Day 6 (or: Shhhhh! Don’t tell anyone, this is easier than it looks!)

Day 5 update. Note to self: When Observing an Eco Sabbath, make sure that you haven’t been sick in bed for four days while the house is falling apart around you. Cleaning is an interesting project when you have no electricity. Especially when cleaning laundry on which cats have taken over (what is it about the laundry pile that makes it seem like an ideal toilet?). For the most part, we were appliance/lights/heaters/car/phone free yesterday. Except for the washing machine. And there were some very lovely side effects, too. If I hadn’t had to spend 5 hours sweeping, dusting, mopping, cleaning, it would have been a very restful day. It began with a candle-lit bath, which was utterly relaxing and indulgent. Yes, I know – the hot water heater. But I think I can make an exception for the water. It might be another experiment for one of my Days to completely deprive the family. What would it be like to have NO resources in our lives? Boggles the brain.  And probably worth at least a days worth of devotion from me and mine.  At least.

And since I spent all day yesterday cleaning, why not just continue the trend and share it with others (do you detect the overwhelming joy, er, sarcasm?) Day 6 of One Thousand Days, thank goodness I work for a non-profit youth resource center and coffee house (the best, least expensive cup of coffee in town), The Boiler Room. It makes doing good things so easy. And when I say easy, I mean to say readily available. Nothing about my work is easy, but I digress. Today, along with several kids, and the board member who dreamed it up, I cleaned up the block where the business “lives” in our little downtown. Found: crazy colorful broken glass behind the art gallery, a portion of a dollar bill (why would someone rip up a dollar bill?), several “Broken Spoke” stickers (the new bike store in town – nobody told them stickers were a bad idea) tagging the transit stop, a Frisbee, and 10 pounds of cigarette butts (oddly enough, the bulk of which were NOT located around or near the teen hangout. Hmmm.)

Tonight I’m crawling home at 7:45 p.m., and I’m overwhelmed, and I’m tired and a little dizzy still, and I’m really glad that I wrote most of this in the morning before I went to work. Why does Day 6 feel like Day 554? I have to take this minute to acknowledge that I really want to call the bad relationship up and just be cuddled for a while. Because in truth, none of these good things have cuddled me yet. I can’t imagine why not. I’m really a neat person. Oh, there’s a bit of a warm and fuzzy going on, but nothing I would call truly comforting. Which is such a selfish and terrible thing to say. I probably should have saved that for Day 328. But it is Monday, after all, and I am human. On Mondays. Between 7:42 and 7:58 p.m.

6 down, 994 to go.