Bookmark - Earth Hour 2008
Yesterday, very enthusiastically, my children counted down the minutes (nay, the seconds!) to Earth Hour. When the timer on Dragonboy's DS went off, they dashed about the house and flicked every lightswitch into the OFF position. There would be no Adult Resistance or Reluctance in participating in this event. They peeped outside at the other houses on the street: only three or four of them were dark, and most of them still beamed their exterior lights and pale curtains to the world outside. They were kind of disappointed.
By the power of four wind-up flashlights (you charge their 3-hour batteries by cranking them for 60 seconds - truly an off-grid appliance after its manufacture!), we played Sorry! and Blackjack. Computers and electronic toys, even battery-powered, were verboten. Dragonboy made us all SORRY! by winning the game twice, and Tiger would have won her entire RESP contribution for the year if we'd been playing Blackjack with real money.
At 9pm, my cell phone scheduler announced we could, in good conscience, flick all our lights back on. We flicked some, instead, and reset all the clocks that had been unplugged in our children's enthusiasm - because they GLOW. This included the timer on my grow-shelf.
Then we all headed to bed earlier than usual.
And woke up to the sight of our breath puffing in the air - an unintentional bonus to reducing our carbon footprint for the entire night.
As of this morning, the light switch ABOVE the laundry room light switch has been carefully labelled: FURNACE.
By the power of four wind-up flashlights (you charge their 3-hour batteries by cranking them for 60 seconds - truly an off-grid appliance after its manufacture!), we played Sorry! and Blackjack. Computers and electronic toys, even battery-powered, were verboten. Dragonboy made us all SORRY! by winning the game twice, and Tiger would have won her entire RESP contribution for the year if we'd been playing Blackjack with real money.
At 9pm, my cell phone scheduler announced we could, in good conscience, flick all our lights back on. We flicked some, instead, and reset all the clocks that had been unplugged in our children's enthusiasm - because they GLOW. This included the timer on my grow-shelf.
Then we all headed to bed earlier than usual.
And woke up to the sight of our breath puffing in the air - an unintentional bonus to reducing our carbon footprint for the entire night.
As of this morning, the light switch ABOVE the laundry room light switch has been carefully labelled: FURNACE.