Rewind!

Wow!  In the final days before the Earth Day Event, life was a little too chaotic to update the blog.  Therefore, some backtracking is in order.

One exciting and stressful thing is that Joselle began running test batches of natural dye for egg coloring.  She selected red cabbage for blue eggs, turmeric for yellow eggs, and beets for pink eggs.  Given that the the event would occur in a field without the benefit of a stove, we needed the dyes to set quickly at "room" temperature.  We also needed large quantities of liquid so that we could accommodate all of the children expected at the event.

The turmeric produced lovely yellow eggs quickly, but made the whole house stink.  The red cabbage produced wonderful blue eggs, but the dyes took forever to set.  And the beets produced splotchy brownish eggs after hours.  I found the beets disappointing since the pink did not match my memory of my experience with my Memama.  I thought Memama just used straight beet juice perhaps with some vinegar, but Joselle found an elaborate recipe involving cooking many cans of beets mixed with grape juice and vinegar.  After two vats that did not take (and buying nearly every can of beets in our grocery store), Joselle found that plain beet juice with a small amount of vinegar did the trick.  No elaborate concoctions were required.  The dilemma became the time for the blue to set.  Do we send the liquid home with the kids?  If so, in what?  A disposable cup?  That certainly is not an environmentally-friendly Earth Day message!

The next piece of news is that, at long last, I got a commitment from Mary, our plumber's office manager.  She had been enthusiastic about the event from the beginning.  Since she obviously could not convince one of the guys to come, she decided to come herself.  However, she took it a step further and got permission to bring a low flow toilet and tankless water heater with her.  How cool is that?

I had collected all of the door prizes, borrowed the tables from the Peaceful Dragon, picked up the t-shirts (which looked even more awesome than I expected), labeled boxes for recyclables, made event signage from card board boxes I got at work, borrowed a rental tent from work, and distributed surveys.  Now all that remained was to watch the weather and wait...

Save the Drama for Your Mama!

This is the part of the blog, where I allow myself to complain vociferously, so if you are not interested in complaining you should skip to the next entry.

The weather forecast has been deteriorating to the point that there is a 90% chance of severe weather on Saturday.  The HOA finally announced that Sunday, which should be gorgeous, is the rain date.  I am praying that my "chicken guy" and "plumber chick" (story for another post) can still attend.  Actually, it sounds like she is in, but I have not heard from him.

Yesterday I went to the community garden as instructed by my contact at the county to get Wipe Out Waste brochures and leaves for the composting demo.  My contact, who has been with the county for 20 years, was embroiled in some sort of drama, and left abruptly saying that she was about to lose her job and had messed up.  Further, the leaves were not leaves, they were mulch.  I searched high and low to find the brochures, which, thankfully, I did find with the help of another volunteer.  My wife Joselle had left work early to help me gather the leaves, and I needed to come up with a Plan B quickly.  I remembered my friend Ruth complaining about the abundance of leaves in their yard, which backs up to a greenway, so I called her.  She was home and told us to come on over.  We gathered 8 bags of leaves, which is plenty for the demo.  All is well that ends well, I guess.  But the drama does not end there.

My dog, who is ordinarily very sweet, has been having terrible behavioral issues around food guarding to the point that I thought he was going to bite me yesterday.  Between giving him up or hiring a behaviorist, we chose to hire a behaviorist.  No doubt the fees will be exorbitant.  My computer, whose hard-drive crashed and was replaced last semester, is showing signs of crashing again.  Everything is backed up, but that is still another large unexpected expense!

My brother-in-law, who is a wonderful human being and skilled craftsman, left for Des Moines today.  Unfortunately, he is also a slob, leaving messes in his wake.  It  has been difficult to study (and keep the dog calm) with so much activity in the house, which has been torn apart for one project or another since Christmas break.  Having my brother-in-law living with us immensely added to the complications.  (The other workers go home at night, but we still have a messy house guest to feed and entertain.  And we are both in school.)

My wife picked the day her brother left, actually the minute he left, to get irate and start cleaning up his messes.  This was no doubt a self-protective measure, given that they only see each other once a year and her parents and other brother are deceased.  (It is easier to be mad than sad.)  However, the problem for me came when I realized that I was supposed to be cleaning too!  I have an event in two days; I have things to do - lots of them!

I naturally seek tranquil surroundings, particularly when I need to focus.  I feel that life has been chaotic all semester, which is particularly affecting my stress level.  An important lesson for me in all of this is finding a way to maintain my calm in the midst of the insanity around me.  I have been going to the gym more regularly, and the blog has helped me to maintain sharp focus on my project.  Still I have allowed my stress levels to get out of hand.  (I ended up in the ER about three weeks ago with chest pains, which I think were stress induced.  The verdict is still out, but it was not life-threatening.)  I know I am living in a turbulent world, and I usually manage the stark realities of that fairly well.  But when my home life is feeling tumultuous, I have a more difficult time maintaining my own balance.  I wonder if the turmoil I feel is symptomatic of what is going on in the world.  Regardless, it is important for me to find a way to maintain my balance.

A Tale of Two Brothers-In-Law

My brother-in-law Kevin (wife's younger brother) is a carpenter.  He is both visiting from Des Moines and working for hire on some household projects for us this month.  Since he is temporarily living in our home and working on our home, Kevin is consulting me on most decisions so that we can discuss the potential environmental impact.  I'm quite proud of how he has adapted to our lifestyle, which is radically different from his and his family's back home.  A few days ago Kevin, who I call the King of the One-Liners, called back to me as he headed outside, "Who knows, the planet you save may be mine!"

At first I was amused, then I had an idea - What if the kids at the Earth Day Event had shirts that read, "The planet you save is mine"?  It would be a cool gift, and hopefully have an impact on their parents about the importance of protecting the environment for their children's future.  Then I had a second idea - my brother-in-law Thomas (my sister's husband) runs several businesses, one of which is a chain of t-shirt shops.  Thomas and I sent several e-mails back and forth to work out the following details: his shop in Charlotte could prepare organic, unbleached cotton t-shirts for us with anything we wanted on them for $5.50 each.  According to Thomas, the real cost is $9.50 each.  Maybe there was a reason I had been holding off on asking for money from the HOA after all.

Next I called the HOA President's wife Michele, my ally and cheerleader, and she loved the idea.  She even said she was willing to subsidize the cost as needed to make it happen.  How cool is that?  We worked on the design (shown below), and added "greening the 'hood" to the back of the shirts.  We have placed an order for 20 kids shirts and several adult shirts too.  I love it when a plan comes together!

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Ugh!  The 10-day forecast shows "showers" for Saturday, April 16 (40% chance), and "few showers" for Sunday, April 17 (30% chance).  I spoke with Bill from the HOA about selecting a rain date just in case, and he will talk to the other members.  The problem is that the following weekend is Easter.  Fingers crossed that the forecast changes.

In other news, I heard back from Holli at Healthy Home Market!  First, I sent an e-mail saying words to the effect that I understand if you are busy or can no longer help with the event, but I hope I have not offended you in some way.  Second, I let go of the outcome.  I heard from her very quickly by e-mail and spoke with her by phone today.  She is unclear about what she will provide, but she is committed to something.  We scheduled a tentative pick up of the mystery items on Friday, April 15.  She also asked if I would consider doing a presentation in the future (topic to be decided) in the community room of the store.  She is the person responsible for coordinating events.  What an exciting opportunity!  It will be interesting to see where this leads...

Countdown!

With a little over a week before the Earth Day event, I am experiencing some anxiety about the project.  While I believe everything will go well, I tend to be a worrier - especially when organizing so many moving parts.  I imagine this serves me well by insuring that I am checking my list twice.

I met with the HOA Board on Tuesday, April 5, and found extremely enthusiastic support in one member Michelle, the wife of the Board President.  The President Bill tends to be a stoic guy, but he agreed to chat with some neighbor musicians about playing at the event.  I was able to draw out another member Heather, who, in my opinion, does not see herself as an environmentalist, by suggesting that she might talk about the money she and her husband Todd are saving by taking the bus to work.  (They had recently been in the store where I work looking for insulated lunch bags and shared that they were using the bus system.)  Heather became very animated when she realized that she did have something to contribute to the conversation.  The fourth board member Brooke is planning to put her house on the market soon and could not stay for the whole meeting.

I decided not to ask the board for funding, because I really could not justify in my mind the need to buy things.  Though everyone will set up and manage the event, I did not accomplish my goal of getting people assigned to specific tasks.  The meeting was a bit disjointed primarily because Bill's and Michelle's 70 pound puppy was running in and out, knocking things over, and jumping on people during the meeting.  Heather was excited about the clothing, book, toy swap, so I will ask her to manage it.  I plan to give Bill a list of acceptable recyclable items from the county and our electronics partner, so that he can man that station.  Michelle will be herself, a general cheerleader who makes sure that everyone is engaged and having fun.  She also demonstrates the greatest awareness of environmental issues and will be drumming up support for her idea of greening the neighborhood.  She wants to incorporate a green theme into all of the neighborhood events for 2011.

In other news, the board gave permission for a friend of Randy's (of Rooster Hill Farms) to sell iced coffee drinks at the event.  Since we are providing reusable bottles, I requested that his friend not bring disposable cups.  My neighbor Ji has agreed to take pictures at the event.  And Joselle is planning to do a practice run on natural egg coloring this weekend.  I have been in touch with my plumber's office, but still have no commitment from him.  I have attempted to contact Holli at Healthy Home Market twice this week without success.  Perhaps I chalk that up to "you win some, you lose some."

In the time that remains, I will make signs and complete handouts for the event.  Based on the conversation at the meeting on Tuesday, I will also brainstorm ways to make the composting more kid-friendly and to include a kid-friendly Leave No Trace portion, which may occur at a set up REI rental tent, if I am able to borrow one.  The wisdom is that if the kids are engaged, the parents will come and stay longer!

50/50

The collection of donations for the Earth Day event has begun.  REI came through with 27 reusable water bottles, a $25.00 gift card, and two certificates for camping rentals for up to four people and up to four days.  Earth Fare provided five reusable shopping bags.  I spoke with Simon of No Kidding Goat's Milk Soap yesterday at the farmers market, and he will be donating 12 bars of soap, which I am picking up next week.

On the flip side, the folks at Uncle Scott's Root Beer had a death in the family, which is requiring them to leave town for an extended period of time.  Still they tried to reach out to provide root beer for the event.  We played phone tag but never connected.  A primary obstacle has been my limited phone access at work, and I have been working more days and longer shifts lately.  I tried to call them during my breaks but could not get through.  Further, I have been hesitant to pester them because of the circumstances.  Nevertheless, I consider this a big loss.  My plumber, who expressed some willingness to attend the event and discuss water conservation, still has not committed.  I will follow up tomorrow and hope that something pans out.  Lastly, the very enthusiastic woman at Healthy Home Market has been unresponsive.  This is the most unexpected development because of her previous level of enthusiasm.  I have not been as persistent as I need to be in getting to the bottom of this, so I will prioritize contact with her this week.

Currently, I am working on my survey, which I will distribute next weekend along with an event reminder.  On Tuesday night I meet with the HOA Board to finalize event plans.  I hope to secure funding to add a few more door prizes and plan to ask members to assume responsibility for specific event day tasks.  I will also touch base with The Peaceful Dragon to confirm the availability of tables for the event, Rooster Hill Farms to verify their attendance, and Mecklenburg County Wipe Out Waste for composting leaves and literature.  Lastly, I will begin making signs for the event from cardboard I will obtain at REI and recycle after the event is complete.