happy Earth Day

I wore a green shirt today to celebrate...or whatever it is we do on Earth Day.

And this showed up in my inbox:

I'm having a hard time figuring it out. I think the windmill is supposed to represent hope...hope that alternative, more responsible energy production (and presumably energy consumption patterns) will prevent global warming and save us and our animals.

Yet the picture also conjours up apocalyptic sentiments...and seems to suggest that the reliance on technology for a solution to consumption and pollution problems will be the ultimate cause of destruction and extinction.

I can't tell if the irony is intended or not. So I'm puzzled.

Oh well.

My celebration of Earth Day is overshadowed by the fact that it coincidently falls on the last day of class, which for me is a holiday much more worthy of celebration. Except that it also signals the wheelbarrow-load of grading I've got to do in the next two weeks.

To further celebrate, I drove the girls to school and didn't take the car back home afterwards, which will require Valerie to walk to school to pick them up. Now that's green.

...

TNR last night... No rain to start, but by the end it was poring and we were all cold. Well, I was cold. As with last week, it took about 10-15 minutes in the shower to thaw out my hands and feet. But despite the rain we still had a group of eight. PA breeds them hard.

I also got beat. I think this was the first week that's happened. My boys are getting stronger. And I'm not getting any younger. Pretty soon it's going to be all I can do to hang on.

...

It's a silly thing to get excited about, especially since riding in the rain means a major bike cleaning effort afterwards, but I love how the yellow center strip of rubber on my tires gets all shiny after a ride in the rain. I should take a picture...