turn off the lights for 1 hour at 8pm on March 29 for Earth Hour!

I know you’re all wondering what this is doing on my list in May when the goal clearly states March but truth is that I forgot. Earth Hour fell during the weekend when I wasn’t on 43Things, so I joined the goal but then forgot to switch the lights off. I’ve been meaning to have my own little ‘Earth Hour’ ever since and finally managed to last night. So I can now proudly mark it done, rather than just delete it or give up.

Earth Hour 2009 is on 28 March 2009. Yes, I already created the goal for that event If anyone from the team is interested, or anyone for that matter to join the 2009 team, feel free to drop me a line. We can start creating the team now so that we are all in the know as the hour approaches.

In all liklihood I may “park” this goal from time to time in the “given up” area but don’t fret if I do, it’s just parked to make room temporarily for other goals.

It was just me and Izzy the rabbit at home since my old man was at work. I lit a bunch of candles and read by candlelight at the dining room table for a while. I fell asleep sitting up while reading and I’m very glad I didn’t catch my hair on fire! Didn’t want to turn the tv on after the hour was up. I just turned on one lamp and read some more until it was bedtime. I learned that turning the tv off is the hard part but once it is off it is easier to keep it off!

I totally was distracted earlier in the day and forgot to set it all up. At 7:55PM when my alarm went off I realized what I had done and then just let it pass with minor comment because I was a bit disappointed in myself. I was away from home and I think that was the reason I wasn’t on top of myself to plan it out. I do like my idea to have Earth Hour whenever I see fit!

sat in a dark theater and watched El Violin in that period. Good timing, I guess.

_{Not sure if it counts; not the worst I’ve done to earth in an hour, nonetheless.}

It was just me and the kids. My spouse was performing Beethoven up in central CT, so it was up to me to organize and execute this event.

My six year old got really into it, locating, not just flashlights, but hand-cranked flashlights, for each of us. We began shutting down the house at 7:55, going from room to room first shutting off lights, then looking for glowing LEDs that indicated a wall-wart or other ‘ready’ 12V power supply. By the end, my 13 year old was more into it than the six year old. She was quite diligent at finding and killing these convenience driven sources of energy drain in the name of conservation.

Both kids were amazed at how many switches, plugs, and cables we had to pull out, and we still left on the major appliances and anything with a clock (coffee maker, microwave, etc).

In the end, they decided to watch a charlie brown special on Arbor day, on a little battery powered DVD player. I explained that this was actually cheating, since the battery would just need to be re-charged, and they decided that for next Earth hour, they want to get one of the hand-cranked battery chargers.

At the end of the hour, my 15 year old, who had been reading by hand-cranked flashlight in his room, emerged and yelled “It’s 9:01. Can we turn on the DSL now?”

Sure, it was a non-event for the most part on our street. All our neighbors had their lights on. But across the river, a few houses went dark when ours did, and the enthusiasm for saving energy in the kids made it worth while.

“Hmmmm, the tide is turning…” – R. Waters.

I just learned that Google darkened their home page for Earth Hour 2008 – how freaking awesome is that ! (here’s a screenshot)

Does anyone know the date of Earth Hour 2009 ?

It was easy to switch the lights off for an hour and more – not least because I watched a movie on my computer.

Switching off the computer for 24 hours would have been far more of a challenge. Maybe that’s next!

I was able to do this because I went out with my family. Worth Doing!