Raindrops keep falling on my head

I will know I'm really an adult when I start watching the weather and dressing accordingly. Until then I'm going to have more days like today -- not only should I have worn long sleeves, but out of the blue it started POURING down rain.

I own two umbrellas. One got misplaced in the move. The other is, I think, in the trunk of my car. Which renders it pretty much useless. Now I am cold and wet.

However, I'm happy it's raining. With every downpour I assume we're closer to having the watering restrictions lifted and being able to do our landscaping. Right now we appear to have built our house on a pinestraw island.

Last week the 10 free trees that I got for joining the Arbor Day Association arrived. Although I support the mission of the Arbor Day Association, I really only joined it for these freebies, which I figured would be useful in fulfilling No. 56 of my list, "Plant a tree every Arbor Day."

I didn't think this through very well. First of all, the trees were mailed to me last week. I don't know if I was thinking someone would arrive on my doorstep with a special delivery of trees on Arbor Day or what, but the package they come in makes it very clear you must plant them immediately. If you can't, you have to keep them in water for no more than three or four days, and then you really have to plant them. And the second very important instruction is to water them a lot. Which currently is illegal here.

For three days I kept my baby trees in water in a plastic Carolina cup. On Saturday I planted them but did not water them. It had rained the day before and the soil was still moist. I hoped that was good enough. If it just rains like this once a week until the water restrictions are lifted, maybe my trees will actually survive.

As far as my list goes, I'm not sure what to do. I feel like I've fulfilled the spirit of No. 56 in not only planting 10 trees but supporting the Arbor Day Foundation. But I doubt I'll technically be planting a tree on Arbor Day this year. Do you think it's OK to check it off my list anyway?

Soap slivers solution

I use products until they're gone. Not just pretty much gone, but gone gone. I roll up tubes, leave bottles upside down overnight and squeeze with all my might so not a drop is wasted.

Matt thinks this is crazy. He thinks an extra dose of toothpaste here, an extra day's worth of lotion there, will never add up. When there's only enough ketchup left for, let's say, four hamburgers, he'll want to throw it out and open a new bottle. I say, why not use it on four hamburgers and then open a new bottle? So frequently we have his and hers ketchup bottles in our refrigerator.

Admittedly, this IS a little crazy. I really do know that it is. No one will ever get rich (or save the planet) by stretching out a $1.99 bottle of shampoo over six weeks versus five weeks and four days.

Still, those little slivers of soap always bother me. There comes a point when they're too tiny and slippery to use, but there's nothing wrong with them except their size. So I hate throwing them away.

Figuring out how to deal with this problem is on my list, so I did some research. I was surprised to find quite a bit of information. According to one article I read, 50 billion bars of soap are produced every year. Fifty-billion thrown-away slivers adds up to a whole lot of wasted soap, especially when you consider that in many parts of the world, soap is either prohibitively expensive or simply unavailable.

There are many ways to extend the life of a sliver of soap, but I'm going to focus on these easy three:

a) Add them to a sock, keep it in the shower and use it as a sort of lathering washcloth.
b) Keep them in my dresser drawers and/or under the front seats of my car for a nice clean scent. (I've tried the car trick before and it works well.)
c) Combine them with larger bars of soap. (I've tried this before with no success, but apparently the key is to briefly soak the sliver in warm water first.)

Trash talk

This morning in the shower I started thinking about the fact that our garbage pickup is twice a week but recycling pickup is only once every two weeks. We usually have A LOT more recycling than garbage, which is partly because of the pickup schedules and partly because most things either are recyclable or can go down the disposal. There's really not much that has to be thrown away.

By the time recycling day rolls around a whole corner of our garage is crammed with bins and bags full of papers and plastics and glass and cardboard and magazines and aluminum. (I bring home recyclables from work since Southern Pines doesn't have recycling pickup, so that contributes to the huge pile.)

Pinehurst took a big step toward encouraging people to recycle earlier this year, when it expanded the list of materials it would recycle and dropped its requirement that each type be bundled separately. I wonder whether decreasing garbage pickup to once a week and increasing recycling pickup to once a week would further discourage people from throwing away recyclables.

For now I'm just glad that recycling doesn't stink, even after two weeks. The same definitely cannot be said for garbage.

Seems simple

So we're months into a little-to-no-rain situation and yesterday the newspaper's top story is about the governor asking all North Carolinians to reduce their water usage by half. A few paragraphs in I read this:

"That means three-minute showers, limited washing of clothes and dishes, and strategic toilet flushing. Other possibilities: turning off the tap while shaving and brushing teeth, and collecting water in a bucket from your shower to use elsewhere."

My question is, are there really people who still run the water while shaving and brushing teeth? Even if we weren't in the middle of a drought, but especially since we are, do they not feel guilty watching water gush down the drain? It's not as if it takes a lot of effort to turn the faucet off and on.

I'm guessing that these are the same people who leave their cars idling while they run into the store for five minutes and who don't bother to turn off the lights when they're not home. Even those who don't give a flip about conservation ought to realize that using less water, gas and electricity leaves more money in their pocket.

Maybe we wouldn't be facing three-minute showers, limited laundering and "strategic flushing" if more people were responsible about water usage in the first place.

Trails and trash

Since moving back to my hometown more than two years ago, the town has made significant strides in two areas I really appreciate: the development of a greenway trail system and a vastly improved recycling program.

First, the greenway system. Of course, the local golf courses have always been ideal for scenic peaceful runs, but their other occupants (the golfers) tend to be pretty territorial. I prefer dirt to concrete anyway, so I have been thrilled with the recent emphasis on expanding the greenways.

There are miles of trails through parks, subdivisions and our picturesque village center. Yes, that sounds like bad Chamber of Commerce copy. But seriously. Most of the sections are connected by low- and slow-traffic streets, and those that aren't have been made pedestrian-friendly with crosswalks and traffic signals. Future expansion is ongoing, including a trail all the way through the neighborhood where Matt and I are about to start building.

Recycling: Our town's recycling situation has always left much to be desired. Until two weeks ago, the list of acceptable materials (newspapers, magazines, aluminum cans) was much shorter than the list of materials that can be recycled. Each of these had to be individually bundled, and pickup was only once every two weeks.

So I always ended up loading the recycling into my car and dropping it off at another town's recycling spot on my way to work. (Even there, by the way, there was no glass allowed. Is that not crazy?) But now our town has announced major changes: We can recycle everything from cereal boxes to plastics 1 through 7 to junk mail. Best of all, it doesn't have to be sorted!