Blackout in the grocery store

Maxx Value food store opened in my neighborhood recently, to a fair amount of neighborhood concern.
The previous tenant, Lucky Foods, is a union shop and the new one isn't.
That is a topic for another day.
People also wondered about selection, price and upkeep of the outside of the store.

The outside was repainted, the parking lot repaved with recycled asphalt, and the place is pretty spiffy inside. Prices looked good.

But the neighborhood power went out.
After about five minutes of people quietly continuing their shopping, the manager threw us all out of the store.
Now, I have waited out afternoon power outages in Colorado, where summer afternoon storms can knock power out with regularity.
I've never been told to leave, but mangers have suggested coming back in 45 minutes.

As we all walked out, probably 45 to 52 people, the manager kept saying, yes we need a generator.
Having a back up generator with cold food is a great idea.
But locally distributed energy, hosted on the grocery store property, would be a better insurance policy.
The host could get all the power in an outage (written into the host and subscriber contract) and subscribers would get some credit if the outage went on for several hours.

Community solar gardens can be reality in your neighborhood.
In California, SB 843 opens the doors to this locally distributed electricity.
Call your senator and representative and ask them to vote for 843.

More minimalist wardrobe

This is an update on a remix of two challenges popular in the blogosphere,Six Items or Less and Project 333.

I pulled the best guidelines of both and pulled them together to see what works for someone at the crossroads of minimalist and cheap.. er.... frugal. Add the desire to never be under of over dressed, and the desire to know most items will go together, and many fabulously, well. This is worth the few hours of planning (some of which have been fun).

I'm trying to use 10 items of clothing for 30 days.
Launch day is March 10.

For 30 days, I will wear outfits pulled from
1-dark wash jeans
2- green corduroy trousers
3- peacock blue sweater
4- forest green T-shirt, short sleeved
5-black long sleeved T-shirt
6- purple long sleeved T-shirt
7 and 8 to be determined
9- closed toe green and brown vegan earth shoes
10- my beloved black Chacos. I live in these. I bought them in 1998, resoled them three times and re-strapped once. Price per wear is about two-tenths of a cent.


Ultimately, I will have a few capsules (remember capsule wardrobes?) for the seasons, plus one for dressing up situations, which are about six per year for me these days.
Work clothes are pretty much a self-created uniform. That capsule is seasonless and will have three to five trousers and five tops.
That is for my bodywork business.

At times, I appear as a representative of Solar Gardens Institiute, and those meetings are business casual. If I am speaking, I take it up a notch.
The rest of the time is my version of casual, and frankly, after 14 years in tie dye and a couple years of "hippy anarchist" colors, well, I might still be in black and green, but by golly, I can wear blue and purple, too.

And yes, I still have tiedyed clothing. Mostly dresses and a few special shirts.
They were the work and gifts from my former spouse. Beautiful stuff, and will eventually be in memory boxes.
I do wear a few pieces here and there. Nothing like custom clothing that seems to be lasting forever.
One shirt is from the week we met- 17 years ago. It has one small hole. Outlasted the marriage!

Prepping for the 10

"My fashion style is 'woman who wears clothes so she won't be naked.' " --Molly Ivins, columnist and all around patriot.

I relate to Molly's quip a little too well.

30/10 grew out of reading style blogs. That means I'm actually going to think about what I wear, what it says and does it itch.
Pretty important, that last one.
I've been reading color theory, imagining what a reworked closet will look like in a year, and trying give myself a reality check about what I actually do.
In reality, my idea of dressing up is nice trousers, even jeans, tidy shirt and a blazer. I actually own two, one in ikat-like stripes, and one solid black.

So, in. 10/30, I will experiment with simpler things. Belts. Scarves. Changing necklace lengths.
I will need to pick up a couple belts at the thrift store, and maybe an interesting necklace.

I haven't decided on all the items, and might leave a couple to be selected later into the experiment.

Dark jeans, olive cords, and one deep peacock blue sweater are making the list.

So, from my closet, I do manage to not be naked. Can I look pulled together?
Could I discover a signature look?