Al Gore redux

I kind of kid around with my cousin remarking on anything and everything environmentally friendly or conservation-wise as being "Al Gore friendly".

Those spiral energy efficient bulbs I call them"Al Gore bulbs".

The reusuable shopping bags I call them "Al Gore bags".

Water saver toilets are "Al Gore toilets".

For Christmas, my cousin gave me a membership to the "Trustees of Reservations" of Massachusetts where you can visit and hike around specific conservation lands. On the gift card, my cousin wrote, "Maybe we can explore some of these places together! An Al Gore gift, ha ha!"

Al Gore has therefore become an environmental icon. I suppose that is good thing to be stereotyped and made a symbol of the environment and conservation.

Hey, it is a heck a lot better than what Monica Lewinsky's name has been reduced to and been symbolized as.

As much of a political conservative I am I still regard myself as an environmentalist. I liked Al Gore because of his pro-environmental voting record. Although I could not align myself in the 2000 election with him because of his affiliation with that dirty cheating pig, Bill Clinton.

Oops...I'm getting off topic.

OK back to "Al Gore stuff".

Last week, I bought an "Al Gore energy saver shower head". I have to honestly tell you it was terrible. I ended up having to return it. The shower head just spit water. I was cold and I did not feel clean.

I had seriously thought of getting an "Al Gore compost bin" but I just can not collect garbage and coffee grinds in a container awaiting to be transported outside because it just totally grosses me out.

Every month I check the gas bill and check it with the following year to see if there is any changes. I've done alot of what I thought energy efficient changes such as redirected vents to be more efficient, sealed door cracks, changed a door that was better insulated and use thermal lined curtains for the sliders. I keep the temp at a steady 68 F . I wear sweat pants and fleece tops in the house to keep warm. However, I noticed the heat bill that I was using a higher amount of units more than usual than from the previous years. This didn't make sense, or so I thought.

I then realized I was washing and drying clothes more often. In the summer, I would line dry the clothes so I figured I would try line drying for the month of January to see if that made a difference on the heat consumption. (I have gas heat and use a gas dryer) It will be an interesting experiment to see if it makes a difference.

I think Al Gore would be proud.