lights out

Since my high school "Eco Club" days (some might have said Geeko Club since being an envirojunkie in the early 90's wasn't quite as vogue as it is now), I have always held a soft spot for the planet and tried to do my part. Recently, like everyone else it seems, I've tried to work a little harder at 'being green' .

I use cloth tote bags, buy post-consumer recycled kitchen bags, eat local/organic as often as I can, switched light bulbs, limit my use of air conditioning in both car and home, keep my car's maintenance up to snuff, copying two-sided at work and I'm using my bike, legs and public transit more often than hopping in the Civic. And recycling. Always recycling.

So a few weeks ago I ordered a dimmer switch for the halogen lights in my kitchen/dining room. Despite being in a condo and not actually knowing whose consumption i'm paying for, I thought spending a few bucks to help lighten the load would be a nice thing to do.

Today I went to pick it up.

'That will be $107.11'.

At first I thought a $1.07? Awesome..that $3 rebate coupon came in handy.

Ya, that $3 wasn't really doing squat.

The dimmer switch is still at the store....unfortunately, that's just too much green to get green.
I'll just keep the lights off and cook in the dark.