CherylKatz.org

Nope, it’s not that some people are just insensitive, self-centered  or mean.  If you have difficulty relating to other people’s problems, you might have empathy deficit disorder.

Sure, we all could strive to be more attentive to others’ feelings.  Some more than others.  I just can’t get my brain around the idea of slapping on a “disorder” title for what I otherwise would call “personality.”

On NPR today I heard a story on the tomato-salmonella problem, which seems to be overblown, considering regions at risk have been identified and many regions have already been cleared by the FDA.

What caught my attention was when an FDA food safety wonk was talking about how hard it is to track the problem.  A market may have up to 4 distributors bringing in tomatoes, who each may get tomatoes from 4 suppliers, who probably get tomatoes from 4 or more farms themselves… the supply chain is convoluted and WIDE.  How in the world can such a problem ever be solved?

I know!  Buy local produce!  I know it’s not a perfect solution, but encouraging more people to know the farmers who grow the tomatoes they eat would be a start.  I don’t worry about salmonella because I can call up the farm my share comes from and find out if they’ve been tested and what the results were.  I find that reassuring.

On the “never ending diaper ado,” I just had to include this link because the columnist’s response sums up my views on diapers.  I’ve always thought that if you compare the resources required to launder diapers (soap, water consumption, gas for drying, etc) to the impact of disposable diapers (manufacture, landfill disposal, etc) you end up with a wash.  The study mentioned invested exhaustive research to back up previous research on the same topic.

Yup, the brits determined that cloth at home, cloth with diaper service, and disposable diapers are roughly equal in environmental impact.  So, bully for anyone who is seeking out environmentally friendly laundry detergent, seeking out sustainable cotton for nappies, buying local to reduce the energy consumption of transport, drying in the sun, using disposables that are made from recycled materials or free of petroleum, or using compostable diapers.  Making choices like those actually DO make one individual’s choice stand above the otherwise equal choices.

Ben and I were watching Daily Show just now and lamenting the “This Week in God” segment.  Lo and behold, Colbert did “Obama’s Church Search” which was not a surrogate, but certainly a salute to the old digs.  Sigh.  I miss “This Week in God.”  The Daily Show hasn’t been quite the same since Colbert left.

And that’s about all I can squeeze up at the moment.

Well, I’m officially impressed with gDiapers. I got my starter kit yesterday, which came with two pairs of g pants (cotton covers), four snap-in liners, and a packet of inserts.

Since 5 PM yesterday when I put the first one on her, we’ve had a wide variety of the types of diapers Sami typically experiences. I won’t go into too much detail, to spare the folks who don’t wipe someone else’s butt many times a day. But - no leaks! Period. When we were in cloth diapers, I could count on at least a leak, probably two in a 24-hour period, and disposables haven’t been all that much better. I think the liner + cover design really works for gDiapers.

I’m excited about how little has gone in my trash can. I’m more excited about how much has been able to go in my compost bin!

Obviously, this is my 24-hour review, and we’ll see how I feel in a week. I’m optimistic.

Lately I discovered gDiapers, and they seem like such a good idea that I wish I had known about them when Sami was tiny. They seem frankly perfect for San Diego - diapers that can be composted (if not dirty), flushed (if sewer line is not tree infested) or tossed in the trash! Unlike a regular diaper, they break down in under a hundred days, hence the compostability.

If only I’d known about these before going wholesale down the cloth route, I would have chosen gDiapers hands down. The water bills wouldn’t have balooned out of control. Cloth diapers are downright wasteful from a water standpoint! We wouldn’t have generated the trash we did for a while after the water bills became cloth-laundry-prohibitive. And I would have had probably four times the yummy compost to fertilize my garden when I planted last month.

I’m considering switching for the tail end of Sami’s diaper-wearing career. I’ll pretty immediately cut out the diaper trash, which will make me feel a lot better about what’s happening downstream from me. I doubt it will have much impact on Sami at all. And man, if we ever have another kid, I know how I plan to diaper.