Energy cost

Last week, to my great delight, two writer friends were in town and we had lunch together. One of them is newer in my life, the other older. So the newer friend was telling us how she noticed a huge jump in her energy bill for March this year, compared to March last year. And why was that? Because she'd been writing a lot and had therefore been on her computer much more. Who would have thunk it would make such a difference?

So now I'm going to make sure to turn on my computer only when I'm ready to sit down and engage with it. And I'll turn it off whenever I know I'm not going to be using it for a few hours.

Last year I was at a writing conference and attended a terrific workshop given by Don Maass, agent and author of writing how-to books. He's an amusing speaker, but I wonder if he expected laughter when he asked how many of us had left our computers plugged in when we left our rooms. Yes, that cord goes on pumping out energy whether it's connected to our laptops or not. As does those chargers for our cell phones. There I sat among the chuckles, somewhat horrified to think my fellow creatives thought this a source of amusement.

If I were truly diligent, I'd go downstairs to the basement last thing at night and turn off our power bar. However, due to my present hip disability, that will have to wait a while. And meanwhile, posting this has meant, I hope, that I've done my small bit to save the planet today.