Solar Power

I used to think that my time as a Peace Corps volunteer made me realize that we really don't need all that much stuff to live a decent life. Living with much less and being happy gave me a different view of things when I got back to the US.

But as I was hanging up my mom's laundry this morning, I realized that she had probably prepared me to get the message.

She has a washing machine, but she never got a drier. She's always used a clothesline. She also never bought a dishwasher. It's not that she can't afford to buy them, but she never saw the point. I wonder if my mom could sell carbon offsets for all these years of using the sun to dry her laundry and washing the dishes by hand.

And it's not like she was a stay at home housewife. (Nothing wrong with that either.) She only retired from her job when she was 85 a couple years ago.