When I arrived home on the Friday before Valentine's Day, and noted the box of panty liners in the living room, I thought that Karla was probably not having a good day on the eve of a day dedicated to romance. Then, I noted several panty liners taped to the ceiling, absorbent side up. I realized that with a weather forecast calling for steady showers the entire weekend, that there would be more than love raining o'er me.Most people know that Karla and I make a strong effort to be environmentally-friendly residents of Planet Earth. Karla is an avowed tree hugger. Me, I was impressed as a child by a sign I read entering a park: Take nothing but memories. Leave nothing but footprints. I don't pretend to think that it's an entirely practical way to try to live, so I've amended the last sentence a bit: Leave nothing but footprints and as little other crap as you possibly can.
And it is directly a result of our eco-amorous pursuits that we are up to our rafters in Kotex this weekend. Almost from the time we oversaw the installation of solar electric panels on our roof, there has been some sort of reverse dharma that has befallen us. Improper engineering resulted in the system producing significantly less electricity than we thought we would. Although the three-year drought has prevented us from experiencing the worst of outcomes, the last two years, we have been scrambling to patch leaks caused by the improper footings used for the panels on the relatively small pitch of our roof.
We are now waving the super absorbent white flag. Before we "go green" with mold inside our living room, we have decided it's time to go "un-green" by removing and selling the system. It's not that home solar electric generation doesn't work. It just won't work for us. Hopefully, wherever the system ends up, it will produce more benefit to it's new owner than it has to us.
At a minimum, we're hoping the only showers occurring in the house are in the bathroom.
