I Have no Microwave ... and Other Confessions From the Green Edge, Part 1

It's been a while since I've written, I know. I finished revisions upon revisions upon revisions of my novel last week, and I completely lost track of time. I would be lying though if I said that I hadn't been thinking about the blog. As daily news stories came in about the horrifying events in Japan, I struggled trying to think about what I wanted to say. The earthquake and tsunami were horrendous, but the nuclear plant melt-down just about did my green brain in.

When I was in elementary school, I sneaked out of bed to watch the made for TV movie "The Day After" with my babysitter. My mother had warned me not to watch it, saying the story was going to upset and scare me. This, of course, just made me want to watch it more. I've never regretted not following my mother's advice as much as I did that night. The images of a post-apocalyptic, post-nuclear war America were horrifying.

I've never really understood why countries remain focused on nuclear power. To me it's like saying: We're going to take the sun (which is way more powerful than any human being), and we're going to store it in a building and try to control its power by keeping the room cold. Of course, being human, we're prone to mistakes. But they'll only happen from time to time, right? And if we do make a mistake, just a few hundred thousand people will get fried. But hey, we've got the power of the sun.

It's just like our species to have that much hubris ...

Unfortunately, nuclear power plants are completely out of my control. When we left New York City I refused to even consider living in certain suburban towns because of their proximity to Indian Point. So now I live somewhere else ... just as close to a nuclear plant. I tell myself New England power plants are less interesting to terrorists. And for the most part, nowadays, when I think about all these dangers...I just close my eyes and stick my fingers in my ears. La la la la.

So since I can't control what goes on outside my home, I have done everything in my power to control what goes on inside.

Here are my wave-free living confessions:

1) I have no microwave
2) I have no Wifi
3) I rarely use my cell phone
4) I am in the process of getting rid of all my portable phones.

In my next blog entry, I'll get into all the reasons why I've made these choices. But for now, what you need to know is that we get along just fine without 'em. And I need to sing la la las a whole lot less.