Do It Yourself

In my naive Gruppie brain I like to believe that every cloud has a silver lining. Million of greeting cards can't be wrong. The dark recession cloud of today has a silvery green lining. People are discovering that being green and saving money can go hand and hand.

The Gruppie family has been attempting to do more for ourselves. We are becoming do-it-yourselfers.

Take this weekend for example. We hosted a basketball team party that got a little out of control. Apparently the cute little b-ballers grabbed as many items from my garage as they could and proceeded to break them. In years past these broken items would have gone into the trash without another thought. Today's greener version of myself whipped out the super glue and repaired the sprinkler in a single leap. Today's greener version of myself discovered that the local hardware store sells replacement broom handles. A few twists, saw it down to size, add some leftover paint and the broom is as good as new.

In years past whenever the car would clang or sputter I would drive the two towns over to the dealership to get it fixed. Pollution and high costs. Now that the family station wagon is getting on in years, the shaking and knocking is a daily occurrence. Hubby has sprung to the rescue by talking to handy friends and reading up on automotive repair. He has fixed up the old wagon (mostly) by himself.

Hubby has also found a new trade to fall back on. He has become a master at cutting Little Guy's hair. A stool in the garage with some cheap clippers and Little Guy is done for a month. Honestly, he does a better job than the salon that we used to take him to and I don't have to listen to the salon gossip.

My Gruppie family of 2009 has come to terms with the fact that we are fairly helpless. We realize that we don't know how to do much on our own. We don't create our own energy, grow our own food, make our own clothing or even make our own entertainment. But we are trying! Is there anyone is suburbia who can truly take care of themselves without the help of others?