Ice is not nice

A small companion post to go with the soda entry.

When one thinks of simplifying, they really think about maybe shipping half their belongings off to Goodwill. Dig deeper! How else can you limit your energy consumption?

For some reason, I got to thinking about ice. Normally, ice is a hassle anyway, because they always give you a ton of it in restaurants. Once you have sipped your beverage to a certain point, you reach the zone of ice hazards. I mean that danger zone where if you tip the glass beyond a certain point of equilibrium, to get to that last little bit of beverage, you get ice crashing all over your face.

And no, the solution is NOT a straw. If you're paying attention, we're trying to limit energy consumption. Straws are ridiculous little pieces of plastic that go in the trash after one use. Not cool.

If you manage to savor your beverage instead of guzzling it, you run into another ice problem. Ice is pretty much a conditional state of being. The condition being that it needs cold around it to exist. Ergo, watery beverage, which is NOT what you ordered, thankyouverymuch.

If you like a chilled beverage, a better option is to refrigerate. Still using energy, but have you ever considered how much energy it takes to create conditions cold enough to freeze water? Don't answer that question if you live somewhere cold.

Personally, a room-temp beverage is fine with me, but to each his own.

The part that really bothers me, I guess, is when you go to an establishment where the ice is self-served. Invariably, if you visit these establishments at a high-traffic time, you will find a mountain of ice melting in the trays of the soda machines. It's sort of maddening when you begin to see ice as an investment of energy. Melting ice is wasted energy.

I'm aware that there are certainly bigger fish to fry as far as energy conservation, but every bit helps. Save five dollars every week, at the end of the month you'll have $20. In a year, you'll have $260. All you have to do is start doing it!