First let me tell you who I am. My name is Robert (I try to
use Bob these days) and I am a 44 year old happily married man with two grown
children (18 & 27) and a grandson. Oh yeah, let me say that my eldest will
be getting married in March. My wife and I have lived in Tucson Arizona for the
past eight years while my sons live just a couple of hours to the north.
Anyway, I have many hobbies: writing (a book will be finished one day),
practicing guitar (notice I didn’t say playing guitar) riding my bike and tossing
around a Frisbee. Being indoors is not my thing, I prefer being outside, in the
sun, doing something. Wait there’s more. I write another blog (I’ll tell you
the name later) and I plan to have a spring garden this upcoming year.
Okay, that’s enough about who I am, on with the interesting
stuff!
A few years ago the company I work for took an interest in
sustainability and finding ways to reduce waste, recycle more and better the
workplace environment. I helped in a few ways by authoring the now defunct
“GREEN Newsletter” for the employees’, I purchased soy based utensils and
compostable cups for the break room and began to recycle the cardboard boxes we
get from our suppliers. I should have taken it further, at work and in my own
life but I didn’t. That is until recently…
In 2012 my life changed. My youngest son left for school so
the wife and I decided to leave our 2100 square foot home with four acres and
move to the University area in Tucson. What a change! 2,100 square feet to less
than 1,000 square feet of living space. That adjustment took some doing. We had
to get rid of a lot of material things that were once deemed as necessary. In
the end we made a few bucks having a yard sale and donated enough stuff to fill
a 17 foot U-haul truck. That was in August, it’s now December and I have made
some good GREEN changes in how I live.
More next week.