Desalinization Plants - The Answer to Drought?

As I sit and write this, we haven't had any rain for the last five weeks. And there is none in the forecast for at least the next two weeks. We normally have fairly dry summers. We usually have water restrictions of some sort and we always let our lawns go golden, unlike some neighbours who insist on watering their patches of useless grass. But, in a normal year, we usually get some relief from the odd rainstorm. Not this year. Which has me wondering about our water supply...

Our water comes from a reservoir high up in the mountains which is fed by winter rains and run-off from snow and glacier melt. But as the glaciers recede year after year, I am a bit worried about what the future holds. And not just me. I found a report which indicates that as our city's population grows (and grows), we will quickly outstrip our water supply. Living on an island, albeit a large one, our sources of fresh, clean water are limited. The plan for the next ten years, or so, is to build another dam in the mountains, creating another reservoir to gather and stockpile water. It's not cheap though, 75 million dollars or so.

And yet... we live on an island, surrounded by miles of ocean water. Couldn't we tap into seawater with a desalinization plant? It seems like the wave of the future, doesn't it?

I did a bit of research and there are over 20,000 desalinization plants around the world, providing clean water to over 300 million people. Some of the key players are Saudi Arabia, Israel and Australia. Although some US states like California, Texas and Arizona have also jumped on board. It seems like a win-win solution... take free sea water and turn it into fresh water. But not so fast...

There are two desalination methods: thermal and membrane. Both are extremely expensive (double what "normal" water costs), use a LOT of energy and have environmental issues.

With the thermal method, water is heated up to produce steam which is then collected and condensed to produce water. The remaining brine is then pumped out to sea. This method was the most popular method prior to the 1980s. It fell into disfavour because it's a bit more expensive than the membrane method which has now become far more popular.

With the membrane method (also known as reverse osmosis), sea water is forced through a membrane with tiny holes which catch the salt molecules but let the water molecules pass through. In this case,100 gallons of seawater produces 50 gallons of fresh water. That leaves 50 gallons of salty brine left over. What to do with it? Usually, the brine is pumped back into the ocean but this can cause sea life to die as the brine sinks to the bottom and smothers whatever lives on the ocean floor. Many desalinization plants try to dilute the brine with sea water and disperse it over a larger area. Still... it's tricky, not least because the brine is often contaminated with heavy metals. As well, some recent studies suggest that the ratio of fresh water to brine water might actually be something like... 35 gallons of fresh water and 65 gallons of brine. On top of that... the intake pipes which suck the sea water into the desalinization plant also suck in all sorts of sea life - from fish to plankton, which is problematic.

In some areas, desalinization plants are processing brackish water from aquifers and rivers, water that is only slightly salty. This is far more efficient than producing fresh water from sea water, since there is less salt to be filtered out.

Both thermal and membrane methods require tonnes of energy which, in most cases comes from fossil fuels. This simply contributes to a vicious cycle. As climate change alters weather patterns and reduces rainfall in certain areas, desalinization plants pump more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, thus worsening global warming and climate change.

Now there is some hope on the horizon. Saudi Arabia is apparently looking at shifting their chief energy source from fossil fuels to solar power. That would certainly reduce the environmental impact. Other sunny climes, like Australia, California, Texas, Arizona and Israel would also benefit by switching from fossil fuel power sources to solar.

So, while desalinization plants are definitely an option... they are likely not in our future anytime soon. I would imagine we are going to look at other options first: more reservoirs, homeowners being encourage to install cisterns and other rainwater catchment options for gardening and... sigh... lawn watering, harvesting grey water, etc. 

Clean, fresh drinking water is a precious resource and we should treat it as such. And yes, there are dozens of Indigenous communities across Canada that lack this precious resource. It seems that for every community which has a water advisory lifted, another community is added to the list. All of this makes me appreciate the water that flows out of our taps even more.

Resources

Yale University - article on desalinization plants

National Geographic - article on desalinization plants 

Wired - article on desalinization plants 

Circle of Blue - other options for fresh water supplies

To eat or not to eat: The Truth about Food "Expiration" Dates

A few months ago, I poured my morning glass of soy milk (organic). I took a hefty swig and swallowed. Bahhhh!!!!! It was sour!! And lumpy! Ick!! I spit out what was in my mouth and rinsed with copious amounts of water. The milk had obviously gone off. How had I missed that? I mean, according to the date on the carton, the milk hadn't reached it's "Best Before" date. Urgh... don't those dates mean anything??

This morning, I came across an article that suggested we stop wasting food by throwing it out after it passes its expiry date. That lots of food is good long past the date on the package. Ummm.... what about sour soy milk?? Which makes me ask again... don't those dates mean anything?? 

I always thought the "Best Before" or expiry dates were there to protect us from food poisoning. Although, to be honesty... I've also eaten my share of moldy cheddar cheese... just cut off the moldy bits and you're good to go! Unless it's blue cheese of course... cause even that can go "off" when it starts growing non-blue mold. Oh, and I do know that moldy bread should not be eaten... even with the moldy bits cut off, cause the mold roots can spread deep into the bread, far from the obvious mold. On the other hand, I've eaten sandwiches and tasted the mold go by and lived to tell the tale. I wouldn't eat canned food that was past its expiry date but I do eat dry pasta that is past its expiry date. Is there some unwritten code for knowing when it's safe to ignore expiry dates and when we should heed them?

Yup... cooked and ate this on 11 July 2021... still alive!

So... what do we know? Well, 40% of food grown and produced in America is wasted.  Which isn't just a waste of food, but also a waste of water to grow that food. Plus the amount of stuff that ends up in the landfills (21% of landfill stuff is food). On average, each person in the USA wastes 290 lbs of food per year. These numbers are concerning. Particularly when 42 million people in the USA live with food insecurity.

And yet... we come across these expiry dates and... what's a person to do? Run the risk of botulism or food poisoning by eating food which might be bad?

It all comes down to those food labels... and the question... do those dates actually mean anything? Apparently researchers studied food "expiration" dates and concluded that while they are well-intentioned, they are haphazard and confusing. No kidding. On top of that... they rarely correspond to food actually expiring or spoiling. Ummm... yeah... tell that to the person who drank spoiled soy milk even though it hadn't reached its expiry date!

So here's the bottom line... those dates aren't food expiration dates at all. Nope. For one thing, those dates are not standardized. For another thing, they have almost nothing to do with food safety. 

One type of vegan mayo with a BestBefore date...

Another vegan mayo with a "Lot" date... in the future. Is that a BestBefore date?

When date labels first appeared after the Second World War, they were mostly for store owners. So that they would know when to rotate food stock. But given that consumers wanted to buy the freshest food possible, some people published little booklets to decipher the date codes on food. I'm surely not the only one who paws through the cartons of milk looking at the date labels and pulls a "fresher" one from the back of the pack?

Once manufacturers figured out that consumers wanted to know about the dates, they started putting month, day, year on their products. Consumers no longer needed a booklet to decode the dates on food labels. But there was no consistency between manufacturers and producers. In the US, there is no federal regulation about date labels (except  for infant formula) and regulation falls to the states. In some states, the date on milk has to be 21 days after bottling... in others the date is 14 days after bottling...

On top of that... some manufacturers use a “Best By" label on one product, a “Sell By” label on another, a “Best if used Before” label on a third and a "Use By" label on a fourth. All four of which mean very different things... but we consumers tend to treat them all as "expiration" dates. Ultimately though, the manufacturer's want their product to taste the best (flavour, texture, mouth feel) and the dates on food labels have more to do with food quality than food safety. The "Best Before" date isn't the same as a "Bad After" date! Except for things like meat... and deli products... and eggs... which, if they are past their date can really make you sick.

Federal regulation to standardize dates on food labels has been attempted several times in the USA but always goes down in flames. Some major food associations (Consumer Brands Association and the Food Marketing Institute) managed to come up with two labels: the "Best if Used By" label is for food quality and the "Use By" label is for food safety. But they haven't caught on with all food producers.

But even if we could get to standardized regulation (and Canada has more than the US), we'd still need to shift our mindset about food that is past its prime. Lots of food is still safe to eat after the date on the label. It's not "bad" for us. This might then shift the perception that donating expired food (that is not at its peak quality) to food banks and homeless shelters is a "bad" thing. This might help with food insecurity...

The UK even came up with a slogan for food safety: "Look, Smell, Taste, Don't Waste". In other words, we should trust our senses. I would also add "Touch" to that message. If I'm cutting up a pepper that is a bit dodgy (squishy bits), I use my fingers to check for the slimy bits and cut those off... But the word "touch" doesn't really fit in the UK's rhyming slogan.

Although... the taste bit certainly worked for me with the soy milk. It tasted icky and once I had a closer look at it, I could see it was lumpy. And... the fact that it was going off before it's expiration date? That's because it had been sitting open in our fridge for days (perhaps... cough... a week or more...). Those "Best Before" dates are only good for unopened packages. Once it's been opened... all bets are off.

A Canadian Government site notes that...  "because of the potential for contamination, once a package of lunchmeat is open, for safety reasons, it should be consumed in 3-5 days. You can't tell whether food is unsafe by its smell or taste." Well... so much for the UK's slogan - "Look, Smell, Taste, Don't Waste". Sigh.

Inspections Canada has a site which offers some information about date labelling on pre-packaged foods. It would appear that foods with a durable life (related to quality) of 90 days or less, have regulations about date labelling. For foods that have a durable life of more than 90 days, there is voluntary date labelling. We are still left to navigate through Best Before, Use By, Packaged On, Expiration, Freeze By, Use By.... and figure out what they all mean.

The Canadian Government also has a page that outlines how to handle and store fresh food in the fridge and freezer. Did you know an open container of yogurt has a shelf life of 3 days? Ooops... We used to buy 4 litre buckets of yogurt from Superstore and eat them over the course of a week... or two. If we saw mold on the edge of the bucket, we'd just scrape it off and keep eating. It's amazing we didn't get seriously sick! Opened milk is only good for 3 days too. Cheese is interesting though... it's good for the date given on the packaging, whether it's opened or unopened.

But what about processed foods? Like canned foods and packages of pasta, dried beans or rice? I mean, canned foods have a date on the bottom. Isn't  that an expiry date? Nope. It's a quality date. Apparently canned foods, if they are stored correctly (no extremes of heat or moisture) and aren't damaged (leaking, dented, rusted), are good forever. They might not be top quality but... essentially... good to eat for a very, very, very long time.

So, at the end of the day... what's a person to do? Isn't there a general rule of thumb we could use? Nope... it's OK to cut mold off of hard cheeses like cheddar, but not off of soft cheeses. It's OK to drink milk past the date on the carton, as long as it doesn't smell or taste funny. But don't try that with deli meat. You can test eggs past their carton date with the float test, but there isn't any way to test meat or seafood.

I can see why people just err on the side of caution and toss anything past the labelled date! On the other hand... some foods like canned goods, pasta, dried beans and rice are much more forgiving. Usually. We have used dried beans well past the date on the package and found them to have texture issues - way too hard and virtually inedible, no longer how much we soaked or cooked them. We have also smelled rice and found it to be rancid. I guess each person/household needs to learn the rule of thumb for the stuff they buy most often.

From a can of Cream of Celery soup in our pantry...
To eat... or not to eat... that is the question...

I did learn something today about canned foods... that they are likely to be good for a very long time. It's still a good idea to check the cans and make sure they aren't dented or bulging or rusted. And we always rotate our new cans to the back of the pantry and use the older cans first.

Gone are the days of just tossing "expired" food willy nilly. This is going to require a bit  more thought and attention!

Did you know... "rest" is more than just sleeping or lying on the couch!

"Are you getting enough rest?"

"You need to rest more."

"Why don't you stop and rest?"

Have you heard any of those lines? Or said any of those lines? What does "rest" mean to you? If you're like me, "rest" means things like getting enough sleep (feeling well-rested), having a nap or stopping whatever it is I'm doing, getting off my feet and sitting on the couch Which usually then involves scrolling through my phone. At least I'm resting! Right?

Nope. Not entirely. You see... when we say "rest", we often mean physical rest. But how many of us, get our 7-9 hours of sleep every night and yet still wake up feeling exhausted. What gives? We're sleeping... shouldn't we feel rested?  Maybe we should sleep more? Like 10-12 hours? Nope... still not feeling well-rested. In fact, this tendency to equate sleep with rest can lead down a slippery slope to chronic fatigue and burnout.

As it turns out that there are seven (yup, 7!) different types of rest that we need. And Physical Rest is just one of those... Go figure... 

1. Physical Rest

There are two types of physical rest - active and passive. Passive rest is what we generally think of when we here the word "rest", things like sleeping, napping and getting off our feet. Active rest is things like yoga, stretching and massage. We are actually doing something, but it's something that rejuvenates our body, takes care of our body. 

2. Mental Rest

Have you ever lain in bed at night, desperately trying to fall asleep but with a gazillion thoughts scampering through your head? This is me... I have a heck of a time turning off my brain at night. I'm not getting a lot of mental rest. This might explain why I feel overwhelmed a lot during the day. I start to go faster and faster and my brain is whizzing around like a dervish. The trick here is to stop (just stop) and take breaks. And not smart phone breaks. Go for a little walk out in nature or putter around the garden for a bit. Because scrolling through the phone really doesn't give me a "mental" break... it just pokes the already spinning brain with more stuff. Another trick, for bedtime, is to keep a note pad on the nightstand and write down the ideas and thoughts that come and that I want to capture. I try to head this off at the pass by doing some journaling before bed, to do a brain dump and let go of all the stuff that is clogging my head.

3. Sensory Rest

 We live in a world with a LOT of sensory stimuli - televisions, computer screens, smart phones, tablets, dings and notifications, Zoom calls. All of it can lead to sensory overload. One way to deal with this is to close our eyes for a minute or so at various points during the day. Another way is to turn off all the screens a few hours before bedtime, to give your system time to decompress. This is one reason why a television in the bedroom is not the best option. Watching television in the evenings can leave us feeling exhausted and tired but it's not a type of tired that is going to be cured by sleep. What we really need is sensory rest. Interestingly, being out in nature, or in the garden, does not overload our senses but actually undoes the overload from all of our technological marvels.

4. Creative Rest

For people who produce creative work or need to solve problems and create new ideas (anything from writers to artists to computer designers to managers), we need to take time away from that and recharge our creative juices. Go to a museum or an art gallery, take a walk in a park, watch a sunset. Anything that is a source of inspiration. Personally, I like to have several books on the go at the same time and let those different ideas cross pollinate. This explains too, why we can get stuck, feel uninspired and unable to come up with bright ideas or solve problems. We need some creative rest. I already know this... when I get stuck with writing, what I really need to do is get out into nature or read a good book. I need to rest from the writing... but, man, do I ever resist that!

5. Emotional Rest 

"How are doing?" .... "Great! I'm just great!" Ever had one of those days? When you really feel like crap and yet... you put on a good front, maintain a stiff upper lift and keep your chin up. When really, inside... you're wanting to burst into tears or just scream with frustration. What we need then is emotional rest. A chance to be honest and authentic with our feelings. Maybe it's finding a friend with whom we can be honest, or perhaps we want to go and talk to a therapist. Emotional rest is also necessary for those of us who tend to say "yes" (to please someone else) when we really want to say "no". This is, honestly, a hard one for women, because we are so well-conditioned to take care of others at the expense of ourselves. No wonder we are so exhausted! We don't necessarily just need more sleep... we need emotional rest. One trick is this... when you get asked to do something, respond with "I need to think about it" or "I need to check my calendar" or "I need to check with my partner".

6. Social Rest

I kind of thought that this one would be right up an introvert's alley... taking a break from socializing! But it's more than that. It's surrounding yourself with positive and uplifting relationships and stepping away from the draining relationships. It's hard to listen to a Negative Nellie every day or to have that friend who talks your ear off but doesn't let you get in a word edgewise. Or who, when they ask you how you're doing, let you get out one sentence before they then hijack the conversation again and redirect it back to them. Yeah... we all have those people. Social rest means taking a break from those relationships that are not nurturing (for us)... and choosing relationships that refuel us.

7. Spiritual Rest

Spiritual rest is all about connecting to something bigger than yourself. This can take place through meditation, formal community spiritual gatherings or altruistic works, like volunteering in your community. It's a chance to connect with something in which we feel a deep sense of belonging, love, acceptance and purpose.

Sooo... what have we learned? Well... for one thing, rest is not about vegging out on the sofa, watching TV for 12 hours, or doing some mindless activity. And... rest doesn't just happen by itself. It requires us to get in tune with ourselves and figure out, where are my rest deficits? What would help me "rest" right now? It is a nap? A walk in the woods? Puttering around in the garden? Some meditation? In order to really replenish ourselves, we need to actually carve out some time in our day to schedule restorative activities... different forms of rest.

Sources

I first came across the concept of Seven Types of Rest from a CBC news article. Some more digging led me to a TED talk by Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith, a physician. She has written a book about the topic called "Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity". The book was published in 2017 but I'm going to see if I can get it from the library. Nope, just checked and they don't have it. Going to have to order it... Done... bought the ebook via Kobo.

Dalton-Smith also has a RestQuiz on her site... and I decided to take the quiz. Here are my results...

My RestQuiz Scores

"Based on your input, the type of rest with the highest score is the one you should focus on. It is the primary type of rest you are missing in your life.

• 0-15: You are getting adequate rest in this area if you score
• 16-25: You are experiencing rest in this area but would thrive with more
• 26-35: You are feeling the effects of your lack of rest and need a change
• >35: Your life is negatively affected by your lack of rest in this area. "

My Category Scores

Sensory Rest Score: 37 - yup - need lots of this...
Emotional Rest Score: 36 - oops... need some of this
Mental Rest Score: 34 - yup, need some of this too...
Creative Rest Score: 34 - and this too
Physical Rest Score: 30 - need some good old fashioned rest - sleeping better would be great
Social Rest Score: 26 - need a change
Spiritual Rest Score: 17 - pretty good

Right then... I need emotional rest (expressing my emotions and saying "no"), sensory rest (less screen time), mental rest (taking a few breaks throughout the day and shutting off my brain at night) and creative rest (walking in nature). Those are all pretty much in a clump from 34-37. Surprisingly, spiritual rest was my best area! And this for a lapsed Catholic who doesn't go to any form of group spiritual event! I must be doing something right...

P.S. I bought the book and the first part, detailing the seven different types of rest is pretty good. The second half is heavy on the Christianity and not quite as useful.

Fighting the Sugar Demon

Coke

Sugar... such an innocuous word. But sooo dangerous.

I've known for a while that sugar is my kryptonite, my nemesis... the thing that is, for me, the hardest to kick to the curb. And whenever I think I've vanquished sugar, it simply shape shifts and morphs into some other form that sneaks in under the radar. Kind of like whack-a-mole.

For years, I drank quite a bit of Coke. I started in university (back in the 80s) and only really overcame that addiction on 7 July 2009, when I drank my last can. Twenty-five years of addiction done! Hooray!!!

Wait... not so fast. Because sugar wasn't done with me yet... my new friend was now Starbucks hot chocolate. I mean... if you're going to go to Starbucks and sit there and use their wifi for hours, you need to buy something, right? And for me, it was hot chocolate... 

Starbucks hot chocolate

That started in the fall of 2009 and continued until the spring of 2019 when I drank my last hot chocolate (from Starbucks or anywhere). Hooray!!

I've now been hot chocolate free for over 850 days. Not that anyone's counting... And the trick, for me, in ending my hot chocolate addiction was to make an agreement with my partner that... if I had a hot chocolate, I would have to pay a $10 penalty to her! Right then... done with hot chocolate!

Wait... not so fast. Last summer, with the pandemic raging and Starbucks closed to visitors... I developed the habit of going for a hike on Saturdays and Sundays (a good thing) and then grabbing a Starbucks Double Fudge Chocolate Brownie to go (warmed up too, please). I'd take it to the park, sit by the pond, and eat it off of my camping plate (and camping fork), which I carried around in my day pack for just such an occasion. It started out as one brownie per weekend and then morphed into two brownies per weekend. And over the winter... it continued... even though I was no longer hiking! My new sugar addiction was born.

Starbucks brownie

On top of that... as this long gloomy winter of pandemic restrictions dragged on, my partner and I went down Junk Food Alley and started consuming copious amounts of chips and chocolate... with the occasional bag of Cheezies thrown in. My weight began to rise and I knew it was not a good idea... but when sugar has its teeth and claws into you... it's a bit of a beast.

Enter my new diagnosis of hypothyroidism... due to Hashimoto's thyroiditis... which is an auto-immune condition that attacks the thyroid. Charming. The auto-immune bit is the tricky part... trying to get a handle on that. There are a whole host of things that contribute to it... let's start with alcohol, caffeine, sugar and gluten. Just to name the Big 4.

Sigh... that includes beer... coffee... (and hot chocolate)... all yummy sugary treats and... things like bread, pizza dough, and... da-da-daaaaa... brownies. Actually... chocolate brownies tick three of those boxes. All I'd need was to add some rum extract to the brownie and it would hit all four.

Starbucks Gold Card

Sooo... caffeine is easy... don't drink coffee. Not really a tea drinker either so... check that one off the list. Done!

Alcohol... I do like a beer on the weekends... but I stopped three weekends ago and haven't looked back. Done!

Sugar... bugger. It's one thing to know, intellectually that sugar causes inflammation in the body and is NOT good for Hashimoto's sufferers... but putting that into practice has been a bit of a problem.

Here's what I've come up with, my latest Go Big or Go Home strategy... I've removed the Starbucks app from my phone so I can't use it to pay for brownies. And... I've given my partner my Starbucks rewards card so I can't get any rewards (or use them) if I pass by a Starbucks. It's kind of a variation on the "put your credit card in ice if you're dealing with credit card debt". Cause the thing is... you get rewards for buying things at Starbucks and I'm such a cheapskate that I won't stop there if I can't use the app or my card. Sooo... we'll see how this goes. So far, so good... as of this writing, I am two days brownie free. Sigh... a long road ahead but I'm hoping that eliminating this form of sugar... and being wary of all other forms... will help me get a handle on this auto immune nightmare.

Wish me luck!

Breakthrough in Electric Vehicles

Right, so... we've had our Toyota 4-Runner for 25 years (anniversary date of 19 June). It's been a very good vehicle for a quarter of a century. It's been well-maintained and is only a 4 cylinder, so not ridiculous on gas. I had this idea that, after we reached 25 years, we'd maybe sell the thing and get a new/newer/less old vehicle. Good plan, no?

A few weeks ago, I had to take the 4-Runner into the shop because the "check engine" light had come on. After some diagnostics, the problem was identified as an oxygen sensor. I made an appointment to get that replaced and figured all would be good. Except... the mechanic who worked on replacing the O2 sensor also reported that the frame/undercarriage was being eaten by rust... to the point that it was getting holes in it. It was, theoretically, not really safe to drive anymore. His recommendation was that we retire the vehicle and definitely don't throw more money at it, trying to keep the thing alive.

Noooo... 

I have to admit, I shed a few tears over poor Clifford (The Big Red Truck). Other than my parents and sibling, he's been my longest relationship. Even longer than the previous cats (16 years). I bought Clifford new from Toyota and we've been through a lot together. Lots of adventures and misadventures... But now... the end is in sight.

Clifford's insurance is up for renewal on 22 August so that is now our firm deadline. We aren't going to be renewing the insurance after that. But what to do now? We can't sell the 4-Runner, obviously... but we could trade it in with BC's Scrap-It program... which will give you $6000 if you deliver your old vehicle to the Scrap-It junkyard and then buy a new e-vehicle, or $3000 if you buy a used e-vehicle or $1000 towards an e-bike.

I've been on a bit of a roller coaster trying to figure out what to get... new vehicle vs. used vehicle? Electric vehicle vs. hybrid vehicle vs. gas vehicle? Vehicle at all??? I had done a post a few months back about the possibility of going car-less... So many options and permutations. Part of the hesitation with an e-vehicle is... they are damn expensive ($45,000+) and the batteries only last 6-8 years, at which point you need to buy a new battery ($5000+). Plus... there are some concerns about how the batteries will be recycled/retired. Not the most eco-friendly options apparently.

Then, of course, there is the question of... does one get a charging station installed at home. Yes, you can plug an e-vehicle into a regular wall outlet, but then charging takes 10-12 hours. Even at a super-fast charging station (like the PetroCanada stations), a full charge can take upwards of 30 minutes. It's not quite the same as Gas 'n' Go... it's more like Charge Slow.

I'd also heard stories that anyone thinking of buying an e-vehicle should wait three years because battery technology was going to get waaaayyyyy better. Yeah, right. Except... it's true. And it's almost here... almost.

Batteries of the Future

Today's e-vehicle batteries are Lithium-ion. They are heavy. They are expensive. And they are slow to charge. On top of that, they have a short lifespan (6-8 years) and you can't go very far on a single charge (300-600 km). They are not ideal. For years, battery manufacturers have been chasing the holy grail of batteries... a solid-state Lithium-metal battery. Such a battery charges way faster, holds more energy in a comparable charge, has a longer range, is lighter and cheaper. But... they haven't been stable.

Recently however, the news (if you're a techie) has been touting a breakthrough. Researchers have finally found a way to make a solid state battery that is stable, can be charged upwards of 10,000 times (lifespan of 10-15 years - more in line with gas vehicles) and could fully charge in... 10-20 minutes! Sounds amazing!

Schematic of a conventional Li-ion battery with liquid electrolyte solution
and solid-state Lithium battery with a solid electrolyte
(From ResearchGate)

Now... there are still some logistical challenges... scaling this up to commercial production for one. But... researchers believe that these challenges can be overcome. Basically, we aren't going to be seeing any vehicles with solid-state batteries until the mid to late 2020s.

Sooo... I don't think we'll be buying an e-vehicle anytime soon. Maybe a hybrid. Maybe not. Maybe just a 10 year old gas vehicle that can tide us through until the new future of e-vehicles dawns in a few years.

In the meantime... I think of what these advances in solid-state batteries could mean for things like laptops and smartphones, all of which run on lithium-ion batteries. Maybe we'd get laptops that weigh a a fraction of what they do today. Exciting times!

When the Option of Eating a Healthy Diet becomes a Necessity

Thyroid - Mayo Clinic

Well, it's official. Getting old sucks! Sigh.

I went to get some routine lab work done in March and my TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) levels were a bit high but my T3 and T4 levels were still good. Some follow-up tests revealed that my Thyroperoxidase Ab levels are elevated. All of that basically means that I am likely heading for hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid) due to an auto-immune disorder called Hashimoto's Disease. 

Bugger.

This is not all that surprising. My mother has Grave's Disease (an auto immune disorder that leads to hyperthyroidism - an overactive thyroid). I have two first cousins who have Hashimoto's Disease (both on my maternal side). My grandmother and one of her sisters also had thyroid issues. So, I've been getting my TSH levels checked regularly for several years and they've always been good. But no more.

Hypothyroidism symptoms can include: loss of appetite, lack of concentration, difficulty sleeping, reduced motivation, mood swings, a short temper, depression and excessive stress. And yes, I'm ticking a bunch of those boxes already. I was putting it down to the pandemic but... perhaps there is more going on than just the pandemic blues and blahs.

My doctor wanted to put me on synthetic thyroid meds but I wanted to hold off and see a naturopath first. She's already got me eating two Brazil nuts a day (Selenium), making sure I get enough iodine (iodized table salt or seaweed nibbles), Omega 3 oils (algae oil) and a few other things. I'm sure that there's more that the naturopath is going to recommend, now that we've got the Thyroperoxidase Ab results...

In the meantime, I'm going to be picking the brains of my cousins as to what I can do to slow the progression. And... doing a tonne of research on the internet.

As it turns out, diet plays a huge role in controlling Hashimoto flare-ups. Things like gluten, sugar, dairy and processed/refined foods should be eliminated. That includes chocolate.

***crickets chirping***

Noooo... not chocolate! Yup, chocolate... sigh. I know that my cousins are on a pretty strict diet - no gluten and no dairy. But I missed the memo on sugar. And processed/refined foods.

Luckily, our mostly whole food, plant based diet aligns quite nicely with what dietitians recommend for Hashimoto sufferers... Still... some people go for a gluten free diet (no wheat, rye, barley). Others go for a grain free diet (no oats or buckwheat or amaranth or millet). Some go dairy free. Some go sugar free. Some go Paleo.

Others opt instead to focus on eating as healthy and nutrient dense of a diet as possible:

• leafy greens, such as kale and spinach
• fatty fish, including salmon
• a variety of coloured vegetables, such as brussel sprouts, broccoli, carrots, beets, and red, yellow, and orange peppers
• fruits, including berries, apples, and bananas
• healthful fats, including avocado and walnuts
• lean proteins, including tofu, eggs, nuts, beans, and fish
• fibrous foods, including beans and legumes
  

Healthy vegetables
(Image by congerdesign from Pixabay)

We're holding to that pretty closely, except for the fish and eggs. We also eat a variety of whole grains sooo.. .time will tell if I get to keep those in my diet or not. Right now, I'm more concerned about the sugar. We've been on a bit of a junk food kick lately (chocolate and chips and cookies) which (a) has not done much for my waistline reduction project and (b) does not adhere to our "whole foods" plan. But maybe this thyroid stuff is just the sort of thing that will encourage me to kick refined sugars and processed foods to the curb for good.

Avoiding Toxic Store Receipts

You've likely heard about BPA - Bisphenol A. It's a type of plastic that has been (and sometimes is still being) used in canned food, baby bottles, plastic water bottles and store receipts (those thermal paper ones).

BPA is incredibly bad for humans and is a known endocrine disruptor. Research indicates that BPA is linked to an increased risk of breast and prostate cancers, cardiovascular disease, and reproductive and brain development abnormalities. New studies even suggest it may be connected to autism spectrum disorder.

Pretty much everyone agrees that BPA is Bad News!

So what can we do about it? One option is to only buy plastic consumer goods that are labelled BPA-Free... although that is no guarantee that the item is actually free of BPA. Another option is to use glass and metal containers instead of plastic containers... good-bye vintage Tupperware. And definitely never ever microwave food in plastic containers... ever. BPA leaches out of plastic even faster when it's heated up... one of the reasons why plastic water bottles should not be left in the sun.

These are all good options but... one scientist noted that the really bad culprit is... thermal paper receipts. Apparently, “there's more BPA in a single thermal paper receipt than the total amount that would leach out from a polycarbonate water bottle used for many years" (see 2014 Consumer Reports).

This is bad news for store cashiers but also anyone who needs to handle receipts for accounting purposes. And it's not just store receipts. Thermal paper receipts are used for:

• airline boarding passes
• airline luggage tags
• train tickets
  
• movie tickets
• sporting event tickets
• amusement park tickets
• prescription bottle labels
• packaged supermarket items such as deli meats and cheeses
• fax paper
• lottery tickets

Yikes! So what is the solution? Well... there are a few options:

1. Wear those blue nitrile gloves when handling receipts.
2. Decline paper receipts wherever you have the option of getting an emailed receipt.
3. Don't carry receipts loose in your wallet, where the BPA can rub off on other things. Store them in a plastic bag.
4. Wash your hands (with soap and water) as soon as possible after touching receipts.
5. Don't use alcohol-based sanitizers before or after handling receipts since that just increases the skin's ability to absorb BPA! Well... that's fun in the age of Covid when we are all using hand sanitizers like mad.
6. Don't handle thermal paper if you are pregnant... and keep it away from kids too. Prenatal and early life exposure to BPA poses the greatest potential health risks.
   

This sudden interest in BPA was triggered for me by a receipt that I received from a local grocery store.

The backside of the receipt is not typical of other receipts. See... it's made by EcoChit and states that the paper is (a) sustainably sourced, (b) 100% BPA and BPS free and (c) One tree planted for every case of paper used.

Loud kudos to Country Grocer for going this route! I had a look at a stack of other receipts on my desk...

• Lowes
• Superstore
• Mobil Gas Bar
• Shopper's Drug Mart
• Winners
• Home Depot
• various credit card machine receipts

Out of all of those, only Winners has a note on the back of their receipt saying it is BPA-Free. Home Depot has an FSC notice - that the paper is from responsible sources, but nothing about BPA.

There is a call to ban toxic thermal paper receipts in Canada, particularly from the UCFW union. I did find news that Loblaws (Superstore & Shopper's Drug Mart) plans to ban all Bisphenols (BPA, BPS and others) from their receipts by the end of 2021. So that is good news. But isn't it about time that this went Canada-wide...

Canada banned BPA from baby bottles in 2010, declaring it a toxic substance. But Canada did not ban it from all food and consumer products. Due to consumer concern, however, many companies did voluntarily remove BPA from their products. Home Depot receipts. for example, have been BPA free for over 10 years. So is all of this just a moot point?

Nope... you see, many companies just phased out BPA and used BPS or other Bisphenols instead. Sigh. All of which are just as toxic as BPA. Seriously...

So, I went and had a look at the EcoChit site which produces the Country Grocer receipts. Those receipts are completely phenol free but do use a chemical called Pergafast instead of the phenols... What is this stuff?

Well, Pergafast is also a chemical but... it would appear that it is much less easily absorbed into the skin than BPA and BPS... at least according to a 2015 study.

All of this does make me wonder why Canada doesn't just ban all phenol products... In the meantime, maybe it's time to praise the likes of Country Grocer and Loblaws and start poking at places like Home Depot...

The Misunderstood Rule of the Woods - Leave No Trace

Sooo... we had a gorgeous warm, sunny weekend a few weeks ago Folks were out in the woods and parks in full force.

Actually, I didn't see them there... I just came across their remains. Well, not "their" remains... but the stuff that they left behind.

There's a rocky bluff up by the local lake and it's a popular hangout  for the younger crowd in the warmer months, particularly on the weekends. Last summer, I made it a regular weekend stop because there always seemed to be remains...

On that sunny weekend, I decided to walk through the woods to the bluff on Sunday morning because it is a beautiful spot, overlooking the lake with the mountain in the background. I can get some gorgeous photographs there...

As I came to the top of the bluff, I had a sense of what I would find down by the shore. Off to the side of the trail, down the slope was a spilled bag of beer and cooler cans. I decided to pick them up on my way out...

And... sure enough... once I got closer to the water... scads of garbage - towels, chip bags, drink cups, pizza boxes and various miscellaneous crap. Clearly, the younger folk had a good time here Saturday evening. They just neglected to clean up after themselves.

There were a couple of early fishermen down by the water, and one of them called out that he had cleaned up a similar mess on Saturday morning. And yet, here was more. Sad. Disgusted.

I didn't have a large garbage bag in my pack, just a regular plastic bag. I debated my options. It was a good 15 minutes back to the truck... And there was a lot of stuff there...

In the end, I used one of the towels as a make-shift tote and gathered everything together. It was bulky, unwieldy and moderately heavy... damp towels aren't lightweight. But... I made it back to the trail head and shoved everything into the garbage can there.

I had several debates with myself during this process:

Tossing the Towels

Should I have taken the towels home, washed them and then donated them to the SPCA? That would seem to be the most eco-friendly thing to do and yet... we are living in the time of Covid and I didn't really want to bring this pile of damp towels back to our home. I took the route of least resistance and just dumped them... but I felt bad doing that.

Not My Monkeys, Not My Circus

Should I have just left the mess there for the "kids" to come back and clean up on their own? Am I just enabling this sort of mess-making by cleaning up after them? After all, it's not my mess... not my job to clean up after slovenly youth!

I decided "No"... if these kids were raised right by their parents... they'd already know that they should clean up after themselves. This isn't so much about the youth... it's about the parents...

Some people excuse this sort of behaviour by saying that it's hard to clean up after a party in the dark, particularly when the scoundrels are drunk as skunks. Perhaps... but the bigger question then is... if they are too drunk to clean up after themselves... who's driving everyone home? And who had the common sense to pack all the cans into a bag? Admittedly, a bag that got dropped down a slope and left for someone else to clean up...

Trash Begets Trash

But here's the thing... they've done studies on trash and litter. If it starts to accumulate somewhere... say along the side of the road or at a park, guess what? People apparently feel it's OK to toss their own litter and trash there. This is why graffiti gets painted over quickly... if it stays up, it tells other graffiti-ers that it's OK to add their own creations to that building or bridge. Cities have to stay on top of graffiti... and it's the same with trash. And there is no way cities can stay on top of the amount of trash that gets routinely tossed along roadways and trails... It's up to civic-minded citizens to step up... that's you and me folks...

If you go out into the woods or a city park or the beach... there are some rules of the trail that you might have heard of...

Pack it In, Pack It Out

There is a pretty well-known rule of the hiker crowd... if you pack it in, you pack it back out. This applies equally well to the folks walking in city parks and local woodlands. What it means is this...

If you bring a granola bar to eat on your walk... you pack out your granola bar wrapper. You don't just drop it on the trail. This is why seamstresses gave us pockets! 

If you bring your cup of Timmies along for the walk... you carry that cup the whole length of your walk. You don't just toss it in the woods. Drink cups are lined with a thin film of plastic and that stuff never ever decays. Trust me... I've seen the various stages of disintegration of a Timmies cup... the plastic liner is still lying in the woods months after you tossed your Timmies cup there. Or Starbucks cup... or McDonald's cup.

If you scoop your dog's poop while on the trail, good for you!!! Excellent... but that's only the first step. You have now committed to carrying that poop bag the entire way back to your vehicle... or the nearest garbage can, whichever comes first...  And no, a hollow stump is NOT a garbage can. I can't tell you how many poopy bags I've found in the woods, tossed off the trail by some half-assed "responsible" dog owner.

Leave No Trace

This is another well-known rule of the woods, particularly the back-packing crowd. It includes the "pack it in, pack it out" rule along with a few others. But here's the thing... it's not just about me or you leaving no trace... it's about taking it a step farther and leaving a negative trace.

Great that you tuck your granola bar wrapper into your backpack or pocket. But now... here's the question... what do you do when you see a granola bar wrapper on the trail? It's not your wrapper... not your monkeys... not your circus. What do you do?

Leave it for the owner to come back and clean up?? Come on... that ain't never gonna happen! Maybe they dropped it on purpose... maybe it fell out of their pocket by accident... Doesn't matter, they ain' coming back for it.

Leave it for the park patrol to clean up? There ain't no park patrol!

Actually there is... you are the park patrol. You saw the wrapper on the ground... now it's up to you to leave no trace. Just pretend it's your granola bar wrapper that fell out of your pocket accidentally on your last walk. Pick it up and put it in your pocket or pack or perhaps... the plastic bag that you could start carrying to collect trash along the trail...

Leave it Better than You Found It

Which leads me to the last rule of the trail... leave it better than you found it. Yes, you can be responsible for your own trash but... we are all citizens of a larger community, a larger world. We are all caretakers of the Earth... of our forests and trails and waterways. Someone said I could have just left the garbage for the "kids" to clean up. Maybe... but in that time, the wind might have blown some of it into the lake where it would drift around, perhaps harming fish or birds in the process. We all know that six-pack rings are NOT eco-friendly.

Sooo... even though these aren't my monkeys or my circus... I can see that I will need to be stocking my pockets and pack with plastic grocery bags. And if you see a person on the trail carrying a bag of garbage or cans... give them a smile and a thank you! And... consider carrying our own stash of bags...

Post-Script

Soooo... I did a pass through of the bluff on my Monday morning walk and found a good two dozen cans and bottles littering the rocks. Not much actual garbage though. I was prepared with a number of bags and came out of the woods with a half-bag of garbage and a bag and a half of cans...

Cooking with Kitchen Scraps

We hate to waste food and yet, somehow, it always seems to happen. This feels a bit like a repeat of last week's blog post and yet... it's not. You see, we have a compost bin and so, can convince ourselves that our food waste isn't the worst thing in the world... after all, the wilted celery will go into the compost bin and then fertilize our garden, right? And the dead cooked stuff will end up in the city recycle bin where it too will be turned into compost. Good, yes?

Well, yes and no... I can hear my mother now... and maybe your mother too... back when we were kids. "Some starving family in Africa would love to eat that...". And it's true... we toss away an enormous amount of food. Apparently the Canadian kitchen is on of the worst places for food waste.

 Which brings me to... IKEA. Strange leap, I know but... they just published (and it's available for FREE) The ScrapsBook - a cookbook for your kitchen scraps. Sayyyyyy whaaaat???

Yes... it's true... all of those things that we righteously toss into the compost bin could actually be used to cook something delicious... And not just soup broth... See the scraps below? Bruised apple cores and skins, carrot ends (including the green bits), old black beans, overripe beets and leftover ginger... all of that can be turned into...

 

This... a scrumptious veggie burger... out of kitchen scraps... crazy!

Apparently all of this is part of IKEA's wider pledge to become a circular, climate-positive business by 2030. Their head of marketing (Johanna Andren) said that "Seeing how much waste is created in one of the most important rooms in the home, we set out to inspire Canadians by giving food scraps another look and offering new, creative ways to reduce food waste at home”.

I've downloaded the pdf version of their cookbook and we might just have to try some of these - like maybe Corn Cob Soup... or Pesto made from kale stems... whoa... 

Some cool ideas and a great way to eek every bit of nourishment out of our produce (and there are meat recipes too) before it hits the compost or green bin...

Love Food Hate Waste

We hate throwing away food. And yet... it happens. Not as often as before, but still. Every little bit that gets thrown away weighs on us.

Sometimes it's because things migrate to the back of the refrigerator and well... we lose sight of them and by the time we find them... oops... too far gone.

Sometimes it's because the produce we buy has already started down the road to decay. I'm looking at you avocados! Sooo expensive and they look fine on the outside. But when you open them up, they're all brown and icky. And then there are the bags of mandarins or oranges which have one that is has already gone off.

Or the limp stalks of celery... but those can usually get repurposed for soup stock!

Apparently we are not alone. We received a waste management newsletter from our regional district a few weeks ago. They are aiming for Zero Waste... our goal is 90% waste reduction by 2030. We are only at 67% waste reduction... but we're getting there!

They had a short article on food waste which really shocked me. One third of all food produced globally is wasted! That's just mind-boggling. That food gets wasted from the farm to the table... all along the food production route. From squiggly potatoes that don't look "perfect" to wastage in transit, to wastage in grocery stores to wastage in our fridges to wastage off the plate. 

Love Food Hate Waste Canadian stats

And look... every day in Canada... every DAY... we waste 1,200,000 tomatoes... 2,400,000 potatoes... 450,000 eggs. Every day. WTF?

That's 2.2 million tonnes of food every year... tossed. Not only is a waste of food, but it's a waste of water, fertilizer, energy, gasoline, labour, etc, etc. Oh, and it's a waste of money too... Those 2.2 million tonnes of food waste cost us over $17 billion dollars a year... and contribute to our greenhouse gas emissions...

Want some more stats?

• Canadians are among the worst of the developed nations when it comes to food waste, with about 47 percent of food waste occurring in the home
• 63% of household food waste in Canada is avoidable
• An average household throws away $1,000 of edible food per year.
  

 Sheesh...

There's a website which aims to help us waste less food, with tips on everything from how to store produce so it stays fresh longer, to meal planning and portion sizes. Some great tips for all of us... and most of them are just small steps... but make a big difference!

What Does Menopausal Self-Care even Look Like?

It's official, I've hit menopause. Sigh. I know this time of change is supposed to be amazing... or something... but it sure doesn't feel like it!

Hitting puberty, people would say, "Oh, you're a woman now." Yay.

Hitting menopause, what do people say?? "Oh, you're an elder now." I haven't heard that yet. "Welcome to the crone years." Haven't heard that either. "Welcome to the wise years." Nope... not that one either.

I'm not sure what the next years are going to bring but after watching my partner sweat through hot flashes for the last 10 or more years... I'm not holding my breath.

I'm moody, cranky, emotional, tired, exhausted and just plain out of sorts. Some days I feel more like me... other days I feel like a soggy limp dishrag with no "oomph" left for anything. I am resisting my to-do list with a fierceness that surprises me.

My partner tells me that I need to learn how to practice self-care. The menopause resources all say the same thing. I need shift from taking care of others (and everything else) to taking care of me. And... to be completely honest... I have no idea what that means. Bubble baths? Me time?

I do know a few things though. I need (like... "need") to get out in the woods at last once a week... and at this point, I would say more like two or three times a week. Just me and the woods. Because the other thing I've noticed is that this little introvert needs time away from the house. With both of us more or less cooped up together, I don't have as much alone time as before. I used to go to Starbucks for a few hours every morning for some alone time... just me and my laptop and my ear-buds... in a crowd. But... go figure... that counted as alone time.

So there's probably a few things colliding here... menopause, pandemic fatigue and a over-stimulated introvert. And yet... the perfectionist in me thinks I should still be able to race around like the energizer bunny, despite the fact that there are a lot of external and internal events that are draining little bunny. Drained battery on the me-time front... wonky hormones that are sending me on a Tilt-a-Whirl/Roller-Coaster madness... and just general tiredness from the pandemic.

Sooo... self-care... what is this critter? What does it even mean or look like? Well... here's what it looked like today...

I know that my triglycerides are a bit high. The best way to lower them is through... exercise... which is on all of the menopausal self-care lists I've looked at. I have been a bit lax on the exercise front during the winter but today, I plugged in an Amy Schumer audiobook and plodded up the Beast Hill and then extended that to a 45 minute walk. I then sat down, journalled for a bit and decided to go to Walmart for a new watch strap. My Garmin fitness tracker/watch strap has been irritating my skin of late so I have not been wearing it for the last 4 weeks. I've been meaning to run over to Walmart and get a new leather strap for the last month... but it always gets shoved aside for other errands. OK... enough of that... today I drove to Walmart, got the watch strap and two jars of my favourite pickles (no, not pregnant) and a new card game for my partner and I to play during our TV-free evenings. Done. I can now strap on my fitness tracker and at least get a handle on how many steps/intensity minutes I am doing in a day and set some goals.

This trip to Walmart felt kind of decadent... instead of sitting down and writing first thing in the morning... I headed off to Walmart for a watch strap. Pre-menopausal me would have judged this to be a frivolous trip, better tied into Friday morning's weekly shopping trip. But... four Fridays have come and gone and yet... I have failed to manage to squeeze in the Walmart errand. Enough of that I thought... 

Sooo... that's what self-care looked like for me this morning. I'm not sure what the rest of the day will bring... maybe clearing out the shed so I can dig out my bicycle in order to do some small rides (5 minutes or less) in order to acclimatize my butt to the bike seat.

I'm not really used to this idea of putting me first... it seems a tad selfish or self-centred or... self-something. But I am starting to consider the possibility that this is just a concrete example of me putting on my own mask first and then being able to tend to everything else. It's a bit of a learning curve and I'm not very good at it right now but... with some small steps, I'm hoping that I can master this... or should I say mistress this...

Just Say No to Weed Man

Our yard is over-run with robins at the moment. They are having twitter fests in the trees and hopping around the lawn, enthusiastically pulling out reluctant worms. It's a happy little vignette but one that could hide a horror.

Last week, there was a knock at our door. It was a socially-distanced representative from Weed Man Lawn Care services. The 20-something gentleman was offering a FREE! lawn care estimate. I paused briefly and then said "No, thank you". But it's FREE he said with some desperation. They have a variety of lawn services and there was no obligation on our part to accept any of the services offered. He said we could just take the flyer and then toss it in the recycling if we didn't want any of them. I thought it over and again said "No, thank you". I don't think he was pleased with me... and walked away with a slump to his shoulders. I'm sure he looked at our moss-ridden front lawn and thought that we really, really needed some lawn care!

Maybe it could do with some aeration... or some fertilizer... or even some broad-leaf herbicides. We are, after all, a bit over-run with dandelions which are starting to burst into flower. Not to mention quack grass and a few other nameless weeds. But we aren't really "lawn people". We don't really care if it's a smoothly manicured sheet of uniform green or not.

Here's the thing. Let's say we were to say "yes" to some moss killer or even weed killer. The operative word in there is "killer". An herbicide is really a biocide. It is poison. There's a reason why Weed Man tells you to keep children and pets off of the lawn after it has been treated with "herbicide". There's a reason why you should cover up all skin surfaces and wear a serious respiration mask (not just a paper mask) when you are using any biocide. This stuff can make you seriously ill and/or kill smaller creatures.

We had some next door neighbours who moved here from the Okanagan a couple of years ago. The husband was in Stage 4 kidney failure and was hoping for a kidney transplant. He had worked for a landscaping company... spraying herbicides and pesticides and other biocides. Remember the Monsanto court case in California a few years ago? A couple sued Monsanto for millions and won. Monsanto, by the way, makes one of the most popular weed killers... Roundup... deadly stuff.

So, no... we don't want herbicides and pesticides and any other biocides in our yard. Poison that gets sprayed on the grass and then soaks into the soil where the worms eat it... and then the birds eat the worms... or feed the worms to their young. And then the birds die and get eaten by the cat who then gets sick. Nope... not interested.

It might seem a small thing to spray some Roundup on the weeds in the driveway but... each small step leads to another small step in a cascading series of small steps. Just say No to biocides.

P.S. It appears that Weed Man has been getting into trouble in the past few years with some shady sales practices. Never say "Yes" to a "FREE" quote... Just say "No!".

Moving Away from the All or Nothing Approach

All or Nothing

I've always been an All or Nothing type of gal. I would sink all my time and energy into one project, to the exclusion of most everything else. Much of this was driven by my desire to just get it done. Have it be finished and complete so that I could wrap a fancy bow around it and be able to say "DONE!".

Needless to say that has not always worked well. There are very few things that can be wrapped up neatly and declared to be finished. At least not within a few days or weeks.

Because, the thing is... I would go all or nothing for a while on a project and then get kind of bored with it and be distracted by shiny new projects and turn my attention elsewhere. Even though the project wasn't finished...

I guess you could say I was a sprinter... but a sprinter trying to run a marathon at full sprinting speed. That generally does not end well.

Small Steps Every Day

Lately, I've been trying a new approach. I might have five areas or projects that I am working on. In the past, I would just try and get one project fully (sometimes only mostly) complete before turning my attention to the next. But this time, I am trying my Small Steps approach by working on each project for a little bit each day.

I have decided to try this in one hour chunks of time, more or less. An hour for writing, an hour for helping my partner with a project she is working on, an hour for working on a new book, an hour for chipping away at revamping my other blog site (which just moved to WordPress - ugh!) and an hour for yard work. What with cooking and eating lunch from 11 am to 1 pm (we eat our main meal at lunch), that leads to a relatively full day.

So far it seems to be working quite well. Every day needs some tweaking as there are always other things that impinge on a schedule like that. But I am trying to bend with the stream, go with the flow, and just adjust on the fly. 

Priming the Pump

(Image by David Reed from Pixabay)

The thing that I've discovered is this... If I don't already have the next step in mind for the project, I can get derailed quite quickly.

For example, if I don't know what I am going to do out in the yard, I am totally overwhelmed by the gazillion tasks out there and decide to just keep working on another project. It's the uncertainty thing and trying to make a decision. Yard work is usually in the afternoon and by that time, my decision-making battery is running on empty. But... if I know what my next step is... if I've primed the pump, so to speak... then I have a plan for what I am going to do out there.

We want to plant some radishes in the greenhouse. OK. What do I need to do that? Well, the beds in there need water. So my first step is to dig out the garden hose from the shed and reattach it to the faucet so I can water in the greenhouse. I had a look in the shed the other week and it is in serious need of decluttering and organizing. But... all I need to do is get out the garden hose. That's it. Shed decluttering can come later.

I also know that the truck has a service appointment on Monday. Just an oil change and changing out the winter tires for summer tires. The tires are also in the shed and a bit buried at the moment. So that is definitely going to be a priority for the weekend. But all I need to do is get out the summer tires.

Overcoming Inertia

The other thing that I've noticed is that once I get going, I'm fine. It's just getting over that initial hump of inertia and uncertainty. But, already knowing what I am going to be doing... that lowers the inertial hump quite a bit. As does... starting with Small Steps... just put on my gardening clothes, then my boots and then go outside... All I need to do is find the garden hose. That's it. One step at a time.

And priming the pump doesn't have to take a lot of time. It's as simple as selecting a recipe for tomorrow's lunch and then pulling whatever I need out of the freezer.

Small Steps just make everything easier... 

In the News - France Leads the Way by Introducing a "Repairability" Index

Have you noticed in the last few years (decades?) how it's gotten cheaper to buy a new [fill in the blank] rather than repair the old one? Whether it's a fridge, freezer, computer, lamp or bread-maker, somehow repairing these items has gotten ridiculously expensive, while the cost of a new one has gotten relatively cheap. There's something wrong with this picture.

I know that manufacturers have been building things under the motto of "planned obsolescence" for years now. The idea being, manufacture something so that it will only last a few years and the consumer (that's us) will have to buy a new one. Gone are the days when you buy a washing machine and expect to keep it for 25 years. Now, we're lucky if they last 10 years.

Part of this is also the "latest" fad. We need the "latest" iPhone or iPad or smartphone or purse or whatever. And where do the old ones go? The broken and worn out devices that are only a few years old? Well, hopefully they get recycled but... that's not always the case. Apparently a LOT of dead devices are sitting in people's cupboards, not being recycled. Some even end up in the garbage where they leach toxic waste.

Broken smartphone screen
"Droid Eris meets pavement" by robertnelson is licensed under CC BY 2.0

It's not an ideal scenario. Can you imagine if we changed cars as quickly as we changed our smartphones? Oh... wait... I think some people do that! But what if you always had to take your car to the dealership to get it repaired? What if independent mechanics couldn't access the user manuals and specs on your car's electronic systems? You'd be paying through the nose for dealership repairs. Sounds ridiculous but up until a few years ago in the USA, that was exactly what was happening. If your car broke down, you'd have to have it towed to the dealership. Their "proprietary" repair manuals and specs were not available to independent mechanics. You, as the car owner, did not enjoy the "Right to Repair". Crazy, yes?

Well... the exact same thing happens today with smartphones and other electronic devices. Oh sure, people can figure it out and there are all sorts of people and businesses that will repair smartphones but... did you ever notice the most appliances have a little phrase on the back/bottom? Something along the lines of "Attempts to open this appliance/case will void the warranty". Imagine if that is written on the undercarriage of your car motor? "Sorry... this car is not repairable... go and buy a new one."

The manufacturers don't make it easy for anyone else to repair their devices. In fact, repairability is not something that dovetails nicely with planned obsolescence. After all, why would you make something easily repairable if your ultimate goal is to have the device break down so that the consumer will buy a new device? The thing is... our current level of consumption is not sustainable. If the entire world consumed items at the same rate that we do in Canada and the USA... we'd need to find five more Earths. Not going to happen. We need to conserve what we have and use it very wisely.

Even something as simple as replacing the battery in a smartphone or a laptop can be a challenge. I remember our first smartphones (Samsung Galaxy S2) ... you could easily remove the back and access the battery and SIM card. Same with my old laptop... just pop out the batter housing and pop in a new one. Not anymore. Our new (1 year old) Samsung Galaxy S10s do not have a removable back. Same with my HP laptop. If the battery starts failing... well, then, it's time to replace the entire laptop and/or phone. There's a website, IFIXIT, that scores the repairability of smartphones... Here's what it has to say about the S10

-   battery replacement is possible but still unnecessarily difficult
-   glued-down glass both front and back means greater risk of breakage and makes repairs difficult to start
+   a single Phillips driver takes care of all the screws

Repairability index of a Samsung Galaxy S10 smartphone

That's just crazy... but that's a lack of repairability for you. The S10 scores only a "3" on the list (out of a possible 10). Does any smartphone score a 10?? Well, our old S2 scored an "8"... hmph. The S5 (which we also had) scored a "5"... And then the S7 scored a "3". See the pattern? Older phones are more repairable than the new ones. Sigh. But... there is hope... enter the FairPhone 3 which scores a solid "10" on the scale of repairability. The Shift 6m (German company) scores a "9". All of the other newer phones (since 2019) score a "6" or lower. The thing is... buying a new smartphone is NOT a cheap endeavour! They usually cost well over $1000 CAN and that is a hefty chunk of change.

This is why repairability is about to explode onto the global market. France is first out of the starting gate by introducing an index of "repairability" for things like washing machines, lawnmowers, televisions and smartphones. The ultimate goal is to reduce the amount of waste and keep appliances and devices in circulation for longer. Nearly two-thirds of Europeans would rather repair their products than buy new ones... savvy people.

France's repairability index (scale of 1 to 10)

And... in November 2020, the European Parliament followed suite and voted to support consumers' Right to Repair.

The resolution was adopted with 395 in favour and just 94 against, with 207 abstentions.

“By adopting this report, the European Parliament sent a clear message: harmonised mandatory labelling indicating durability and tackling premature obsolescence at EU level are the way forward,” said Rapporteur David Cormand, MEP from France.

Apparently, more and more US states are proposing Right to Repair legislation in their jurisdictions as well. Which is good news!

There are, however, a few potential hiccups with the French system... manufacturers are the ones who grade their devices/appliances on how repairable they are. Hmmm... still, it's a start and time will tell how that works as people engage with the devices and decide if the repairability index is accurate!

Repair Café from Wikipedia

You're likely heard of repair cafés popping up all around the world. The idea is that volunteers come and help people repair their broken [fill in the blank]. I just had a look at the link above and there's even a repair cafe in Nanaimo! (Although, I'm not sure how much it's doing during the pandemic!)

The truth is... some appliances have gotten so complicated (I'm looking at you Smart TV) that it's no longer an easy thing to just replace a tube or a transistor (or whatever). Repairing a Smart TV can be a daunting prospect.

On the other hand... we have also lost a lot of the repair no-how for simple things like a hole in a sock. My Mom used to darn our socks (remember that!?) but I don't think I'd be able to do it. Not only do I not have a darning block/egg, but our entire sewing kit fits in a cookie tin. There's no big supply of yarn or thread. We can still sew buttons back on... but that's about it! So... in some cases, the tendency to not repair isn't due to a lack of repairability... just a lack of ability!

I'm hopeful that this repairability thing will take off... we can do our own part. By not buying the latest whats-it... but taking our broken whats-it to a repair cafe. By asking manufacturers about the repairability of their devices/appliances. It can be hard. Not to be driving the latest flashy SUV. Ours is just a few months shy of it's 25th birthday... imagine that... driving the same vehicle for 25 years. Radical thought.

P.S. Another news article came out which indicates that the repairability legislation is spreading across Europe! Excellent news.