A storm in a teacup

Day three of gusts and showers. Any rain falling is blowing away to the northwest so it is not actually very wet. With the wind at half strength to yesterday, I ventured to hang my still wet washing outside. At times like this I curse my frugality and environmental conscience and vow to just buy a drier. On the other hand I could simply take the advice given to the migrants boarding ships: “…wear old clothes during the voyage and consign them to the deep when dirty or worn out, keeping the new for arrival.” Simply disposing of dirty clothes would save water, electricity, wear on the machine and my time. However, you would go through more clothing so would need to factor in the costs of clothing production, transport of material, production costs, water used to grow the cotton etc. In terms popular today, I’m not sure that one’s carbon footprint would decrease. Another problem would be deciding when the point of arrival was – when the children are grown up; when we run out of old clothes; when the neighbours start complaining about old clothes arriving on the wind?

Looking back on the previous sentence, I am reminded that Verlyn Klinkenborg suggested last week that the emoticon “especially the winking happy face…offers the only legitimate use of the semicolon outside academic writing.” Does the use of the semi-colon in my writing affirm or negate his claim? Have I yet to break free from my academic past? Excuse me, I must go chase that laundry ... I must have decided to stick with washing and keeping my clothes.