A few weeks ago, I bought a new carry-on suitcase to replace one I’d been travelling with for over 20 years. As I prepare to retire my old blue suitcase, I fondly remembered the places we travelled together. It’s definitely a suitcase of memories.

Welcome to the 57^th edition of The Sunday Spark, a series with weekly thoughts and highlights, nuggets of learning, and a decluttering challenge for the week. In addition to my suitcase of memories, this week’s edition looks at Earth Overshoot Day, banning fossil fuel advertising, electric vehicle economics, and decluttering purses and bags.

On my mind this week: A suitcase of memories

Years ago, when I started travelling more for business, I decided I needed a compact carry-on suitcase to replace the old garment bag I had been lugging around with me. On a free evening during a work trip to Montreal, I wandered over to the mall and picked up this smart blue suitcase. 

That suitcase has been my faithful business travel companion for over 20 years. Last summer, the zipper pull broke, so I decided it was time to treat myself to a new carry on.

As I prepare to retire the suitcase, I wish I had kept a list of all the places old faithful and I have travelled to.

From memory, I know we’ve been on many trips to Montreal. We’ve also made several trips to Milwaukee together. As for other places we’ve travelled, there’s Toronto, Ottawa, Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay, Sudbury, Chicago, Vancouver Island, Las Vegas, Vancouver, Kamloops, Edmonton, Calgary, Denver, Baltimore, California, and Florida. We’ve also been to Queen conventions in Toronto, Detroit, Atlanta, and Cleveland. And then there was the time we went to Boston twice in one weekend because a work function coincided with the weekend my daughter Laura was moving away to college.

I’m sure I’m forgetting a few places. Suffice it to say, that old blue suitcase and I have had a lot of adventures together. The most memorable was sheltering in place as a tornado approached O’Hare airport in Chicago last year. (Read the full story about that little crazy evening in this post.)

Recognizing the time had come to say farewell, I used gift cards from our staff recognition program at work to buy this little pink cutie. My husband has named it my “Barbie suitcase”. I think I’ll just call her Barbie.

This weekend, Barbie and are on our first trip. We’re in Scottsdale, Arizona. Next, we’re going to Chicago and Milwaukee in May. After that, who knows?

The adventure begins, and this time I’m keeping a list on a piece of paper tucked inside one of the suitcase pockets.

Three highlights of the week

It’s important to celebrate big milestones and simple pleasures in life. Keeping the trend going, here are three highlights and simple pleasures of the week gone by:

• It’s wonderful having my sister over from England. It has been 12 years since I have been together with all my sisters. We enjoyed a belated 91^st birthday celebration with my mum last weekend.
• On Sunday, I took my sister to see the oak seedling I planted in her husband’s memory in a local microforest. Then we had dinner at our place.
• I arrived safely in Arizona on Friday. On Friday evening, I went out for a delicious Mexican dinner with some friends. The weather is cool here. I’m glad I packed a warm fleece jacket.

Three things I learned this week

Life is all about learning. Here are three things I learned this week:

Earth Overshoot Day

It’s no secret that humans are consuming the Earth’s resources at an alarming rate. Earth Overshoot Day represents the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year.

This week, Canada and our neighbours to the south, the United States, both reached Earth Overshoot Day. The United States on March 14, and Canada on March 15. Less than a quarter of the way through the year, we’re already in a deficit in terms of our consumption.

How do we compare to other western English-speaking countries? Australia’s date is April 5, New Zealand April 11, and the U.K. June 3.

We clearly need to do better.

(Source: Country Overshoot Days)

Possible ban on fossil fuel advertising

It has been decades since Canada banned advertising of tobacco products. Could fossil fuel advertising be headed in the same direction?

This week an NDP Member of Canada’s federal government introduced a private member’s bill to prohibit fossil fuel companies from paid promotion of their products. As you would expect, the bill was met with outrage from the fossil fuel industry. (Source: Canada’s National Observer)

I’ll be watching this one closely.

Doing the math on electric vehicle costs

A PhD student from the University of British Columbia has done research into how much you need to drive to make the additional cost of an electric vehicle (EV) worthwhile from an economic point of view.

It turns out the breakeven point varies from province to province. In Quebec, where electricity costs are cheaper and EV subsidies are higher, you’d need to drive your EV for 46 kilometres a day for 7 years to recoup the addition cost of your EV purchase. In British Columbia, you’d need to drive 65 kilometres a day. Here in Ontario where I live, you’d need to drive 88 kilometres a day to break even. Finally, in Canada’s north, however, you’d need to drive 181 kilometres a day.

Considering how little I drive, for me the decision to buy an EV would be based on the environmental benefits rather than any cost savings.

(Source: CBC What on Earth)

This week’s decluttering challenge – Purses and bags

In 2024, I’ve been revisiting the 52-Week Decluttering Challenge I completed in 2021. This week’s challenge was purses and bags. I’m happy to report I decluttered 6 items. You can find the details, along with my tips and learnings, in this week’s decluttering post.

If you’d like to join the challenge, visit this post to download your free checklists and jump right in with this week’s task.

I’d love to hear what you think about any of this week’s topics. Drop me a comment below and let me know your thoughts and ideas.