turn out the lights

Did you celebrate Earth Hour on Saturday? I went to this concert last year but this year I kept it quiet and read a book by candlelight. I always love hearing stories from my grandma about how before they had electicity {or Alec Tricity - she thought it was a man!} they could do nothing much after dark except read and talk by candlelight - there were no tv's or computers or video games to distract us and make us completely anti-social!

I also loved the first night of that huge black-out a few years back. I lived in uptown Toronto and Pete was working downtown. He walked all the way up {MANY city blocks} to my apartment as his car was stuck in a lot downtown, and then around 10pm that night we decided to walk back downtown to get his car. It was unreal! Everyone was out on the streets walking and talking, socializing. Restaurants were open by candlelight and handing out free drinks. It was such an incredible night that I'll never forget. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate electricity and heat and hot water! But we could stand to hold an Earth Hour a bit more often I think...at least more than once a year.

p.s. Toronto decreased its typical energy consumption by 15% of what is normal at that time...not too shabby!