Snowflakes in August
First day as a petit juror in federal court but I didn't get picked. Normally I would enjoy serving on a jury again except that it's that crazy time where the students are crawling about the store like maggots on dying flesh. Ok, bad metaphor, but you get the idea. I'll move quickly to another metaphor.
After leaving the courthouse, but before returning to work, I stopped by the house to make sure the windows were open. However, when I returned from home after work, the Kid (my kid) had closed the windows and turned on the A/C just as he had done the past couple of days. The past couple of days I had left the A/C on, opting to keep the house quite cool and dry, breaking the streak of 8 days and nights without A/C. Tonight was going to be the start of a new 'streak'.
Why? I spent the morning listening to the conversations of my fellow jurors, and I was amazed (not really) at the amount of conversation that surrounded gas, gas prices, parking, and, you know, car culture in general. And the building was ungodly COLD. Unhealthy Cold. brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr cold. Cold on a day when it didn't need to be that cold and in a building with functional windows, large windows, a building made when A/C wasn't even around. So I entered the house with my rhetorical guns blazing for the kid.
'When I make an effort to open up the windows and turn off the A/C, I don't want you to close them and turn it back on. I don't want our house to be a 'no sweat zone'. You have an A/C unit that is perfect for your room (100 sq. feet) so if you can't live without the chill, then please close your door and cool your room only. Don't cool the whole house (all 580 sq feet of it) so you can sit and play video games in a small part of it. I'm passionate about this.. do you have a clue why?'
His face told me no, that he had no clue, and frankly, he was unsure as to why his dad was on a tear.
'When you get to school tomorrow and have a fast internet connection, google 'mountain top removal and coal' and check out the pictures of what happens to the mountains in appalachia. These mountains that took billions of years to form and only months to level because of the coal they contain. The coal that goes towards making the electricity that powers our addiction to our notion of comfortable. I really don't think I'm going to change the world, but I have to change myself or I suffer on the inside from cognitive dissonance.'
His face told me that I was acting all wierd and stuff, and that the term 'cognitive dissonance' was a 'WTF' moment for him.
It's like this, I said. 'No snowflake has ever claimed responsibility for an avalanche.' Do you understand that?
Yeah, he said. He got that, he said.
Tonight he closed his door and turned on his small window A/C.... but he did set his thermostat higher than before. I slept on top of the blankets, with a chorus of insects and night creatures singing me to sleep.
Small steps for two snowflakes.
After leaving the courthouse, but before returning to work, I stopped by the house to make sure the windows were open. However, when I returned from home after work, the Kid (my kid) had closed the windows and turned on the A/C just as he had done the past couple of days. The past couple of days I had left the A/C on, opting to keep the house quite cool and dry, breaking the streak of 8 days and nights without A/C. Tonight was going to be the start of a new 'streak'.
Why? I spent the morning listening to the conversations of my fellow jurors, and I was amazed (not really) at the amount of conversation that surrounded gas, gas prices, parking, and, you know, car culture in general. And the building was ungodly COLD. Unhealthy Cold. brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr cold. Cold on a day when it didn't need to be that cold and in a building with functional windows, large windows, a building made when A/C wasn't even around. So I entered the house with my rhetorical guns blazing for the kid.
'When I make an effort to open up the windows and turn off the A/C, I don't want you to close them and turn it back on. I don't want our house to be a 'no sweat zone'. You have an A/C unit that is perfect for your room (100 sq. feet) so if you can't live without the chill, then please close your door and cool your room only. Don't cool the whole house (all 580 sq feet of it) so you can sit and play video games in a small part of it. I'm passionate about this.. do you have a clue why?'
His face told me no, that he had no clue, and frankly, he was unsure as to why his dad was on a tear.
'When you get to school tomorrow and have a fast internet connection, google 'mountain top removal and coal' and check out the pictures of what happens to the mountains in appalachia. These mountains that took billions of years to form and only months to level because of the coal they contain. The coal that goes towards making the electricity that powers our addiction to our notion of comfortable. I really don't think I'm going to change the world, but I have to change myself or I suffer on the inside from cognitive dissonance.'
His face told me that I was acting all wierd and stuff, and that the term 'cognitive dissonance' was a 'WTF' moment for him.
It's like this, I said. 'No snowflake has ever claimed responsibility for an avalanche.' Do you understand that?
Yeah, he said. He got that, he said.
Tonight he closed his door and turned on his small window A/C.... but he did set his thermostat higher than before. I slept on top of the blankets, with a chorus of insects and night creatures singing me to sleep.
Small steps for two snowflakes.
posted by Woodog at 9:52 PM
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