Summary of Life Style Project

I'm just back from The Legion of Honor, where some friends and I saw the Louvre collection amassed by Louis XIV-Louis XVI--proof positive that the people were right in revolting against the monarchy.  Of course, the snuff box was pretty neat, and there as even a laptop!  But the best thing was that in the cafeteria water was served in bottles with a sign saying that this was delicious unfiltered tap water.  I found out, too, that the son of two of our friends is an environmental lawyer specializing in water!  He ran for something-or-other in Pacifica in the last election.

But here I am, finally, to give my summary report.  Before I forget to report this:  I didn't take an elevator for a month.  Here's my beautiful route at CCSF--from Batmale to the Science Bldg., 3rd floor, where a lot of energy could be conserved if they'd turn off the heat!  It's always much too hot.

Summary Report:

            Even though the before and after surveys don’t show this (see December 5), my life style project led to even more than I’d planned, and I feel really good about this.  I definitely carried out what I set out to do—with one horrible deviation in terms of my mission with Mymeque.  That’s described in my blog for October 15, with the heading “Water Logged and Carbonated” and the subheading “Not Strictly Vegetarian.”  But I see that you have to know it’s there to find it.  You have to keep clicking on “older posts.”  

          I was interested in understanding water.  I knew on the Life Style test that we get our water mostly from the Tuolumne River and reservoirs like the Hetch Hetchy.  how it’s actually brought in and out of my house—something I could share with those who de-value it. I made contact with an Australian in Tonga when I was looking for the Tonga word for “washing your hair in the rain.”  (It’s Faka’uha if you want to improve your Tongan.)  She said that her “washing machine” in Tonga had a nine minute cycle.  Mine doesn’t (although it is an Energy Star), but I started washing my clothes for the shorter 30 minutes cycle.  I skipped baths on the days when I didn’t go to the Y or see Mymeque. (I quote Sharon Stone on that subject; even she realizes that we overdo the bathing, and a friend of mine commented on how we really destroy the natural balance of our own skin by bathing too much.  It’s one thing to have cleanliness next to Godliness and another to put it way ahead.)       I sometimes have trouble deciding between cloth and paper.  I needed to find cloth napkins that didn’t have to be ironed, and I think I did!  Cloth napkins have to be washed of course.  (How do you blot your lipstick if you don’t use tissues?)

          I said that I wanted to learn more about water—

I strongly recommend the entry found here:

http://taahineitonga.wordpress.com/2012/09/05/water-water-everywhere-and-not-a-drop-to-wash-my-hair/

I also made contact with the San Francisco Water Department and got three beautiful posters:

The San Francisco Water System poster, copyright 1995, diagrams the system of reservoirs, pumps and tanks that supply our water here.

The San Francisco’s Urban Water Cycle poster, copyright 2002, diagrams the water and sewer systems.

The Hetch Hetchy Water System poster, copyright 2002, diagrams how the water goes from Yosemite to the San Francisco Bay. 

On the back of all of these amazing posters there are historical facts, quizzes, and other matter I hope to use with my own students until I retire.

I’ve arranged a tour for tomorrow, December 8, from 10 to 12 at the Wastewater Treatment Plant, which is at 3500 Great Highway just north of the Skyline Boulevard junction.

jsmith@sfwater.org

Tour information: http://sfwater.org/tour

Request tour information: wtptours@sfwater.org

My meque (mejor que un esposo—better than a husband), who is from Costa Rica (where he was once sprayed with DDT in the classroom),  needed re-education as far as use of water is concerned.  He’s a wonderful person, but he thought it was “quaint” that I take my own bags shopping and that I didn’t want him to let the water run when he was not really using it.  He also seemed to have a hard time with the concept of recycling and composting.  So I devoted some weekends to logging my attempts to explain and help him create new habits and an actual belief that they matter.  I knew he and I could both do better about walking instead of driving to West Portal, where we go for breakfast on Sundays, and we always walked for the duration of my project and beyond.  I have already convinced him to eat a mostly-vegetarian diet, and I limited our restaurants to only vegetarian ones for the month of  my Life Style Project rather than just ordering vegetarian dishes in a restaurant that served meat too.  

Most of all, I was impressed by how interested people were in the project.   As I explained in earlier entries, on my birthday friends and family gave me environment-related gifts.  My sister surprised me by asking me what I'd learned that she should know so that she would be kinder to the environment.  Today in my conversation with friends, I quoted the statistic about 2000 gallons of water being required for 1 pound of beef.

I've been reading the newspaper with more interest than ever before because there are so many articles pertaining to the environment.  I'm also super alert to references to the environment in novels--not just non-fiction works.  (I give examples in earlier entires.)

We all know the joke that in Medieval times everyone took one bath a year whether they needed it or not.  (The truth is that they didn't all bathe that often.)  But I've become a dirty old woman.  I bath just every other day unless I have a hot date with Mymeque.

I'm too tired to finish my report right now, but I'm going to publish this part and give a list of "contents" of my logs tomorrow.