ECO DAN
Due to some strange quirkiness about county lines, city boundaries and an odd Texas thing called Fresh Water Districts (which as far as I can tell do not have fresh nor any other kind of water), we do not have recycling collections in my neighborhood. This does not make it easy to be an average environmentally conscious kinda guy, and personally, I would rather be a bit greener then average. Apparently around here they DO want us to ‘mess with Texas’.
I might not believe Al Gore invented the Internet but I do believe in the global warming theories he’s been publicizing and not just because it was 105 degrees at the Rangers vs. Yankees game I sweated through the other day. I know my carbon footprint is Yeti sized but I am trying to reduce it. The problem is, saving my paper, cardboard, cans, bottles and batteries in the garage to lug down to the recycling station once a month is a royal pain in my Yeti sized ass. I do it though although I think I am the only one around here that does so.
When my Wife and I built our house a couple of years ago we had a lively debate over the lawn care. Originally I was keen on paying for a service but between being frugal (read that as ‘cheap’), feeling that it is macho/masculine thing to do it myself (read that as ‘stupid’) and believing that I would find satisfaction in communing with nature (read that as ‘delusional’), we decided to buy an environmentally friendly ‘electric’ lawn mower and do it ourselves.
Before you start assuming I am going to write about electrocuting myself by mowing over an extension cord, let me make it clear we picked out one with a rechargeable battery. Unfortunately just as it seems illogical that diet healthy food with less chemicals, treatments and additives cost more then the usual heavily processed grocery store fare, electric mowers cost a lot more then their gas guzzling louder cousins. It did not take long for us to start questioning the joy we felt for overpaying to help the environment.
Electric mowers do not have the handy self propelling feature most lower priced gas powered ones do. As hard as it was to shove it up the slight incline in my yard, I might as well have bought a really quiet environmentally friendly old-fashioned push rotor mower like we had when I was a kid. It also had the problem of the battery often dying before I finished with my front and back lawn. Then this year, within the same week, I had to fix the on switch handle and then the battery started to not hold a charge. I had to break up the mowing over three consecutive days just to get the yard finished. By the time I actually completed the job, it was time to start back on the first part.
Turns out I apparently have to replace the $100 internal battery every couple of years. I thought being green by buying those twisty new light bulbs was expensive but this was way worse. Being a bit persistent and a lot thrifty, I was not ready to admit defeat but then it started getting blazing hot around here. As the heat rose on my never ending mowing task so did my impatience.
I finally hit limit and admitted defeat. Rather then throwing more money towards the electric beast we sold it on Craig’s List for about 10% of what we paid for it and purchased a fancy ecologically nasty gas guzzling, noise polluting traditional mower. Sorry Al, I tried. Our lawn has never looked better and it takes me about half the time and effort as the electric one did during it’s best of times. At least now I have more time to waste gasoline driving my bottles and cans to the recycle station more often.
I might not believe Al Gore invented the Internet but I do believe in the global warming theories he’s been publicizing and not just because it was 105 degrees at the Rangers vs. Yankees game I sweated through the other day. I know my carbon footprint is Yeti sized but I am trying to reduce it. The problem is, saving my paper, cardboard, cans, bottles and batteries in the garage to lug down to the recycling station once a month is a royal pain in my Yeti sized ass. I do it though although I think I am the only one around here that does so.
When my Wife and I built our house a couple of years ago we had a lively debate over the lawn care. Originally I was keen on paying for a service but between being frugal (read that as ‘cheap’), feeling that it is macho/masculine thing to do it myself (read that as ‘stupid’) and believing that I would find satisfaction in communing with nature (read that as ‘delusional’), we decided to buy an environmentally friendly ‘electric’ lawn mower and do it ourselves.
Before you start assuming I am going to write about electrocuting myself by mowing over an extension cord, let me make it clear we picked out one with a rechargeable battery. Unfortunately just as it seems illogical that diet healthy food with less chemicals, treatments and additives cost more then the usual heavily processed grocery store fare, electric mowers cost a lot more then their gas guzzling louder cousins. It did not take long for us to start questioning the joy we felt for overpaying to help the environment.
Electric mowers do not have the handy self propelling feature most lower priced gas powered ones do. As hard as it was to shove it up the slight incline in my yard, I might as well have bought a really quiet environmentally friendly old-fashioned push rotor mower like we had when I was a kid. It also had the problem of the battery often dying before I finished with my front and back lawn. Then this year, within the same week, I had to fix the on switch handle and then the battery started to not hold a charge. I had to break up the mowing over three consecutive days just to get the yard finished. By the time I actually completed the job, it was time to start back on the first part.
Turns out I apparently have to replace the $100 internal battery every couple of years. I thought being green by buying those twisty new light bulbs was expensive but this was way worse. Being a bit persistent and a lot thrifty, I was not ready to admit defeat but then it started getting blazing hot around here. As the heat rose on my never ending mowing task so did my impatience.
I finally hit limit and admitted defeat. Rather then throwing more money towards the electric beast we sold it on Craig’s List for about 10% of what we paid for it and purchased a fancy ecologically nasty gas guzzling, noise polluting traditional mower. Sorry Al, I tried. Our lawn has never looked better and it takes me about half the time and effort as the electric one did during it’s best of times. At least now I have more time to waste gasoline driving my bottles and cans to the recycle station more often.