Greening Oneself

Water flows freely in Fresno…and Vegas.

Kristie Wells

Playing mommy for a week

As we hit the half way mark of the third drought year in California, the future of our water supply has become the topic de jure in the Bay Area.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has asked all California residents to reduce their water consumption 20 percent by 2020. The Heuer-Wells household is trying to do our part by limiting how long our showers are. We run the washing machine (and dishwasher) only when there are full loads. We have let our amazing backyard turn into a sea of brown.

We are making changes in our daily life to help, and judging by our water bill, we are making an impact, small albeit, but an impact nonetheless.

Then I come across several articles recently that discuss the role of meters in water conservation, and learn there are several cities in California, our State Capitol (Sacramento) being one of them, where water can’t be rationed because houses don’t have water meters.

Some facts around water metering in California:

* All homes built after 1992 are required to have meters.
* Cities that receive federal water supplies must install meters by 2013.
* All California cities must be metered by 2025.

Sacramento is working to have water meters installed in every house by the year 2025, but in the mean time (15 years), residents are simply charged a flat rate for any amount of water they use. WTF!!??

Fresno is another city without water meters. Residents are using on average, just under 290 gallons of water per person per day. That’s more than Las Vegas, which is close to 250. The U.S. average, according to the United States Geological Survey, is 100 gallons a day. Fresno and Las Vegas residents are using 2.5+ times more water than residents in San Francisco – draining our reservoirs while enjoying their green grass – yet San Francisco residents are the ones on water rationing. This frosts my ass. Completely.

All I can hope is more cities will call for various forms of water rations. We all need to do our part. We all need to be conscious of what is happening in other cities. We need to come together and make sacrifices to ensure we do not delete the resources at hand.

Cash for Clunkers

Kristie Wells

As my car nears the 230k mile mark, I have been checking into what my best options are (sell, trade or donate), especially as Bessie sits in our garage, unwilling to start at the moment (hoping it will just be a battery issue, but haven’t had time to get it checked out).

Kelly Blue Book tells me she is not worth much these days, though interesting to note – she seems to be worth a couple hundred more now than when I checked back in 2007. Funny.

Anyway, this is a topic I have been chewing on, almost since the day I bought her. I can’t believe I have owned this car this long (15 years!) or that she has as many miles on her as she does. Bessie has been fairly inexpensive to maintain, but I am now starting to spend $1k+ or so per year on her and I am wondering when do I stop ‘investing’ and simply let her go?

I was seriously thinking about donating her, but I just heard of a program called Cash for Clunkers that President Barack Obama officially signed into law as part of a larger defense spending bill today. The program is supposed to start at the end of July, and the government will give people $3,500 for scrapping gas guzzlers if they buy new cars that go at least four miles further on a gallon of gas, or $4,500 if the new vehicle gets 10 miles more per gallon.

I would not consider Bessie to be a gas guzzler as she gets about 18 miles per gallon right now, but the latter would apply, which means my only option would probably be a Prius, but me thinks I need to go on a couple of test drives and see if there is something that sparks my fancy just to add another complicated layer into my decision making process. 🙂

Citibank needs to green themselves.

Kristie Wells

We recently went through a little credit card theft scam fighting over 40 fraudulent transactions charged in Mexico, and worked with Citibank to reverse the charges and settle the account. Credit card number stolen...

Thankfully, Citibank has made the account whole, but in the process – I think they killed their share of a few trees. First they sent out one letter for every transaction that was being declined by us to confirm they have opened a file on it. Then they sent one letter for every transaction letting us know it was being reviewed. Then, we received one letter for every transaction to confirm the charge has been credited back to our account and the file was closed.

120+ envelopes. 120+ letters. Who knows how many ink cartridges. And stamps? This is a sure fire way to keep the USPS in business.

Since all these transactions were reported at the same time, me thinks a smart(er) way to handle this going forward is to send ONE letter confirming all the charges we are declining. Then send ONE letter to confirm our account is in review. Then ONE final letter on all the charges that were being credited back to our account, and if need be, ONE more letter in case some of the charges were not credited (confirming why). Seems a much more efficient use of time. Of money. Of Mother Nature’s resources.

How about it Citibank…care to work on greening yourself?