Thursday, March 10, 2005

The Smokey Lady

There is a lady who works in my office building who I call the smokey lady. Any time of day, she can be found just outside the front door smoking. I just went down the hall to the restroom, and there she was, smoking. I don't know what her job is. I think her job is to smoke. She is always there. Smoking. It is a little sad.

Last night I went to the Sierra Club meeting. First of all, I have to tell you that they have the meetings at the Greenhill School in Addison. I think I would have liked going to this school. It has a nice courtyard, and when I walked through said courtyard last night, I'll be damned if there weren't two giant peacocks and three pea-hens just walking around like they owned the place. They were so cool looking. Then they started talking, which was a little creepy, as their call sounds very much like a little girl saying, "help me, help me." The courtyard at my high school only had grackles.

The meeting was interesting. There were three speakers. A very pompous dude from the EPA ( I think all the Sierra club members were suspicious of him), a nice geo-physicist man, and an environmental lobbyist named "Smitty." Most of their talk was over my head...a little too science-y. But they did make their point very clear. We are headed toward a very bad, very real energy crisis if we don't do something quick-like. This isn't left-wing propaganda, or hippy tree-hugger mumbo jumbo. This is science. So I am on board. Renewable energy is the way, and I have some letters to write this weekend to some State Senators and so forth. I was happy to learn that the wind turbine people have been working closely with the bird people to design windmills that won't hurt the birds. You see, most of the wind in East Texas comes in from the Gulf Coast, so they have to put the turbines there, and millions, maybe billions, of birds migrate back and forth on the same path. Anyway, the scientists have it all figured out, how not to hurt the birds. Guess what else gets blown into DFW via the Gulf winds? Smoke from something like 30 (or did he say 130?) coal plants between here and Houston. Coal is bad for people. It is dirty. Wind, which I admit I have personal difficulties with, mainly because of my hair, is good for people. It is clean. So, support wind and renewable energy and hybrid cars! And turn off your lights and stuff too.

Two nights ago, we watched Super-Size me. We were both disturbed. Kev was so much so that he went to the kitchen and got us a big bowl of grapes to eat while we watched it. Then, the next day, I ate at Bennigan's and he ordered a pizza. How quickly we forget. I do have to say, though, that I only ate one wedge of my Monte Christo sandwhich. I won't tell you how many slices of pizza Kev ate.

Probably this will be my last blog for a while. Kev's parents are due to land at DFW in about 20 minutes, and we have a full agenda while they're here. There is going to be lots of fun, and maybe even pie! See you next week.

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