Boycott Plastic, Is It Possible?

A young gal in Chicago, 28 year old Jeanne Haegele, has been on a strike against plastic. Accordingly to TIME magazine, July 21st issue, she is making a huge effort to cut plastic out of her life. Good luck lady.

No chemist am I, (sorry Mr. Dronen but you were pretty boring, henceforth not much stuck) but this article was informative enough to convince me: we are probably going to hell via a plastic hand basket. If we can get through the layers of plastic that are building up on the earth's surface and water.

Look up Great Pacific Garbage Patch on Wikipedia to further define the water and plastic issue. It will explain the swirling debris, about the size of Texas, afloat in the middle of the ocean.

In an effort to reduce this pile we should reuse plastic, right? Wrong - that isn't advised either. Reusing, by reheating or microwaving, releases chemicals that are harmful to humans. As plastics age in landfills they can release trace amounts of harmful ingredients: Phthalates (used to soften plastic-like the rubber ducky) bisphenol-a (used to strengthen plastics)and BPDE (used as a flame retardant). These then leach into the soil. Phtalates are potential endocrine disrupters,which can cause reproductive disorders. We should avoid any plastic sporting the numbers 3 or 7; vinyl shower curtains and canned foods, especially those with acidic content like tomatoes. The inside of tin cans are lined with a plastic to prevent e-coli and botulism. Gotcha.

Remember when mayonnaise and peanut butter came in glass jars? Milk bottles are not too old for my cranium either. How about Prell and Breck shampoo? Geez, I shudder at the thought of breakage in the tub, but I don't recall that ever happening. Simply put, glass has class. But that too has build up problems. At least I could reuse mayonnaise jars for canning.

Once upon another time, back in my farm wife days, I found an old thin clear glass bottle, maybe once holding vanilla or nectar. I like to think it was home to some exotic elixir - you know the kind that cured all. I found this while working "summer fallow," another practice gone by the wayside. I still have the bottle and have it filled with philodendron slips. The roots, visible through the clear glass, are the art of it all, in addition to the bottle - my treasured find. This doesn't sound too appealing, the philodendron root thing, in a green plastic Mountain Dew bottle.

Well back to this gal in the windy city. She has managed to carry on for about ten months near plastic free. She states she is still looking for shampoo that doesn't come in a plastic bottle, and a toothbrush without plastic. She does make her own toothpaste though from baking soda, cinnamon, and vodka.

Check out her blog, I have posted it under my favorite sites. It is interesting and you can read her TIME artilcle under the July 16th blog entry. Click on the blue highlighted entry: The Truth About Plastics!

Mini Pet Peeve

Maybe not even a mini, more like a full blown pet peeve but I have trouble with all the youngsters (a great word coined from my Grandma Snyder)and some oldsters who so impolitely pull out their cell phone every few minutes to check a text message. Then, to add more to the already tacky act, they text back. My question is: unless you are a president of a country or expecting an organ transplant can't the triviality of the message wait?? I have culled from inquiring conversations that most text messages are real heady stuff like, "What are you doing?" Which I am sure there is a special way to text the message, and when done it will look like a vanity license plate.

I have sat in the front row of a high school band concert and watched a mother text her son (who was out of school) during the performance. "He is always in touch with me, we're so close." (How puking cozy is that?) We had company the other day and during the visit he kept pulling out his BlackBerry to check. For what? He didn't seem to qualify as important enough to have his own red phone in my dining room. I had to remind my own daughter, from across the room, to put her cell phone away while at a jewelry party. Communication was made with the infamous imaginary throat slit. She rolled her eyes, but did put it away. My favorite was the ditsy mom who sat at the nail joint and repeatedly pulled out her phone with the free hand to "check" for messages. Her three year old was having a manicure at the same time. Go figure??

I refuse take on text messaging, my life is not that important, nor is anything that pertains to it, at least not until the needed liver transplant rolls around.

Summer is Half Over...

Now that the fourth is behind us, around here we say that summer is half over. The kids go back to school on the 21st of August so it is rather an accurate comment. We have been out of school since May 21st.

Back to the fourth, before it was half over, ours was low key. I worked and so did Ron; with his funky schedule that is not unusual. The kids managed to sport their own fun. Karlie worked and made time and a half, which made her sing. Carsten went to Strawberry Lake for two days and Lacy was around town. Which in Velva, a true small town, we have much Independence Day happenings, from a parade at 10:00 am to fireworks in the park at nightfall, and plenty in between.

Lacy had a really great fourth, especially when your only eleven. She slept out in a tent the night before with the girl across the street; went to the parade; hung out at the park; won $39.00 in the turtle races; then to Minot for the car races, and finally back to Velva for fireworks.

It was the $39.00 (at first I heard 50 bucks) that made for a special treat. Each year Velva has turtle races, which all the local kids go searching for - ahh, that would be the turtles. Some even more entrepreneurial minded kids see dollar signs and manage to get many turtles from the river that encircles the park. They are then sold for $3.00 a piece. This year there were 116 turtles entered.

Her little runner, which she named Lucy, took two 1st place events (heats) and the feature race was third place. Henceforth she came home with $39.00 skins. Had her little Lucy turtle taken first it would have had to be saved for the Turtle Lake (a town) races later in the month. The winner at Turtle Lake would then go on to some race in Canada. All I could say under my breath was "thank you, thank you, thank you!"

The next morning I asked Lacy what were her plans for the day? "Oh, I'm going to spend it with Lucy, after all she did for me, I owe her that much!" The gratitude lasted about 30 minutes. She hauled Lucy over to show the grand kids next door, and probably threw in some racing stories for impact. Back in the pail went Lucy and Lacy skipped off to other summertime fun.

Miss Lucy was returned to the wild that evening with her own harrowing racing tales to tell. Enjoy your summer. After all, it is half over.

Addendum: I had a still photo of Lucy, but it vanished ??? from my camera. I did have a flip video and put it to music, that was a first.