Save the water or save the lightbulbs

This one gets me a lot. When you have a little over half a load of laundry or so, and you pass by it sitting on the floor/in the basket/on the washer and you've got the time, and you think, "what the hell, maybe I'll wash that shit." But then you might think, "Well, I should just wait until I have a bit more of a full load before washing." Which leads to the question: why don't you?

Is it because you want to conserve water by waiting until you have a proper amount of laundry to wash?

Is it because you'll be using unnecessary energy to run the washer when it's barely half-full?

Or is it because of the side effects of the above two things, and you're just trying to save money.

I definitely turn off light switches and unplug things etc. when I can to conserve energy, as I don't think it ends up having much effect on NYC power bills anyways. Same with running water. However, laundry is probably more a factor of me just being lazy. And unless forced with a "can I stretch these underwear another day?" decision, I can usually let it ride.

I actually don't own a washer/dryer anymore (actually I do temporarily, but not own, just have one in my house). Never mind, I'll get to that later.

This is why I love conservation; you can really just be a cheap-ass at heart while acting like you care to save the environment. I mean, there are certain levels of extremes to conversation and living like a caveman, and also situations when "conserving" truly means trimming the fat (you don't REALLY need HBO, although their shows rock).

This all goes kinda hand-in-hand with the economic situation today. Everyone is cutting things back, being more careful about not wasting resources, driving smaller more fuel efficient cars etc., which are all great things, but people are motivated more by monetary reasons than a sudden urge to be nicer to the planet. Sure, the more you do these things, you realize the good in them and that you can make a difference (not trying to sound like Bono here). I'm also concerned that once the economy turns back up and gets back higher than it was (it will), people will go apeshit and you know, just waste! No more politicking and philosophy.

I really only wanted to write about when is the right time to do the laundry, in terms of amount. I can't say there's ever been a piece of clothing that I desperately wanted to wear, and just washed that with maybe a few other things so I could wear it. Although I'll wash a solo shirt/shorts from the gym if I'm leaving on a trip for a few days, for obvious reasons.

I also never separate the blacks and whites, unless it's the first time washing a shirt, maybe a few times after jeans. I also don't own anything nice that's white.

Using laundromats definitely changes things up a bit. I always shove as much as I can possibly fit into these things. The best part is if that you have too much for one, just upgrade in size to the next largest washer. Simple. Costs you more though. And takes longer, since it needs more water, which is why I prefer to split it up into two smaller washers running side by side, but only if both has enough clothes to warrant it. Otherwise, I upgrade, and spend the extra quarters.

Finally, there is no greater joy than starting a wash, doing something else productive like paying bills, running to the grocery store, vacuuming, returning to find the wash just finishing, and throwing that junk in the dryer, only forgetting to check it until the clothes have wrinkled. But that's sitting in office chairs is for, to flatten them suckers out.

Time Flies By

I can't even remember what I was actually planning on writing about here, but I guess I had a change of direction when I realized that my last post was 16 days ago, and that made me do a double-take.

To say this year has already been flying by would be a great understatement. The first month and a half or so has absolutely skyrocketed by, and I have no clue where the time has gone. This is mostly a good thing.

I'm a firm believer that no matter how busy work is, how much you have to get done before X event or Y deadline, time flying by is better than time crawling by. Time flies by when I'm doing things. These things might suck, they might be work I don't care to do, mundane cleaning tasks, laundry, counting out coins to roll up and cash in at the bank, whatever.

When life gets busy, I definitely feel that "shit I don't have enough time in a day!" feeling, but it's good because it puts in perspective the preciousness of life and just living in general. I'd rather be doing pointless things than sitting around always doing nothing. Downtime is good certainly, but the opposite situation of having no time in a day to enjoy anything is almost is worse in my opinion.

I HATE watching a clock count down. I HATE whenever I look at a clock expecting it to be 30 minutes later than it really is, and realizing it isn't. This is when I truly know I'm not doing something very enjoyable or beneficially at the moment. When I am on the treadmill, and I think I have ran for 15 minutes, but it's actually only 9, I know it's time for me to get off. Heart not in it, I'd obviously much rather be doing something else, so it's not life or death, move on.

Sometimes this luxury isn't afforded to us. When I used to work on the clock for example, no matter how slow time went by, you had to deal with it. And deal with it I did, by making up fun ways to pass the time (you can take a 5 minute walk every time to realphabetize one letter in the CDs), or by just being utterly miserable.

Luckily now my job lets me step away whenever I need to, and get fresh before I get back at it.

Right now, I feel like I haven't accomplished anything over the last 6 weeks, but I KNOW I've lived a lot. That's enough for me.