Marilynne's World

Annie sent another email.

She's a pip!

“Well, she’s a pip, this pup.  She picked out her own name.  We were out walking this morning (VERY early for me) and she was having a great time running around in the grass.

“I called her name (softly because the neighbors were surely all asleep).  ”Belle.”  And then a little louder.  She looked up but didn’t come.  Then I said, “Come on, Chica.”  She came running!  So she likes the name Chica the best, and her full name is now Chica-Belle.

She loves her purse. But how do you use a purse for walking?

“She’s discovered the joy of going walking in a purse.  She now owns the purse.  She’s catching a few Z’s on it now.”

xxx, Annie

Annie has a new baby!  She tells me:

Handsome meets Belle

“I couldn’t help myself.  There was this man and his two kids at the dog park last night.  We were leaving at the same time and I noticed the kids had their shirts full of tiny puppies.  I oohed and aahed and asked how old they were and were they for sale.  He said they were 8 weeks and wasn’t really interested in selling any.  I said I wish you’d sell me one. (I had lost my mind by this time) and he reluctantly said okay, pick one.  $60.

“They were all girls.  It was fairly dark by then and they were all solid black.  Then I noticed one with little orange eyebrow spots.  I picked her.  I only had two twenties on me but he said that would be okay.  The kids still went home with four pups, and my little one curled up in the passenger seat without complaint.  Handsome was in the back seat and very curious about the new little stranger.

“She whimpered a few times in her box last night.  I went down and picked out her poops, and changed the bedding.  I caught a glimpse of a few shiny fleas.  This morning I bathed her in the sink and got rid of most of the fleas.  She’s too young for Frontline.  I don’t know if she has worms.  Probably does, but she seems fat and shiny and full of mischief today.  BooBoo is our big tom cat and he was very curious.  She is a quarter his size and went right up to him.  He didn’t know what to make of this strange creature and he got out of the way.  Handsome is acting maternal.

How could you not like Belle?

“I went over to PetPeople and got some Eukanuba puppy chow and some little dog dishes.  ( I had to call the Chihuahua rescue people this morning to find out what to feed her.)  I’m going to need a puppy pen, and some itty bitty dog toys, and a dog purse and a vet check and a little dog bed. She’s not going to be cheap!

“I don’t know diddly about Chihuahua personalities but the rescue lady said the females will rule the roost and can become territorial, especially if you let her sleep on your bed.  She recommended letting her sleep in her own little dog bed at the foot of your bed.  Yeah, right.”

Thanks Annie for being our guest blogger today.  If you have been following Annie you already know she loves all things boats.  Well, now you know about another love – pets.  She loves her Australian shepherds, birds, a cat, and now Belle.  What a sweetheart (Annie that is) for taking such good care of her pets.

Annie has blogged with me on http://womenoverfifty.today.com and also here.  You can check out her web site at

http://web.mac.com/annieholmes/iWeb/Site/SKIFF%20SONG%20HOME.html

I’ve been waiting to show you this.  Today’s the day.  Here are two pictures of the sky I took a few minutes ago – a little after 4 PM.

It’s not an ideal time for solar.  It’s late in the day and the overcast is pretty heavy.   Our meter is still running backwards – slowly, but backwards.  I found that pretty surprising.

I took a movie, but so far I haven’t been able to upload it.  I’ll work on it and amend this post if I can figure out how to do it.  My Word Press sorry-you-can’t-do-that feature says it’s too big, but it’s only a minute or so long.

Marilynne

Later.  I think Word Press just doesn’t like Quick Time movies.  Here’s another picture.  This one is on our electrical meter and warns people that just turning off electricity coming into the house by line does not turn off electricity coming from the solar.  There’s another off switch for that.

Marilynne

Even later:  you can see the meter running backwards at

http://mysterywriterlady.blogspot.com/ Running Backwards

Our solar is installed, inspected, and approved to send electricity to the grid. We thought the day would never come, but now I’m beginning to get used to it.

Now that sunlight is going to be making electricity.

We’ve had a lot of sunny days since we went on the common grid. One of our favorite activities is to watch our electric meter run backward. Another is to read the Inverter – the device that changes the electricity from DC to AC (direct current to alternating current). It gives us information like how much electricity we’ve put back into the grid and how much carbon (CO2) we’ve not put into the world.

This carbon thing was a surprise to us. I understand the words “Carbon Footprint” in general, but now we seem to be not using as much.  Since we’ve been operating our solar, we’ve not put over 600 pounds of CO2 into the world. (That’s the stuff that comes out the tail pipe of your car.) I’m more impressed by this than I am about putting electricity back into the grid.

So the inverter is a fun thing to read. The other nice thing is knowing I can have all the air conditioning I want. I can run the washer and dryer during the day – because the electricity for these activities is coming from our solar and not from the common electrical grid. Well, if I’m doing all three things at once, we do take a little power from the grid, but the meter is moving very slowly.

What should you do about it? Whatever you can. If you can’t afford solar electricity, what about solar water heating? If not that, what about upgrading the windows on your house so you don’t absorb so much heat into your home? You know, saving energy and being conscious about the energy you use is a personal thing. It’s one of the many things where even a little bit helps.

We’re waiting to see how we fare during the winter. We have many cold, but sunny days in winter. What’s going to happen then? I can’t tell you yet, but I’m sure our bill is going to be a lot less.

Marilynne

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Sept. 12, 2009

Cinders sent me a URL about solar energy on highways.  Check it out at

http://www.idahostatesman.com/newsupdates/story/895850.html