What happened? Why didn’t we pay attention and change the last time this happened? These were questions I was asking myself as I went through an old box of my things and found a “save the planet” button from the 1970’s.

I worked at a gas station in 1979 and remember the “odd / even” program. Lines of cars and lots of angry people, especially those that waited in line for hours only to have me tell them they were on the wrong day. I very clearly remember every second of my encounter with a Hells Angle who wanted gas on an even day (motorcycle’s where designated as “odd.”) It was a big day when we changed the price of gas to over a dollar.

After the oil embargo of 1973, and the old “odd / even” gas program, we forgot all about conserving energy. I bet you didn’t know that Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the White House in 1979, but Reagan took them out. My first car was a Honda Civic that got 40 miles per gallon, and now I am looking at a Prius that’s all the rage because it get’s 50 mph – 30 years later!

We forgot and became gas-guzzling people again once we felt safe. Me included. I sold my Civic and have had one Chevy Blazor and two Tahoe’s.

It’s tough being green. But let’s not forget this time. Use less, re-use, recycle.

I decided to try the rechargeable battery thing. I found a charger and 4 AA batteries packaged up together. It seemed a little un-green to have it packaged in so much plastic, plus they gave me 3 interchangable face plates! Ouch! I hunted for AAA batteries and had no luck. I was able to find them at another store.

Now I have 4 AA and 2AAA batteries ready to go the next time I need batteries. I also saw that my local stationary store takes your used conventional batteries so look for a place to dispose of these and don’t throw them away in the trash.

Four rechargeable AA alkaline batteries can reduce the need to buy and dispose of almost 100 conventional batteries. Think of what you’d save by using rechargeable batteries in all your stuff; AAA, AA, C and D, plus 9-volt!

Man I have a lot of paint. Paint I have no idea went on what wall. Paint from an old house, an old project. Filling my cabinet, sitting on my garage floor and stacked on corners of my yard.

I brought my gallons of Vanilla Almond, Buttered Up and Senegal Sun (a total of 8 gallons of random colors) to the Household Hazardous Waste Collection Facility.

Easy and painless; I didn’t even get out of my car!

Also consider buying 100% recycled paint. It’s 30-50% less expensive and if one out of 15 cans of paint purchased was recycled paint, we’d save 40 million gallons of paint.

I have them - in my car. I never have them when I am checking out. A few times I run to the car and grab my reusable bags, but most of the time I just try and carry everything without a bag.

Today I went to the pet store and bought treats for the dog and stuff for the hamster. The clerk reached for a bag and I yelled “STOP! I’ll carry this out without a bag.” Yes they did look at me strangely. Maybe that will help me remember to bring my bags in. Tough being green!

May 8 Update

I went to Safeway last night and forgot my bags in the car again. I left my cart in line and ran back to my car and retrieved them. Maybe this will make me remember to bring them.

What was interesting and frustrating was the checker automatically grabbed a plastic bag and started to load my stuff in that. When I yelped and reminded her of my reusable bags, she unpacked the plastic bag and packed my groceries in my bags. She gleefully told me that I save 3 cents for each bag I bring in as she threw away the plastic bag she had just unloaded. I winced as I asked her if she had to throw the bag away…no response.

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It’s been 30 days using my new electric razor and I am not impressed with the closeness of the shave. I miss those steaming hot bathrooms and the close shave I got while shaving in the shower. It’s true, I’m not buying the razors and throwing them away. And I’m definitely saving water by not shaving in the shower. But I always feel like I need to shave, even 10 minutes after I used my electric shaver.

One piece of advice is to shower first and then shave. I find that hard as my skin sticks to the razor and I miss spots. Another idea is to splash on an alcohol based pre-shave, but that doesn’t seem like a green thing to do. So I don’t buy the disposable razors but I buy pre-shave in a plastic bottle.

Maybe my shaving technique needs to change. One web site said to pull the skin gently with one hand, while dragging the shaver against the direction of growth with your other hand. They say this will give me the closest shave.

So I make small circular motions with the shaver on my face, being careful not to press hard or go over the same spot repeatedly, while all the time pulling my skin gently…

Boy what I wouldn’t give for a sharp razor and a hot shower!

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I was excited for my trip to Washington DC. The cherry blossoms are in bloom and I couldn’t wait to visit the monuments. I was also curious to see what our Nations capital was doing to help the environment. What I found was beautiful cherry blossoms but not much in the way of green.

I did find a few recycling cans scattered around the city, but there weren’t many of them. I also found a few alternative energy buses, but out of all of the buses I saw only 2 were the green ones. I was mostly disappointed in our lack of caring about green around the monuments and at the entrances to Congress and the congressional offices.

I attended Senator Diane Feinstein’s constituency breakfast one morning. She is an elegant lady and a eloquent speaker. You can hear her passion as she talks about issues important to her. Entering her building required the same scanner we all are use to at airports, and the usual no liquid deal. When I asked where I could put my plastic bottle, I was told to just throw it away. No recycling can and no place to put all this water. The breakfast used plastic cups, Styrofoam plates and plastic utensils.

I found the same issues when I went into the Capital Building. No water could go past the security points, and there was no recycling bins and no place to put the water. I asked the guards about it at the security checkpoint and they laughed at me. “We just throw all this away, we don’t recycle.”

More than 60 million plastic bottles end up in landfills and incinerators every day – a total of about 22 billion last year. Six times as many plastic water bottles were thrown away in the US in 2004 as in 1997. And water is a natural resource we should be trying to conserve.

How hard would it be to set an example for the nation at our nations capital? As a Californian we are spoiled. Great restaurants, wonderful sites and plenty of opportunities to help the environment. Why not show the rest of the country that we expect them to help as well? Recycle the bottles you are taking away from people and use the water for irrigation. Plenty of lawns and flowerbeds in DC.

We did have some green moments in DC. We rode the metro and we took a van instead of multiple taxis for our group. We reused our towels in the hotel room and we used our own shampoo so we wouldn’t use the plastic bottles provided by the hotel.

And we did have some great moments in our nations capital. The experience of running in the rain at night to see the Lincoln Memorial all lit up. The cherry blossoms in full bloom in all their splendor. And hearing Senator Feinstein talk about her involvement in the environment.

Maybe there is hope for a green DC?

We left for vacation today. A week in Washington DC for Spring Break. Here’s what I did to make my house green while I was on vacation:

1. All of my TV’s are hooked up to power strips. I turned those off.

2. I unplugged everything I could find; coffee pot, alarm clocks.

3. I set my thermostats to 58 degrees

4. I cleaned out my refrigerator and put the food that would spoil while I was gone into my green can for recycling.

What I didn’t do:

1. I didn’t stop my paper. I’ve heard too many reports about robberies due to stopped papers

2. I left my entertainment system plugged in so my Tivo could record my shows while I was gone.

3. I didn’t unplug my alarm clock. I’m a creature of habit and I’ll forget what time I need to get up when I’m back from vacation.

I know I have room to improve, and I’m disappointed in myself for not doing a better job. Being green is really about what you can live with, what you can accept in your lifestyle change in order to be greener. Certain things like riding a bike to work would really be green, but just don’t work for you.

I’ll see what I can do better next time.

We’ll be turning our lights off this Saturday at 8 pm for Earth Hour. Earth Hour is an international event that asks households and businesses to turn off their lights and non-essential electrical appliances for one hour on the evening of March 29th at 8PM local time to promote electricity conservation and thus lower carbon emissions.