Spent my last two days house/pet sitting in San Francisco playing with Otis, petting Chicken, reading, doing yoga, collaging, trying to meditate (didn’t have much patience for it-I may have been over caffeinated 😁) listening to the Women Who Dare podcast (so inspiring !) and going for walks. I got in a lovely stroll around Land’s End, the flowers were gorgeous and I can never get enough of the view. On the way back I was treated to the sight of a very industrious hummingbird!
Otis and I took our last sunset walk to the beach on Wednesday. It was a lot less windy then on earlier nights so we dawdled for a while. Even though he can be a handful, I’m going to miss hanging out with that crazy dog.
On Thursday night I had the second meeting of the five part resilient neighborhoods group I recently joined. I am really impressed with all of the work this organization has put into encouraging people to reduce their carbon footprint. They start off by helping you determine how much carbon your household uses for regular activities, such as food, shopping, driving, flying, home heating/cooling etc. Then they work with you to come up with an individualized plan to reduce your carbon footprint by at least 20%. They have a spreadsheet with over 100 different ways that you can have a lighter environmental impact on the Earth, and links to tons of local resources, so it is really inspiring. The first session was an introduction to the program and the people involved, and was quite interesting. Unfortunately, the second session was basically two hours of a presenter talking at us. It wasn’t interactive at all and consisted of the presenter just reading PowerPoint slides, covering information that had already been sent to us to review before the session, so it was very boring. It’s a real disappointment because this could be a really good opportunity to engage and motivate the people who have taken the time to participate in the program, these are people who want to do this work. My guess is that this presentation was a lot more interesting when done in person and has not been modified to suit an online audience, despite it now having been three years since they shifted to online programs. I will give the program coordinators feedback and encourage them to make the sessions more interactive. I am happy that I already do many of the suggested activities for reducing my carbon footprint, but the program has opened my eyes to other ideas and I’m looking forward to trying them out.
Otis and I got out for a late walk before I headed to bed early tonight because I have to get up very early for a 615 flight to LA. We saw heart shaped stones and a couple walking seven small dogs between the two of them!
