A New Year Rant
Oh dear – my blog is off to a stellar start this year. First I dont’ blog until the 7th day, and now when I do it’s to bitch about something.
I really don’t have an excuse for not blogging. After Christmas and the day after the blizzard, Randy and I drove down to New York City. Upon getting off the highway in Brooklyn we noticed that they were hit with a much bigger storm than Boston (24.5 inches versus 18.2 inches). Streets were damn near impassable (many untouched), sidewalks were obstacle courses, and stepping off the sidewalk at every crosswalk resulted in trudging through a slushy lake as a result of 4-5 foot snow mounds covering storm drains. We still had a great time, but I think I ruined some shoes.
Then when we got back and I managed to catch a cold. Again, not an excuse for not blogging.
But now for the rant.
I’m all about the environment. Randy and I recycle religiously. In fact, we usually only toss out one white kitchen size bag of garbage per week. But our recycling is consistently over-flowing. I’m constantly running after Randy turning off lights in empty rooms. I don’t own a car, I use public transit, I never print unnecessary things, I turn off the water while brushing my teeth, I donate clothes instead of tossing them, I sell old items on Craigslist instead of tossing them. My only splurge is my long showers…but we have one of those water-conserving showerheads. Come on, allow me one luxury.
So I have to admit I found it extremely annoying when I got to work the day after the holiday recess to find a note on my desk from Harvard’s “environmental police” reprimanding me for not setting my thermostat to the lowest temperature setting…even though I turned the heat off. Seriously, had they ever come by to even bother asking, I’ve used the heat only twice so far this winter. Otherwise, it is has been turned off (which is also what it was when they came to my office over the break…turned off).
In fact, the building is so hot to begin that I’ve had my window open probably 95% of the fall and winter so far. Not only do I NOT use the heat regularly, I’m having to open windows because they keep the building too damn hot to begin with. So for them to scold me for not setting my thermostat to the lowest temperature setting….WHEN, I REPEAT, I TURNED IT OFF COMPLETELY…was rather annoying.
Besides, how much energy was wasted having a person (or persons) commute into work (CO2 emissions) during a holiday recess only to go into every room on campus and turn on lights for 30 seconds a pop (electricity) to look at thermostats and then leave paper notes (wasted paper and electricity for printers)?
2 Comments
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Have you put all this into a memo to them? Maybe you could get a new job running the environmental police at Harvard, and show them how it’s done!
Unless they can arrest you, tell the police to take a hike.