Go Green

Last fall a good friend of mine inspired me to seek out more earth-friendly household products. I'm not die-hard about going green, but why not? (Clearly, I am easily entertained. And, as previously disclosed, I delight in any activity that I can turn into a spreadsheet opportunity.)

I am pretty brand loyal so my criteria for new products shouldn't be a surprise:

1. they had to work as well as my favorites; and
2. they had to be as cost-efficient as my favorites.

Tall order? Keep reading.

What to buy and where to shop

Convenience is king in my world, so the first thing I did was search online for basic information and green products. At first I looked for specific ingredients to avoid but learned that manufacturers of household cleaners are not required to list ALL their ingredients except those ingredients that are active disinfectants and those that are known to be potentially hazardous.

To narrow the field, any product I tried had to be a concentrated formula and free of dyes, fragrances and bleach. Furthermore, companies that touted what was NOT in their products (namely phosphates and chlorine) were given priority. My favorite screening site is GoodGuide.com. In addition to rating the product and highlighting harzardous ingredients, they report which third-party certifications the product has earned.

And while I love having things shipped directly to my front door, it presents some problems in this instance. Shipping charges make the product less cost-effective. But more importantly, buying locally is infinitely more green than the effort and resources it takes to pack, ship and deliver. For example, the cardboard box, bubble wrap, address label, shipping fees and most importantly the gasoline required to get the product to the door are eliminated if I buy the product at a local store that I already frequent.

The greenest of the green households use homemade cleaners from simple ingredients. (A simple google search yields a bevy of recipes, tips and instructions.) This doesn't appeal to me so I continued my search in a local co-op grocery store that specializes in organic and natural products.

Picking My Battles

After crunching numbers and comparing price-per-load data on several automatic dishwasher detergents, I decided to try the cheapest one first. It met all the requirements and the manufacturer has an in-store refill station. Big green bonus. Unfortunately this brand just couldn't unstick the peanut butter from the knives so it had to go. I have temporarily reverted to my big name, not so green detergent.

My favorite new product is an earth-friendly concentrated general cleaner. I can create different strength solutions depending on what needs to be cleaned. I use it most frequently to clean the kitchen counters but it does floors and laundry stains too.

The Big Lesson

I realize this whole experiment is a little obsessive, but it did force me to think about what constitutes clean. All those years of television advertisements showing raw poultry being rubbed on kitchen surfaces had brainwashed me to think that countertops need to be disinfected eight times a day. Well, a damp washcloth is all it takes to clean up toast and cracker crumbs. So my green resolution is to use cleaning products only when truly needed.

Oh, and clean doesn't have to smell like harsh chemicals. My environmentally friendly general cleaner has a super zesty fragrance. I have even found a soy-based toilet cleaner that works great and smells like peppermint. Hmmmm, now that's nice.

Carpal Tunnel Surgery

I can't resist posting this pic despite having already posted it on FaceBook.

So many people have asked me, "How did you get carpal tunnel?" Well, since I am taking a hiatus from paid employment, I rarely do anything repetitive (with the exception of verbal repetition about sharing, being polite and all other things motherly). And I have learned that many cases of carpal tunnel syndrome are in fact genetic. Even people whose jobs require repetitive motion often have a genetic tendency. Add that to the list of things I can blame on my parents.

The actual carpal tunnel open release surgery was interesting (due in part to the lovely valium). The tingling and numbness were relieved immediately but the incision site is painful. My surgeon refuses to do the surgery laparoscopically -- she has seen nerves severed during the procedure -- so the incision is about an inch long.

Honestly, the part I disliked about this whole saga was people telling me that it wasn't a big deal. I realize they were trying to ease my concerns but it felt dismissive.

Hand therapy yesterday was a joke, but the therapist was really intense about reps and sets. Eye contact with her was painful. My thenar muscle (at base of thumb) is so weak it was quivering! It gave me the giggles. The therapist gave me a courtesy laugh and then started the staring contest again. Meanwhile, it has been a drag to limit the use of my right hand when I'm with the kids but I've been told that the more I baby this wrist the quicker my recovery.

My left wrist feels brand new after the cortisone shot I received (same day as right hand surgery). Too bad it's not permanent. Curiously enough, the strengthening exercises prescribed for my right hand are forbidden for the left hand (although the range of motion exercises are approved for both). All I care about is starting golf league on time.

I Think Really Loud

I was probably four-years old the first time my mom asked me, "Did you say something, babe?"

I was sitting smack in the middle of the back seat of what I think was an over sized Oldsmobile sedan with my arms propped up on the seats in front of me when I realized that I might have been thinking out loud. It happens all the time and I used to wonder if I was just thinking really, really loudly. Now I'm pretty sure that my facial expressions are really to blame. I have no poker face.

I tried to name this blog ThinkingTooLoud but it was already taken. Dennis in Canada is not doing the theme justice. All the variants I tried were taken as well. So now I'm stuck with SarcasmScaresMe. But it's true, I don't always catch sarcastic jokes and when I do I just don't know how to react. I've tried sarcasm in an attempt to be funny and I just end up feeling negative and mean. (I think it's a pretty lazy attempt at humor anyway.) So while I'm terribly gullible I like to think of myself as having a "straightforward" sense of humor. Hey, it's all in the spin.

Why did I start a blog? Curiosity. I was reading a friend's blog and wondered why someone would go to all the trouble. So I googled. And now I'm curious.