sometimes the army gets it...

I'll admit that army life can be frustrating at times. In fact, as we get closer to deployment, it seems that the army throws more annoying things our way. But sometimes the army gets it so completely right. One of the great things that the army provides is this place called the self-help store, for soldiers living in government quarters. There, you can find all sorts of things for your home, free of charge. Things like light bulbs, hardware, tools (to borrow), paint supplies, paint, and lawn care items. Which is all pretty cool. And those things alone would have impressed me. But what has won me over and has me singing the army's praises is the fact that it is, in many ways, a green self-help store! The light bulbs they provide are all energy efficient ones. They provide the special garbage bags required to recycle plastic items in Germany. They issue electric lawn mowers to those of us with lawns. And they collect and properly dispose of hazardous household waste!

As you can probably tell, I paid a vist to the self-help store today. I picked up some necessities, such as bags for the plastic recyclables and light bulbs. I also picked up some grass seed and our electric mower. After some difficulty figuring out how to get the mower into the car (eventually requiring a friendly German man showing me how to fold down the handle), I got it home. I was so excited that I immediately mowed the lawn. And then obsessively cleaned the mower. Now I want to get some special cleaning supplies to keep our mower looking new! It's amazing how mowing the lawn and cleaning the mower could make me so happy...what a weirdo!!