As For Where I Am Right Now ...

While staying at the cozy and accommodating Ste Anne Spa (exterior shot of which featured above) a few things struck me as odd. The first was the zillions of gallons per flush toilet in our cottage. The second was the fridge in the cottage's common kitchen: a 1990's vintage bar fridge with a frost-furred freezer compartment consuming massive amounts of kilowatt hours all for the sake of keeping some cream pucks cold. Third and finally, I saw on the breakfast buffet a nice selection of high-carbon-footprint tropical fruit from Chile, South Africa and Mexico - pineapples, melons, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries - incomprehensibly labelled as "seasonal fruit."

While I was supposed to be at Set Anne's to decompress after my whirlwind tour as a spokes-target for the current government's ambitions about climate change, I still had the script in my head and all of these things stuck me as off-message.

So, when the owner of the spa sent me a personal e-mail after I returned home, I wrote him back, saying that if he wanted to get his 80's-style assertions of environmental consciousness up to date, he needed to do something about that toilet, that fridge and the fruit.

This is his exact response:

Thank you for taking time to write to me. I'm glad that you and your sister enjoyed your time at the spa. 

The Finch Room bathroom is slated for renovation in April and the toilet will be upgraded as part of that p‎roject. I will talk a look at the refrigerator as well.

It's a testament to the relaxing influence of my many lovely treatments at the spa that, right now, I feel under no compulsion to write him back and say, "thanks for the updates on the toilet and the fridge. Now what are you going to do about that goddam fruit?"

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen