On Saturday we went to the CFU Energy Fair. Jonah had a good time riding the train. Oh, and by the way, his fever was gone by morning. We watched the magic show, took the tree id quiz, and gathered some information about heat pumps and windows. I wish that I had a place in my house to put a corn burner.
The Green Earth Magic Show was put on by a guy who is originally from Cedar Falls but lives now on a yacht in California. He recently ended his run of 15 years at the Excalibur hotel/casino in Las Vegas. The show was good and had a solid environmental message. Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle were the three R's that he reiterated time and time again. It was fun and education. I think that he married the two arenas very well.
Jordan's Nursery was there again as I knew they would be so I couldn't wait to tackle the tree quiz. They had five trees there from their stock. They give you ten trees in the word bank to help you. Well you can throw out three of them because they are not even sold at nurseries, or at least this nursery. I got them all correct and I put my name in the drawing. The drawing is for a $100 gift certificate at Jordan's. The kicker is that you don't have to get the trees correct to win. "That's lame", I said to myself. I didn't get a phone call, so I am guessing that I didn't win the gift certificate.
The hazardous waste that I took was a can of paint stripper which was very nasty stuff. It was very stinky and crazy toxic. I needed a little for a project this summer, but they didn't sell a small can at the local discount store. Stuff is bad and I was hoping to buy that odor free green paste, but they didn't sell it. They put it into a new steel drum and will probably bury it under a park somewhere in town or throw it in the river. Just kidding, for a power plan that burns coal they are at least trying to do something for the environment. It was fun and the kids had fun too.
6 comments:
You're a corn burner!
Glad it was a good time - sorry Jonah's first camping trip had to head indoors. Sounds like it was still a good time, though.
Funny, the whole fossil fuel burning plants that come out with their energy saving messages. We get that kind of thing from Xcel up here, too. It's kind of mystifying - why they would encourage you to use less energy. It almost makes you wonder if they're under some sort of court order, ala the anti-smoking campaigns by Phillip Morris.
Part of the reason they do is that they almost universally have a shortage of power and they'd prefer to sell the power to industrial users rather than you. If they get you to use less they can be more sure of selling a constant stream of power to the smelting plant. When you lose power for 20 minutes or an hour, no sweat. When the smelting plant does, they get angry, and lose lots of money.
I have to get a real tent so that Emily, Jonah, and I can camp. Maybe we will ask for one at Christmas? Or maybe an early Christmas present so that we can use it this fall. Tents are probably on sale now???
As long as you're not looking for a serious backpacker tent (e.g. super light), you should be able to get a nice family tent for not too much money. Try Campmor. Or, if you are really only planning on camping in decent weather and you don't want to spend much over $100, Target would do the trick.
Thanks for the info Danny! I will check the local discount stores out for one.
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