POTD: Stop Time!

This remarkable image is by Rockville Central reader Alain Menguy. It is actually five superimposed “High Dynamic Range” images. I don’t know about all that; I just think it looks incredibly cool.

Of the photo, Alain says: “Please stop the time! This is Spring in Rockville with no traffic on Route 28 (Montgomery Avenue).”

Want to submit a photo for consideration to be the Picture Of The Day at Rockville Central? Wonderful! Just email it to me. Rules: a) Must be taken in Rockville; b) Must be your own work; c) Must not be published or offered for publication elsewhere; d) Should be generally contemporary (try to keep them less than a month or two old).

Time to Cut the Grass

Ah, Spring. The daffodils are smiling, the tulips are dancing … and there is the roar of yard gadgets in the air. Nothing like going outside to enjoy the warm spring air and being assaulted by the start up noise of a lawn trimmer and being choked by gas fumes.

When my husband and I were first together we lived in a charming ground-level one bedroom apartment that just happened to be next to the caretaker’s work room. It seemed to me that not a day would go by when my senses were not violated by the earsplitting whine of leaf blowers, lawn mowers, or edgers. You name it he had it-and seemingly really enjoyed using them. The gas fumes would invade our home through the open windows, so the pleasure of nice weather was often met with the need for great tolerance of things smelly and noisy.

After so much experience with the racket and reek of all those different machines I swore to myself that if we ever had a house I would only use lawn equipment that was hand powered.

After buying a house the first lawn mower we bought was the old-fashioned push reel mower. I never taught myself how to properly care for the mower and after a couple years the blades dulled and I took it to be serviced. The mower never seemed to work nearly as well after being serviced though and I’ve invested in at least 2 reel mowers since moving into my home 14 years ago.

A couple years ago we were given my grandfather’s gas mower when he passed away. We were happy to get it because, as anyone with a reel mower knows, if you wait to long to mow your lawn, it can become quite a torturous chore. We told ourselves we would only use it on those occasions when the grass was too tall to mow using the reel mower without exposing the neighborhood children to language they shouldn’t hear. We actually stuck to that plan and only used the gas mower once or twice.

Last year, however, when Spring rolled around and grass cutting season followed close behind, I tried to use the reel mower and the blades were so dull they would not cut the grass so I shamed myself by using the gas mower ALL THE TIME. Why I didn’t get the old reel mower serviced, or buy a new one, I’m not quite sure. I think I just got lazy and enjoyed not having to mow the grass as often, or fight with objects that get stuck in the blades and prevent the mower from moving.

There are other advantages to the loud, stinky mowers, too. The grass is certainly easier to cut and I don’t think I swore once while using it, except maybe when it ran out of gas. Also, with a bag to collect the grass, we don’t track the newly cut grass into our house for the next several days after mowing.

Just when other people have become more environmentally conscious with their yard tools (I’ve seen at least 3 other families on my block with reel mowers) and with gas prices well above $3, I’ve sunk to an irresponsible low. I haven’t cut my grass yet this Spring because I’m still trying to motivate myself to get out the reel mower and give it another try. I caught a glimpse of my back yard today, though, and I don’t think the reel mower’s going to cut it, literally.

I guess I’ll do the first mow of the year with the loud, stinky, polluting one and go invest in my 3rd reel mower. I don’t think I can live with the guilt for another grass-cutting season.

POTD: Not Too Far Away

This lovely photograph is by Rockville Central reader Janet Brown. Of it, she says:

“It’s a picture of one of my most favorite places in Rockville – the wrap-around porch of The Argyle House. . . . I come from a coastal town called Barry in Wales, UK. It has about the same population as Rockville, but is different in many ways. We don’t have these pretty houses like The Argyle House and we don’t have porches like this. Barry has fresh sea breezes all year that can blast you and this west coast area of the UK rarely has balmy summer evenings. So I really enjoy sitting out on this porch when the weather is warmer. This spring picture of bright morning sunshine tells me that summer is not too far way.”

Do you have a favorite place in Rockville? Let us know where — and why — and we may feature it! (It helps if you have a photo, but not required.)

POTD: Munch!

This photo is by Richard Montgomery High School PTSA president Kate Savage. Of it, she says: “This is the back side of the auditorium. The old building is finally coming down to make way for athletic fields!”

Want to submit a photo for consideration to be the Picture Of The Day at Rockville Central? Wonderful! Just email it to me. Rules: a) Must be taken in Rockville; b) Must be your own work; c) Must not be published or offered for publication elsewhere; d) Should be generally contemporary (try to keep them less than a month or two old).

POTD: Hah!

I normally have rules about POTD submissions . . . you know, keep it recent. But, this photo by Rockville Central reader Gayl Selkin-Gutman, was hard not to make an exception for.

It was taken one year ago!

Want to submit a photo for consideration to be the Picture Of The Day? Wonderful! Just email it to me. Now, back to the rules: a) Must be taken in Rockville; b) Must be your own work; c) Must not be published or offered for publication elsewhere; d) Should be generally contemporary (try to keep them less than a month or two old).

POTD: Flowers!

This lovely photo is by Rockville Central friend and Rockville Roundtable participant Brenda Dunham, taken in her back yard.

Happy April! No foolin’.

Want to submit a photo for consideration to be the Picture Of The Day? Wonderful! Just email it to me. Rules: a) Must be taken in Rockville; b) Must be your own work; c) Must not be published or offered for publication elsewhere; d) Should be generally contemporary (try to keep them less than a month or two old).

Guest Column by Tracy Pakulniewicz-Chidiac: What’s Your Footprint?

The following guest column is by Tracy Pakulniewicz-Chidiac:

Earth Day is April 22, just a month away, and with rising fuel and food costs, there is a great urgency, more than ever, for each of us individually to think about doing our part to live a “greener” lifestyle. But before we do so, it’s important for all of us to understand what our individual impact — our ecological footprint — on the Earth is. You can measure yours by going here.

When I worked at the global nonprofit, Earth Day Network, which was created by the founders of Earth Day, the late Senator Gaylord Nelson and Denis Hayes, we partnered with the nation’s leading public policy think tank dedicated to smart economics, Redefining Progress, to promote this amazing online tool that helps individuals measure what his/her carbon footprint is on Earth by taking an ecological footprint quiz. The result of the test will tell you how many Earths are needed to fulfill your lifestyle.

In honor of Earth Day and in a continuous effort to make our lives more green, I hope you’ll take the time to take the quiz. I do hope everyone, including our community leaders, will share the quiz with their friends, colleagues and family. The following quizzes are also available: The Office Footprint; Footprint Quiz for Kids and the Footprint of Nations.

I also offer a few “fun facts” that really highlight how poor environmental standards globally impact all of us:

• Most of the smog in Los Angeles is caused by pollution coming from China;
• Pollutants from fires in southeast Asian have changed rain patterns in Australia and added toxic pollutants, with adverse long-term health effects for Australians; and
• The US is the largest single emitter of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels, yet we are the third largest nation in the world by land-mass and population.

So, on April 22, Earth Day, and every day, please do your part to make our world a greener, cleaner place for ourselves and our future.

Tracy Pakulniewicz-Chidiac

Got an idea for a Guest Column? Drop us a line and let us know! You can be part of Rockville Central’s growing roster of contributors.

POTD: Ponds

Part of a three-part series by Rockville Central friend Mark Pierzchala. He calls the series “Two Things Part of Another Thing.”

Of this one he says: “Forebay pond and Storm Water Management pond at Exit 6 (towards DC) onto I-270, from the new bike bridge on West Montgomery. (Both ponds part of a Storm Water Management system.)”

Guest Column by Beth and Todd Harrison: A Greener Rockville Starts at Home — Eight Steps to a More Environmentally Responsible Home in 2008 (Pt.3)

Final in a three-part series by Rockville Central friends Beth and Todd Harrison. (Part One is here and Part Two is here.)

This week is our final installment of the series with the last three steps for creating a more environmentally responsible home. This week’s steps are all one-time changes you can make in your home with not much more effort than a trip to Home Depot.

Step #6: Install Compact Florescent Light Bulbs

Each year, our electric rates from Pepco keep going up. In some places, electric companies are experimenting with pricing that would charge more during peak times, in order to encourage people to decrease power usage. One easy thing we can do is to replace incandescent lights with compact florescent bulbs. A compact florescent bulb uses about 70% less power than an equivalent incandescent bulb, and they last about ten times as long. The Environmental Defense Fund has said that if every U.S household replaced three 60-watt incandescent blubs with compact florescent blubs, the reduction in energy usage and related green house emissions would be the equivalent of taking 3.5 million cars off the road.

If you tried compact florescent several years ago and were disappointed with their performance, take another look. The technology has improved quite a bit in the past couple of years. You now can get bulbs in just about any size and shape, and you can chose shades of light ranging from warm to bright white.

Step #7: Install Low Flow Shower Heads

A typical shower head uses 2.5 gallons of water per minute, which means a 10 minute shower each day will consume 9,125 gallons of water per year per person. It’s not just water that’s being used but also the power required to heat the water before it goes down the drain. One simple thing you can do to reduce your water and energy consumption is to install a low flow shower head that uses 1.8 gallons per minute or less.

When I mention “low flow,” you may be thinking of that Seinfeld episode when Jerry’s landlord installed low flow shower heads in the building and Jerry and Kramer ended up with “flat hair.” You don’t need to worry about “flat hair” with today’s low flow shower heads. We bought an H2O Kinetic shower head by Delta and liked it so much we bought another one to install in our second bathroom. The water droplets from the showerhead are much larger and come out with more pressure, making you feel like you are getting more water. Installation is really easy and does not require a plumber or any special tools. All you need is a wrench, some Teflon tape, and about five minutes of your time (here are instructions on replacing a showerhead).

Step #8: Use a Programmable Thermostat

The last step in our series is probably the one thing that will save the most power in your home—installing a programmable thermostat. If you work outside the home, a programmable thermostat allows you automatically to change the temperature setting each day when you leave and then return it to normal before you return home. Of course, it won’t save you anything if you don’t keep the temperature at a moderate setting. I’ll go ahead and fess up to where we keep our thermostat to give you a point of reference: in the winter 65 degrees at night, 67 in the mornings when we shower, and 63 degrees when we are gone during the day, and in the summer 76 when we are at home and 81 when are gone.

Installing a programmable thermostat is a bit more involved than the low flow showerhead but still easier than you may think. It requires no special tools and you don’t need to call an HVAC specialist (here are installation instructions). You can find a variety of programmable thermostats at Home Depot, Lowe’s, or any major hardware store, and it will pay for itself in just a few months.

Conclusion

We hope you have found this series useful and informative, and that you will consider making these 8 steps something you commit to implementing in 2008. If each of us will work a little harder and be willing to make some minor changes in how we live, then together we can do so much to protect our environment. And the great thing is, the steps we have outlined are easy to stick to and will actually save you money in the long run. If you have additional suggestions of things we can all do to help protect our environment or if you have experiences implementing the steps we have presented, please share them in the comments section.

POTD: Trees

Part of a three-part series by Rockville Central friend Mark Pierzchala. He calls the series “Two Things Part of Another Thing.”

Of this one he says: “Upside-down tree top and right-side-up tree trunk. (Both part (formerly) of the same tree. I’m assuming that it snapped during one of the recent wind storms. This is at the intersection of Gude Drive and State Highway 28, Falls Grove area, near the community center under construction.”