Planning Ahead

The Snow is Accumulating Rapidly in Our Yard

It is hard to reduce my carbon footprint in the winter.  We need heat to keep our house warm in this frigid weather and I am certainly not one of those brave souls who actually bike in Minnesota when it is cold and there is snow and ice on the ground!  In fact, I barely even walk outside.  So when the temperature gets above 10 and the wind stops howling, a walk seems like a good idea - particularly if the sun is shining.  Yes, 10 and above, sunny and no wind is actually pretty darn comfortable weather.

This morning fit the bill.  It was snowing, but the temperature was reasonable and I decided that I would walk to my noon hair appointment.  I am particularly lucky to live in the city where it is possible to walk to the grocery store, the library, shops and services without too much effort.  The beauty salon is a little farther so I knew that I had to plan an extra 20 minutes into my leaving time to make this work.  Didn't happen.  At a quarter to (instead of half past) I tore out of my house in my big boots, waved a thank you to my neighbor who just finished shoveling the sidewalk in front of our house - once again- and hit the deep newly fallen snow at a jog.  I made it about a block before deciding there was no way I would make my appointment in time. I returned home to get the car. The difference between driving and walking to this appointment was a matter of 15 minutes.

So much of what we need to do to reduce our carbon use significantly is like that.  It's not necessarily hard - in fact much is quite pleasant.  The walk in the newly fallen snow would have been lovely and healthy.  Riding to a meeting or an outing with friends, ie: carpooling is fun.  Reducing clutter in the house and not filling it up with more stuff is liberating.  Yes, much of the changes I am trying to make are not only good for the earth, they are good for me.  And yet it does mean that I have to change the way I think about doing things.  To walk to my hair appointment means leaving the house 15 - 20 minutes earlier - to carpool means taking the time in advance to email my friends and suggest we share a ride - to reduce waste means remembering to take a reusable bag to the store, to think twice about buying that cute whatever on the shelf, to think about how to reuse the things I have.

I'm working on it, but it certainly doesn't happen overnight.

Update:  For those of you who read yesterday's post on solar leasing, the company I mentioned sent me some additional information on their business partners.  If you are interested in that update, I've added it to yesterday's post.