up, the other is down, and vice versa.  As of this writing, Sweet Girl has hit 104 and Chips is at around 100.  Then in a couple of hours, it could be the other way around.  I hate to see them this way; they are so infrequently sick like this.  And they are supposed to play violin for a talent show tomorrow night that they have been anticipating for a long time.  I do hope they recover quickly.

We spent the weekend traveling to “Pepsicola” to visit Self-Reliant Man’s parents.  They seemed to be doing as well as can be expected.  Without going into too much detail about them, his mother is in an assisted-living facility.  His father isn’t.  Anyway, here are some photos of the children with them this weekend.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010 10:40 p.m.



..... Self-Reliant Man is here!


He's keeping me up and running, even if the fan is broken inside our computer.

It isn't the CPU cooler that is broken.  Rather, it is the power supply fan, so Self-Reliant Man's answer to that was to pull the power supply out of the tower...
... and then place it close by on a little stool, with a cardboard box fitting over it.  The cardboard box allows air to flow freely in the top and out the sides.  Then, into the top of the box we fit a cheap battery operated fan from Mal-Wart.

And so, the computer continues to work, and doesn't die after all.  And then, I am able to go online again and order a new fan, that will cost us about $13 after shipping.  So when it arrives, we can mount it on the power supply, re-install everything, and button up the tower again.

The grand result of all of this, is that I am able to bring you this lovely blog post this evening.  The computer is nine years old.  Do you think we can make another nine?

Where would I be without Self-Reliant Man?

July 31, 2010 10:18 a.m.

Yup.  That's us all the way.

As you know, life in the 21st century calls for an endless supply of batteries, especially AA and AAA batteries.  At our home, we charge our kids 25 cents a battery (or about half of what we had to pay for them).  In this way, they are more careful about turning off things to conserve battery power, about using the rechargeables, and waiting for them to recharge again before using the device (instead of just putting in four fresh new batteries in the meantime).  Batteries are a controlled commodity in our house.

Recently, Chips has gotten into the hobby of collecting and rehabilitating digital watches.  He gets them mostly from thrift stores for a couple of dollars each, although he is currently saving money to buy a special new one.  All of these watches consume batteries, and these batteries are expensive.  But since the cheapskate parents haven't been ponying up for new batteries, he has had to be resourceful about watch batteries.  This has caused Chips to be on the lookout for potential batteries around the house.  He has removed batteries from old Happy Meal toys.  He has removed batteries from old musical greeting cards.  When he is interested in wearing one watch, he will steal the battery from another for the day.  As a result, for months he has never needed to purchase a new watch battery.

Chips is learning ways to be economical and resourceful, all because we are too cheap to supply him with free batteries.  It certainly makes toys that don't require batteries more attractive.  He says it is "fun" to find new ways to power up his watches.  I say it is a good thing, too.

June 15, 2010 6:52 p.m.

If you are like me, you are severely myopic.  Which is not great when I am swimming under water.  When I go swimming, if I plan to keep my head above water, I will keep wearing my prescription eyeglasses and sunglasses, but I have to remove them before going under water.  My eyesight has been so bad for so long that there was never a time in my life when I could see clearly under water.

Then, I found out about these inexpensive prescription swim goggles.  They are made to fit all sizes, including children.  I cannot believe the price, either.  Just $7.95 plus shipping.  So I purchased two  pair, one for Chips and one for myself.  My eyes are so bad that I had to specify a diopter value of -7.0.  No, the prescription is not perfect, especially when you have astigmatism, as I do.  But it is certainly good enough for swimming.

Anyway, they arrived this week and we both tried them and they are fantastic!  A whole new world has opened to me; I can actually see clearly and sharply under water for the first time in my life.  I highly recommend these goggles, and consider them my great find for 2010 (so far).  Chips is very satisfied with them, too, and his diopter value is -2.5.

January 25, 2010 11:15 p.m.

You know, yesterday, I totally forgot to mention something that happened on our camping trip. The first night we were sleeping in the van, I failed to put my eyeglasses in a "safe enough" place. Turns out, I had them in a soft case, and I must have kicked or squashed the case in my sleep because when I woke up, I found to my dismay that the frames were snapped in two across the bridge.

Darn it. These were my progressives, too. Big :-(




However, I am very thankful that I just so happened to bring my bifocals along as a spare. I don't know why I brought them, I usually wouldn't pack unnecessary extras for a camping weekend, but there they were, and I was extremely grateful. I cannot imagine what it would have been like to camp half-blind.

So Self-Reliant Man said: "Why don't you visit the Zenni Optical website and see whether you can order a replacement frame of the same style as the one you bought from them originally? Then when they arrive, I can install your progressive lenses [which are still in perfect condition] into the new frames?"

So I got on the website and ordered the same frame again, but with a different color (for a change) and they will arrive in a couple of days. They will only cost me $18 shipped.

Another thing, when I originally bought my progressives from Zenni, they cost $69, including $5 shipping and handling. Imagine that price for progressives at a brick- and- mortar optical outlet!

To date, our family has ordered five pairs of eyeglasses from Zenni. We have never been displeased with the quality; in fact, some pairs have been the best glasses we've ever had. You need to read through all the informative material on the website, and place your order very carefully, because you will have to eat your losses if you make a mistake. No matter: just be careful and take your time. And get your PD from your previous optician. They owe you this information anyway.

Need to save money on glasses? I cannot recommend this business highly enough.

December 26, 2009 9:45 p.m.
Well I cannot remember when we have had a happier, more satisfying Christmas season (and day). In fact, all of us, particularly the children, fell into bed at the end of the day full of contentment and happiness.

Our Christmas Eve featured a candlelight service, "lessons and carols" at church, where the children sang "Gloria Christus Natus Est" like angels. I did not take any photos at church so you will have to take on faith that it was lovely.

Once home, we had eggnog and snacks.













Candy canes, cookies and letters were left out for Santa Claus. Little Son left a small light on for him, and advised him to turn it off when before leaving.








Then the children were nestled all snug in their beds.




Around 7:00 a.m. there arose such a clatter, I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.




Impatient children were kneeling by the chimney, with care. Could it be that the stockings were bulging?













To our shock and amazement, Baby Girl discovered an elf hiding under the sofa.















After opening and spreading stocking stuffers all over the hearth,










a hearty breakfast was enjoyed, French toast for all.












At first the family room looked pretty good.
Neat enough to take a photo of the children in front of the tree.














But four hours later, the room looked....oh.... just a little bit different!













This was the year that Baby Girl and Little Son both did their own Christmas shopping, for their parents, and for each other. And they used their own hard earned cash to pay for the items (at least part of the cost). In this way, Self-Reliant Man received a special type of shaver and a hiking pole, I received a battery-operated foot massager and a violet shirt, Little Son received a water bottle and some Matchbox cars, and Baby Girl received a battery-operated hamster in a ball.

Thanks to the Eezy-Bake oven, we now have a baker in our home.












Also, thanks to Viv-tar, we have a new digital photographer. Watch out world!















During the mid-afternoon, we dressed up and got in the car for a one hour drive to the town of Celebration. A Spanish - Cuban restaurant, named Col*mbia, has a long standing tradition of serving up a great Christmas dinner.





The entire family enjoyed the traditional "American" Christmas dinner of Baked Virginia Ham, except myself -- I chose the traditional Cuban Christmas dinner of "Lechon Asado" (marinated roast pork) served with mojo (sauce), yuca (root) , moros y cristianos (rice and beans) and platanos moduros (plantains). Sooo good!!



After dinner, we decided to walk around the town of Celebration to see the sights.

Floridians are great braggers about not having any snow in the winter, but give some of them a chance to pretend, and they will seize it. Here is one form of Florida snow dished out on Mark*t Street in Celebration.




Sheesh.... pathetic!








Dusk arrived as we were walking the streets of Celebration. There are many beautiful and quaint style homes here, and many were decorated (although not as many as I expected). Here are just a few..




































All of the homes in Celebration are less than 10-15 years old. Celebration was developed by the Mouse House Company in the early 1990s. The homes are quite expensive for their size. Sadly, we noticed as we walked around that there were some homes that had been abandoned by their owners; others were already for sale. The recession has definitely affected this community.






After night arrived, we enjoyed another Florida "snowfall" on Market Street.










Christmas Day ended with us back home, having a relaxing evening, until the children finally announced that they were ready for sleep.

A good year, a happy Christmas, and a healthy, happy family.

God Blessed us, everyone!


UPDATE: Self-Reliant Man presented me with yet another present today... after a day's hard work, he demonstrated to me that he has repaired our garage door opener, at a cost of under $30. I am very happy about this, as our opener had been broken for so long that I forgot we ever had one. Way to go, Self-Reliant Man!

I've never done this before in the same way. Sure, I've written up budgets, and I've done some broad brush tracking of our spending.

But this time, I am actually logging every dollar that we spend. When Self-Reliant man comes home from work, I ask him how much was spent and on what. Yes, he cheerfully answers my question each day. So far.

I just need to know, what if the unthinkable happens? What if Self-Reliant Man were to lose his job? How would we do? Would we get by? What would we have to sacrifice?

Right now, we should be able to live on what my husband earns, plus save a few hundred dollars a month. But do we ever do it? It seems that we have what should be occasional large expenditures, but they aren't occasional, you know what I mean? For instance, since Christmas, we have had to purchased:

a set of four tires
a replacement alternator
a root canal
two dental crowns
replacement parts for our tractor engine.

Plus we are looking this month at getting a bedroom set for Baby Girl (which we had planned to do for her sixth birthday all along).

Additional things we could purchase in the near future are: replacement parts for broken garage door opener, replacement ice maker for refrigerator, replacement pool hoses.

Reason #1 for owning less stuff: less stuff that needs to be fixed! (Do teeth count?)

So you see, a good budget should allocate funds for occasional big spending. Plus it should cover all the normal expenses. The trick is, keeping the occasional spending just that.......occasional.

Anybody have any suggestions on how to do it?

I am so looking forward to camping this season. Just two more months until the weather moderates here. Although you wouldn't know it today and yesterday. In fact, as I write, the local temperature is still just 79 degrees. It has been uncommonly cool here in our state these days, mainly because it has been overcast with showers. What a difference - we have barely used the air conditioning.

But I digress. Like I said, I can't wait to go camping again. About three years ago, we ventured into the world of camping. Now those who know us will agree that my DH and I have had plenty of hare-brained ideas over the past three years. Camping was another such idea, another instance of redefining our family identity. Once we had blown $37.50 on a family tent, and splurged on those $20 sleeping bags and $60 Thermorest mattresses, there was no turning back. No sirree, not this family.

I love the cool season, and I love submerging into it by spending all our time outside while camping. I love putting out the checkered tablecloth on the picnic table, and giving the campsite that feminine touch of home. I love mixing up that first cooler full of Gatorade.

I love how hungry I get while camping, and how delicious all that comfort food tastes when we have grilled it, griddled it, or boiled it. It is fun to talk about the raccoon that sneaks a peak at us eating from behind a tree trunk, and the rustling sound it makes when it doesn't think we're paying attention.

I love listening to the children giggle as they play with small cars in the sand, or toss a ball around the campsite, or snap glow sticks aglow and wave them around.

I love when it is beginning to get dark, and the sounds change in the woods. More crickets, more snapping of twigs, an occasional hoot owl in the dark. I love to crunch my way along a shadowy path with my DD on the way to the restroom, playing with flashlights along the way.

I love sitting around a campfire after dark, with the Coleman lantern dividing our territory from the vacant black night. I love reading to the family, while they throw leaves into the fire, or nosh on popcorn or smores. I love sticking a cup of cocoa or coffee into the cupholder of my folding chair, and zipping my fleece jacket up higher around my neck. I love covering my ears with a wool cap, even when it isn't that cold yet.

I love walking around the campground, and checking out all the other campers. I love seeing how they make their fun. Some bring their portable TV sets, others kick up in an easy chair inside their RVs, and all we can see is the glow from behind their blinds. Some opt for simpler pleasures, just getting together with old friends, and their sites are filled with laughter and playing cards.

Some sit outside in loungers, playing Sudoku, filling out the Jumble, and just content to be outside in the chair next to their loved one, waving to the occasional passer-by. Campers are definitely friendlier than the average person. I love to see the decked out campsites, complete with Tiki torches, or Christmas lights, or glowing chili peppers. And then there are the gourmet campers, who grill seafood, steaks and ribs, complete with all manner of fresh veggies and a bottle of wine.

And then there's us, with our burgers and beans, our griddle cakes and eggs, cold cereal, bagels, baked potatoes, and cheese steak sandwiches. Oh well, to each his own.

I love when we are all zipped up in the tent to go to sleep. All four of us in a row. DH and DS sleep so comfortably in their sleeping bags. DD and I are sleeping bag rebels. DD lies on top of her bag, and I have long since rejected a sleeping bag, in favor of an air mattress, flannel linens, and a blanket on top. I need to stretch and spread out when I sleep on my stomach, arms and legs extended in various directions. I like the little night light we hang from the peak of our tent. We talk a few minutes, and laugh at the moving shadows against the side of our tent from nearby campers. My kids are fortunately still at the age when they enjoy everything.
I don't love so much the continuous zipping sound of the front door zipper at 1:30 a.m. when the guys have gotten up to go to the men's room together. Why can't they ever keep 'till the morning? And why is it so hard to fall back asleep afterwards?
I especially love waking up at the earliest light of dawn, hearing the first twittering birds, and sneaking out of the tent before the family to heat up water for coffee and cocoa. I love strolling around the quiet campground before others have waken and enjoying the misty morning peacefulness. Breakfast never tasted so good.

I love family bicycling along trails, and gentle hikes. Trying to fish off a dock. Exploring. Beachcombing. Admiring the mountain views. I am so thankful for the simple pleasures that camping brings to us. And thankful that we have found so many wonderful camping spots, with the promise of more to discover this year.

So I can't want, and I count the weeks until camping season begins again. It isn't far away now.

Now if we could just convince some of our friends to try it out with us!

I saw the symptoms before affluenza became a known buzzword. Before I was a mom myself. I saw kids who were never satisfied, and the older they got, the bigger the thrills they needed. I spoke to a dad of a 3 year old in my neighborhood who said to me one day "If you think it is hard to keep them happy when they are babies, just wait. It gets really hard when they're three!" Hmmm. I tucked that comment in my brain for pondering. We live near the world's biggest tourist attraction. I mean 42 square miles of ultimate entertainment -- the biggest mouse-related theme park and vacation kingdom there is. I knew kids in my neighborhood who, at age 10 or 12, had gotten bored with going there. Didn't want to "do D*SN*Y" anymore. Boring.

This is insane!! What is going on here? I have since learned it is called affluenza. A disease that is bred by the affluence we enjoy here in our country. We have the resources, so lets give all we've got to the kids. For better or for worse. So I thought about what effect this overstimulation of kids with entertainment and activities would have on them. It bothered me so much, that at some point when my oldest was still a toddler, I saw the handwriting on the wall, so to speak, and decided to change our path. My dh understood the problem immediately, and he was on board as well.

Since then, we have made a deliberate decision not to overstimulate our kids. Keep life simple and natural. Toys we chose were simpler, we tried to avoid logos and name brands, we shyed away from characters of all sorts (which are just ways of getting kids to recognize a brand at an early age). We stopped watching TV, and therefore, TV commercials. We tried to eliminate every aspect of commercialism that we could from our home. We minimized electronic toys and gadgets, for ourselves as well as the kids. We dish out computer game time in very sparing doses.

Now the kids don't know what they are supposed to want for Christmas. They just know what they like.

We heard of a family that gave their kids three gifts per child for Christmas. After all, Jesus himeself received three gifts. We did this each Christmas, and found that they still ended up with too much stuff. (this past Christmas, we loosened this rule to allow for stocking items and educational items as extras. Since we don't buy them gifts all year round, except birthday and Christmas, we find we need to stock up a bit on those educational items).

I know. By now you think we are very odd. Just keep reading. Horror of horrors -- we never take the children to any of the world famous theme parks that we are "privileged" to live nearby. We tried it once, when my oldest was 4. He couldn't handle the stimulation, and had repeated meltdowns in the park. We decided we wouldn't do it again for years to come, and we haven't.

Theme parks are like Fr*tos or L*y's Potato Chips to a child's sensibilities. Once they get a couple of experiences of them, it grays out all other more subtle life experiences. Especially when you live right near those theme parks. No other place quite measures up. We want to avoid that. There is plenty of time for them, when they are older.

We approach every event, every vacation trip, from the point of view of how much it could overstimulate our children. Because when you overstimulate, and overstimulate, and overstimulate, pretty soon it takes more, and more, and more to provide the same thrill anymore. Life itself gets duller and duller. We human beings are made that way.

We talk to the kids about being wise consumers, and avoiding the pitfalls that advertising set up. Recognizing a gimmick when you see one. Does this toy really look like it did on the cover of the box? Isn't it just a bunch of little plastic pieces and stickers to put on? Where does the fun come from? YOU! You can make your own fun.

I hear parents comment often in amazement about how their youngest children were alway initially more enthralled with the box than they were with the toy the box contained. We parents (and grandparents) are the ones who teach them to crave the toys. This doesn't have to be. They really can make their own fun, and should be required to, now and them. It is so good for them to be understimulated more. This is the classic case of less is better.

So, we remain low key in every area of the children's lives. Lives as commercial free as possible. As a result, they really do know how to make their own fun. They have a blast playing with blankets hanging over things. Exploring nature in our yard. Pretending together for hours. We read so many family read aloud books, so they have the ideas they need to create pretend play. Now that the door of reading is being unlocked to our younger child, I have caught them in the same room both reading their own books. It is a very rare time when they report that they are bored. Maybe once every couple of months.

Vacations are getting simpler and more frequent. We have stopped the nice hotels, and integrated camping into our lives. It took some getting used to, and we had to build up some new planning, packing and camping skills, but now we really love it. Vacation destinations are nature-based now. Mountains, scenery, state parks. The kids love it because they love nature.

Did I mention that my kids almost never have nightmares? (if I could just say the same about nosebleeds!)

Now, if you can find a down side, it is this. My kids are very sensitive to stimulation. Sometimes, we are watching a DVD, and if the movie is less than, say, 20 or 25 years old, it can be very stimulating. The scene changes at a frenetic pace, the action is non-stop, and it is difficult to always know what is happening. My kids, especially the 5 year old, don't care for this. My youngest has had a couple of nightmares in her life, and they have always (always!) occurred after a movie that I later regretted letting them watch. Yes, these are G-rated movies. They are just very stimulating, because folks demand that nowadays.

Tonight, we are going to do something that is unusual for us. My husband's work group has provided a fun night out. There will be S*nny's Bar-B-Q served for supper(yum!) and then a minor league baseball game, topped off with fireworks. We've never done anything like this before. We are looking forward to it, because it is such a rare experience, a big deal for our family. I'll post about how it goes.

Well, the former playroom (that the children never played in) / toy room / overflow room has now been organized into a school room. I am finally posting some photos.

When you walk into the room, this is what you see, facing the south wall. The wobbly card table has got to go. We are looking for something a bit larger, and more STABLE!



This is the east wall. The easel is serving as our dry erase board for the time being.



The north wall, including the entrance. This photo features the "teacher's" special chair! As well as most of our book collection.

photo temporarily removed


Finally, some brand new shelving and storage cabinets for everything we need for school.....and play. This is the west wall. There is a desk to the left that one child works at while I work with the other child.

photo temporarily removed

We spent some of our "stimulus check" to get the cabinets and shelving. It makes me feel very good to teach in this room now. One thing that is missing is some of those Desk Appr*ntices from St*ples. I want to get two -- one for each child's materials, as soon as they go on sale again.

That's all for tonight. Have a great weekend! Thanks for looking!

I just have to get this off my chest today. We are being held hostage by our Congress, and certain environmentalists.

Consider exhibit A.






EXHIBIT A






These two vehicles each get about the same mpg. The silver one gets about 22 mpg combined city and highway. It seats two adults in front, and two young children in back. The blue van gets more - it gets about 23-24 mpg around town, about the same on the highway. It can carry 10 adults comfortably, plus they can stand up (and walk around) inside the van. At the same time, it can carry about anything you could need to carry. Inside, protected, in air conditioned comfort. The difference is that it is a diesel vehicle. Now can you imagine what the fuel economy would be if the silver car used diesel, too?

The fact is, there are diesel cars that get really great mpg. They have for a long time. They're driving Volkswagens in Germany that get 62 mpg. (see http://www.greencar.com/features/vw-polo-bluemotion/ ) They're diesel vehicles. They're compact, but much larger than the "Smart(?) for Two". Why can't we have this vehicle in the US??? This aggravates me.

Diesel is running cleaner than ever in the newer engines, with the ultra low sulfur mixture that's sold now. Yes, diesel costs about 20% more than gas does, but gee whiz - 62 mpg! And if you are really concerned about that all important CARBON FOOTPRINT, guess what? Burning fewer gallons equals less CO2 emissions. No sophisticated hybrids with hugely expensive batteries that will need replacement. No new technologies. Just simple diesel. And diesel engines last three times as long as gasoline engines. That engine that is getting worn out at 125,000 miles wouldn't wear out until 375,000 miles if it were diesel.

Sigh. I can't say this made me feel any better. Maybe someone will read it who can make a difference.

Well, despite all my best intentions, this family is becoming more "green" than ever. Maybe we are being caught up in the hype (I doubt it!) but more likely we are shocked by the high cost of fuel and the promise of higher energy costs. We learned that our electric utility is going to raise rates 16%. My philosophy on this is that I am happy to be "green", just so long as it doesn't cost me any more money. I am much more motivated by saving money. As far as carbon footprint goes --- well, lets say that after reading some books on the subject, I am NOT a big believer in human-induced global warming.

So.... we have actually begun to cut back on our energy use. We got an electric bill yesterday that showed that we have consumed 401 fewer kilowatthours than the same month last year. And this year is definitely hotter. That translates to about a $45 savings. Our electric bill for the past month was $138. (where we live, everything runs on electricity)

Here is what we have been doing:

1. Driving a lot less. We no longer take those casual one destination drives to the library, supermarket, bank, or store. We wait until we are already scheduled to go out for something else, and then add on these stops along the way.

2. While we are not really "hypermiling", we try to drive economically, by coasting more to stop lights, reducing our maximum speed, and driving like there is an egg on our accelerator pedal. It has helped to eek out a few more mpg out of our Hyundai, Mitsubishi, and Freightliner. (I'll explain the Freightliner in another post some time). They just reported that fuel consumption dropped by a whopping 1.8 percent in April. I believe that if the country goes back to 55 mph speed limit on the highways, we as a nation would dramatically decrease our fuel consumption overnight!

3. Home air conditioner use. We have two central a/c units -- the living area, and the bedrooms. We leave the bedroom unit off all day and night, only running it full blast for two hours before bedtime. This works fine, as long as we run the ceiling fan over our bed the rest of the night. If my son needs to do school work in the bedroom area, he asks for a/c, and that's fine, as long as he turns it off after finishing his work. My daughter, who at age 5 still needs some daytime naps, doesn't even miss the a/c.

4. The living area a/c is set to 82 degrees, and is on all day long, with ceiling fans to help. This has been fine, but our chocolate lab did complain some. He thinks we're nuts. I trimmed his fur a little. Hopefully he will get used to it soon. He is very spoiled about a/c. At night, we shut the a/c off to the living area, where he lives, and leave a ceiling fan on for him.

5. Our house has two hot water heaters. One for the bathrooms, and one for the kitchen/laundry. The kitchen/laundry is on a solar heater, and this provides 100% of its demand during the summer. In the coldest months of winter, we have to close that circuit breaker, but the rest of the year it is open.

6. Using a clothesline. This is one area I could improve. I run our dryer too much, and it is a big consumer of electricity. I hung out the laundry during the cool dry season, but haven't been during the hot humid (rainy) season. I am not sure how much$$ this saves, but I might try to do it some more this summer.

7. Swimming pool pump - can't cut back too much here, but we run it 12 hours a day, which is a slight reduction over last year.

8. My husband says I should turn off our desktop computer and CRT monitor overnight. It does pump out some heat. I am afraid that will lessen the life span of the computer. Anybody have any thoughts on this one? We already have the CRT shutting down after a short time.

So, that is how we are reducing our carbon footprint. It is amazing how one can get used to the 82 degrees thermostat setting. My husband recently returned from a business trip in Mexico. He said that the engineers in that office are really accustomed to higher temperature setpoints. They felt cold when the temperature was set below 80. When we were in Vietnam, it was the same. A/C was used very sparingly. I think we Americans are so accustomed to cheap energy that we overdo it. Get real. Many restaurants and public places can be freezing! If they would just raise their thermostats a little bit, look at how much energy could be saved. Okay - I will get off my soapbox now.

Have a nice day!