Bumblebee Blog

This has been a very tough couple of weeks for me and Sarah.

Walter, my mom’s repair man, has been running in and out of the house for days and days. He keeps making stinky painting smells and banging on things. Sarah and I have been trying to keep up with all our barking and monitoring of the situation, but frankly, it’s EXHAUSTING. We have practically run our short little legs to nubins keeping up with it all.

Now, with everyone gone, Mom and I (oh, and Sarah) are enjoying the quiet. Mom is also recuperating from a bit of a strange situation today.

See, coming back from the gym after lunch, she was driving past the Catholic church in our little town. Out front a woman was jumping up and down and waving her arms, looking frantic. My mom pulled over to see what the emergency was. Surely there must be a fire, a heart attack or some such emergency that required assistance, right?

As mom stopped and began to fumble for the window button in my dad’s unfamiliar car, THE WOMAN JUMPED INTO THE CAR!

“Thanks for the ride! I really appreciate it!”

What?!? Mom doesn’t pick up hitchhikers! In fact, this woman wasn’t a hitchhiker. She was someone signaling an emergency. Or so Mom thought anyway.

Well, the woman strapped herself in and proceeded to tell Mom that she needed to go to the apartment complex about a mile up the road, all the while thanking her profusely for kindly stopping to pick her up.

Mom said that the woman was too drunk to do any real harm aside from gassing up the car. And since she was hardly wearing any clothes she couldn’t be concealing a weapon. So Mom went ahead and took her there, figuring it would just be faster than trying to convince the woman that she was only stopping for a fire or heart attack, not to give anyone a ride.

It has taken all afternoon for the boozy smell to wear out of Dad’s car. I noticed that Mom also spent some time figuring out how to work the locks and windows on Dad’s car too so it doesn’t happen again.

By the way, I just took a look at Mom’s To-Do list for the weekend. Some of the items:

- Make goat cheese
- Make parmesan cheese
- Mow the lawn
- Clear tomatoes and store Texas tomato cages
- Spread manure
- Turn compost pile
- Rake leaves
- Cut back wisteria vine
- Plant 1,000 bulbs
- Transplant bushes
- Repot some houseplants
- Finish re-organizing kitchen cabinets
- Make coming home dinner for Dad and Ben

I have a pool going on how many of these items she gets done. Email me if you want in.

Arf Arf!

–Sophie (Bumblebee’s Dog)

Robin

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Filed in: Guest Blogger - Sophie, The Little Darlings (Dogs)

[Because I am in no position to preach to anyone about the environment, this is an open letter to myself on Blog Action Day.]Dear Robin,

You joined Slow Food USA. You have written about your yearning for simplicity. You have taken some baby steps toward environmentally sound practices and more healthful living. But I believe it’s time to stop joining, talking and taking baby steps.

It occurs to me that true change can only occur if you just…slow…down. Stop working seven days a week. Stop rushing around and living without, well, living. Stop being so impatient to get everything done right now. Live mindfully about what you are doing every moment and about the consequences of your choices and actions.

Slowing down will be good for you and for your family. What’s more, it will be good for the environment.

I will give you some examples of some of your personal actions that contribute to the environmental crisis we’re facing:

-You sometimes drive when you can walk. Do you really need to move your SUV from one end of the shopping center to the other as you do your errands? Can’t you walk there and back?

-You still use products such as weed killers and harsh cleaning products because they provide a fast, short-term solution, although they add little drips to the stream of pollution that is killing the earth.

-You drive past local farmers’ produce stands and buy the same produce at the grocery stores that is imported from the other side of the country–or the other side of the world.

-You still buy some ready-made foods rather than baking your own bread, making your own cheese or growing what you need with methods that don’t require chemicals, additives or being shipped from far away.

-You still throw clothes into the dryer rather than air drying them in the sun and fresh air.

-You waste energy by doing such things as leaving the computer on all night long so you won’t have to wait to read your email in the morning.

-You haven’t taken seriously the environmental cry to reduce, reuse and recycle.I could go on, but I don’t want to embarrass you here.

By slowing down, you will walk more gently on the earth. You can make some healthy changes that will mean better, healthier foods, less stress from hurrying around and more time with family and friends. You might also save some money and sleep better because you’ve gotten a bit more exercise (and, uh, saved some money).

Nuff said. Go out and do better now.

Robin

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Filed in: Environment, Guest Blogger - Sophie, House Plants, Observations, The Simple Life, Travel, Vegetarian Recipes