Dispatches from Dufferin Street

End of day report

8:44 pm, 4°C outside, 20°C inside

A good day, after the fire incident. The kids were surprisingly stoic about getting home in the rain after school, and we had an awesome supper and play by candlelight. Matt read stories, and now they’re both in bed. Max is still vying for TV time, but the parents are about to play a board game and come up with some captivating activities we can substitute for TV.

So, we had a few “cheats” that will likely continue through the rest of the week: we used the stovetop – probably 40 minutes today, the computer for about 15 minutes this morning, and 15 this evening (even this much use is an embarrassing reduction for me – it’s hard!), and the coffeemaker. I did forget to add the milk frother (battery-operated), and it’s out of commission so far, but I miss it….

A couple times I really wanted to cheat but didn’t: I drank a cold cup of coffee earlier since the microwave’s off, I had to defrost some frozen berries quickly for lunches, and managed to do so by using a burner I had just turned off – very crafty!

Despite his rocky start to energy day, Leo was very supportive: when I was boiling some water on the stove, the burner was clunking a lot, and he said, “Maybe it’s saying ‘turn me off, it’s energy day!!’”

Now for a board game and debate over whether beer bottles actually constitute garbage – I guess they are kind of a step up from recycling since they’re returned for deposit? But they’re just recycled by the beer store, right? I’m not actually saving any energy by taking them back to the store rather than putting them in my blue box? Sure, I get cash back, but in terms of environmental impact, is it the same difference? Would really like a beer, though, I’ll tell you that.

Meals, drinks, snacks

Coffee (fair trade, organic, ordered in bulk, 10 pounds at a time. Not locally grown, and shipped from Uxbridge)

Milk (organic, from Guelph, Ontario, in reusable bags)

Soy milk (organic, “prepared” in Quebec)

Water (filtered at the tap)

Breakfast: fresh local bread with unlocal PB&J, homemade granola (non-local ingredients) with soy milk

Snacks: cookies (homemade, non-local ingredients), apples (Ontario), frozen berries/mangoes (definitely not local)

Lunch: quesadillas (Ontario cheese, tortillas made by Weston)

Supper: vegetable soup (stock made from vegetable peels and ends from the freezer, then added local leeks, carrots, potatoes), sausage made in Kingston from Ontario pork, Ontario potatoes, salad

Garbage

• 1 coffee cup that the server used to fill my refillable mug – argh! I got tiny tears in my eyes (I’m not even joking) when I realized what she had done. She thought I was out of my mind because I insisted on taking home the cup for my garbage collection.

• 4 apple cores

• 1 coffee filter and grounds 

Purchases 

• $10.77, local food from local deli

 Tomorrow

Water