Philadelphia’s art scene is always buzzing with something new, and on May 16th the NKCDC will be hosting it’s 3rd Annual Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby.   Go to their website to enter, see previous derbies or become a derby sponsor.   If you don’t live in Philadelphia, it makes you want to move here, doesn’t it?  (I knew it would.)

So as I mentioned several days ago, I’ve started taking longs walks with the dogs in the neighborhood.  I do it for exercise (both me and them), but also because I want to feel like I’m exploring the ‘hood a little too.  There’s nothing like getting out of the house and being part of the world around you.  It didn’t take long for my walks to take on a dual-purpose however.  (Let it never be said of me that I don’t find ways of taking multi-tasking to a new level.)

Anyways, anyone who has visited Philadelphia is aware of our teensy-widdle problem with litter.  They don’t call it Filthadelphia for nothing, after all.  Thankfully our new mayor has made it a top priority to tackle the issue.  Now Philly has solar powered trash cans, dedicated cleanup days, and at the VERY least publicly acknowledged the issue.  Ever since I’ve moved here, it’s been a trait of Philly’s that I’ve found particularly irritating.  And because of that I realized I should do something about it…no matter how small.  Therefore now when I am going on my long nightly walk, I take along a couple plastic grocery bags and gather litter along the way.  Then once they’re full, I’ll toss them in the public garbage can.  Even though I realize I’m not making a huge dent in the problem, it feels great to know that I’m at least doing something.  (And hey, I’m finding a new purpose for those pesky plastic bags.  Even though I take a cloth bag with me to the store, somehow I always manage to come back with at least one.)  I want my block to stay clean…and also the blocks around me.  It just feels better when you take pride in where you live by trying to keep it beautiful.  Who knows?  Maybe someone else will be inspired to pick up trash as well.

Lately I’ve been thinking alot about the state of our world…and wishing it were a better/safer/cleaner/nicer place to live.  I realize one individual can’t change the world, but each of us has to start somewhere.  So…start by saying hi to your neighbors.  Read to your kids.   Choose to support locally-owned shops.  And maybe if you see some litter on the ground, stop and pick it up.

Photo credit: It’s Only the Trash via flickr by Ian W.

Well guys, I’m about to road test my first eco-friendly polyurethane. After reading a little bit about Low VOC poly on the internet, I decided I’d check into it. First off, it seems that a lot of regular hardware stores aren’t sure what “Low VOC” and “eco-friendly” means. Several people pointed me to just the regular water-based polyurethanes, which didn’t seem accurate.

So I went to the knowledgeable folks at Greenable who were able to give me lots of great info on this soy-based product. It was also comparably priced to regular floor sealers at $44/gallon. I like that it is self-levelling, and supposedly requires none to very little sanding in between coats!! (I’ll have to let you know about that in a subsequent post.) I also spoke to the people over at The Environmental Home Store to see what they offered. They’re actually in my neighborhood, and I really wanted to use their products…but at a cost of almost $85/gallon, I couldn’t justify the cost difference. (Their version wasn’t soybased, but rather some different Low VOC water-based poly that wasn’t self-levelling and seemed to require additional sanding.)

Besides just price though, the folks at Greenable went out of their way to break a 5 gallon container to sell me 2 gallons of satin finish [of which they were out of stock in the smaller size]. I loved Greenable’s knowledgeable staff and their customer service! I have to say that in today’s economy, I really appreciated that they were fighting for my business. It made me really happy to shop there. (So…kudos to Greenable’s staff!)

Meanwhile, soon I’ll let you know how my experience with Acri-Soy Poly-Soy Eco Procote Polyurethane works out. Cross your fingers!

*Update: Thanks to Angelo at Greenable for clarifying what I purchased. Since they broke the 5 gallon container into 2 smaller ones, I didn’t have a label and assumed [wrongly] that I’d gotten the Acri-Soy. At any rate, more info to come on the end result of the floor finishing eco-friendly style. But so far so good.