Lovin' on the earth

Larry and I both wondered out loud today if anybody even knew it was Earth Day, if they were even aware that there was a day set aside to make commitments to take better care of the earth, to try to reverse some of what we've done to her.

There are so many things we can do!  You can start small if it feels overwhelming and just do things that affect your immediate surroundings.  You WILL make a difference!

Here are five super easy things you can do!

Turn off the lights when you leave the room.  I know your daddy told you this when you were a kid!  Mine sure did.  He'd go behind us if we forgot.  It helps more than just the light bill!

Eat PB&J for lunch!  Just replacing one meaty meal with a plant-based one will save about 3.5 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions.  That's about half the carbon you would save by driving a hybrid car that day!  Y'all, that's huge.

Unplug your cell phone charger when you're not charging your phone.  It's still using electricity if it's plugged in.

Next time you buy light bulbs for your home, get the compact fluorescent ones.  They use a fraction of the electricity that regular, incandescent bulbs use.

Pick up trash when you see it!  And before you throw something away, ask yourself, "can I reuse this?" and use it again if you can!

Think of Earth Day as Mother Earth's birthday.  You wouldn't celebrate a friend's birthday and then ignore her the rest of the year.  You would love her and talk to her and take care of her if she was sick and laugh with her all year long.

So as soon as we get past this next little cold snap that's coming (crazy Georgia weather!), plant some flowers, plant some 'maters, plant a tree if you can.  And eat PB&J like you did when you were a kid.  I promise, you will feel the difference you're making!

Earth911

I just discovered this web site and I LOVE it!!  Tomorrow is Earth Day and this site has lots of great information about how far we've come since the first Earth Day, 42 years ago.  We still have a long way to go.

I try to do my part to protect the earth every day not just every April 22nd.  Now that I'm working at RAFB, I have even more opportunities to recycle paper and plastic and I take full advantage of that!  I wash my clothes in cold water and never leave my water running when I'm brushing my teeth.  I don't use paper towels or table napkins (thanks, Brandy!).  I buy local produce whenever possible and I compost most everything I can't eat.  I keep my garbage down to one bag a week and most weeks, it's half full.

I found this photo at Earth911 and I thought it was really hilarious.  It's the ONLY memory I have of the Atlanta Pop Festival!  I've always said all I could remember about being there was seeing trash on the ground.  

 Recyclable waste litters the ground at the 1970 Atlanta Pop Festival. Photo: Flickr/ejmc

Not bad for a 3-year-old's memory, huh??  

Safety is for girls

First of all, I just wanna say I freakin' HATE the bump cap.  I wore it all week and I bumped my head more this week than I've ever bumped my head IN MY LIFE.  Grrrrr. And hiss.

Yesterday, I was working in the hydraulic bay and I had to clamp some wires up in a really tight spot and I could not get my loggerhead up in there.  No matter what I did, no matter which way I ducked and dodged, I hit my head.  So I took it off, took care of the clamp and then put it back on.  Such the rebel I am.

Something that's supposed to make you safer but just ends up hurting you, I say, "boot to the head!".  Heavy 20-pound steel-toe boot to the head.  :)

BTW, those boots??  Still in my locker.  They're in an extended time-out.

On Friday afternoons, we have a VPP meeting in the breakroom.  Voluntary Protection Programs works with management, workers and OSHA to keep you safe and not dead at work.  I'm very interested in VPP and have been going to the meetings every Friday.  Even though it's kind of a dirty word with my coworkers.  They look at safety as a hassle and VPP participants as narcs.  It's a pain to have safe platforms to work on, it's a pain to wear the bump caps (now I agree with that one!), it's a pain to follow the load max requirements on maintenance stands.  I want all the safety I can get!  I am in a foreign country where I don't speak the language. I've never had a job where I had to be careful or I would get hurt or a job where I could DIE.  Well, the old days when I was making $500 loans in Americus, maybe.  :)  My point is I need to feel safe until I'm comfortable in my new environment.  I'm going to continue to go to those meetings and be active in VPP so I can know what's going on and be able to keep myself safe and the people around me safe.  

I'm really not surprised that I'm interested in something that everybody else thinks is stupid.  That's the story of my life.  And just because I'm working for The Man now doesn't mean I'm not still ME.  I'm still that same counterculture chick I've always been.  ;)  I even got a VPP t-shirt yesterday.  Hee hee.

Bumpity bump bump

Monday, we start wearing these bump caps at work.  Most people are complaining but I say, "That's good!  One less thing." (like my buddy Forrest says!)  It's better than having to wear a hard hat and I don't have to worry about my hair now.  :)  I've been putting it up in a clip or a ponytail anyway.  This job is changing me so much for the better, showing me what's really important and what's just stupid and trivial.  

I'm skinned up, bruised and sore all over but I love it.  I broke my first fingernail yesterday and I filed it smooth with a sanding pad.  Ha!  I can't wait to learn everything so I can just jump in there and work on my own.  That's my way about anything new that I start, though.  I've been splicing wires and installing jacks, hooking up Cannon plugs (that's so HARD to do when the pins are teeny tiny) and I put on my first clamp this week.  I was so proud.  Told everybody, too!

I've got a really good trainer, another girl the same age as me.  She's so patient and knows her stuff.  I told her I want to be just like her when I grow up.

The atmosphere in a hangar is unlike anything I've ever known in my life.  Of course, all I've ever done is work in an office so it's bound to be night and day in an aircraft hangar.  It's loud (we have a sheet metal crew in there with us) but with ear plugs, all that background noise is gone.  I want to keep my dog hearing so I wear my plugs!!  :)  There's music playing all around us and I never know if I'm going to hear Sweet Home Alabama or Old MacDonald Had A Farm (that was hilarious!).

We also wear safety glasses and of course, y'all know ALL ABOUT the steel-toe boots.  I went to Academy last Saturday and got these.  Best twenty bucks I ever spent!!  They are SOOOOO soft and comfy.  I wish I'd gotten them a month ago!!  Live and learn, right??

The walk back and forth to the parking lot is much better.  My legs are adjusting, my tendons are stretching and yesterday, for the very first time, I walked both ways with no pain.  They give us three hours a week for exercise and I've been going to the gym twice a week and working on my legs and arms.  I'm determined to get stronger!  And if some weight decides to fall off in the process, I won't be mad.  :)

So.  Week two is in the books.  I've been employed at the base a month and two days.  I feel like a true gubment employee now.  It's better than I ever imagined.  :)

He is not here!

Happy Resurrection Day!!

Up from the grave He arose, with a mighty triumph over His foes.  That is our theme for today!

I'm looking forward to a beautiful Easter Sunday today with my family.  Daddy's grilling hamburgers and hot dogs and I'm really excited about seeing my cousins who I haven't seen in a long time, except on Facebook!  It'll be good to see 'em in person.  :)

Yesterday, Larry took a few napkins at our table and made me this crown of thorns.  He sits there sometimes and makes flowers and butterflies and whatever pops into his mind, just to be making something for me.  I am a lucky girl.

The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head.  

John 19:2

Friday happened but Sunday's HERE!! 

Pinch me

Today is my second day on my REAL job.  It's so good to be done with orientation and training and be IN my hangar.  This job has so many firsts already.  It's obviously the first blue collar/manufacturing type job I've ever had in my life, it's also the first job I've ever had when I wasn't expected to hit the ground running, it's the first job that I've ever had that on day one, I already knew three people in there and it's absolutely the first job I've ever had to walk a half mile to get to!!  

I LOVE it.

It's loud, it's dusty, it's hot and it's amazing.  Yesterday, I got to actually DO something.  I shadowed one of the ladies who's been there a while and knows her stuff and she let me strip a bundle of wires and then solder them together with a heat gun.  That was pretty cool!  Today, I got a tour of the aircraft from tip to tail, I was assigned my tool box (a big old red eight-drawer Snap-On) and I had to inventory the tools, make sure they were all there and identified by my specific number.  Thank goodness I have some really good fellas on my crew.  I didn't know what half those tools were!  They have been so sweet and have helped me so much already.  They've taken me under their wings, literally!  Ha! I went to school to be an electronics technician.  I worked on circuit boards, built circuits on bread boards and troubleshot those circuits.  I am being trained to be an aircraft electrician.  So I'm green as a garden hose.

Two of those guys on my crew know me from the pediatrician's office.  They take their kids there!  And I met one girl who works in our building at Central one weekend when I was with Larry.  Small, small world this is.

My supervisor and work leader are both easygoing, good-natured guys and I'm thankful for that.  Our work is not work that can be rushed.  Lives depend on what we do so that's good, too.  I'll have plenty of time to go slow and learn everything I need to learn.  I'll be there until January and then work part-time while I'll go back to school and finish the program.  After I graduate, I'll go back to working full-time making ze BIG $$$$$$$.  :)

Speaking of going slow, them boots are in my locker in the hangar as I type this.  They showed their butt so bad yesterday that they can't even set foot in this house again.  Walking a half mile in steel-toe boots is misery this chick ain't having none of.  I'll walk in my tennis shoes and change when I get to work.  Most of the women there do that, though.

Yesterday at lunch, I watched an F-15 accelerate as it ascended.  They're cool like that.  :)  When it broke the sound barrier, I 'bout had to take cover.  It was SO loud.  I'm so glad that thing ain't never gonna come looking for ME.

And I'm so glad that I'm gonna be able to look after it.

Happy Palm Sunday!

Palm Sunday.  The Sunday before Easter, the day we remember the impending death of our Lord, when it all got started.  I have mixed emotions about this day.  I'm reminded of just how wishy-washy people can be when I read the story.  The people of Jerusalem welcomed Jesus and laid down palm fronds and even their clothing for Him, to cushion His ride, as He rode His donkey into town.  They shouted "Hosanna! (save us!)" and then five days later, those same folks were yelling "Crucify Him!".  Everything played out as God's plan but I still feel anger, I still feel heartsick, when I think about His suffering. 

These first days of Holy Week are happy ones, before the sadness sets in on Friday.  But it's incredible JOY we'll feel on Sunday 'cause that's the BEST PART!!  His Resurrection!!