Bucket Shower

Today I attempted a bucket (bowl, really) shower. I found a big plastic bowl in our kitchen and filled it with water. Dunked my head in to get it wet. Used that to shower. It was a little harder to rinse, so I did turn on the shower at that point. But it took only about 30 seconds to fill up the bowl, and that served to cut my shower time down to just 1-2 min. I probably could have found a way to work it better so I didn't even have to turn on the shower. That also saved the gas (and greenhouse gases) needed to heat the water. It worked reasonably well, overall.

One more day down

I'm starting to realize how hard it is to go no-impact. Whether it's grabbing a paper towel in the bathroom (to clean up a spill or just to dry my hands) or having oyster crackers in my soup at the caf, there's some trash I produce. Some of it I can more easily eliminate; some of it I can't do without structural changes - hand dryers installed in the bathrooms, for example.

The weather today being so erratic also made me realize something: it's not safe to bike while there's lightening nearby. Confession: I had my roommate pick me up instead of biking home in the storm. How do bikers deal with this problem?

This has led me to the question: Is it enough just to reduce? How far do we need to go?

Food, Food, Food, we like food in fridges. (Sung to boys, boys, boys, by the Gaga)

Well, for starters I really didn't eat that much food today. That's not really relevant nor is it sustainable, but I did not consume as much as I normally would have. I had a main meal in the Hoff and a main meal at home. I don't eat meat so there is a +1 already and the food in the Hoff really does try and be sustainable. It's hard to get all of the food locally produced when you're feeding 1000's of people a day. So I don't know exactly how "sustainable" my food consumption was but I feel better knowing that it is at least and issue being discussed on X's campus. The other meal was a pre-packaged Tia noodle kit and some sun chips. Not exactly the pinnacle of sustainable eating. The biggest problem with trying to have a sustainable diet is the expense. You ever been to Whole Foods? That stuff is off the charts expenses. Peanut butter should not cost that much. This in lies the problem. There is a push to be more sustainable yet actually being able to do so is a question of financial status.

carpooling is my jam

Not having a car will make the transportation aspect of this week fairly easy for me. I am a pretty avid carpooler and have gotten pretty good at bumming rides off my roommates/friends. Even when I drive home for breaks I am usually in a car with two or more people.

Alternative Transportation Tuesday

So today was pretty easy for me - it's beautiful out; I ride my bike to campus most days, and I didn't have anywhere to go off campus. The trash was still a little challenging for me, and I did waste a little bit of food.

I realized as I grabbed a paper towel in the bathroom today that I didn't even think about that yesterday. I remembered before I threw it away, though, and brought it with me to compost. (Now that I think about it, I'm not really sure what happened to it, though... oops.)

NEXUS garden service was fantastic. Got to be outside, do physical work, and hang out with Laura and Molly. All-around, a good time.

Confession Time

I'll admit it: I drove my car today. Tuesday is grocery day for me, and I hadn't been getting very much the past few weeks so I needed to do a big run (ended up with 3 reusable bags full...def too much for a bike). Not that this makes it better, but I did feel really guilty about it. Also, I haven't driven for the past three days.

I am lucky enough to live close enough that I can walk to campus. However, transportation is an interesting issue for me because it is so wrapped up in safety. I don't live in a particularly safe part of town and several of my friends report being help up at gun point outside of my house. Therefore, I don't feel safe walking home at night by myself, but often have meetings on campus late at night. My solution is to bike when I know I will be on campus late. I love this - the feel of the wind against my face, zipping past pedestrians, flying down the hill by my house - except when it is rainy or really cold. This isn't totally safe or completely comfortable all of the time, but it is the solution I have come to.

I do own a car (a big white mini-van we fondly refer to as the flying marshmallow), but I only drive her about once a week (usually somewhere within a mile for safety reasons). I don't use her very much, but I have trouble eliminating the times when I really do need to use her.

too many post-it notes

Something I learned today was that I am an excessive post it note user. (I also learned I have never posted to a blog before cause it took me 15 minutes to figure out how). I remember things a thousand times better if I write them down therefore I write even the littlest things down. I find myself getting satisfaction from crumbling them up and throwing them out when I complete the task too. I also tend to write large having to use more than one post it. Today, I made sure I recycled every last one of them. I got out my new handy dandy sustainability notepad. So one of my challenges this week, as silly as it sounds, is to use only my recycled post it notes, use less of them by writing smaller, and recycling them when everything is completed.