"If there’s a world here in a hundred years, it’s going to be saved by tens of millions of little things. The powers-that-be can break up any big thing they want. They can corrupt it or co-opt it from the inside, or they can attack it from the outside. But what are they going to do about 10 million little things? They break up two of them, and three more like them spring up!"
- Pete Seeger, in YES! Magazine

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Redesign a museum display

The project:
Develop a plan to turn a static display at our local natural history museum into a seasonal display.

Time:
2 hours (only 90 minutes today)

Why bother?
The girls and I used to sit the museum (that means serve as greeters and tour guides) once a month. When we took off for our long trip, we stepped back from our docent duties. Since returning, we haven't gotten into the regular commitment, but this special project was one that fit our lifestyle.

Worth it?
I hope so. It would be neat to see this exhibit more fully developed, and thereby more fully enjoyed by visitors.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Recycle Plastic Bags

The project:
Turn in five gallons of plastic bags collected this week from various sources.

Time:
Negligible - the drop is at our grocery store.

Why bother?
This has been discussed in these posts.

Worth it?
Absolutely.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Drive Kindly

The project:
While driving the 200 miles home today from our jaunt north, I took every opportunity to wave in other motorists, make plenty of room for merging folks, open spaces for truckers.

Time:
Negligible.

Why bother?
Why not?

Worth it?
Absolutely. Plus, the effort made the drive much more relaxing, thanks in no small part to the warm feeling others' waves of gratitude provided.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Listen to an Elderly Stranger

The project:
Take time to listen to a talkative elderly stranger.

Time:
45 minutes

Why bother?
Can you imagine what life would be like if you outlived most of your family and friends? It's tough enough to make real friends as a younger adult. In your late 80s? WHEW!

While camping in Monterey, we began talking to our neighboring camper, an 89-year-old man from Lodi who still gets around quite well, camping and all. He was an interesting guy with lots of information to share.

Worth it?
Absolutely.

A challenge for readers: Take some time out to talk to an elderly person at some length. WHAT is interesting about THEM? Learn a life story. Ask for a pointer, some advice. Given this kind of opportunity, they won't let you down. Let us know, here, how your effort turned out.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Doggy Rescue

The project: Continue to provide safe haven for rescued dog, and finally deliver to local shelter.

Time:
Minutes to take him out front again to tie to the tree, water and feed. About 30 minutes to drive to shelter and turn him over. About 10 minutes to put away kennel, food and clean up. 45 minutes to make poster and post it around the neighborhood in case owner looked here.

Why bother?
As much as we'd like to keep him, the dog was not ours, nor do we have a lifestyle that supports a dog. (We travel too much to places dogs aren't allowed.) We were headed out of town, so we'd kept him as long as we could.

I posted pictures of the dog around our neighborhood with information about where the owner could find him. The shelter employee informed me that if the dog were not picked up by owner by Saturday, he'd be available for adoption, and that he wouldn't last 'til Monday since he was quite adoptable.

Worth it?
I like to think we kept this dog from being injured. We certainly kept him out of plenty of female dogs' backyards, so perhaps we prevented some future unwanted puppies.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Rescue a Dog

The project: Rescue a dog that was running loose in our neighborhood, keep it until owner discovers it in our yard overnight.

Time:
This is a really nice dog who ran right to us, so the capture took moments. Finding a rope took a few minutes. But one or another of us spent most of the afternoon socializing with him. Then there was the talk with one of our neighbors, a real dog rescue pro, and setting up the kennel she loaned us for the night, and socializing with him again at bedtime.

Why bother?
Save the dog from traffic. Help owner find dog.

Worth it?
I like to think we've potentially saved a dog's life when we catch one running loose.

We've often found wandering dogs. At one point, we were finding them so often during our stroller walks that I finally stashed a leash in the stroller just in case. Most of the time, owners have included their phone numbers on dog tags, so we simply ring them up, put the dog on a lead out front (in the shade with some water to drink) and the owners arrive shortly thereafter to retrieve their dog.

This is a particularly friendly dog, a Chesapeake Bay Retriever (Chessie). He's still quite young (nice clean little teeth) incredibly friendly and even good with the kids. (He was rather keen on the neighborhood cat, however, so I'm not sure there'll be much kitty love in his house.) Unfortunately, he's also not been neutered, so he is rather, er, driven when female dogs wander by. And most unfortunately, while he had a collar, it was marked in NO way - no tag, no name scrawled on the collar, no way to contact the owner.

I've phoned the local shelter so they can inform anyone looking for their lost dog as to his whereabouts. (No, the shelter folks didn't offer to pick him up, or ask us to bring him in. Just took down our info and said, "Let us know if you don't find the owner in the next 24 hours.")

No one showed by dark, but a neighbor who regularly takes in rescue dogs to prepare them for adoption loaned us a crate for the night, and donated some food and treats for him. If the owner doesn't show up by early tomorrow afternoon, we'll have to take him in to the shelter as we're headed out of town for the night tomorrow.

I understand some people don't like the noise of clinking, jingling dog tags, but a SIMPLE solution to providing pet identification while avoiding the tags is to use INDELIBLE marker to write the PHONE NUMBER directly ON the collar.

Help us help you.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Picking up trash

The project:
Picking up trash during our evening walk to dinner.

Time:
Negligible.

Why bother?
Why not? (And why don't these people bother to do it themselves rather than leave it for others?)

Worth it?
Really getting annoying, but still worth cleaning up our neighborhood a bit.