The 5 More Times I Failed at Being a Locavore

I originally wrote 5 Times I Failed at Being a Locavore but have since needed to add to that list.
Here are 5 more times I slipped up and purchased outside of my BC region:

1. Sim Card
• I bought a used iPhone 5 and thought I could just cut down my sim card to fit into the new smaller model... but it turns out it is a different card all together, so I had to buy a new sim card from Telus to go with the new phone. #fail
2. Drinks



I don't think that bucket of
alcohol is local....

• Those drinks my friends bought me at the bar in return for me buying dinner was a total cheat of the system, I admit it, I failed, it was the alcohol talking. 
3. Greyhound
• If you can't find a ride you can't go...should be my new rule but on planned holidays sometimes you have to bite the bullet and pay for a bus. It is better on emissions then a flight and at least I don't drive myself however I recognise that greyhound is an international company and therefor makes this list. 
4. VIA Rail
• Trains are the most sustainable way to travel cross country. I went to a conference in Toronto and then hopping over to Ottawa for a quick family visit before the school year. Travel in itself should be off my list if I was 100% local but sometimes all the sacrifices you make during the year will hopefully help you offset the annual pilgrimage to visit your parents. (You can hear about my trip in this post- VIA: The more (in)human way to travel?)
5. Medicine



Vancouver, BC- Natures Medicine

• In general I try not to take medications whenever possible. I stopped taking Tylenol for headaches or arthritis pain (yes, I have pretty bad arthritis for my age) instead trying to live through the aches and using natural remedies. However, once this year I was so sick that I broke down and bought cold and flu medicine from the drug store. In my defence I chose a small independent pharmacy in town and bought the no name product...but I still felt like a failure for needing drugs. Full disclosure over the year i bought, one back of Fisherman's Friends, cold medicine, and a prescription inhaler... 

Cheers to making mistakes and learning from them!

Melanie 

"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new."- Albert Einstein

Cracked!

I'd like to think I take care of my stuff. I've had my laptop going on 5 years, I still have cloths from high school and I've been wearing the same winter jacket since 2006. My motto has always been if it ain't broke don't fix it, so I am not frequently replacing things even when they have minor defects (like my iPod that doesn't have an on button anymore). My cell phone is a 6 year old iPhone 3g, for our 5th anniversary I bought it a new case even though it hasn't done the internet for the past 3 years so it hardly deserved it. It has definitely fallen before, survived 2 dips in the toilet (and subsequent rice baths), countless slip and falls and who knows how many times its been roughed up, but it still makes calls so I keep it around. So you can imagine I was quite upset when it fell out of my pocket last week while I was biking and the screen cracked! As if it wasn't enough of an issue reading the screen with lines all across it (I probably could have lived with that), the glass is now falling off in little pieces...I am thinking finally something has to be done. Hence the problem, if I replace the screen the parts can be purchased from a local business but will obviously be straight from China OR I can buy a used phone. I usually like to fix what I have instead of buying something new, but what is more local? HELP!!!!???

I've also been thinking about batteries lately, I will eventually need them, what do I do? What happens when Angela needs new bike parts? Some things you just can't get used... can you? This is where the limitations of a local lifestyle come into play, it's go big or go home in my house right now but I am not sure how long that will/can last!

XX Melanie

"To find better means of fixing the brain, we first need to achieve something more fundamental. We must understand how it works." -Sebastian Seung