It’s Good Friday, which might mean something to somebody out there. If I don’t get (or at least earn) a day off, then it doesn’t mean much of anything to me. Except it’s Friday, and that’s always a good thing, of course. And it starts out with a trip to the Dentist, and, goddamnit, they better actually have my crown back from the lab this time, ‘cuz I want this all over with already.

It’s also Earth Day, of course, and that does mean something to me, though I guess not enough for me to actually do much of anything special for it. I try to “live” it (to a limited extent that doesn’t require much effort). We have a CF light bulb in every fixture that will hold one, of course (I was using them way back when they were really expensive), and I wash with cold water (clothes, that is – I don’t freakin’ shower in cold water, whattya nuts?), have low-flow water fixtures and toilets (except for that one dual-flush thing I keep not installing – but I will. Soon. Honest), and am constantly turning lights off and closing doors and keeping the t-stats turned down (goddamn friggin’ cold in here, too), and well, of course composting and recycling and hopefully I’ll be making a homemade solar collector to heat the hot water with this summer, and it’s not because I’m cheap, mind you – it’s because I love my Mother Earth. Though I am kinda cheap.

Speaking of recycling, we’re pretty darn good at it around here, and have always had one of the top recycling programs (or so I’ve heard – not sure where they keep the stats on that sort of thing). In fact, the American Forest & Paper Association has named us the 2011 Community Recycling Award winner. We recycle something like 733 pounds of paper alone per person here (so either we have an inordinate amount of crap, or we do pretty good. I guess – as I said, it’s not as if they post the standings for that kind of stuff anywhere that I know of – hell, it’s not something important like baseball standings and line scores or whatever).

I remember the very first Earth Day. I was about 9 years old, and “active” in a group called the “Pollution Solution” (catchy name, eh?). I don’t really remember what we did, other than have meetings and stuff, though I suspect we went out and cleaned shit up. I was probably in it for the chicks (yeah, even at 9, I had an eye for the babes). I also organized a political action in protest of the Vietnam War ( a group of us refused to come in from recess). We all had to stand “nose and toes” against the wall (a typical form of punishment in my elementary school – no doubt designed to debase and humiliate us). Just the first of my many encounters of repression by “The Man” – or actually in this case “The Woman,” since our principal – Mrs. Clark, “Mrs Clarkbar” as we rather cleverly nicknamed her; I think her first name was even “Edwina,” which is pretty perfect for a principal – was a gray-haired old lady (ancient – you know, probably about the age then that I am today).

Well, that bitch (she probably wasn’t actually a bitch, to be honest) is either long dead or drooling in a wheelchair somewhere by now. :fist:

No, it wasn’t easy being a downtrodden (see, I have a long history of being downtrodden), long-haired (relatively speaking), nine-year old boy wearing homemade (by my sister – she was into sewing back then) psychedelic bell bottoms and hippy shirts & boots (I was kind of like a real live doll for her and her friends – they were all about 9 years older than me – to play with back then; this, I think, is why I was in to chicks – and I think it was more or less OK to call them “chicks” back then, except in England, where they were “birds” – at an early age; her friend Mary Lou Kennedy – no relation to the famous ones, as far as I know – was a gorgeous blonde with a rich dentist for a father and really nice house up on top of a hill; I wanted to nail her way before I ever knew what that meant, let alone knew how – or had the ability – to do it – in the ‘burbs). As I recall, I even had a Nehru jacket. Yes, I’ve pretty much been cool all my life. :jesus:

God, that was an awfully long time ago. My, how time flies.

Speaking of tempest fugiting, this is post #2,000 here, coming a rather astonishing five and a half years (give or take – just under 5 years and five months) after post #1, which was posted way back on November 28, 2005. That was before Twitter (but not before Facebook), before Fritz (but not before Siggy), about three months after Katrina (surely we’ve fixed New Orleans by now, right?) and also back during my first semester of grad school. I was still young back then (though I was the oldest kid my class).

Ah, those were the days.

Oh well, whatever your deal is – whether you go out and pick up some garbage or flail somebody before nailing them to a cross and leaving them to suffocate and die of exposure – have a Good Friday. And don’t forget to love your Mother.