Earth Hour 2008: North Pole

Well, I don't know what, if ANYTHING anybody else in this town did regarding Earth Hour. It didn't seem to be mentioned at all on the radio, and I rarely watch local news to know if anything was said in that venue about observing Earth Hour locally.

Anyway, about 7:30 pm last night I got my candles out, replaced the tealights in some of my candleholders, including the 2 matching crystal candleholders in my living room windows. At about 10 till 8, I lit the candles, including the two in my windows. Then I sat down to read a book. (Currently reading "The Hungry Years" by T.H. Watkins.)

Also at 8 pm, I noticed that Tay's best friend M. and a couple of neighbour boys from down the street were across pestering T. (Tay's friend/class-mate who lives across from us) and a friend of T's who was over for the evening. Evidently T's Mom & Dad and older sis were out for the evening & they'd left T & his friend home alone for awhile. That was ok, except for the fact that T & his friend had been instructed to be in the house while Mom & Dad weren't home. And M. wanted to talk to T. That meant M., Jack, and the other little neighbour boy were standing OUTSIDE T's front door, and T & his friend were standing INSIDE his front door, with the door wide open. And, T was flipping his porch-light off & on, repeatedly. This lasted about a half-hour before I decided to say something.

I yelled across & asked T. if his Mom & Dad were home. He, of course, responded that No they weren't. I politely reminded him that I don't think they'd be highly appreciative of the fact that T had been standing there for a half hour with the front door wide open, letting all the heat out of the house, AND flipping the front light on & off for that entire time. He was wasting their money burning fuel that was being let out of the house AND the electricity used when a light is flipped on & off repeatedly for an half-hour's time. He took the VERY broad "hint" and went inside and M. & Jack left, though not before I reminded them (because they still WERE outside) that the same goes for them. Even ignoring the ecological implications of burning that fuel, the cost alone means that these children should know better than to be standing there with the door wide open. I know M's parents wouldn't appreciate if she did that at their place. Jake seems to have been born in a barn, though, because he thinks nothing of standing around with a door wide-open for quite a while, even at 30 and 40 deg. below zero. (I've had to talk to him about this a LOT this winter when he comes over for Tay in the morning before school.)

Anyway..... I kinda felt bad, having to chew these kids out. They're good kids, all, but I just couldn't continue to let them waste energy & money in this manner without saying something. (Of course, had they chosen to ignore my protest, there's nothing I could have done except comment to their parents today, but at least I did say something. And since they all acknowledged my wisdom on the matter, I don't think I'll say anything to their parents at this point.)

Anyway, back to Earth Hour. The sun didn't actually set till about 8:45 last night. So I didn't honestly need my candles lit till about 8:30 (when the sun sank low enough that it wasn't bright enough for me to read without artificial light, electric or otherwise). But, as I said, I went ahead & lit them at 7:50 anyway. I sat there on the couch reading till almost 9 pm, when it actually became too hard to read, even WITH candlelight. At which point I simply put my book down & sat, contemplating little more than the flickering candle-fire itself. I actually didn't turn the lights & breakers back on till almost 9:30.

When Scott & Tay got home from the hockey game, Tay realized that her alarm clock was messed up and asked me if the power had gone out. I told her that I'd turned the electric off, at which point Scott made a comment something along the line "Don't tell me YOU did that bull-shit light's out thing too?!?!"

I just reminded him that I'd saved him an hour & thirty minutes worth of electric, so what the hell is he griping about?!?! I didn't turn off HIS alarm clock, and I'd reset Tay's myself, so he had no right to get snitty with me for wanting to save power & money a bit. That kinda shut him up. He just doesn't get it, and lately it's really starting to get to me. (And honestly, I think the fact that I see things so differently from him, lately, is really starting to get to HIM as well. He's been in a bad mood for about a week now.

**********

Well, after I did turn the electric (though, not all the lights) back on at 9:30, I didn't have time to play a movie or any such, so I decided I'd play a bit on my Wii PaperMario game for a bit. Damn-it. That game's not too bad, but it sucks a person in!!! It's not even that I lost track of time, but time seems to fly so much more quickly when a person is doing something like that. Scott & Tay got home at 10:15 and I was still playing my game, actually to a point where I refused to give up before I'd gotten past this point where I kept dying. Well, Tay went to bed, and Scott sat down to watch me play my game. And then he dozed off, and I kept playing. And finally at little after 2:30 am (yes, 2:30 THIS MORNING!) I realized that I was really stuck and I needed to quit for the night and get some sleep. So, I got Scott to wake up & head to bed, then got ready for bed myself, and finally climbed under the covers & turned out my lamp at 3 am. *sigh*

And wouldn't ya know it, I slept like crap, on top of that. I'm gonna be dragging butt by 9 pm tonight.

THAT is why I rarely play video games. I know they suck me in too easily. It's not that they're not fun, but they're a waste of time that I usually don't feel like wasting on something so mind-numbing.

**********

Tay's first Spring League games went ok yesterday. But the whole thing really was like organized chaos. There are 13 kids on Tay's team and Scott's the only coach.

Scott & I already had something said to us by a mom from a different team about how supposedly A. (the little boy who played goalie yesterday, Tay's friend from church) is a very poor sport & she thinks he needs to be kicked out of hockey and Scott needs to keep an eye on him. *sigh* It was Scott's FIRST GAME as coach, his FIRST DAY as coach, and already somebody's giving him crap for the way a kid on his team is playing. (Even though her gripe was really with how this kid has played against her kid in previous "seasons". IE: nothing Scott can do about A's PAST actions.) Scott told her he'd keep an eye on A. That's all the more we CAN do.

And when Scott & I mentioned this complaint to another one of the coaches (a friend, and dad of one of Tay's teammates from our just-past season), the other coach said to give the WHOLE team a talk BEFORE the next game about the kind of sportsman like behavior that Scott expects from the team for the Spring season. That nipping any bad behavior in the bud BEFORE it starts may be all that's needed, and besides.... All we've got for evidence against A. is this one woman's word. One woman that we've never met.

Anyway, the kids play cross-ice (as in, each rink is divided into 2, and the kids play with extremely small goal-nets and only half the ice they're used to) and 3 on 3 for teams. (The goalies make the 4th kid on ice, but only 3 kids are on ice trying to score on each other at a given point.) As I said, it's organized chaos.

**********

Ok.... I've gotta get ready for work.

Have a Blessed Day!