Our Earth Hour

8:30-9:30 tonight we joined Earth Hour. We shut off the lights, cranked the air conditioning up so we were sure it wouldn't turn on and unplugged what we could. We took time for each other and sat out on our screened porch after looking over the neighborhood to see who else might be enjoying a quiet energy-free hour.

As we sat in the near dark (we couldn't shut off the streetlight that adds some light to our back yard), we looked over the new solar backyard lights and talked about more that we can do with solar. We desperately need a new roof so this is holding us back from adding a solar attic fan that will cost less than $300. We talked about our hopes that we can continue to add green energy and passive solar to our 20 year old house. We'd love solartube lighting for our dark bathrooms, a solar panel for our hot water heater, and we continue to talk about adding more solar lighting that extends to the indoors. We asked ourselves if we're the only middle class 40 something people who dream about these things.