I am watching Clean House on the Style channel. This is a special: the messiest house in the country.
I don't know if it's actually the messiest. Face it; most people with homes they think would qualify are not going to be up for televising it. So these folks are already a step up, in my opinion.
I would not have qualified in my worst years but I would have been a runner-up. If I would have let anyone in.
The couple in this episode have lived in this house about five years. Over those years the man's penchant for picking up "usable" items that others have thrown away (dumpster diving syndrome) has added to a lack of organization and cleaning habits and the result is huge clutter and major dirt.
The clean team is making major snide comments about the excuses the couple are making. I don't think they comprehend how hopeless it can feel, how you can work like crazy and not notice much change and not have any sense that you can make a difference. They have absolutely no idea what goes on inside.
It's true that the two are making excuses and not simply saying it's too much for them, they can't face it, they don't know how to get hold of it, get it under control. It's hard to face that. This team, though, has absolutely no idea how a person gets to this place and how hard it is to get out.
I do know. I also know the effect of pain on how much you can do. The husband here has a back injury and he needs to lie down now and then to relieve the pain. The team keeps making fun of him, making like he doesn't have a real injury.
It's irritating me in a big way. It took me years to get to the point where I could get rid of stuff I didn't need or love. it took me years to grasp basic cleaning concepts (still not so great at that). I had to work my way out of that mess and I am in no way proud of where I have been, but at least I understand it when others find themselves there. I am really angry at this show and its team.
I just watched a program on the Sundance channel called Outrageous Wasters or something similar to that. It made Wasted look like a walk in the park.
The team came to the house of the Withers, in England, and noted their wasteful ways. They didn't recycle anything, they bought packaged food from all over the globe, they didn't compost anything, the son's electronic gear was always on standby when not being used, and on and on.
The first thing they did then was the tell the fam to pack small bags for a week away from home. They had no idea where they were going. They were taken to a place called the House of Correction, which turned out to be a yurt in the middle of a field. Nearby was an outhouse with separate compartments for pee and poo, some chickens and pigs, and a garden. There was a stove inside for burning wood from the nearby foresty lands, and some beds and odds and ends.
The woman immediately rebelled. She complained forever, did not want to know anything, much less do anything about their waste. She liked their comfortable life, had no use for camping and on and on. Her teenage son, same thing. So after one night there she rebelled, said she and Dave (the son) would not put up with it. They wanted out.
The team took the fam to a hotel for the night. During that night they talked, and by the next day Stella, the wife, was okay with giving it another try, but Dave was not. So Dave was shipped off to a relative while the adults went back to yurt living.
While they were learning where food comes from and how to forage and keep fires going and save water and in fact leave no footprint, there was a team hard at work on their home. By the end of the week Stella had come a long way. Her husband was already open to the whole thing so he didn't go as far.
They came back home to a special recycling setup that was made rather fun, a new entrance to their home that came in from a new straw-bale insulated porch, a solar cell panel powering a battery inside Dave's room, for his gadgets, and a list of rules for the week. Oh yeah, and chickens for eggs. Oh yeah, and their two cars were locked, booted actually, and a new little vehicle, a "Twike" I think it was called, was waiting for them. A small electric car that had three wheels.
The rules included buying only local food, encouraging neighbors to recycle, only plugging in gadgets when in use, recycling, saving water (no baths), and more. Amazingly, the family stepped up. And became absolute converts.
Sometimes major changes are easier to make than small ones.
I have watched a couple of episodes of Wasted on Planet Green and it inspires me to do better. I believe I already do better than the average American household, even given that I live alone in a house, because my house is small, decently insulated, and does not contain big energy suckers like an air conditioner, because heating and water heating is gas, because I am reasonably good about turning lights off, because my house has nothing but energy-efficient fluorescent bulbs, because I take showers and they aren't very long, because I drive an efficient hybrid car and keep it maintained, because my landscaping covers a small area and is comprised of drought-tolerant plants and uses a drip irrigation system...and so on. But it's fun to challenge ourselves to do better, I believe.
So I was thinking about what I can do that I can actually measure. Cut energy use by some percentage? I think I can cut back on gas by not brushing my teeth in the shower (I have gone back to using the sink without water running since I started watching that show), by not taking showers every day, maybe going for 1-1/2 days, by keeping my heating requirements low (not an issue in the summer), running full loads of laundry. I can't think of much I can do to reduce electricity use that would not require a major outlay of money, like for fuel cells of some kind. I intend to replace my refrigerator, which is not very energy-efficient (but isn't large and is new so isn't that bad either) and replace my dishwasher, gain a bit from that, but not just yet.
A woman proudly proclaimed -was it on Planet Green? - that her recyclables for the last month were larger than her trash. That's a kind of goal, although recycling is also a failure of a sort, as avoiding the use of materials that need to be recycled is better anyway. So I won't set that as a goal. I could go back to driving my car a max of a certain number of days per week. Four days? Is that something I can keep up?
All this got me to thinking, would others enjoy such challenges too? What can we measure so we can verify what we've done?
In today's mail, from a trusted source. I'm sharing.
Leaving your Religion?
or still feeling the effects?
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I am 62 years old and living my dream. My dream of maybe fifty years ago. I live in a nice house that I furnished that is clean, I live alone, I am listening to music I love and I am having a glass of wine and it's a lovely day.
I am watching 30 Days, the show where a person goes into a household that holds opposing beliefs for thirty days. It's a challenge for both sides.
In this case a Christian woman who is opposed to gay adoptions stayed at the home of a gay couple who adopted. At the end of 30 days she holds onto her beliefs.
What bothered me is that the gay couple and their friends offered reasons for finding the adoptions okay that did not get to the core issues:
* where in the bible is it actually written that gay couples shouldn't adopt? My suspicion is that it isn't anywhere. I know that the so-called references to gays is quite an interpretation too. And I know there are no mentions at all of abortion. So it would have made sense, to me, for the couple to ask Katie, the visitor, where it said they shouldn't adopt a child.
* the question of whether a gay couple should adopt or not was presented as one of many needy children and few families available to them; better to have gay parents than no parents at all. This argument actually makes the gay couple look like a last resort. Better to make the case that there is no significant difference in the mental or physical health of children raised by gay couples or straight.
Really, not enough homework on either side. And if Katie had dug into her bible to make her case she might have been shocked and converted herself before she even visited the gay couple.
Yesterday the temperature hit 111 degrees here. It is unusual for summer temperatures to go over 90 degrees, but local records say that an unofficial record was set in 1971 for 112 degrees, at Cal Poly. Officially I suspect yesterday gets in the record books as the top.
Every store that sells fans or air conditioners is out of them. I not only checked several but salespeople in these stores said there just aren't any anywhere around. Of course this means even more electricity is being used...for my part I have my blinds closed, reflecting heat back, and windows closed. It isn't the most comfortable situation but it's better than outside today, and today is not as hot as yesterday. Well hell, it's only 100 right now.
It's remarkable. I am alone in my house. First time in a couple of years that I have had some time alone here, first time in about five years that I have the whole house to myself absolutely, as long as I want. Some highlights of the last month:
* Paul moved out. His truck is still in the driveway and he comes by every morning to change clothes. He is working with social services agencies and the veterans' administration to obtain benefits and a job. When he gets a new license and gets his truck legal again he will move it out of the driveway. I told him if it is still here in six months I will have it hauled away, which he thinks is fair. The parting is on good terms and I may even have him over for dinner periodically. I have converted his room to a guest room and I love it. It is so cool to have a regular bedroom I can share with visitors, with a bathroom right across the hall. My daughters expect to take full advantage.
* I have been to Michigan and back. Very short trip to Marquette so I could be filmed "on location" at Midgaard, the camp built by my father's family (his parents, my father and sister, and some students from the college). The film is a documentary on my father by Murray Grigor. Some pictures of Midgaard:
* My daughter Elaine, as I said here before, met me in Los Angeles when I returned from Scotland in May. She stayed with me at my home until last night, when she flew to Las Vegas. She was a great help and a terrific companion. We cooked a lot (experimenting), wrote a lot (we're cooking up a book), spent time in coffee shops and went on a hike (she went on several but I was only up for one easy one). She took care of the kitties while I was in Michigan.
So now I am alone again. It seems strange, a bit. It will take a little getting used to.
“Hi there everybody. I am in O'Hare Airport waiting for a plane to Los Angeles which will then take me to Sam Elizabeth Bo aunt's home for a couple of weeks. I am doing a Voice Coast just because I can.”
Tomorrow I will take off for Michigan. I will be there to be interviewed on film, "on location". The location is either of the homes my father lived in when you was young. He grew up in one and helped build the other, a camp. The location needs to be obvious in the interview (or there would be no point in my making the trip).
I grew up there too. I haven't been there since 1995, for thirteen years. A part of me would like to move back but a part resists because it is claustrophobic in a way. Much of the year you "can't get there from here". In other words, the roads are hard to negotiate or altogether blocked so any idea of escaping the narrow confines of home must be quashed. On the other hand it is beautiful country and I like the grayness so prevalent so much of the time, and of course I dearly love Lake Superior. To me the most beautiful body of water on the planet.
It sounds like there will be some gatherings while I am there and chances are I will have little time alone. I have trouble with constant company so it will be a little hard on me. I really just like to climb into my cave and hibernate. So it is fortunate the visit will be short. It's also fortunate given I am not fully recovered from a bleeding episode, I am still anemic and therefore get tired rather more easily than usual. Also fortunately I will be staying in the house my father grew up in and I will be staying alone. That will make a big difference, being able to go to bed in a house alone.
Ah, I sound so negative! That's because I have been traveling so much and I feel I need more time between trips.
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