[at-l] OT...Earth Friendly Christmas present

[kahley7@ptd.net (kahley)]

Some folks said they'd be interested in what Mike and
I decided to buy for ourselves for our Earth Friendly
Christmas Gift .  We were considering an on demand
water heater but have decided to put that off until our
existing unit dies and I get more comfortable with the
idea of a gas appliance.

I have my share of irrational fear too <sigh>

Instead, we have decided to try and charm/pay our way into
a different dock for our pontoon boat.  There is a commercial
campsite just a few hundred yards from the place where I maintain
the artificial reef.  If we can talk them into renting us dock space,
even though we don't rent a campsite, it will cut down the
amount of gas/pollution we use/cause with the boat during
the year by a factor of 10!!!!!!   It will likely cost a lot more money,
but the savings in gas/oil as well as time means it fits with
our formula for our Earth Friendly Christmas Gift

Since summer is a while off, and since the contributions to
local charities in general and the shelter with which we are
involved, in particular, are down since 9/11, we are taking the
$400 bucks we had allotted for Christmas and buying toys.

Yesterday I stated and what a hoot!  You can really stretch a
dollar if you try and I filled the car with dolls and stuffed toys
and action figures.  Now I'm going out and spend the other
200 on games and books.  It has been soooooo much fun!!!!!

I hope any of you who can will consider buying a toy or 12
and donating it to a local shelter.  They are out there.  "Haven"
is in the county seat of the next county so maybe it could
be 30 miles away but there are kids everywhere who really need
a bit of your Christmas generosity.

I found the most excellent big, stuffed lions and leopards and
Siberian tigers (no lynx there either <g>) at Kmart for 8.00.
I would have flipped to get one of these when I was a kid!
They are wonderful!!!!

Tis the season to be nice to the Earth and to the Kids!!!!!!!