Push-Pull Up-Down

Well, I think I'm hitting that point where I'm alternating between overdoing it and being forced to take it easy. The "So, You Have Mono" pamphlet declares that "Fatigue can sometimes last for 2 or 3 months beyond the acute stage of mono. Make sure to get regular rest, but don't let fatigue alone keep you bedridden. This will only allow your body to become weaker." Thanks, pamphlet. Now what, exactly, does that mean?

Yesterday I overdid it--I realized at the last minute that it was pick-up day at the ceramics studio and I had failed to arrange transportation to get there. So I had to briskly walk home and grab a bag and hop on the bus to get there. Come January, there will be a free shuttle bus that goes straight to the studio, but for the moment the only public transit option is to take two buses that take about 40 minutes to get there and 40 minutes to get home. I made it there and back again, and even made it to Scrabble, but by the end of the game I reached zombie mode and afterwards went straight to bed. The heat really saps whatever energy I might have had otherwise.

So today, I'll take it easy. I can do most of the day's tasks from home anyway. It's hard to feel this way because it makes me think back to the [mono-free] times when I've struggled to motivate myself to get out of bed and down to the water to row. Typically, with that old, familiar mental struggle, if I could get myself out of bed and on the road, I would start to feel much better. In this case, being active doesn't make me feel better and I just have to take it easy and wait.

Pay-as-you-throw trash policies

An editorial in today's Christian Science Monitor recommends switching to a pay-as-you-throw system for addressing excess waste production in the U.S.

I could say more about the subject, but first and foremost it reminded me of a nice encounter I had yesterday while sitting at a bus stop waiting for the bus. A man carrying two plastic bags full of aluminum cans had gotten off of the bus at the same stop as me, and eventually followed me to the stop where I was waiting to transfer to a different bus. He proceeded to rummage through the trash can at the stop and pulled out several discarded aluminum cans. He told me that aluminum cans fetch around $0.80 per pound right now, so he goes around collecting cans to earn a bit of extra money and as a way to get out of the house and get a bit of exercise. I can't tell you how happy I was to see someone enterprising enough to collect up all of that excess waste. I'll never forget those days as a young kid when I accompanied my dad to a recycling station in Seattle where we'd earn a bit of extra spending money in exchange for recycled cans.

I hate seeing people throw away recyclables in this town, or trying to recycle items that cannot be recycled, or thoughtlessly producing unnecessary waste. Trash policies here are way too lenient, and I can only dream of a time when people here are given incentive to reduce waste production through a pay-as-you-throw system. Seattle has something along those lines--residents pay different amounts for trash pickup based on the size of their trash can (my parents have a tiny little cube of a trash can, as do many residents). They will also start paying fines if they are caught throwing recyclable items into the trash. Here, we have the largest trash can I have ever seen in my life, and people thoughtlessly use disposable items and throw things away. We do share it with many of our neighbors, but it's hard to see any sort of incentive to reduce waste production when there's that much space to throw things away.

'50's party

So I have an invitation to attend a 1950's-themed party on Saturday and am trying to decide what to bring (and what to wear of course. That's when I thought of you, o internets. Ideas? I'm not sure if it really qualifies, but I'm tempted to make undescended twinkies...

Inspiration

In the midst of feeling stuck--in my house, in my research--I've been encountering a few nice sources of inspiration. One source is The Velorution, the blog of a man who has committed to biking to work every single day in August--in Phoenix. I think he initially anticipated having a lot of problems with the commute, but so far he's had a lot of positive experiences to share. It's uplifting to read about this positive change in his life.

He has also referred his readers to another blog, that of No Impact Man, a man living in New York City whose objective is to live a no-impact life over one year. He wrote a recent post about taking a vacation in the city because, of course, the impact of traveling by fossil-fuel vehicles is great and difficult to offset so as to live with no net impact. I like his idealism about the things that cities should provide to their residents--spaces that make it unnecessary to flee to the wilderness for vacation. I can relate to the need to take an inner-city vacation--as someone without a car, that's my main option for the weekends. We're actually quite lucky to have large parks embedded in the Greater Phoenix Suburbopolitan Area, as well as other nice spots to visit. They aren't exactly easy to get to (without a car and especially without a bike in the summer heat), but at least they're a start.