happy belated earth day

We had a great trip to Rapid City, South Dakota last weekend for niece Abigail's First Communion, and a surprise "Rob's Not 40 Yet" Birthday party to celebrate my brother-in-law's 39th. Although it was a long drive (yes, we drove) it was a really fun few days and went way too fast!

sunset near Moab, UT on the way home

Tuesday was Earth Day as you all know (i hope) and to celebrate, I joined a community group called Chinle Against Trash to help clean up our very litter-strewn town. In just a few hours, we were able to clear a large portion of the road through town of LOTS and LOTS of trash. I wish I had gotten some before and after pictures but I did not. You may be wondering why there is so much trash around here...well despite what you may have deduced from the 1971 Public Service Announcement of the "Crying Indian" by Keep America Beautiful, not all Indians cry over litter (they don't all dress like that either, in case you were wondering).

There was also a 5k run & fundraiser, put on by the newly formed Chinle High School Environmental Club. Ryan, my friend Julie, co-worker Michelle, and I all ran it. Julie, awesome runner that she is, placed 3rd overall female (and got a cool little ceramic tile hand-made by one of the high school students for it). You may know that I am not much of a runner, but I have been trying, and I amazingly placed 3rd female in my age group (of course, i am pretty sure there were only 3 of us in our age group!). It was a fun time, especially because all of the prizes involved seeds and plant-related stuff!

To quote Julie: Do something green every day!
Here's some ideas.

P.S. There's all kinds of talk about "going green" these days. A lot of it is hype: people jumping on the green bandwagon because it's hip right now or something. But more importantly...because of all this hype, more and more people ARE doing things that are better for the earth. Make your greenness count.