More bits and pieces

Winter made a return yesterday and dumped at least 10 cm of wet, sticky snow on the ground. Big sigh. I went to meet a friend and our good old stroller, the one we had right from the beginning, lost a wheel. It simply broke off after it got all covered in gooey, dirty snow, stopped rolling and I gave it a little kick. I thought about taking it home because there's a big items garbage bin outside at the moment. The apartment complex is having "spring" clean-up. I did not though because a closer look revealed that we would not be able to fix the wheel. So I left the stroller at a public garbage bin as I was now loaded with baby, diaper bag, blankets and too much clothing.  My friend said, 'you do so much for the environment, you are allowed to do that for once.' Did I write a while ago about how convenient excuses are? Anyway, I hope the city disposes of the stroller properly when they empty the garbage bins.  


Now that I got rid of the big plastic stroller I invested into a small plastic kitchen scale. That's coincidence, not intention. German recipes are in grams and it can be really difficult to convert different ingredients into cups so I finally gave in for the Easter baking. First I was told at the store that they are not selling scales any longer which left me in disbelief. Shortly after the clerk found three leftovers though, two with battery, LSD display and glass plates and one ordinary one with a scale that can be fine-tuned with wheel on the side, a bowl on top and increments of 25g. I took the latter one. Measuring flour on a glass plate seemed inconvenient so did the requirement of batteries. Batteries are a pain, to buy and especially to recycle. I have my dead laptop battery and other smaller batteries still in my kitchen. They have been there for many months. Now we live near an Eco-Station (Edmonton has 3) and since recently they are even open until late (6 PM) so I will send my husband around to drop the batteries off. Of course the Eco-Station is "conveniently" located in an industrial area but luckily it's the one my husband works in now and he cycles almost past there. Living local made easy (that's sarcasm).                   


My friend told me she had once found a blog where a woman was writing of her efforts to get rid of plastic in her life. I will search for it but if you have heard of that blog let me know please.


Did I mention that my husband has used handkerchiefs for quite a while now, that I don't use toilet paper any more at home, that I wash baby's diapers sometimes without detergent which makes them come out softer, that we signed up for wind energy, that I started using the Diva cup so no more of these wasteful tampons and pads and ... let me think about it.   


My little contribution to the elections, just in case you have not made up your mind yet. You might have been at this site already since it has become very popular and oh yes it's good. S*** Harper did It's got comments on his environmental "achievements" in it, too.