Green Festival

Hedda and I went to the Green Festival on Sunday. She had volunteered last year, but I was unable to go because I was working sound for TAP. This year, she had a rare free afternoon off from the campaign, so we walked the few blocks over to the convention center.

An aside: Why is the area around the convention center still bombed out? For pete’s sake, it’s been, what, three years since they built the damn thing?! Why are there still boarded up row-houses on the corner of 9th and L? They should be filled with coffee shops and restaurants and boutiques and DC tourism offices. Of course, preferrably independent and locally-owned, but at this point I think I would even settle for a …. no, I think I’d rather see plywood on the windows than Yet Another Starbucks.

Back to the story: When we got there, Hedda said right away that it seemed smaller than last year, and she reaffirmed that feeling after we had walked the entire floor. She pointed out several booths that where much smaller than the previous year. She was specifically looking for a composting toilet she had seen last year, but they weren’t even there!

For me, it was frustrating how difficult it was to determine what a particular attendee was showcasing or advocating. Booth after booth had slogans and signs and pictures exclaiming the usual environmentally correct rhetoric, but it was nearly impossible to determine whether I was interested in approaching for more information - and even with the smaller size there is simply too much to take in.

There was an owl there. And a hawk. Also, I did find a couple of cool booths on LED light bulbs. That is such a great idea. Everyone should investigate getting LED bulbs. I will admit that the price is a bit intimidating. At $70 per bulb, we’re talking about over $800 to replace each of the existing halogen floods we use in the can lights throughout our home. Sure, they might last 20 years, but I still don’t spend $800 on anything lightly.

Savor that juicy morsel for a moment….

Being so expensive, it becomes suddenly comprehensible to take the light bulbs with you when you move out - not that we’re planning on moving any time soon - I’m just saying: What might generally be regarded as the miserly act of a heartless scrooge is suddenly a financial necessity. Maybe a better approach is to add them to the price of the home and use them as a selling point. One avoids the possibility of looking unscrupulous in that case.

I am going to return to the topic of lavatories. Hedda has been making her case for a composting toilet for some time now, and I have been steadfastly against the idea. I cannot help but think that installation of a toilet that does not flush into a two-bedroom city condominium will lead to tragedy. Vile, nasty, oozing tragedy. Especially when we have no use for the resultant biomass readily at hand. Can anybody out there offer their thoughts?

So the Green Festival. Right. It was fun. There were a lot of hippies. I’ll go back. They really need to target the more urban green-ness. There isn’t much for us there in our current home.