Monday, August 27, 2007

Compost the Rich

I missed big excitement at the dog park the other night while I was by standing at the crime scene. It turns out, that same night. At the same time: There was also a murder at the dog park.

Okay, it was probably closer to squirrelslaughter because I don’t think there was and premeditation involved, well, any more than any dog would say as they sat under a tree, hopefully looking upwards, Hmm. I sure would eat anything that fell out of this tree. Maybe today, it will happen.I doubt that was any real conspiracy at work. It was probably like Fifth degree murder, and it could have been a suicide pact too, because Mr. And Mrs. Squirrel took the kids with them when they launched the nest out of the tree and into a waiting herd of dogs.

Your dog doesn’t have to fall into the Hunting Dog category at Westminster to enjoy fresh squirrel if fresh squirrel happens to fall on its “working dog” head, they’ll work real hard to make sure they get a taste.

A total of five squirrels fell, one was lunch before it hit the ground, and one broke the sound barrier running away. Fortunately, the sounds of the heavy nest falling to the ground and the resulting dog joy got the attention of the dogs people and they managed to save some of the babies while Chester's dad shoveled up what was left of the adult and took way outside the fence to bury it. The three surviving baby squirrels were rushed to an animal hospital where one was expected to live.

Three days later, they were still talking about it and I have yet to hear word one about the man who was shot. I wonder if he would have been deemed newsworthy if he had been the one who fell out of a tree and was set upon by dogs.

Anyway.

I just went to the basement to see if my washer was still broken. And, yes, it is. It does not want to spin or drain. It does want to rinse though. It really, really wants to rinse. It will rinse even if it has been ordered directly to stop rinsing. It will rinse when it is turned to soak, spin, or OFF ... I am have custody of several large plastic cat litter tubs full of gray, soapy water. We’re in the middle of a drought and I have gallons of water. Useless water, but gallons of it. And every time I touch the machine, it magically produces gallons more.

If I had my druthers I would say ithe washer came from the side of the road and back to the side of the road it shall go. I went to look up what the replacement cost would be - if it kept refusing to drain and if repairing it would be too costly. I also thought this would be a good time to investigate the newer, greener washers.

I don’t have enough green to be green. It turns out, being green is expensive. How can they expect people to help save the planet if the people can’t afford it? Sure, Leo Dicaprio and the cast of Grey’s Anatomy can feel good about washing their $300 7 for all Mankind Jeans in their $1258 clothes washers, but what about the rest of us? The cheapest front loading clothes washer I found was $549, the cheapest top loader was $279.

And they do exactly the same job. Dirty clothes go in,. Clean clothes come out-Why can’t they be the same price? I can’t see how the technology is so advanced and special that it can not be included on the $279 model? If they want all of us to figuratively save the world they are going to have to make saving the world something all of us can literately afford to do. World saving shouldn’t have to be a luxery item.

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