Lulu's One Month Vacation With Us

Lulu is a young husky who stays with us at least once a year while her humans travel.  Her stunning appearance gets her a lot of compliments while we are out walking. People love the idea of getting a husky because they are pretty. Many first time dog owners don't realize they are also a lot of work. Huskies are high energy working dogs. As pets, they get bored easily. I was mentally prepared to take her out for two walks everyday and each walk would be at least 30 minutes. If she doesn't get her exercise, she could potentially start tearing things apart or digging big holes in the yard. In other words, she'd need to let out her energy in other ways. Lulu likes to wake me up in the early morning between 4 to 7 a.m.  I took some photos (with Wifi cam) of her pounding on my bedroom door in the morning. It's not exactly how I like to wake up in the morning.

Albany Bulb

Since she does not like Point Isabel, I have been taken her to other trails such as Albany Bulb, Motorcycle Hill Trail, Memorial Grove, etc. The other day I remembered that I have doggy backpacks that I got for Kelsey years ago.  I put them on Lulu we took a fast walk to El Cerrito Recycling Center to drop off some dead batteries and light bulbs. With the packs on her, she started walking in a straight line instead of trying to pull in different directions. We felt that we accomplished something after dropping off those items. When we hiked up Motorcycle Hill Trail, she also carried all of our drinking water.  Both Lulu and Cracus were super thirsty as we reached the top of the hill and couldn't wait to drink up the water.  

Arriving El Cerrito Recycling Center

My little helper, Katy, also tried some urban sledding with Luly using her skateboard. Lulu wasn't quite sure what we wanted her to do, so I had to run with Cracus in front of them for her to chase after us. Once she started running, it was too fast and scary for Katy, so I had to stop running.  We need to teach her some commands for pulling the skateboard.  I am a firm believer that a dog is happiest when he/she has a job to do whether is doing some funny tricks or carrying a few things.

Sweden's Conservation Efforts

(from left to right) Clear glass, Colored glass, Paper, Garbage

One of the biggest impressions Scandinavia made on me during my trip is their conservation efforts. Both Copenhagen and Stockholm are extremely aggressive in recycling, reducing waste, and promoting bicycling as a mainstream transportation. In the Bay Area, we are more progress than most of the country, but I am embarrassed seeing what they are doing here. All of their "garbage" cans are categorized. In most of supermarkets, you either bring your own bags or you pay for the bags. I remember seeing that proposal in SFGate.com not too long ago, and many people were angry at the idea of having to pay for shopping bags. Their public transit system is rapid, on time, and extremely reliable. I took public transit everywhere during my two weeks here. Outside of many train stations, self serve bicycle rentals are available. Bicyclists have their own wide lanes and traffic signals with little concern of colliding with cars. Needless to say, I see very few obsess or overweight people here.

Air and Water quality indicators

Right next to the waterfront of Copenhagen, there are these two indicators (above photo) showing Air and Water quality. They also explain what the government is doing to clean the water and air and the importance of doing so. At many supermarkets, I see self serve recycling stations. People just bring their plastic and glass bottles to feed into the machine and get cash for recycling them. They don't need to make an extra trip to some recycling facility.

Plastic and glass recycling station right inside of a large super market. It pays to recycle.

As I walked  by their Culture Festival, I noticed another banner, "Good Planets Are Hard to Find. Don't Blow It." That shall be a constant reminder to all of us. Conservation efforts aren't something we should wait for our government to take actions. It starts with individuals like you and me. For the last few years, I have felt like an oddity at times for growing my own food, composting, recycling, and hardly ever driving my car. After seeing what they are doing here, I don't feel so odd anymore.

"Good Planets are hard to find. Don't blow it."

Compost Giveaway Day in El Cerrito

Prior to my New York trip, I received a card in the mail about compost giveaway on October 10, 9 am - 5 pm, at El Cerrito Recycling Center, 7501 Schmidt Lane. I immediately marked the date on my schedule. Today is the day, and before 9 am I have loaded my Cruiser with 3 five-gallon buckets. Shortly after 9 am, I was on my way to the recycling center. This would be my first time going to the recycling center. I thought I knew where it was, but I ended up at the Electronics Waste Recycling event at the DMV parking lot. I got out of there and drove up Schmidt Lane. It turned out that the recycling center is located further up the hill.

I was happy to see that people have already lined up for free compost. After a short wait, I entered the compost area with a few other people. I was so happy to see the quality of the compost, which I nicknamed "black gold." The smell of the compost pile was earthy and organic. Love it! El Cerrito has just started collecting food scraps in July this year.

Personally I do not have a whole lot of food scraps to put in the recycling bin since most of them go into my own worm compost bins. I have to feed those pet worms! While I was getting my free compost, I also received some information on upcoming community workshops on Climate Action in El Cerrito. They will be held at the city hall on October 26, 5-7 pm, and December 2, 7-9 pm.