Earth Hour

The idea with Earth Hour is to turn off all lights for one hour once a year...seems a bit on the soft side to me. McDonald's are advertising copiously it seems- they will turn off their golden arches for one year...and then what? They are guilt-free? Lol, it's too silly.

I want to turn off all the power for an hour. I thought about the freezer, and decided an hour won;t make much difference. Whatever additional power is required to ge the temperature right again will surely have been less than all our other electricity-use. Besides, we've had power cuts for 2 hours with no big change to the frozen goods.

DH thinks that's crazy..."You only have to do the lights" (waaa, waaa, waaa). he wants to watch the tv coverage of Earth Hour. Why am I the only one that gets that that is ridiculous? Everyone quick- turn off your lights, and watch the television!

J-Man was not interested, and didn't see why we couldn't at least leave the phone on so he could talk to his best friend. I was starting to waver, and wondering if I was being a bit stubborn. I also didn't think dh would actually turn the mains off since he was getting set to dig his heels in. I found the switch myself.

Suddenly I thought we might need chocolate. DH insisted noone needs chocolate. I countered that he couldn't possibly know what every person needed, and I really did need chocolate! He became my voice of reason, reminding me that we are trying to stick to a budget, and *cough* I ate a whole block the day before :0(

I remembered the cookies in the freezer, so quickly turned the oven on (I know, I know)...I had 10 minutes before the switch went. I boiled the jug so I could have a cup of tea in the dark. I put the cookies in, and managed to burn them. DH thought that was hilarious...well, I didn't know. They had really only just got to the right temperature when the power went off...amazing. I honestly didn't know you could do that. I always turn the power off a bit sooner than the recipe says...but I didn't know I could heat it, turn it off and the cookies will be burned before I know it! Not really, really burned, but over done. Still yum.

By the time we switched the power off, noone was particularly happy...we were all getting at each other. Actually, Princess wasn't- she was excited about something different....and Tombliboo was having a blast- blowing out our candles. We started a game of Ligretto but none of us could really remember how to play...it was a bit slow (and a teensy bit boring), plus we had to be on the alert lest we tip over the candles, and Tombliboo meanwhile was wishing to distribute the cards (on the floor)...J-Man couldn't get one particular aspect of the game, and that was exasperating his father no end...then it all looked like it was going to get decidedly ugly, but it didn't.

Everyone chilled, thankfully, and settled in to enjoy cards by candlelight, with burned-smelling cookies.

With 10 minutes to go, when it looked like J-Man might do a happy dance and initiate a countdown...he and Princess went in to the lounge where they had set up mattresses on the floor, to do some dancing. Tombliboo joined in and we watched. I quietly slipped out and switched the power back on at 9:30pm, just as dh's phone alarm started singing. The kids were having too much fun to notice, and when they finally did, J-Man cracked us all up by saying, "I do believe Daddy's bottom is ringing- he has made a musical fart."

We explained the hour was up, and they begged (I'm not kidding) for the lights to stay off, and nothing to be turned on. Tombliboo was ready for bed, so we toddled off, and dh slept in the lounge with the "big" kids (for an hour or so).

I was thinking (beforehand) that I woudl like to do that every night to really make a difference...but I'm not sure now. It wasn't easy. I like the idea of going to sleep with the sun, but when that becomes 5:30pm in a couple of weeks, I don't think so. But maybe we will head for once a week...it was fun after all.