One Size Fits All

CSA for the poor.

Tom Lehrer’s song on pollution (youtube)

Olive Oil Scandal. 

Michael Pollan on the revolutionary act of gardening. (I have yet to read a book by Pollan - its always checked out at the library. But his articles have…actually changed my life and my way of thinking.)

I was looking for info on lead. I wondered if the presence of lead in soil could get into fruits and vegetables growing in them and then give me brain damage at age 40.

A few google searches later I found that:

•  "Soil naturally has small amounts of lead in it, about 50 ppm. 200-500 ppm of lead is commonly found in city soil. 1,000 ppm is a high amount of lead in soil and is defined as hazardous waste."
• "In general, vegetables that are grown in soil containing lead do not absorb much lead. Soil with lead is more dangerous to children who play in it than to children who eat vegetables grown in it."
• One way to reduce lead in soil is to add compost or lime to it.
• To minimize absorption of lead by plants, Maintain soil pH levels above 6.5, Add organic matter to your soil, Locate your garden as far away from busy streets or highways and older buildings as possible.
• Some states have testing centers where one can send soil samples to test for lead content. There are also kits to test for lead at home.
  

 I went riding yesterday despite a weather forecast that promised thunderstorms. I took pictures of my favorite parts of the ride. It rained at night after I fell asleep.

Starting out, this is next to west river drive (on the left) with the ominious clouds above and the Schuylkill River on the right. The roads aren’t blocked, but there weren’t many cars out at noon.

Now I’m on west river drive because car access is blocked on weekends until 5PM. So its paradise for bikers and other people. Except, most people stay on Kelly (or the eastern side of the river). The ominous clouds have gone away.

While I was taking the above picture, the geese here were looking at me curiously, or ignoring me. 

Now I’m on Forbidden Drive. Below is a portion of Wissahickon Creek.

This is the bike trail next to the creek. It was also mostly empty.

This is further north near Wissahickon Ave. I could hear the cars on the street nearby, but it was still pretty quiet.

This is a cut the clutter update.

4 months after complaining about catalog choice, the number of catalogs showing up in my mail box has finally gone down. Today when I checked my post office box, I had one catalog from Title Nine which I had not asked catalog choice to remove yet.

Meanwhile I am working on getting rid of all our media. Now that paperbackswap.com is working so well for me, I’ve joined swapacd.com and added the cds I want to get rid of.  I like the fact that I can list CDs for which I don’t have the original cases (which I tossed when trying to reduce the space my music took).

I have to admit that one reason I am so ready to get rid of everything is due to the many moves I’ve made over the years. Hurricane Katrina also played a huge role in how I view stuff. I had a friend who lost heirloom furniture in the hurricane and the thought of losing it all made me reconsider how much I wanted to hold on at any time.

Car Free LA -  is a site by Gary Isse that has all sorts of stories on living a car free life in Los Angeles. He had a tip for SoCal residents:

"If you are considering looking into an alternative way of getting to work and back and are in Southern California, call (800) COMMUTE. There are plenty of very nice people that are in no hurry and will to sit with you on the phone to find you the perfect commute."

Isse’s blog also has posts on living  car free in L.A.

I like offensive humor. Not the kind that emphasis toilet habits, but the kind that is not allowed in polite company. The sort that screams: Nothing is sacred!

So I’ll come clean. The type of humor that makes me laugh out loud is the sort that would NOT fly at cocktail parties. Even the ones I attend. Alas!

A few days back I linked to plentymag’s environmental humor podcasts. But now I think most of them are a bit lame. They are a little too heavy on the anger. I think if there is a point to be made in humor, it should be done with as few undertones of anger as possible.

With those formalities out of the way, here is a post on being an environmentalist.  An excerpt regarding environmental debates:

 The debate gets bogged down in bogus details. Who gives a shit about CO2 and surface temperature? A lot of us came from places that get buried in snow. We have air conditioning now. Florida real estate developers have long deceived us into thinking a humid swamp is equivalent to some kind of paradise. When people think global warming they think their hometown will be like Tahiti complete with a beach and a obsequious native to bring them fruity drinks with little umbrellas in them.
The point should be that cars stink. Conduct all environmental debates near a tailpipe of a running car. As refreshments serve water from an industrial waste dump. For food serve the latest mad cow burger. Let’s see how long you love autos when this is all you see of them. No need for stats. Just suck in some fumes and see that this can’t be good for me. End of debate. Your opponent will have a hard time coming up with a comeback when he struggling to get proper oxygen to his brain

Last year I tried many new fruits and vegetables that I’d never had before. While there has been studies on the time it takes for people to adjust to new foods, the asian pears I had from North Star Orchard was….unbelievably delicious! I didn’t need to convince my taste buds that they needed any "adjusting". North Star Orchard’s, Lisa Kerschner is featured in a Newsweek article titled "Farming as a Labor of Love". An excerpt:

Additionally, farmers are not always looked upon very highly. In some circles, announcing that your husband - or, worse yet, you - are a farmer is often met with looks of incredulousness. I’ve had a number of people ask why I choose to farm rather than do something more lucrative and be able to have a few vacations a year.

Last winter at a farmers-market meeting, I was asked this question by one of the market’s board members (who happens to be a banker). He had been astounded to hear about farming’s hardships year after year, both at the meetings and when he shopped at the farmers market. He emphatically threw down his pen and notes and said, "I just can’t take it anymore! Why, for gosh sakes, do you folks keep doing this?"

We all looked at each other, and one by one the various farmers in the room spoke up. Without fail, every one of us stated some version of this: "We love growing food for people."

The farmers’ market season begins in less than 2 weeks and yes, I am looking forward to it.

Without going into too much detail (after all, I am trying to be anonymous here), this year I might have the opportunity to work with some farmers and get compensated in fruits and veggies. The only downside to this opportunity will be the fact that I will be subjected to crappy music.

Every time I attend some environmental event or visit a farmer’s market there is always someone with an acoustic guitar twanging away about peace, love and happiness. And I don’t dislike acoustic guitars (I am a fan of Leo Kottke), but…I’ve been listening to the Sex Pistols lately and I think the Pistols would sound better "singing" about peace, love and happiness than the local farmer’s market musician.

I’m sure I’ll survive, maybe I could even convince the musician to try to expand his/her musical abilities and perhaps even play a bicycle.

I meditated for an hour yesterday at a zen center. Its the first time I’ve meditated for more than 30 minutes. And the strange thing is….it didn’t feel that long.

I was worried that my legs would fall asleep or I would fall asleep or I’d burp or something. Nothing happened, although I was able to squash a burp before it made its appearance.

Overall, it was a very pleasant experience. In fact I was completely alert the entire time.

The room I was in was actually very quiet and I decided to focus on the noises instead of focusing on my breath. After a while I became aware of the din that had passed for "quiet" a few minutes ago. There were all these birds chirping away (I guess its mating season) and I felt like I was in some tropical forest. It was very pleasant to listen to. I couldn’t hear any automobiles but I could hear various machinery like the heater go on and off.

I tried to do a metta meditation, but didn’t have it in me to do it.

And it was so much more pleasant to come out of the meditation session via a buddhist bell then a noisy kitchen timer.

I’ve sold or swaped about half our books. I’ve made about $100 so far (excluding shipping). And I used
old cardboard boxes to ship many of the books. For paperbacks, I shipped the books using paper.

There are some books that we picked up from someone else’s trash. The covers are torn or missing and these will be dropped off at the local thrift store since I can’t sell or swap them.

I’ve also begun to cut down our collection of bottles. Most of the bottles were holding other things such as bulk spices. As I finish them, I rinse the bottles and set it aside for recycling. 

Last week I made chickpea cutlets from the Veganomicon cookbook. I had some leftover chickpeas so I made Spicy Chickpeas from Vegatarian Cooking by Linda Frazer. Onions, tomatoes and chickpeas were local.

Gee…this is long. Brevity is not the word of the day. 

My new raise kicked in this month. I immediately increased my savings (from 5%) and my contribution to my defined contribution (401(k)) plan from 5% to 10% reducing my federal income tax by a few bucks every paycheck. I get 100% matching for the first 5%. Retirement also includes my IRA. Currently we’re not paying anything toward husband’s retirement (if I die and husband decided not to kill himself from grief, he’ll get life insurance proceeds). If I get my expected raise a year from now, I will start contributing toward his retirement account and possibly pay toward his student loan as well, since we’ll be flush with cash. This is the benefit of being extremely frugal. Any extra cash feels like we’ve won the lottery. This is how my income breaks out (numbers based on gross income)

Savings includes my health savings account. I am supporting myself and husband on this salary. Husband’s PT job wages goes toward his student loan payments which is not included in here. If you’re wondering what my salary is: its $39,086 gross.

I notice many people find my blog searching for information on living a tightwad lifestyle. I suppose I better dole out some advice.  So…listen up.

Neither of us feel deprived with our lifestyle or my income. There are days when I feel positively wealthy. Once in a while I feel a bit mopey over my small savings account and the fact that I spent a fortune eating crappy food for so many years…but I guess I had to go through that to arrive where I am today. 

We follow all the usual personal finance advice: brown bagging lunches every day, making from scratch, turning down heat, etc, etc. Basically all the boring stuff that a magazine like Kiplingers comes up with every few months. And I am a nickle and dime type of person, so I strongly believe that all the small actions contribute toward substantial savings in the long run. But at the same time, I will spend alot of money on a product if I believe its worth it…such as a Wüsthof Chef’s knife or a good quality cast iron pan.

So what are the unusual things we do to save money or live a thrifty life?

1. We are childfree. While I made up my mind only very recently over this issue, I think the fact that I used birth control and had an abortion fund for years has been a very significant source of saving money and being aware of the cost of being a parent.

2. We are pet free. This decision has often been made for us as most rental units discourage pet owners from renting in a variety of ways. And my husband and I are just plain lazy. Having to feed another being would take away time from us lounging around being lazy. I don’t think this is going to be a lifelong decision however. I have realized that there are some very practical reasons where I would need the following: dog, cat, hawk, goat, hen. So maybe when we finally get our own land, we might get some critters.

3. We are car free. This too was a decision made for me…or rather, owning a car was never a priority for me. My husband got rid of his car in the late 90s when he discovered that we was paying more in car insurance for his junker than the car was worth. And since we love living in urban environments, a car is often a nuisance. 

4. Our hobbies are free or cheap. So we don’t own a television (we watch DVDs on my computer) or play the latest computer games, anything that requires a steady payment (except for our naked dsl line). We love biking, reading, and talking. Additionally, I actively spend time limiting my exposure to advertisements whether on TV or online. I am weak in the head so I don’t see a need to expose my poor brain to wealthy marketing firms’ gimmicks.

5. We try out crazy experiments. And I use the word crazy only because other people say  its crazy. These experiements don’t save money as much as expose us to a new way of thinking. One of my first experiments was done when I was single and 18. I decided to quit watching television for a month. At the time, I thought that the single worst thing that could happen to me would be missing my favorite television show. I found that sentiment to be disturbing. Plus I was constantly arguing with my younger sibling over what to watch. I spent the entire month locked up in my room reading books and listening to music. And after that month was over, I never had the same interest in TV again.

Nowadays we try other experiments like going vegan or using grey water to flush the toilet or increasing the number of days between showering. Often the main question behind these experiments is how I would deal with my life if I had no: electricity or tomatoes or water or whatever.

But there must be a downside to living on 46.76% of my income right? Why, yes!

1. I live in a crappy neighborhood. However, when I lived in Center City paying the same amount for a small one bedroom apartment in a gorgeous neighbood I also had problems…but never heard gun shots. Although…I did have to deal with bums sleeping outside my building and annoying drunks staggering all over the sidewalk.

I originally moved to my current neighborhood because I was going to take out loans to finish up my degree and I wanted to limit my living expenses as much as possible (husband was also in school and we were working PT). However, the apartment water pipes froze in the middle of winter and our heating system broke, and I had exams and my period and I was going mad with stress. So I moved into the current place after breaking my lease because we needed a place asap. I decided to stay on for a few months past our lease this year because we’re planning a cross country move and moving to a new place would increase costs only to move again across the country. So I decided to deal with living next to abused kids, pets, annoying banshees and practicing bands.

That’s the only downside. This post will have an abrupt ending because its getting too long.

I finished reading Oil on the Brain by Lisa Margonelli. Margonelli made a point in the epilogue that really stuck with me…that when she gets very pessimistic she recalls that that over 150 years ago, it was the environmentalists that were decrying the whale oil industry which was leading to whale extinction. And it was the discovery of oil underground that led to an entirely new industry that changed how the world operates and continues to operate  today, thus sparring the poor whales. If I recall correctly, one of my idols, Hetty Green (aka, the Witch of Wall Street) owed much of her family wealth to the whaling industry.

Today, environmentalists are decrying the fossil fuel industry and oil executives now aware of the end of oil (and possible deaths of polar bears) are now looking to invest in alternative fuels which is leading to rainforest deforestation and high food prices. I guess this will reduce biodiversity and get cars to leak out water instead of toxic fumes and probably result in fewer people suffering from lung infections. But…I shouldn’t try to predict anything.

This is all so…interesting. I don’t know what to make of all this. On one hand, I could argue that nothing has changed in the last 500 or so years. On the other, I like to believe as did people before me (I’m sure), that change is possible for the betterment (and happiness) of everyone. According to the life expectancy calculators found online, I am expected to live to the ripe old age of 95. I’d like to believe that I’ll see a lot of good before I die.

One of the many ways I’ve been changing my consumption habits is by purchasing non-food items used or made via sustainable business practices. Several months ago I was in the market for bras and I found a company: Decent Exposures that was a shiny, happy company that would satisfy that need.

I am a sport bra type of person. I hate those girly bras with wires and laces and hooks that poke me in the back. Further more, the girly bras cause their residents to bounce around too much which attracts unwanted attention. The bra I bought from Decent Exposures was designed like a sports bra (no hooks or wires). However I soon discovered a problem.

The problem stems from the way my body is constructed. You’ve probably seen those Indian statues of women with ginormous boobs on otherwise normal bodies. Well…the sculpturers weren’t exaggerating. If there is one thing I actively have been working on since puberty, it is trying to hide my identical twins from the variety of creepy people drawn to them. The Decent Exposures bra didn’t do anything to hide them. They also didn’t have extra padding to hide what is often referred to as headlights. And since I’m almost always cold, I didn’t want to look like I was in a permanent state of arousal.

So what does this mean? This means that I’m going to go back to purchasing my bras from companies that hire women to sew these bras padded bras in small, sweaty, crampted quarters with little pay.

While I could just get comfortable with my body and continue supporting shiny, happy companies, I don’t think that is going to happen until I hit menopause.

Update:

I wrote to DE at the suggestion of Sylvia, they got back to me within a few minutes saying this:

Let us know if you have any other questions, you can email again or call us at 1-800-524-4949.

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So now I have my shiny happy bras. Yay! 

I self medicate with humor. I am a fan of Dave Barry and Gene Weingarten, but the daily bad news and the realization of what the First Noble Truth means doesn’t uh….neutralize (??) the humor I get once a week. I wanted something on a more regular basis.

I found plentymag’s podcasts on environmental humor to be quite hilarious! I liked the one on on Monsanto (which I needed after watching this documentary), carbon offsets, Chinese products, and water conservation.

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The name of this blog is also the name of a Frank Zappa album. So I think I need to put more Zappa references here. So here is a quote: