Did I miss the creation care memo on Christmas lights?

I consider myself a "best efforts" environmentalist. I could do a lot more but I try to do my best to not waste resources. I take the bus a couple times per week, run instead of drive to return DVD's to the video store, etc... In general I like to think I put some effort into minimizing my carbon footprint.

It has become a holiday tradition at our house that I go up on the roof on the weekend after Thanksgiving and string lights on the roof and also in the trees in front of our house. Every year, as I take them down in January, I think to myself "this will be the last year" but 11 months later I usually find myself climbing back on the roof. So last weekend after Thanksgiving and after some prodding from Bridget I was up there running rope lights around the parameter of my roof.

A funny thing has happened this year though. I seem to be about the only person in my neighborhood putting lights up. It is making me a little paranoid that maybe I missed some environmentalists memo that wasting electricity on Christmas lights was only helping to speed up the extinction of polar bears or the inevitable flooding of New York city due to melting polar ice caps. I belong to a list serve at work where people share opinions and ideas on how to be good stewards of creation. I admit that I sometimes watch it more closely than others. I've been busy lately. Did I miss an agreement by everyone that hanging Christmas lights was evil?

I'm thinking that the reason I'm not seeing more lights yet is that Thanksgiving was a little earlier than usual this year and that most people just weren't ready and will do it this weekend. But we're getting a snowstorm this weekend and then by the next weekend it will be too late to be worth it. So am I in this by myself for the season? And with human nature being what it is, will people who never got around to hanging their lights decide that they would publicly claim that they didn't put them up because, unlike me, they care about the environment? Will I get to work tomorrow and get an email from my list serve friends along the lines of "OK everyone. Nobody put evil Christmas lights up did they?"


















Our house (above)



















The Neighborhood

Self Installed Seat Belts

A while back the seat belt in my car gave out. It happened while I was buckled up in a Best Buy parking lot (but that's a whole other story). I checked around at some auto parts stores to purchase a new one but found out that nobody will sell them to the general public for liability reasons. I knew from experience that the Volvo dealership would want a ridicules amount to fix it so I had no choice but to try and replace it myself. I finally found one on eBay and ordered it. It was a pretty elaborate process to remove the old one and install the new one but I got it changed and it seems to be working fine.

The following website is available if you would like to track the success of this project: Seat Belt Project Update