Balance Your Choices

Just start a solar garden already!

2010-11-10T12:29:00.003-07:00

I'm a renter. Always have been.
I support solar power. Always have.
Those two statements are NOT in conflict.

Locally generated and distributed electricity reduces the amount of power that must be generated in the first place, since long transmission lines lose power as heat.
For a proposed Xcel Energy solar installation in Colorado's San Luis Valley, about 15 percent of the electricity would be lost in transmission.
So park PV panels close by, on roofs, as parking structures, in odd corners of industrial lots.
Gang up on utility bills and form a solar garden. You and nine people can literally change the world by changing your power source.
And profit is standing in the wings, not yet ready for her closeup, but ready to bring home green in two ways.
Talk to the folks at The Solar Gardens Institute.

Purging the bookshelf and more

2010-08-21T21:08:00.003-06:00

It had to happen someday. I had to let go of an absurd number of books.
I'm exhilarated that it is done, but getting there took, well, years.

You see, I love books. I was raised to love books. None of my childhood books had crayon marks, if we bought them new.
Books and learning were our religion.
I love books; the information and stories between the covers, the potential in a craft or home improvement book, the promise of family meals in cookbooks.
One of my favorite bands has the line "oh there's nothing better/ than the smell of a used book store/ we'll get lost between the covers."
Thanks, Ezra and Keith!
(song is Old Things by Trout Fishing in America, a band named after a book.)

But the books had to be set free. I am moving into a small place that already has an occupant, and very little room for stuff of mine.
Two years ago, my library numbered close to 1000 books. It is now four beer boxes.

I'm reeling, in one way and feel liberated in another.
Now I have to use the library heavily, and that will keep me from reading the same 100 books again and again.

I culled my CDs in a similar way.
I had acquired many from a previous employer, CDs from every artist who played over a seven year span. I was given the majority as a thank you for selling merchandise.
Some were from the free box.

In many ways, culling clothing was easier. I don't have a shoe fetish. I don't have handbags or purses. I dress in what is kindly called an eccentric way.
Over the past two years, I've started dressing in black and green with the odd brown shirt.
Long way from the tie dye I lived in for 14 years!
One item took me by surprise.
I have a nice but holey warm sweater from Nepal. I bought it in Ft. Collins before a String Cheese Incident concert in 1998. I said then that it would bring me to Colorado to stay.
So, packing in an apartment in Englewood, Colo., I folded up the well worn sweater and started to drop in in the donations bag.
But I couldn't. I felt a wave of sadness at the idea. Honestly, I cried. over a sweater. (yes, pitiful, isn't it?)
But I listened to that impulse, and kept it.
A fleece took its place in the donation bag.

What strangely emotion moments have you had during moves? What surprised you?

Sunrise for community solar gardens

2010-06-05T20:39:00.003-06:00

On an appropriately sunny Colorado afternoon, the community solar gardens act became reality.
With the flatirons in the distance, Gov. Bill Ritter signed HB1342 into law June 5.
“At SolarGardens.org, we see the Community Solar Gardens act as a step toward enabling everyone to own their own solar panels,” said Joy Hughes, founder of SolarGardens.org. “Even if you have shade on your roof or rent your house, you can subscribe to the sun, and if you move, your subscription moves with you.”
Rep. Claire Levy ,D-Boulder, author and House sponsor of the bill, credited a single resident with the idea of community solar.
He mentioned that his neighbors in the mountains above Boulder have good exposure, but don't necessarily have the money for their own system. The constituent, Solargardens.org board member Greg Ching, thought allowing panels on another owners property would help the mountain residents generate power for their homes.
Levy looked into the law, and saw several impediments to siting solar panels off one's own land.
At the same time, Sen. Suzanne Williams, D-Aurora, was looking for a way for her constituents to own collaborative solar. They joined forces and carried the Community Solar Gardens bill.
As Ritter signed it, he spoke of the leadership Colorado has taken in the new energy economy, and the 56 bills, of which Community Solar Gardens is the latest, that position Colorado as the national, and Ritter argues, international leader in new energy economies.
Allowing people to purchase subscriptions to solar gardens benefits the customers by allowing them access to benefits, from rebates to tax incentives, that homeowners get. The act also aids utility companies in achieving their state-mandated 30 percent renewable energy standard as customers sell excess power back into the grid.
David Eves of Xcel Energy said the act allows those who cannot Participate in Xcel's Solar Rewardsz program to do so.
“You have a lot of good ideas coming out of Boulder,” Eves said. “Thank you for pushing us.”
The Community Solar Gardens act will allow people to own solar panels that are not on their property.
Becoming part of a community solar garden brings clean, sustainable power to renters of homes, apartments or offices, condo owners, people with locations that are not ideal for solar panels or live in areas with homeowner associations that limit the number or location of panels.
A Community Solar Garden is at least 10 people, called subscribers, who own panels at a site.
HB 1342 directs the Colorado Public Utilities Commission to create rules that require public utilities to extend rebates and other offers available to homeowners who install photovoltaic panels to these groups.
One of the benefits for the utilities is more renewable power generated in areas where it is used and sold to the grid.
State Rep. Claire Levy, D-Boulder, sponsored the bill in the House and State Sen. Suzanne Williams, D-Aurora, sponsored it in the Senate.
U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, D-El Dorado Springs, is sponsoring a similar bill at the federal level, the Solar Uniting Neighborhoods (SUN) Act.
For more information on Community Solar Gardens, visit www.solargardens.org.

Solar rebates and benefits for all in Colorado

2010-06-03T12:10:00.000-06:00

Gov. Bill Ritter signs HB 1342 into law at noon Saturday, June 25 on the top level of the parking garage at 15th and Pearl streets in Boulder.
“At SolarGardens.org, we see the Community Solar Gardens act as a step toward enabling everyone to own their own solar panels,” said Joy Hughes, founder of SolarGardens.org. “Even if you have shade on your roof or rent your house, you can subscribe to the sun, and if you move, your subscription moves with you.”
The bill will allow people to own solar panels that are not on their property.
Becoming part of a community solar garden brings clean, sustainable power to renters of homes, apartments or offices, condo owners, people with locations that are not ideal for solar panels or live in areas with homeowner associations that limit the number or location of panels.
A Community Solar Garden is at least 10 people, called subscribers, who own panels at a site.
HB 1342 directs the Colorado Public Utilities Commission to create rules that require public utilities to extend rebates and other offers available to homeowners who install photovoltaic panels to these groups.
One of the benefits for the utilities is more renewable power generated in areas where it is used and sold to the grid.
State Rep. Claire Levy, D-Boulder, sponsored the bill in the House and State Sen. Suzanne Williams, D-Aurora, sponsored it in the Senate.
U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, D-El Dorado Springs, is sponsoring a similar bill at the federal level, the Solar Uniting Neighborhoods (SUN) Act.

For more information on Community Solar Gardens, visit www.solargardens.org.

Take out without

2010-05-14T18:07:00.002-06:00

A few months ago, a new web site started up promoting the bring your own bag mentality at restaurants.
I started bringing stainless steel straws and my own cutlery about three years ago, and maybe the thought of bringing my own take away containers flitted across my mind.
And I probably thought, "once I start driving again, I'll do that."
Three years later, I'm still walking, but finally remembering containers, on occasion.
Until I ran across Take Out Without .
The idea is to bring a container for leftovers or take out and make it as common as bringing a bag to the grocer's.
Easy? Seems so. I'm good if I'm planning on going out or getting to the salad bar, but when I run late, I still wind up with a plastic 6 or styro container.
Except now, each one I see reminds me to be prepared in the future.

My choices have changed

2010-02-03T12:10:00.004-07:00

Well, I spent three years working two jobs, one during the week with the occasional weekend coverage needed; and one each Friday and Saturday night , adding Wednesdays in the summer.
That is a lot of time spent doing something, and I felt both were a calling.
I wrote for a newspaper for five years, and in December 2009, they let me go.
One month later, the music venue dissolved my position.
So now I am drawing unemployment and getting emails that read, "we have selected a candidate with more closely matched qualifications."
People, that was for stocking shelves at a grocery store.
However, I now know how to rewrite that part of my resume, and I may yet become a wage slave again.
However, I created a wrench and tossed it in the works of my unemployment claims.
I told the state I was laid off from my part time job.
This means my benefit amount needs to be recalculated, because the original calculation was based on my full time job.

I have to start all over, wait, no that would be easy. I have to "reopen" my claim, which means keep dialing into a number that might, or might not, have real humans on the other end.

This seems like a chance to put some of the unemployed professionals to work handling these claims.

Update: I'm back on hold, up to an hour, the recording says. Wish me luck!

Walk to defeat ALS and Folkies For Eric

2009-04-26T12:22:00.003-06:00

No one knows me long before I start sharing music with them.
Music is a driving force in my life. And musicians are special people to me.
I've had the great joy of knowing Eric Lowen, of Lowen and Navarro, as singer and songwriter with a gift of storytelling without being maudlin.
You might know his big hit, "We Belong." As in Pat Benetar, 'fess up, children of Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
Eric lives with ALS, a degenerative disease that steals your mobility inch by inch.
ALS is an evil existance, and I for one will not stand idly by and let it continue without research and support for the folks and families dealing with it.
So I'm walking Sept 12 in honor of Eric and his light with the Rocky Mountain Capter of the ALS Association.
Thier slogan is walk because you can. I'm walking because I cannot NOT do it.

http://walks.alscolorado.org/index.php?s=42&group_id=41

and www.lownav.com

Getting Frugal

2009-04-26T12:13:00.002-06:00

So the time has come for me to get serious about grocery prices.
List? Helps.
Coupons? Not so much, as I rarely use name brand. I need a Sunflower Market 20c off a pound of almonds or some such.
So, I'm designing a price book.
Basically, a price book lists an item, say, tofu, and the price at each store.
A page (and the template I'm using is 3x5: index card sized) has the item at the top, rows for the stores (four in my situation for now) that list the size, cost, and unit price.
like this:

Denver Tofu

Vitamin Cottage 1 lb 2.09
Sunflower --not available
Whole Foods/ Louisiana Pearl--1 lb 1.99
WF /HR 1 lb 2.09
King Soopers 1 lb 1.99

This allows a shopper to know straightaway where the deal is...and if you should pass in a given store.
I will also place a note on travel time. All trips cost the same on the train/bus, but the time involved can be diverse.

Anyone using a price book?

My template idea was taken from Dollar Stretcher:
http://www.stretcher.com/stories/09/09apr06j.cfm

Pete Seeger should be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize

2009-04-02T23:00:00.002-06:00

And it was my metalhead son who sent me the petition.
Here's the link:
http://www.petitionthem.com/default.asp?sect=detail&pet=3774
So why do I think Seeger should be honored so?
His work with social justice, environmental causes and his spreading of peace through his music for so many years.
And let's not forget how he handled McCarthy's witch hunts.

Well, Feb. 21 is this blog's new year

2009-02-21T10:42:00.003-07:00

Or, I fail at posting weekly.
I've had my son here for several weeks and have been out of pocket. Even took my second week of vacation to hang out with him
Having a late-teen son is a blizzard of think-on-your-feet choices.
He wants a purple stripe in his hair? OK. All of it? Not so OK.
He has the stripe. Looks good.
Luckily my years of communist hippie vegetarian indoctrination ...er... modeling healthy food choices.. have paid off with a son who eats salads at all meals and has no great desire for large amounts of meat.
He goes through yogurt, however.

More importantly, he's mentally creating his life beyond living with parents.
He's delaying secondary education. He wants to work in the music industry as a tech and eventually be a sound engineer. His big dream right now is running a recording studio/distribution network for bands who don't want to go the A&R / big label route.

I discovered what it is like to simply consult and have little control over the decisions made.
This is my time for letting go of the child I bore and accept the almost adult I raised.

Thanks, Kiddo, for reminding me that choices have size.

Made it through the gift season

2008-12-28T09:54:00.002-07:00

December holds four birthdays, Chanukkah, Yule/Solstice and the big giftmas.
I survived and managed to gift everyone who needed one.
Planting trees was big this year through www.mokugift.com.
One recipient was so happy they planted 10 more as a gift to the planet.

My not-so-inner-hippy was pleased.

I was choosing between a floral arrangement (very planet unfriendly- roses from where?) and this. I decided the recipients were either savvy enough or had their own inner-hippy ready to be channeled, or simply were not wanting things to care for, store and keep up with.

For the physical gifts, such as for my young nieces, Sweetie and Kiddo, I used 6 square feet of wrapping, half of that reused.
I don't have to seek out that one different roll of paper this year.
I actually have too much paper at once.
I see drawer/shelf lining in my future.

John Lennon and life examined

2008-12-08T20:40:00.003-07:00

I've said on boards that I had my last hamburger when John Lennon was alive. I don't remember the exact date I put the cow = sentient life equation together, so in the sadness of memory today, I also thank Lennon for pushing people to look at why they do things the way they do...and offering options. It pushed me to look at what I thought was basic, eating, and make it a statement of my own beliefs.
I try not to push it on others. I will answer questions, share recipes and hints.
I do think that the reliance on animals for food has gotten out of hand.
Who orders a 3.5 oz steak at a restaurant?

But Lennon was an icon for me. I had a brother old enough to remember the Beatles clearly, and a stepmother with the full catalog. For a young teen, his words and stances were heady stuff.
It's trite, perhaps, but we can give peace a chance, because invasion sure isn't working out.
I probably would not have read Mao without Lennon, although I had read Marx by then. And I'm slogging through Trotsky now. Ugh.
I was intensely interested in Utopian ideals and communities, and reading the dry formulas they sprang from was eye opening.
I also give his soul mate, Yoko kudos for forcing her concept of art on the mass public.
She might sound somewhat like a tortured goat, but you have to ask WHY people would express themselves this way.

Ono chose a companion for Lennon while they were separated in the 1970s. May Pang is now peddling a book about John's "Lost Weekend" and her relationship with him.
I can't even begin to understand how one woman could "choose" the woman her husband was to have an affair with..and I can't comprehend why a man would go along with it.
But I can wonder how on earth that other woman can trade on a dead man so many years later.

What I'd like to see is more musicians and artists with a holy anger like Lennon's making a mark.
So, no choice to balance but some homework:
Who has that sacred rage that you love? Franti? RATM? Dead Prez?
Who is speaking truth to power in an obseved way that makes even the pop world take note?

Continuing car free and food issues

2008-10-09T16:52:00.005-06:00

Looks like the old dependable car is in need of far more repair than it is worth.

So the Sweetie and I will continue with being car free for a while longer.
I last wrote about groceries, and my interim fix is to grab a bag of groceries when convenient, or if I'm out and about with a wheeled friend.
Cat food and litter are definitely "borrowed transport" items.

Living in a 'burb, I have a lot of grocery choices: two traditional store, one of which is remotely affordable, two natural foods stores in the neighboring 'burb, but the travel time gets really long, so I hit Vitamin Cottage when I'm in that area. Whole Paycheck is out of my league for a good while.
Walking in Downtown Denver, where homeless and high rent flats rub shoulders, I noticed there are no real grocery stores, or even the stripped down market concept aside from a couple foodie-porn places.

So what if I lived there? Would I have to trek out to a grocery close to the rail line (Broadway and Alameda) ?
Would I have to pay the $10 home delivery charge for Shop at Home?

I ran a cross an abstract for a study on food outlets near high schools in the United States:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B73H6-4RM89B2-1&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=0b42c33bad3b6abb5216c74cbf6a0b4f

which basically says that lower income and non white majority schools have more junk nearby, negating school food policies.
What that also says is that lower income areas have less healthy options.

Or how about we feed our people before we buy bullets?
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/2603625/24917372

Look in any trash bin outside and marvel at the food we waste.

Groceries while carless

2008-08-31T14:16:00.002-06:00

No deep questions today, just a bit o' reflection.
I'm procrastinating getting groceries because I have to do it on the bus.
Suddenly car-light looks like a lot of car!
Luckily, I don't need too much, and I plan on keeping it that way, so a hefty backpack will have to do.
Add my fading enthusiasm for plastic containers, and well, I could be in for a workout.
But that's OK, work should use up some stored calories.
I have two choices of close by groceries, both the same chain. One has the ever-tempting Taco Bell in the parking lot. That's the shorter ride, too, but the store is less well maintained.
Well, off to strap on the pedometer for grins and giggles.
How much does one hippie walk while fetching groceries?
I'll let you know.
And while I'm off, can someone recommend the best grocery cart for urban freaks?

Plastic

2008-08-23T15:58:00.000-06:00

When I was younger, "paper or plastic?" became a common question.
In the interest of saving trees, people promoted plastic bags.
If only we'd skipped directly to reusable bags then.
There is so much focus on bags, that we forget the rafts of polymers we have everywhere else.
Own a bottle of shampoo?
What's your computer casing? Or your telephone?
Even waxed paper is really lined with a plastic.
Some cars are plastics.
I signed a pledge about two years ago to refrain from buying bottled water.
I used a Lexan bottle. Bisophenol A. Yay. So I saved up and got a Sigg.
I now have brightly colored craft storage with stickers all over the outside.

So I knew, intellectually, that the average house has loads of plastic.
I've been using up plastic-packaged goods in the bathroom. I felt like I was starting to see a difference. Wooden soap dish, bars of shampoo and conditioner, liquid soap bought by the half gallon and diluted (Dilute, dilute, dilute, OK!)

Then I cleaned in the kitchen today, a put off for many months clear-out.
Wow. And gross.

I buy a lot of groceries in bulk, which means plastic bags when you don't take your own containers.
I reuse the deli-style containers until a fatal crack develops. I was happy to see how many glass jars I had in use.
But I have a lot of plastic, some of it rather high quality.
Some will get donated to whichever of my three charities calls next.
Some I will keep because the size is convenient, but I will be eying glass canisters for the contents.
I want to donate whole the plastic is still high quality, so that someone will get good use out of it.
I also had lots of plastic bags of a few ounces of this and a few cups of that.
Now I have a lot of labeled jars, and this looks better to me.

What small change would you like to make in how you live?

What would you do?

2008-08-19T15:53:00.000-06:00

Alright, I don't think I have a vast audience, yet, but I'd like to see if I can get a reader or two engaged.
I'll post a dilema and ask you for your coice, and how you got there.

Simple?
Here goes:

A book store has two copies of a book you really want.
One copy, soft cover, has damage on a few pages, bcause we all look though books we are considering, and is full price.
The next copy is hard cover and about the same price through on the bargin table.
You pick up the hardcover and at checkout discover someone has swapped the price sticker.

What do you do, and why?

Is every choice either/or?

2008-08-17T22:26:00.000-06:00

I don't think every choice has a perfect answer, and I doubt that every choice is either/or.
I think that why you make your choices, or avoid them, leads you to your best answer of the moment.
For example, let's say a person, Sam, is standing in the grocery and that person has organic agriculture as an ideal. But, Sam has recently started reading about food miles.
So Sam is standing in a less than perfect suburban grocery store looking at organic strawberries from six states away and conventional strawberries from within a 200-mile radius.
Prices are similar, freshness appears similar.
What does Sam do? Does she select the organic that used a good amount of gasoline to arrive, or the more local crop grown with fertilizers and pesticides?
Is there another option?
I say there is. Unless Sam has to have strawberries for something, look at what else is on offer. Organic, in-state peaches? Local raspberries?
Sam picks up the local conventionally-grown berries and drops them in her basket.
She believes that cutting down on the transportation is more important than the cropland use.

Personally, I'd look for the most local fruit available, allowing for my undeveloped appreciation of most melons.
Berries rule, but peaches are blessings.

The local farmers market has a particular vendor who is inclined to be less than truthful about his products.
He's also got better prices.
Do I boycott him for passing Washington cherries off as Western Slope Colorado cherries, or do I just pay a lot of attention?
Depends. Is the West Slope fruit grower at the market that week? Are his prices in line with the questionable vendor?
If so, Forte Farms will get my hard earned money.
If not, well, I value the farmers market concert over the grocery where Sam is picking over berries. I might pay more at Forte (and I plan to buy a box of frozen cherries at the end of season). I might skip cherries if it is not the end of season.
But, I might decide that week that any fresh fruit is better than none, and the peaches are not in yet.
Is this the best way we can grow our good fruit? --Woody Guthrie

Balance what choices?

2008-08-17T22:13:00.000-06:00

Welcome to Balance Your Choices, I'm glad you are here.

I have been imagining this blog for a couple of years and finally took the plunge.
I spend an inordinate amount of time calculating the ethical cost of living in a consumer society, and balancing Choice A against Choice B or C or D.
I cheat, and buy second hand, repurpose items and generally do the fussy greenie dance that is living in the industrialized world.

What I discovered is I have to rank my ethics. Gulp. How do you chose which ethical stance is more important than another?
I had to deconstruct WHY I make the choices I do.
So, me.
I'm fortyish, vegetarian, pretty crunchy, would love to experiment with an urban offgrid home one day. I walk or use public transportation. I bring my own bags 99.9 percent of the time, including produce bags.

I've been blessed to moderate a vegetarian board since 1999 over at www.hipforums.com, and that experience has been helpful in molding the decision process when I have a choice between, say, leather or nylon for shoes.

So, again , welcome to Balance Your Choices.