Blackout Sabbath is this Saturday.

I would like more than anything to take part in Blackout Sabbath, the worldwide event where everyone unplugs all their stuff and behaves like people did back before electricity. I will be turning my computer off, and even my radio with its rechargeable batteries will stay on top of the Harry Potter book near m'man's can all day Saturday.

But er...my mum would cut my hand off if I unplugged the fridge. Or the freezer. Or the television. These things aren't mine to control. So while I'm peeing in the dark, everyone else on my block will be using the wattage I saved for...whatever the hell it is they do.

It is a difficult thing, this conservation. Once I looked into solar panels for my house, because we've got that big flat area of roof and all. I believe it would cost about the same as a semester of college or hospitalization for a week to get the house off the grid. I mean, I realize it would pay for itself in about five years, but with my luck the roof wouldn't be strong enough to support the panel, it would break through the ceiling and crack my skull, and honestly we don't get much direct sunlight on the kitchen floor.

But there it is. I'll be continuing to try turning stuff off when I'm not using it. As I wrote this, for instance, my leg has completely gone dead. I'll get all shifty-eyed when I say I took part in Blackout Sabbath, just like when I use the plastic shopping bags at the store when I could just go use the money I'm blowing on food for nice reusable shopping bags that wouldn't eventually cause a dolphin to die horribly, just like when I insist I'm a vegetarian and yet have been seen eating my grandmother's meatballs. I mean well, but it's not enough.

Blackout Sabbath is this Saturday.