See Diva Run

I am old enough to remember picking up litter with my elementary school class on the very first Earth Day in 1970. I wouldn’t say that the day itself had a profound impact on me, but I did grow up with “Keep America Beautiful”, the crying Indian, and a mother who grew up during the Great Depression who found ways to recycle just about everything. I am not nearly so kind to the earth as my mother was, but I am trying to reduce my footprint on the earth. I am fortunate to work at home, so I can limit my driving to 10,000 miles/year or less. I did drive to the grocery store last night, but being a bit of a ditzy Diva at the end of the day, I forgot to bring my environmentally friendly bag from Nature’s Path. Fortunately, Top Foods had an Earth Day special where I could receive an environmentally friendly reusable bag by purchasing $10 worth of environmentally friendly products. Coincidentally, some of the Nature’s Path Organic cereals were on sale, so I stocked up and got my free bags. This only helps if I can remember to take them with me the next time I go to the store, so after putting the groceries away last night, I left them hanging on the door knob. This morning when Jasmine and I went for our first walk, I put them in the car. I still have one bag in the house, so I can use it if I walk to the store. I used to do this all the time when I walked instead of ran. Now that I’ve run my body into the ground, this is something I would like to get back to doing.

Although we are trying to eliminate grocery bags from our house, Mr Diva is a shopping fanatic, so we will always have a ready supply of plastic bags to bring along when walking Jasmine. According to County officials, Snohomish County dogs leave 2 tons of “waste” in our back yards each day. Man that is a lot of poop to scoop. I’m not always timely about picking up what happens in the back yard, but I am fanatical about picking up what happens on walks. Today I also picked up litter while out on our walk. I know I should do that every day, but it is hard to live an ideal life.

Later this afternoon I will run outside, even though the treadmill would be easier on my injured parts. It seems silly to waste electricity when I could run outside and use none. I will leave the car in the driveway as long as possible, as I will be driving 60 miles/day next week to a class I need to take for work. Wasteful, but necessary.

I am not much of a gardener, but I have been slowly replacing ornamental plants in my yard with plants that are native to the area. One of the many things people don’t consider when planting their yards is that local birds and wildlife depend on plants as a food source. Bringing in plants from other areas can be harmful to local wildlife, and can also cause changes in migration patterns. In some cases, plants that are introduced as landscaping can invade natural areas, killing native plants. One of the worst offenders is English Ivy.

So friends, runners and fellow earth inhabitants, as you take your run today, remember to appreciate the earth in all of its glory, and think about ways that you can minimize your impact upon it. And don’t forget to recycle your running shoes!

NEW

I just got the following information from the credit union, encouraging me to switch to eBills. I’ve been using eBills for a very long time because I’m a bad housekeeper, and I tend to lose paper and I never have a stamp when I need one.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 at 10:09 am and is filed under Life in General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.