| | Tonight was "Earth Hour" - a now annual event when people around the world turn out their lights at 8:30 PM local time for 1 hour. Check out http://www.earthhour.org/home/ for more information. Sorry that I forgot to tell you all in advance.
Anyways, I turned out the lights and computer and lit the candles and wandered around the house for an hour. One thing that I noticed was the number of things that were still lit or running (not including the cats) in our house that were plugged in. I made a quick list and thought that I'd share it with you:
Phones
Answering Machine (yeah, we're still back in the dark ages with a landline and an actual answering machine)
Microwave clock
Wood Stove fan (distributes the heat around the house - I eventually got guilty and turned it off)
Thermostat
Alarm clocks (2)
Fire Department Pager
Roomba
CO Detector (see Mom - I do use it!)
Chicken Coop light (only until 9 PM when it automatically turns off)
Night light in the guest bedroom
Palm Pilot charger
DSL Router
Since this wasn't an actual power outage, I was still able to wash the dishes by candlelight (but the well runs on electricity), and I put on my headlamp to check on the chickens and read the mail (as a side note, my headlamp is screaming pink to keep JD from "borrowing" it and forgetting to return it - he even "borrowed" the headlamp that he gave me as an Xmas present, and now can't find it!). Its amazing how much electricity we use even when we're trying not to use electricity!
Earlier today I headed in towards town for a practice session for my EMT-Basic class. Now I have the following monologue running through my head:
"BSI, Scene Safe, Number of Patients, Nature of Illness..."
I wish that JD was here to help me practice for the test next weekend, but he left on Tuesday for the Grand Canyon. A friend of a friend got a permit through the lottery to go, and JD used his professional raft guide and paramedic certifications to get on (this is basically the trip of a lifetime, although hopefully we'll be able to do it together in a few years). I talked to him on Friday at pretty much the last time that he'll have cell phone reception for the next 21 days. This is the longest that we've been apart since we moved here and he led a backpacking trip in British Columbia while I lived on my friend's floor in Portland. While I'm enjoying the quiet (our roommate moved out on Monday and JD left on Tuesday), its really weird not having him hear and being able to tell him the random day-to-day things.
I also hung out with my friends Nisu and Liane and Rick (and Nisu and Liane's adorable son, Alexander), and picked up a parmesan halibut fillet for tomorrow night with leftovers for lunch on Monday. Yum!
And that's the news here :)
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| | Posted 3/28/2009 10:24 PM - 15 Views - 4 eProps - 2 comments
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