Green Earth

I've been trying to go 'green', save the earth and all that good stuff. Well, apparently, I've gone grey. I installed rain barrels on all of my downspouts. Florida is suffering from a drought. I can use the saved water (when it occasionally rains) for my plants.

Today I am dipping water out from one of the rain barrels in the side yard to water my drought tolerant plants. They were brown and ugly looking. I see this furry grey thing floating in my rain barrel. It had a long tail and a point nose. OMG!!!! A rat. A dead rat. Fouling up my precious rain water.

I have a cat and a dog. Why didn't they chase this vulgar critter into some neighbors yard? They are not doing their job. I should write them up for that.

My rain barrels all have lids - secure lids. How did this disgusting rodent get into my rain water? Did he run along the roof and somehow get in the gutters? My theory is - where there's one rat there is bound to be more.

I have a doggie door and they possibly could get into my house. YIKES!!!

So, my going 'green' has turned into going grey and furry. I will not let this roadblock deter me. I will still try my best to be earth friendly and work with the environment.

HDTV

I'm not a big fan of watching television - I would rather be writing or curled up with a good book. When it's cold outside or I'm in the mood to watch something on the telley I prefer to watch it in color. I don't mean all green. Our t.v. is old - really, really old. The tuner has been broken for years and we run it through the vcr. Since the vcr's are going extinct we have seen trouble on the horizon. A few years ago a button on the front ceased working so it is taped in the on position - sometimes the tap falls off and you see nothing but static. When the power goes off, even for a split second, the television shuts down and it is quite a production to get her up and running again.

Several weeks ago the color from the tube turned green. That would be green faces, green skin, green cars, green milk - green everything. I don't mind seeing Brittney Spears as the green goddess but when I see the green decorating scheme of the Dream House on HGTV - I just can't accept that scenario.

The search to purchase a new T.V. has begun. Sticker Shock!!! Then, there is the question? plasma or LCD? I am clueless. When does size matter? Several years ago (seems like we did everything several years ago) we purchased a beautiful all wood (oak) cabinet to house our dinosaur television. It is truly a beautiful piece of furniture and it is all wood - no pressed board, no metal no glass or all shiny. I love wood furniture makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Will the new purchase fit in our beautiful wood cabinet? No! What to do? What to do?

A new television is inevitable - you can only watch green people for so long. My beautiful oak cabinet will be sent to the garage to languish permanently in limbo. It will become shelving for paint cans, potting soil and hubby's tools. I don't know if I could bear that. I'm wondering if some museum would accept our dinosaur T.V. set along with our oak cabinet? People would walk by and say, "Hey, what's that?"

I need to let go, after all, it's just a television that has seen me through several presidents, wars, cold winters, the birth of puppies and moves to several states. Perhaps watching the world in green is not such a bad idea.