We’re Shipping our Incandescent Bulbs to California

We have a 20-cubic-yard dumpster parked in our driveway right now, as we purge the house of stuff before moving to California.

Gone are a huge batch of sentimental Ultimate Frisbee tournament T-shirts and memorabilia. Gone is a vintage record-player console that worked fine and looked cool. Gone is my 30-year-old shot-glass collection.

We’re moving to a smaller place, and we’re in a hurry, so we just had to purge.

But one thing we didn’t toss? Our hoard of incandescent light bulbs.

We amassed a few dozen bulbs of the “outlawed” lights before the federal ban, part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, went into effect this year.

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I believe you can still pick up the bulbs in Minnesota, where I live currently, but definitely not in my new home state of California, which implemented the ban even before the January 1, 2012 deadline.

As a bonus, while clearing out our storage area, we found some more contraband: about two dozen bulbs that we’ll add to the “move” pile.

I joked in 2009 that a massive black market for incandescents would emerge, thanks to government intervention in the bulb market. Let’s test that theory. Do I hear 50 cents $5 for an incandescent light?

In the meantime, I think I’ll get me an old Easy Bake Oven!