Hello all,
I do hope that you all had a great weekend celebrating Earth Hour! I’m not sure if your town or city participated, but Las Vegas was amazing. I really thought there would be only a few people excited about Earth Hour. I was very wrong. My Saturday started out getting ready and going to a craft fair called, “Spring Fling” at Cactus Joe’s. Cactus Joe’s is an awesome place not very far from the house. I’ve been told by several people that if you want a healthy cactus that will grow when you take it home, get it from Joe’s! Just about all of the vendors were selling products made from other products they reused and recycled. I was really inspired to buy a loom, a small blow torch, and glass lided jars. Not in that particular order, mind you and not for the same craft project! 🙂 Everywhere I went I was reminded that at “8:30 pm Tonight, they will be dimming the lights in Las Vegas to celebrate Earth Hour”. We were invited to a few parties to celebrate, but we were still getting everything ready for the wedding and didn’t get home in time. On the way home from getting our wedding rings, we looked off the 215 and saw Las Vegas go black! Suddenly, Las Vegas looked like every other city at night. All you really could see was a few guest room lights and the lights to keep the planes from flying into the buildings. That was it! There were no neons, no billboards lit up, it was dark. You could actually see stars above the Strip. It was just amazing.
I’ve been talking about how it’s been frustrating getting my fiance to follow suit to be more green. Well, that night on I-215, Brandon was in completely, and utter awe. He couldn’t quit talking about it. He couldn’t call enough people in surrounding areas to talk about it. He was like a small child seeing something for the first time. Occasionally, he would make the comment that it takes more electricity to turn things back on the casinos than to leave them off, but I understand the meaning behind what was done in Las Vegas. The casinos were making a point. Las Vegas was making it clear that they are working to reduce, reuse, and recycle. I am very proud to be living here.
Back to my personal journey, I do have a black thumb of death. Nothing has grown in my makeshift pots. I’m sure I did a bunch of things wrong, but it’s been a very VERY long time since I planted anything. I’m starting to think that I should have started out with (duh) starter plants. It would have made things much easier. I’m going to give the seeds one more shot and we’ll see what happens. My recycling is ready to go for this Friday. My bins are seriously overflowing right now. I wish they would pick up more than just every two weeks. My thoughts really are on the wedding right now. It’s a little less than 3 weeks away now. I’m trying to see how we can be more green about the reception. Since it isn’t really a big wedding, there aren’t many things I can change. I know our carbon footprint may be a little big with all of us going to the wedding site. People are planning to carpool together. For the reception, I’m trying to decide if we are going to use reusable plates and silverware, or if we get disposable to make sure we have a bin for people to throw things into. Oh, we are having such a redneck wedding! We are having South Louisiana BBQ! If I can get them booked on that short of a notice. Otherwise, we might just be all going out to eat together at a restaurant. I have no idea. I’m working on it, but I’m sure we’ll figure it all out before the big day gets here! Send happy thoughts and prayers my way, if you can spare any.
What did you do for Earth Hour? Anything unique and interesting? Did you keep kids busy? Did you sit in the dark or with candles? Or did you just sleep through it? I want to know. I want to hear from everyone that’s keeping up with this blog! Talk to me people!
Milosmom's Blog 
bikerbernie said,
March 30, 2009 at 12:30 pm
. . .[There are too many people being brainwashed by group think and not enough independent thinkers in this world. It is a reverse Darwinism.
The ONLY reason that I would ever turn out all my lights is to show concern for change regarding light pollution] . . .
b
milosmom said,
March 30, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Bernie, Thanks for your opinion. I actually agree with that partially. I guess for myself, it was seeing that the city was actually doing “something” to show their support for the environment although, like my fiance pointed out, that it probably took more energy to turn the lights back on than keep them on continually. Like I’ve said in previous blog posts, I’m pretty new at greener living. I do alot of energy saving already during the day time. We hardly use any lights during the day. Why should I? We living in SUNNY Las Vegas. It hardly ever gets cloudy enough to require the lights being on. I hope that maybe Earth Hour was a chance to bring greener living to the minds of people who wouldn’t have thought about it otherwise. Did you know that I actually have a friend living in New Orleans that is finding recycling centers for people who have no idea where to go. New Orleans doesn’t have a recycling program with their garbage pick up. Something sparked something in my friend’s mind that she needed to make some changes. She has and she’s sharing it with others who are willing to learn with her.
Again, I agree partially, hence the reason that I approved the post. But again, maybe this “show” of no-lights got even one person to thinking more globally, that would make me happy.
Katie said,
July 8, 2009 at 2:19 pm
When are you going to post some more?