I painted my retired (white) running shoes black so I would not have to buy new ones to go with my Coast Guard Aux summer ODU (Operational Dress Uniform).*

Black is black

The Coast Guard Auxiliary is all about regulations — many of them aimed at herding cats, like me, into wearing a proper uniform. To complicate compliance, rules change with a regularity that sets those slow to adapt or resisters, like me, almost constantly out of sync. I have not been on patrol for quite a long stint and during my hiatus I have ignored the details, as well as the broad uniform rule changes. I confirmed last last week the summer ODU (Operational Dress Uniform) required black athletic shoes which I didn’t have.

So here I go. Read more

The Gyre, a plastic littered site in the middle of the ocean, inspired me to promise to consume 10 pounds less plastic this year. The Gyre is so out of sight, it is so easy to ignore, it is so simple to forget and not care about. This weekend, as I walked to the marina at Lake Pleasant, I took this photo of a local mini-gyre. The environmental disgrace is so near my home I have to take it personally.

Spring winds have whipped Lake Pleasant and it rained several days ago. The lake’s water level has risen to capacity. This combination pushes floating material windward into compacted surface mats, mostly along Pleasant’s shorelines. These mats are for the greater part brown mulchy organic material; dead leaves, swollen twigs and rotting cacti with still-dangerous barbs. The sad fact is the organic matter is punctuated with plastic; bottles, wrappers, even flip-flops.

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On my last trip to the grocery store I found myself planted in the middle of an aisle agonizing over a purchase of white cider vinegar.

Each visit to the store makes me smarter about what is a reasonable use of plastic and what is not.
Both Ed and I have become very good at avoiding unnecessary packaging, especially if it’s plastic.
I’ve come to the conclusion there are a few foods, tofu for example, that only come in plastic. Period.
I accept now that some packaging is not only not so bad, but actually the only pragmatic choice.
Am I selling out because I buy tofu, cheese or a few veggie burgers? Maybe, but they only come in plastic, so I excuse myself.

But the vinegar was another story. I had a choice. Read more

Yeah, I know. I know. I have not reported on my plastic diet for February and it is already late-March. There have been some successes and tiny gains but each time I go to a store, an event, the market or even to the mail box I am confronted with my inability to shun plastic of all sorts and types. It is constantly discouraging. Read more

Dieting is not fun to talk about, unless you are having great success. I’m not.

Since my New Year’s resolution to lose ten pounds of plastic this year, I have stayed vigilant, however the amount of plastic I have done without probably does not amount to more than a few ounces. At some point I will go to the post office and use a scale to weigh what my poly sacrifices add up to. This may be difficult, as you can imagine, estimating the weight of what you don’t have possession of will not be better than a wild guess. Regardless, I am fairly sure that in spite of my efforts, I have not kept more than seven or eight ounces of plastic out of my trash in the last 42 days. Read more

My plastic diet is about giving up delights.

Packaged inside a box with the plastic film window, held in the cradle of plastic, then individually wrapped is a treasure that Ed spies as we shop. “They’re on sale!” he exclaims in as close to a squeal as a baritone can get.

I do not need to see. I know they look delicious. I know they are nestled unscathed, perfectly uncrumbled in their triple-cloak of the forbidden. Hand crafted in the tradition of the old world — packaged in the way of the modern.

“NO!” I snap as Ed reached for the box of lemon biscotti. “Too much plastic.”

I want them. I imagine their sweet tartness melting inside my warm mouth. Rock hard as I suck off the icing. Dripping from a quick plunge into my tea. I savor. I swallow.

“Ohhhhh. Please Ed. Put them back.” I moan, turning away lest I give in to the temptation of the individually wrapped.

What was I thinking? I’m discouraged, depressed and ready to give up my hair-brained idea of a plastic diet.

One month is quickly closing in on me and I am ashamed to admit I have already considered (more than once) to chuck it all. It was foolhardy to declare I would lose 10 pounds of poly. It is everywhere and so hard to resist.

It really would be easy to delete from this blog my public proclamation that I would keep 160 ounces of petroleum-based junk from invading my life. I have the password. Deleting requires clicking on one button. Easy! I checked. The problem is, giving up is not my nature. Read more

Well, I am back from my grocery shopping. How did I do? Not so well.

I gave in to a few temptations but managed to curtail only a few unwanted plastic purchases by just not buying what I wanted. I walked past the salad dressings when I discovered that even my favorite, Newman’s, has gone to plastic bottles. I had Ed swap out his plastic milk jug for the paperboard one. Same for our coffee cream. I could not resist the bag of romaine hearts on sale for half the price of the loose lettuce. I also bought the convenient pre-washed bag of greens.

Going down my receipt it looks dismal. I always knew there are obvious unwanted plastic purchases that came with the food I intended to buy, but I did not know just how ingrained it was in my shopping habits.

I am not going to count, at least for now, the tiny plastic stickers found on each and every piece of fresh fruit or vegetable in the produce department to aid the checker. I may start peeling them off and putting them … well that is just passing the problem on to someone else isn’t it? Never mind that idea.

I’ll count obvious plastic packaging, no matter how small, except for those pesky stickers. This will include caps, pull tabs, lids, bags; all the plastic that is exposed as the product sits on the shelf. I will also report all the hidden plastic we don’t see. For example, the plastic bag inside the box. Read more

Every ounce of plastic ever made is still on our planet. — Sailors for the Sea

In a 1998 survey, 89 percent of the litter observed floating on ocean surface
in the North Pacific was plastic. – United Nations Environment Program

Most Americans who bothered to make a resolution this year, probably vowed to lose weight. Me too. Yes, even though I am a puny 108 pounds, I hereby publicly vow to lose 10 pounds. Sounds excessive? No, actually it is most likely a too tiny percentage. I hope to reduce my plastic garbage this year by ten pounds. I have yet to figure out just how much ten pounds of plastic amounts to, but I bet, when measured against the mass of goods I buy, use, then simply toss (even into the recycling bin), that ten pounds is in fact a very modest reduction for a year. I may indeed be setting my goal too low. Read more

Quantity, distance, speed, depth, wind — aboard a boat the list of things to be measured, accounted and considered is long, if not innumerable. The goal, almost always, is to have just enough. My Rule of Just Enough is to never lack but certainly not to have an excess. Read more