It has been difficult for me to find inspiration for blog posting these last few days. I keep wanting to rant about how disgusted I am with the president and his hell-bent plans for keeping our young men and women in harms' way just so he can prove he's right, or at least he's the decider, or whatever. I am so unbelieveably frustrated with it all that I simply can't focus my thoughts into something coherent and understandable, and for what it's worth, I'm pretty much preachin' to the choir with you Campers, arent' I? No Rovians lurking out there are there?
So I'll latch onto something more fun...one of my new favorite televsion shows is "Living with Ed." No, it isn't about my brother (sorry Ed!). It is about the actor Ed Begley, Jr., and his wife, and their "green" lifestyle. It is on HGTV and is both funny and incredibly informative about ways the average household can limit their use of electricty, fossil fuels, water, etc. I said, average household...but really this season he has visited celebrity friends who have seriously gone green...some of them almost entirely or entirely getting "off the grid" --which is apparently the goal of folks like Ed. Some of these people have fabulous houses (estates really) that are powered almost exclusively by solar or wind power. In fact, Larry Hagman (yes, J.R. from Dallas) sells back some of the power his personal system generates to the power company, and I think I understood that he donates some of his power as well to low-income families. He said he went from having a $37,000 electric bill one year, to a $13 the next, after he installed his solar panels. Incredible. Of course the panels were plenty expensive, so folks like The Reenactor and I can't rush out to buy them, but it is impressive that this amount of power is possible from a unit like this. And it's CLEAN, folks!!!
On a smaller scale, they have installed numerous gadgets in their own home which I am really interested in...one is a switch that allows you to turn off all unnecessary power in your house when you aren't home....all the things that are on "standby" waiting for you to use them, and sucking electricty while they wait. You can be very specific about which outlets you want to include in this, and the energy savings was something like 25% per month.
Anyway...if you get a chance to watch it it really is good fun, and educational.
Cards vs. Cubs tomorrow...I've never seen the Cubbies before!
We'll lose, of course, but at this point, does it really matter?
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3 comments:
ooo, I need one of those energy-saver gadgets here at the mancave! who knows how many manly tools are sucking power at this very moment! right now i can see two lightbulbs on out in the shop- what else is there? stereo. computer.
Shley...go to greenswitch.tv for more info on that. Or go to the livingwithed.com website. I heard someone on a talk show referring to this episode and they also suggested you just put simple security timers (like the kind you get at Lowe's) on outlets and plug in things like car chargers to them, and set them to go off when you don't use them.
brilliant. thanks!
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