It’s 12:30 pm. I am sitting on my front porch with a cold glass of iced tea-lemonade and a magazine. The weather is gorgeous. All of my kids are off at the pool with the sitter until 4 pm.

The quiet of Vermont has made me more aware of noises like construction off in the distance, cars and trucks zooming down the highway two blocks away, and even neighbors talking across the street. But I’ll take it. I’m so happy to be so alone that I don’t even know what to do with myself.

And I must make the most of it because this is our sitter’s last day. She’s moving on to a full-time gig. Her help this past year has been invaluable. It’s hard to think about replacing her, but I have to try, because this alone time is what keeps me going the rest of the time.

But I’ll think about that later. Porch, magazine, hang some wash, call my bestie, then trek by foot to the police station to pick up the accident report, since my car is at the body shop. Home. Shower. Chill.

If I get ambitious, I’ll jump on the computer and keep researching shoes. I am looking for a socially conscious sneaker choice for my oldest for back-to-school. Shoes are one of the few apparel items that I usually just buy new. I was looking at Toms, Keen, and Sole Rebels the other day. Any other suggestions?

I started thinking about the shoes and conscious consumerism after I had to buy a new faucet the other day. I automatically piled the kids in the car and drove to Home Depot, but after the fact it occurred to me that I could have gone to the hardware shop in our downtown or to the True Value in the neighboring downtown. Both would be a shorter drive, and the True Value would probably have had a decent selection.

I did some searches online for “Home Depot socially responsible” and that kind of thing, but didn’t come up with much. I wish there was a one-stop shop online for information that you could use to guide your everyday purchasing decisions. There’s Green America and Fair Trade USA, but they don’t seem that comprehensive. Of course, we’re talking about a lot of data that has to be crunched.

Maybe that will be my next project. Project #1,216.

But on a gut level, and in defense of downtowns, next time I’ll pick True Value.

Update, 4:03 pm: I called the police station. The officer said the accident report was ready. I walked over there (20 min). I spent 20 minutes waiting for the report and listening to the life story of Grandpa Pothead, a fellow citizen also waiting for a report. Then the officer told me the report was not ready and to call ahead of time next time.

But I… whaaa…

Walk home.

Update, 1:12 am Thursday: Thanks to my super-long walk, I fell asleep with my daughter from 9 to 11 pm and now I’m very awake! So I did more research on conscious consumerism and I found some more sites, some of which are intriguing. I’ll post them tomorrow though.