Green

Environmentally friendly, green ways of living

There are 363 posts filed in Green (this is page 30 of 37).

I’m a spoiled two-wheeler

I had to make a trip to Cary today to pick up contact lenses. Thus I drove my car to work. After picking up the lenses, I spent about 15 minutes searching in vain for an open spot among the free parking spots near downtown. It about killed me to have to pay for parking after all that.

Biking to work really is the way to go, hands down.

The problem with CFLs

I had a spirited discussion with my sister (as discussions with my sister frequently are) about compact fluorescent lights (CFLs). She told me how one of hers recently quit on her so she tossed it in the trash. I pointed out how she needed to recycle it instead, as its mercury would seep into the ground once it reached the landfill.

“People aren’t that smart,” she argued. “No one’s going to go to the trouble.”

For once I couldn’t argue with her. Most people are totally clueless on the dangers of mercury poisoning and the need to properly dispose of these bulbs.
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Falls Lake is full again!

I got the news Saturday that Falls Lake is now full again. In fact, its 1/10th of a foot above normal at 251.6 feet. The non-stop rain we got last week really pushed us over the top. Officials expect even more rain to trickle in and raise the level even further. We’ve sure come a long way from the Christmas Day reading ten feet lower than that.

Now we’re going back to the more lenient Stage 1 restrictions. It remains to be seen whether we’ve learned anything. Rampant development will continue again unabated and we’ll wind up facing the same dilemma again within three years. You watch.

Biking from work

You know what’s cool? In the time it normally takes me to walk the five blocks to my free parking place, today I biked all the way home. It was mostly downhill from downtown, too, which made it a much more pleasant ride.

Tomorrow promises to be a sunny day so I think I’ll try it again.

Zoysia: the perfect lawn?

The new home’s lawn will need updating soon. Its a mix of patchy fescue and crabgrass. Since I want to go green in a big way with our new home, just reseeding the fescue won’t do. I think the way to go is to plant zoysia grass.

Zoysia Farm Nursery sells zoysia plugs that should cover half my lot for less than $600. Zoysia will never need replacing, reseeding or any of the other headaches that come with fescue. It uses up to 80% less water than fescue and requires 1/3 of the mowing. It will grow thick enough to eventually choke out the weeds and existing fescue).

The only drawback I can see is that it goes dormant in the winter. With a yellow house, though, it might match better in the wintertime!

Biking to work

I rode my bike into work today. It was a shock to my poor, out of shape system but welcome at the same time. Took me about 15 minutes to get from home to office (did I mention I’m out of shape?), but it sure was nice sailing right by all those metered parking spots.

The weather may be wet this afternoon so it remains to be seen if I get home the same way. I hope so. It sure was fun!

Daylight No-savings Time?

WRAL Weathercenter’s Nate Johnson posted about daylight savings time, which goes into effect this Sunday. Ah, daylight savings time: one of my favorite whipping boys. If there’s one thing that raises my government-as-nanny hackles, daylight savings time is it.

Benjamin Franklin is credited with conceiving daylight savings time (DST) as a way to save on candles. While candles may have been all the rage in Poor Richard’s day, it may be safe to say that we use energy quite differently nowadays. The energy required to shift one’s biological clock to match clock time is quite expensive, too, but not so easily measured.
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Turning fast food green

A few weeks ago we rewarded the kids for staying happy during a busy day by taking them to McDonald’s. As I ate I couldn’t help but notice the food packaging – it was made using recycled paper! The cups were paper as well. I whistled to myself at that. How could McDonald’s turn green and I didn’t even notice? Not that I’m their biggest customer or anything.
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The World Without Us

I’m in the middle of a captivating (and a bit overdue, according to the Wake library) book called The World Without Us by Alex Weisman. Weisman takes a look at how the things we take for granted in modern life would fare if we suddenly up and simply vanished. Its a thought-provoking premise.
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