Keep it for yourself! Here are ten ideas to help save big money. Of course, if you want to give your hard earned dough to the power company, we’re sure they’d appreciate it. So would their poor shareholders. If you don’t overpay on your power bill, they might have to skip that trip to Paris… We wouldn’t want that would we? Then again, if you’d rather keep your money for yourself….

1. Change every light bulb in your home or office from incandescent to compact fluorescent. See Start Small for details on just how much money you can save.
2. Put a power strip on your computer “blob”. Besides saving 1-2% on your energy bill, you will add an extra layer of protection for your computer by further removing it from the electrical grid when it is turned off. See Start Small for details.
3. Get a solar water heater for you home. 5000kwh for an electric water heater per year?!? That’s right. A solar water heater is such a great idea it is a total no brainer. EVERYONE should have one. See Start Medium for more details.
4. Consider an exterior solar lighting system. A good system lights the outside of your home or office all night, and you’ll never see it on your power bill. See Start Small for the Queen’s favorite.
5. When the time comes to replace your air conditioning unit, get the very highest SEER number you can. Many older models have a SEER number of 9 or so. The newest models go up to 23 SEER. Pretty good when you consider that for every SEER number you go up, efficiency increases 5-8%. Go from 9 to 23? You’ll save 70%+ on your cooling costs! AC units can be real hogs, so this is a fabulous opportunity. See Start Medium for more info.
6. For dark interior rooms, consider an interior solar system. Almost every home has an interior room which is dark even during the day. Lighten it up during the day with no electricity involved. See Start Small.
7. Start yourself on the road to alternative energy with a fun and easy gadget. Like a solar cell phone charger, or an Africa lamp used as a night light (we’ll have these available soon.)
8. Consider a solar attic fan. An overheated attic means your AC system works unnecessarily hard. See Start Small for details.
9. Better yet, consider changing the insulation in your attic. See Start Medium for details.
10. When decorating for Christmas, consider LED lights. Even a few strings of the old style tiny lights use much more than you would think. LED’s are champs for low energy usage.
11. Did we say 10? Well, here’s one more. Secretly, we all have our moments when we’d like to “stick it to the man”. Think of your energy usage in those terms. Every kwh you don’t use is one you don’t pay for – and therefore, you get to “stick it to the man” in your own small way. So change your mindset from a one marshmallow mentality to a three marshmallow mentality…. And get on the bandwagon!

Tales from Life as “Junkie”… A Fossil Fuel Junkie that is.
Greetings gentle readers. What does happen when you mix too much beer, jello, bad singing and a disco ball? The Queen can accurately attest to the outcome – having witnessed it herself. We will call the following a tale from the Queen’s former life as a Fossil Fuel Junkie.
Disclaimer: I’m not making any of this up. Only one thing in this tale is not true. I’ll tell you what at the end…. All I can say is - now that WAS the life!

The Night of the Flying Dinner Rolls

I looked over at the pilot and raised my eyebrows. He nodded slightly. I turned the handle and opened the door. The plane went from hot and noisy to hot and deafening… and very windy. I stuck my head out the door. If I had been in freefall, my nose would have looked like I had two small red potatoes wedged firmly up either nostril, it always did. As it was, the skin on my face rippled and my hair tied itself into innumerable tiny knots. Ah, this was the life! I looked down at our jump sight. We were over an airport in California, and it was show time! Air show time.

I was always the “spotter”. She who decides where to get out of the plane so that landing is accomplished in the proper spot. “We” were four women skydivers, a rather well known demonstration skydiving team. At this air show, we were the main act. Usually there were aerobatic planes everywhere but at this show, there was no available airspace for aerobatics, so we were a big part of the show. But just a part. Much of the show was military static displays. When asked, the military can come up with fascinating hardware for the public to ogle. Mostly big planes, really big planes and planes so big you could drive a tank through them. In fact… they do drive tanks through them! The show was going quite well. From our vantage point 5,000’ up in the air, we could see that the crowd was large and growing as people streamed in.

“Cut!” I yelled. The pilot pulled the power back and I and my 100 lbs of gear lumbered out of the plane. That was many years and a number of pounds ago, so I did not weigh much more than my gear. “Twack!” my parachute opened. My huge American flag unfurled and fluttered behind me. The crowd cheered, the newspaper photographers snapped. The show director was very pleased. Her name was Stacey.

Oh yeah, she was barely five feet tall, and eight months pregnant.

The day was a great success, and a party had been planned for all the performers and lucky selected members of the public. The performers in this instance were us and a horde of young military guys who came along with the static display aircraft. The venue was a large ballroom in our hotel (wise choice, as no driving was required after the party.)

The guests filed in: We four women, and a whole lot of young “I’m on the road and ready to let loose” kind of guys, most still in their nomex jumpsuits. They were hungry, and thirsty for “beverages”. I don’t recall exactly what was served for dinner, but I do recall the rolls.

As dinner was being served, it became apparent there would be live entertainment at this shindig. “Wow” I thought, “this is going to be some party!” I wondered if this would be before, or in place of the karaoke brawl which was the norm. Out in the dining area, adult beverages were flowing freely. Although I was a complete teetotaler, I knew that in the eyes of young military guys, the best shows always had an open bar. This show did not disappoint.

And who was to be our act for the evening? Why it was… Shanda Lear. I’m not making this up. She was the daughter of Bill Lear, the designer of the Lear jet. Did her Mom name her that or had she changed her name? The curtain opened… there was Shanda, a mirror disco ball and colored lights. “Wow” I thought again, “this is getting better by the minute!” Her recorded music started, and Shanda launched into her song; I think it was “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”.

I’ve always been fascinated by the eternal battle in the world of art between ability and desire. Some people have ability… but no great desire to pursue a craft. Far more people are gripped by a desire with the strength of biological imperative but have been cruelly shorted in the ability department. As the song progressed, I could quickly tell two things. One, that our singer was thrilled to have such a big audience and such a great gig. And two, that our singer was locked in that battle… and desire was winning.

Shanda was giving it her all. Listening made me wonder if voice coaches ever made a stab at teaching one to sing on key. If so, Shanda has missed that lesson.

At this point, I was back stage. Stacey was there as well. I stood slightly behind her, taking in the whole glorious scene. Who would want to watch television when you could watch this? I looked out over the dining area and noted a lone dinner roll arcing menacingly through the air, soaring most of the way across the room. Another roll, or maybe the same one soared back across the room. Stacey also took all this in: Shanda – lurching wildly between sharp and flat, the now well beveraged young men ready for – if not their karaoke brawl, then perhaps a food fight. Those were always fun.

“Ooooh,” I thought, “this is going to be good”. But Stacey wasn’t the big cheese for nothing! “Get her off the stage!” she yelled. Her eyes flashed between the stage and her “guests”. She knew exactly what was about to happen. “Oh my God, GET HER OFF THE STAGE!” But how was that to be done? There was no crook handy for yanking unfortunate singers away from menacing audiences. Meanwhile, the dinner rolls were now flying in formation, and in multiples. A few jello cubes were being added in… and I was waiting for the cole slaw. As soon as that started flying, the food fight would be on… and unstoppable.

“PULL THE POWER!” Stacey yelled, “PULL THE POWER – NOW!”

I don’t recall whether Stacey actually ran over and pulled the plug herself, but someone did pull the power, and in the dark, Shanda was saved from a fate involving …. jello.

I found a picture from that party the other day. The karaoke machine showed in the corner, young men and beer bottles were strewn everywhere… we four women were young and cute, and doing a pretty good job of singing something (probably not Over the Rainbow) and dancing in unison. My long hair was flying wildly in time to the music. The karaoke brawl was in full swing. Though I went to many more air shows in my career, I never saw Shanda again. Ah, that was the life.

OK, so we lied about one thing. The jello was not green… I think it was bright red. Other than that, everything is true, and no names were changed. After all, Stacy averted certain and messy disaster with her quick thinking… why change her name? And Shanda? Well, a friend told me he had her CD and kind of liked it, Plus she was out there giving it her all – doing what she wanted, - so you go girl!

This phrase was coined by Thomas Friedman… a really smart guy.

By now, we all know how smart it is to use energy wisely by going green. On a personal level, it is one of the brightest moves any of us can make. But let’s think in broadly geo-political terms for just a moment. Someday I am going to write a Phd thesis on the destructive power of wishful thinking and denial. So much fodder for that paper! For instance, global warming. Does anyone really truly believe it is not real? Yes! I know many of them. In the spite of hard data, and almost perfect unanimity among scientists, many regular folks still refuse to believe it is real. The fact is, even if it were a total hoax, and all our climate change was due to the secret emissions of as yet undiscovered flat worms, the best situation for the world is to do something about it anyway. What would happen if everyone decided to go green? What if it became the wave of the future. Would the world cease to turn? No. In fact, it is likely the world would become a far lovelier place, and the capitalist system would jump right on the bandwagon and help things along… thus spurring the economy. Back to the broadly geo-political thing… what would happen if everyone in the US suddenly got all hot and bothered and decided to be energy self sufficient? Imagine that… competing with the neighbors to see who could be more efficient and more green. Truth is, there is SO much waste in our lives, we could do it with relative ease. And then what? Well then, think of all the oil we would not buy. Think of the regimes we would not infuse with our treasure. The middle east would be terribly upset with us for not giving them so much money. So might Venezuela. Man, that would be tragic, wouldn’t it? See what we mean about Green being the new Red White and Blue? We might upset a few others around the world with our “green” habits, but we’d certainly do ourselves the biggest favor possible.

Not to get on a soapbox here, but check out some of these illustration. They are more than a little scary if you stop, look, think and let it all settle in.

Where electricity comes from.

Funny how that big huge part of the pie which represents coal is sort of a grungy gray brown color. Yeah… “funny”. Here’s why.

This is true… and one of the most shocking things I came to realize during my many hours of research. “Uh oh” indeed.

Check out this chart. Remember the big oil crisis of the 70’s? We were still finding much more oil than we used. Look at the situation now. Use keeps rising, but finds keep declining. This chart starkly illustrates what we need to do. Do you like your children? Do you want to leave anything for them?

This is a hopeful looking chart. I like this one.

The only worrisome word on it seems to be deprivation. It has so many meanings. Maybe it means not being able to fly across the country at will to see the family. At the other end of the scale, it could mean “tiffs” over remaining oil supply. “Tiffs”… you know, like war, mayhem, Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse stuff… Of course, we stand at the moment at the very top of this chart and have every chance to be brilliant and pull it off.

Just a thought…

xo

QoG