Earth Hour

Honestly, are there still for real people who think global warming is a myth? Can they not pay attention to what their own observances are telling them? When they witness weather occurrences that have never happened before, or note the very obvious seasonal shifts, or the distinctly measurable melting of the polar ice caps, how do they still say it's not happening?
Having read the paper this morning and the gazillions of comments left by people debating the validity of "Earth Hour" last night I am left confounded at the number of people who still deny there's a problem. In fact, deliberately INCREASE their consumption to negate other people's cutting back. How ignorant is that????
I see the point in not thinking Earth Hour is really doing anything. I get that. One hour a year is not even a drop in a very large bucket. People need to make daily consistent changes to decrease energy consumption. I think the symbolic gesture though is at least a starting point, and hopefully raises the awareness level of a few people so that they examine what they are doing and try to make a few changes. Instead of wasting time (and energy) criticising the effort, people need to do more to change what they, their business, and the people around them are doing. Obviously some people are going to stubbornly remain in their ignorance bubble, but reasonable people can still be reached if we just keep trying.

This touched home.

I think everyone who has ever come acrossed someone with a chronic illness should read this:
http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/navigation/BYDLS-TheSpoonTheory.pdf
Although I fare better than this woman, reading the article put a lump in my throat because I know exactly what she's saying, even if I do have more spoons than she does.

Is it just me?

I dunno. Maybe I'm crazy, but it seems to me we're having a hell of a time getting a decent Easter anymore. Last year we were quite literally snowed in and it seems to me the years preceding that i was still wearing my winter coat as well. This year, 10 to 15 cm of snow today and nothing above zero for the entire weekend.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but as a kid I remember Easter being in the spring. Spring clothes, spring jackets. Rubber boots instead of winter boots in lousy weather. We walked from the church to our grandfather's house after the Easter service for dinner with our jackets dangling under our arms. We swung from his tree swing and didn't think about being cold. There were daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths....
I understand this is the earliest Easter we've had in ages, but even so, April Easters of late have been no better. Has global warming robbed my kids of ever having an Easter egg hunt without having to wear winter mittens?

Money money money money

I worry about money.
Ok, who doesn't? I can't remember a time I didn't worry about money. (Y'all are saying, "Yeah, and...?") Granted, my money woes are nowhere near as significant as they were a decade ago. Hell, I'm the poster child for Virginia Slims right now. (Anyone else remember those ads? You've come a long way, baby.) However, I still fret whenever I sit down and look at our funds. It seems like there is forever more money going out than coming in. We've been increasingly digging ourselves a large hole of debt. Respectfully maintaining our scrupulously clean credit record (haha, I know. How did that happen?) by paying our bills and monthly payments, but slowly increasing our debt load at the same time.
Recently, I've really grabbed the bull by the horns. I've grown tired of the battle cry from the hubs, "I have no money." and the bottom line of my CC statement that just keep getting larger, even though I dump money on it every pay. I created a budget.
We're into a month of it now. Granted, it needs some tweaking, but I have a nice 4 day weekend to sit down and look back over the past month at where our money has gone and reallocate the appropriate funds. The payoff so far has been 2 credit card statements that for the first time in ages are lower than last month's. Sadly, the budget also showed us how tightly we must live to stay "within our means" and still start to pay down our debt. But it also kick started me into making some bigger changes to try and control the debt as well, beyond spending less. We're changing banks so we have no banking fees. We've gotten lines of credit with a lower interest rate. We're going to use that to pay off the credit card debt. Mike has started an RRSP. Yes, I know, more money out, but it's necessary. He's 22 years (max) from retiring and has not 1 red cent put aside. Plus, it looks good on the tax return.
We've got a few dollars coming in as well. Tax returns, for example. Unfortunately it contributes to my anxiety as I think about how many different places we could put it. All debt? Use some to finish paying off our bills? (We got a $380 oil bill yesterday. Ouch.) Put some towards our summer vacation? Dump it all on the house for improvements/renos? Pad our "emergency" fund?
It feels good to know we're being proactive in regards to our finances, but my GOD it keeps me awake at night thinking about it.

Passwords

I have password issues. I never seem to be able to keep them straight. I end up having a bazillion accounts for things because I can never remember what the hell the password is for an account. I try to keep it simple. I have basically 4 names and 4 different passwords that I rotate through. Usually I can sort out the combination thereof of something but every now and then you hit a site where my "preset" passwords don't meet their rules. IE. you must have 2 caps and 3 numbers and be no less than 5 but no more than 6 characters. Then I run into trouble because I will NEVER remember what I picked.
Yesterday I tried to access my Wal Mart online photo account. After multiple permutations of usual names with passwords I was still denied access. Either the site is screwed or I was drunk when I set up the account and I'm pretty sure I wasn't drunk.
In the next couple weeks I'm going to have to try to wrack the depths of my brain for the names and passwords for access to our tax information from the government website. It's been a year. This should prove interesting.

OK, this is a leap for me

Blogging is something I enjoy reading, but gernerally suck at doing, so other than being bored at work at this particular moment in time, I'm not quite sure why I'm doing this. I'm a pro at not sharing all the details of my life, or leaving certain specifics out, based on the individual(s) I may be communicating to. This doesn't bode well for maintaining a deceent blog, as I'm sure every post will be whitewashed for all potential readers, known and unknown.
Hell with it, though. I'm game to give 'er a go.