Yesterday while I was in the backyard doing my weekly maintenance, I heard my neighbor enter her backyard joyfully singing.  Within seconds the singing gave way to the roar of a garden hose with a pressure nozzle pounding precious water onto concrete.  She must have been hosing off the patio.  I thought to myself, (as I always say to my wife when she hoses down the patio) “That’s what brooms are for”.  After seemingly half an hour, the target of her joy became the wood fence that separates our yards.  After seemingly another half an hour, she watered the fence on the other side of her yard.  Only a few minutes later, it happened again!  Only this time it was my wife hosing down our patio.   That evening as I was getting in my car for a trip to the store, I noticed that my wife had also hosed down the driveway and walkway.  As I mentioned before, whenever I catch her in these acts, I say, “That’s what brooms are for”.  She always responds, “But this is faster”.  I’m not sure how.  Our patio is not that big.  It only takes me maybe 5 minutes to sweep it, while she had the hose going for at least 30 minutes.  Luckily the water thing only happens on the weekends. 

Perhaps a bigger problem happens on a daily basis, wasted electricity!  Every time she enters a room, every light in the room goes on, but when she leaves, they stay on.  I can’t tell you how many times I have gone downstairs while the whole family is upstairs only to find every light downstairs on and vice versa. 

One last example.  The other day at work, I watched as the office manager piled paper towel after paper towel on top of a small puddle of coffee.  She must have put 50 pieces on top of a spill that could have been handled by 5 or 10.  This is the same person who, a week earlier, put recycling bins throughout the office.  It seemed like her attitude was, “These are recycleable, so I can use as many as I want, and since I’ll be recycling, I’ll be helping”.

It’s obvious that we all have to do a better job of raising awareness, the trick is how to do it without being a nag or appearing as you’re getting all up in someone else’s business.