Earth Day -- 2008

I just finished reading the full-page ad in the Spokesman, providing 50 ways to save the earth, and I liked the last one, which seemed to be a veiled approach to keep newspaper subscription numbers up. Wrap those presents in old newspapers, especially the funnies.

I like that idea for a variety of reasons. I hate buying expensive wrapping paper for a present for which I've already spent too much money. I also hate wrapping gifts cuz I never do a very neat job. Wrapping a present in a newspaper gives a person a little slack on the aforementioned problem. Who expects the funnies to look exquisite?

Of course, there's a double-edged sword in newspaper wrapping ploy. That would mean a continuance of cutting down trees, and that's not good for the earth----or is it? I think the big argument in tree cutting has more to do with which trees get the axe and for what reasons. My husband, the forester, would not slap all hands for cutting down trees.

Trees need room to grow, and if a whole bunch of trees are taking up the same root space, they're gonna have a hard time growing, just like those baby cabbages out in my greenhouse. I didn't realize I'd plopped half a dozen seeds in each pot. So far, in their infant stages, they're doing okay, but I hate to fathom the sight of half a dozen mature cabbage heads vying for food, drink and attention in a two inch by two inch container.

So, I'm going to have to do a thinning project. In the cabbages' case, I can uproot those little guys and put them each in a different container for if and when the winter ever ends around here, allowing me to put them in the ground.

With trees---especially if they get stuck together in a small plot and somebody doesn't notice until they're a few years old---transplanting isn't easy, and if moving them at that point is possible, there's a certain expense involved. So, sometimes people have to go through and thin out a few by, yes, cutting them down, to allow better growing space for the others.

How did I get on this topic? Oh yeah, it was using those newspapers to wrap my presents and, thus, save the earth. By the way, my husband, the forester, does follow one of the other 50 suggestions: he plants trees and lots of them---with plenty of space in between. He's got a new supply for this year and has spent several nights this week out in the woods, planting young 'uns. I hope the earth is noticing.

Actually, we tend to observe Earth Day guidelines with most things every day, and I think a lot of people do. Earth Day comes about, however, because of the dipsticks who can't or won't pick up after themselves, and we seem to have plenty of those in this world. For example, I've noticed the highways are getting worse every year with litter amounts.

There's only one excuse for this abomination and laziness on the part of drivers who fling their stuff out the window rather than putting it in a trash bag. Maybe they care more about their car than they do the earth. And, maybe, like me, they don't always have a trash bag in their car. Also, maybe these people have seen the interior of cars like mine, and they've gotten disgusted with what a pig that lady is. Yes, my car is a moving garbage-mobile.

Candy wrappers, chip bags, gum boxes, pop cans and bottles, shopping lists, receipts, clothes for whatever level of winter we happen to be enduring that day, baggies of dog biscuits, 50-pound sacks of grain, boxes of books, sand, mud, a dirty sheet covering the back seat for muddy doggies, doggie leashes, notebooks, flashlights, extra shoes, old newspapers waiting to wrap presents, Sandpoint magazines, dirty towels for drying off dirty doggies or the muddy running boards-------it's all there within the framework of my Jimmy. I'm sure I missed a few items.

Yup, those people who throw their garbage out there along the roadside---they've probably seen the interiors of cars like mine, and their jalopy pride just won't allow them contribute to the poor white trash mobiles like mine. So, they fling it out the window, and the rest of us have to look at it and get disgusted.

Well, at least, most of the windows in my Jimmy are tinted, so you really have to be looking to see my trash. And, every once in a while when I can stand it no more, I take a big green trash bag out there, fill it, vacuum my car and get ready for the next gradual garbage growth. So, the next time you see all that trash along the roadsides, take heart in the fact that those pigs who threw it out there probably have squeaky clean cars, and, in their mind, they're doing something for the Earth.

All kidding aside, it wouldn't take a lot of effort for everyone to spend a second or two to pick up litter in the areas they inhabit and wherever they happen to travel on a daily basis. I didn't see that suggestion on the 50 ways to save the earth, but I'm guessing it should be common sense.

Happy Earth Day. Save the earth. Pick up a gum wrapper. Save those newspapers, and become a conscientious gift wrapper.