It's not easy being green

As the rest of the world moves forward, so do I. At least I try. I have always been a bit of an environmentalist; had a green bent within my moral and ethical decisions. This recent mainstreaming of “being green” has only made my actions seem more relevant and has given me more options in living the life I want to live.

I have always been a recycler, tried to be aware of my consumption, buy organic when I can, drive a 30+ mpg car, live in the city to reduce my commuting needs, have a nice collection of reusable shopping bags, and try to limit the amount of beef I consume. I have decided to take my greeny tendencies a step further by purchasing green household products (detergents, soap, shampoo, and house cleaning supplies). I am weening myself of bleach based products. Sad to say such a thing. Do they have recovery groups for the bleach addicted? “Hi my name is Bindy and I am 3 weeks off the Bleach. It has been a struggle. I recently walked down the cleaning isle and found myself inhaling the flower scented bleach based shower cleaner, but thanks to you all, I walked past it and continued towards Seventh Generation.” Loud clapping and words of congratulation follow.

Okay that might be a bit dramatic, but you get the idea. I, like many of the female persuasion, have been brainwashed into thinking that if it smells like bleach it is clean, and no other smell will do. I have switched over to two main product lines (this wasn’t the intent of this post, but what the hell); Clorox has a new green product line that works great using natural plant oils, and Ms. Meyers cleaners. Ms. Meyers cleaners are pricey, but as they are so potent and concentrated (and smell like fresh flowers) you don’t need much to do a lot. In fact, today I just purchased my first laundry detergent and dryer sheets (getting off the Tide and Bounce) from Ms. Meyers. The laundry room smells like a lavender garden.
Okay back to the original plan for the post...
So I have been slowly making changes to how I live and clean my life. I have not noticed a negative in any of these changes....until Larry got home.

I had a coupon for some recycled toilet paper. I don’t have a real love of a particular toilet paper. Anything will generally do the job in my opinion. My big manly man of a husband however, is a Charmin man through and through. For him, there is no substitute. It must be Charmin! It is the one thing that I can give him crap for because, well......because I can! Although I knew this about my hubby, "Ms. Do Better" here bought the recycled TP anyway. Unsure of how the “softness” would play out, I got it home, used it, and quickly realized I was going to be hearing it from the big man when he got home for his visit.
Within moments of Larry arriving home last week, he sat down on the pot, and as I expected, “what the hell! What kind of toilet paper is this?” I cringed as his loud, booming voice declared his obvious dissatisfaction of my papier de la toilet selection. I cracked up laughing. I knew it! I explained to him the change in the TP and asked him to do it for the Earth, “your butt may not thank you, but the Earth will!” He growled at me, but let it go...for the moment.

The next morning, during breakfast, he got up from the table and stated, “excuse me, I must go sandpaper my ass now.” I just about choked on my muffin, and nearly wet myself laughing so hard.

I try and do the best I can; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, and sometimes it’s just damn funny!