An Open Letter to Subway Sandwich Shops

Dear Subway,

Hello, my old friend. As you know, I visit you a lot. Like, a total shit-ton. I probably eat there 5 to 10 times per week, and there have been a few things that have been bugging me. It's not me, it really is you, and I want us to have a good relationship going forward, so I feel like I should tell you these things now, instead of letting it drag on and on. I can't make you change, but think about these things, okay?

First, can you please get rid of those god-awful plastic straw wrappers? Seriously, they are *impossible* to open. I usually break two straws before I successfully get one open without damage, and that is just wasteful. Plus, the plastic wrappers do not degrade nicely in our landfills, and every little bit helps the environment, ya know? I know, I know, some people will think you are killing a tree, but at least you won't be using oil to wrap your straws, and you can always sponsor tree-planting programs to help offset your use.

Second, when I'm visiting your store, it's usually just me that I am ordering for. I don't need that huge plastic bag to carry my sandwich and chips in. I'm capable of doing it by myself. I bring this up because it's not that I can't refuse the use of the plastic bag (I often do), it's just that other people don't think about it the same way I do, so maybe it would be nice to give them the option, okay? "Hi, would you like a bag to carry your sandwich, or can you handle it on your own?" That's all.

TWO layers of paper? Seriously, I'm not sure why you need that little square at the beginning of my sandwich assembly process. The bread usually spends some time bare-assed on that white cutting board for a little while while it is cut, so why do we need that extra square of paper? Any germs that it picks up certainly hasn't killed me yet. Besides, your sandwich artists usually do a great job of keeping those things pretty clean.

Those are the big things that have been bothering me, so I hope you understand. Just pay attention to these things a little more, okay? I still love you, even if you are hanging out way too much with that Jared jerk. He used to be fat, you know.

See you around.

-- I

First Strida Ride!

Today was the perfect rush of adrenaline. We were running late and missed the opportunity to catch my usual bus. My husband was sick and I felt bad that he was burdened to drop me off at my bus stop. The weather was a nice 45-ish degrees and the roads had finally rid themselves of snow. With all of these conditions perfectly aligned, I made the quick decision to break in my Strida and find out if my solution had any hope. The short story is that it worked! I got to the bus stop and back home in one piece. My morning bus driver suggested my solution to another rider, and I got plenty of comments (providing great leads into encouraging other people to bike or ride the bus). The long story involves some areas that I would like to improve for my next trips and comments about the bike. Here is my list:

1. The ride is much more vertical than I'm used to. This is something I knew ahead of time and I'll just have to get used to it. My main problem is that habit makes me try to dismount forward of the seat. This *doesn't work* since it's an A frame and there is a big bar there. I really need to remember this so I don't continue to look ridiculous when getting off!
2. I need to aim better when putting the two wheels together in the folded position. The magnets are quite strong and pull the wheels together quickly, so I didn't get them centered well this morning, which provided opportunities for the wheels to separate when I pushed the bike over cracks and bumps.
   
3. Weight is important! The bike was actually pretty heavy to steer even though I was just pushing it. It's more that you have to control the direction of the bike and keep it from wobbling too much, so hopefully this will get easier as I become more adequate at driving a folded bike.
4. I need to find straps/Velcro/something to hold the handles still when they are folded down. They currently flop around and can get caught on various things while trying to steer the folded bike. They were also a problem on the bus. I was able to fit the bike right in front of me on the bus, so that it was between my seat and the seat in front of me. The handles are about head level and could smack me in the face or hit the person in front of me in the head. Luckily neither of those things happened today, but I did spend the whole time on both bus trips holding the handles still.
5. I love that there are straps to lock the breaks. The was so helpful while I was both waiting for buses and on the buses.
6. The bike is adequate for riding the approximate mile that I have to get to the bus stop, but I wouldn't want to go touring around with it.
   

That is all I have for now, along with a bunch of excitement that my scheme worked on the first try! Now to commit to getting rid of my car...

Give Your Mail Person a Break

How much mail do you get that you really need? Most of the stuff we put in our recycle bin is junk mail, and I am sick of getting catalogs for the people who previously owned our house. A few months ago we signed up with Catalog Choice to limit the amount of useless mail we receive. I have to say that I have noticed a significant difference, at least with catalogs, and it's free. They have all of the major catalogs and even more that I have never heard of. Their service makes it really easy to go in and cancel catalogs and magazines at any time. I try to do this at least once a week with any catalogs we may have received.

The next step I am taking is to stop the rest of the junk mail. I have read about some other services that work with all kinds of junk mail, but several require a fee: 41pounds and GreenDimes are a few. The best option I have found so far is through the Direct Marketing Association and costs $1, but in my opinion, that is one dollar well spent. You are able to put up to 5 names per address which is nice since I still get a lot of junk mail sent to my maiden name. I recently signed us up and was surprised by the "are you sure" page. They post the following information to try to convince you to stay on the list (I added the bold formatting to highlight certain content).

Important: you have selected to eliminate all mailings from organizations participating in the DMA Mail Preference Service.

What you will miss.

The average household can save 1200 dollars per year from marketing offers.
You will no longer receive savings offers from these companies.

In fact, you will no longer receive offers and special savings for more than 80 percent of all commercial offers.

And you will miss the environmental benefits of shopping at home rather than driving to the mall!

By replacing just two shopping trips to the mall each year with shopping by catalogs or direct mail, DMA estimates that Americans could:

• Reduce the amount we drive by 3.3 billion miles.
• Reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 3 billion pounds.
• Save more than $490 million on gas costs.

When you click here, your name will be removed from future consumer prospect lists and you will see a significant reduction in all catalog and other commercial offers. If you wish to reconsider, click here and uncheck the box removing your name from DMA's member prospect lists.

DMA and all its members support the Commitment to Consumer Choice guidelines designed to better serve consumers and your right to choose to receive more of what you want and less of what you don't want. If you have questions about the CCC please visit the DMA web site homepage.

I found it interesting that they were pointing out the environmental benefits to receiving junk mail. Perhaps some people drive to stores often enough that receiving tons of paper is healthier for the planet, but I don't fall into that category. Also, I would rather spend my time searching online for the few products that I shop for each year, than waste it sifting through junk mail to find the two coupons I would use. So here is to fewer pieces of junk mail and more time to spend reading useful things like books!

Rant: Big Box Wasteful!

-- Begin Rant --

While in my local Menards store today, something dawned on me like a light coming on over my head. Actually, a light WAS on over my head. Lots of them. THAT was the problem.

Walk into your local big-box home improvement store, and wander on over to the lighting section. They all do it. Lowes, Home Depot, Menards... EVERY single light they have on display is *on* during business hours (maybe longer!).

Is it that hard to let customers turn it on and off if they want to see what it looks like? Is an 'on' light more likely to sell than an 'off' light? Even if so, do they sell enough of them to justify the damage to the environment AND the bottom line of their electric bill?

C'mon, Big Box! Get on the green bandwagon and turn off those lights. Our planet will thank you. At least I will.

-- End Rant --

2 R's

Reuse, Recycle

Stumbled across these bottle openers made from used bike chains & sprockets on a forum I frequent and thought they looked pretty cool. You can even get your own custom logo engraved on them.


More re-'cycle'd (ha ha) items here:

https://www.resourcerevival.com/store/retail?category=21

--JOsh

Smarty Pants

Along with buying the Strida in Chicago, we also went north to Lincolnwood to test drive a Smart Car. We had no intention of buying one, but I really wanted to get inside and see what they were like to drive.

I scheduled our test drive online to make sure we didn't drive all that way and have to wait in a line or something. We met with one of the sales guys and then someone that knew more of the nitty gritty details gave us a tour and test drive. Let me tell you, these cars put everything into perspective. They are very small compared to the SUVs the US has lovingly embraced, and it blatantly points out how little room you really need (if you don't have kids in the car). And this small that I speak of is in no way a negative in my opinion. You get in the car and you forget that you are driving the smallest car on the market. It had very little difference in "size" feel from my Honda Civic. It feels very secure and stable not like a toy as I imagined. Better proof of my testament is my husband's reaction. He really just went along to make me happy and had very little interest in the car, but after he drove it he was blown away at how nice it felt to drive.

The car is an automatic manual so it has the fake manual shifting provided through paddles similar to what I hear is in the Pacifica. I'm not a car person so I can't give you good specifics, and questions might be better answered on the Smart Car website or you can feel free to ask them in the comments and I'll dig through the documentation we were given, but no promises! Below are some pictures that we took of the Smart Pure and Smart Passion Coupe models.




Me in the Smart Pure which is the bottom of the line model. It comes with automatic locks and that is pretty much it. No air conditioning, no super brake things, no power windows, very pure.








Below is a comparison of the dash in the Pure (left) and the Coupe (right). Of course you can upgrade the Pure if you want some of the features in the Coupe.















Trunk shots. The first is looking from the driver seat to the back of the car and the second is with the tailgate down. The tailgate also has a compartment for storage.
















One of the disappointments is the mpg rating. I was expecting it to get 50+ mpg and some stories reported 60-70 mpg before release. The EPA says that it only gets 33 in town and 41 highway according their upgraded 2008 testing. The Smart's website also shows its 2007 rating, before the EPA changed, as 40/45. I wondered how this could be with such a small car, but the nitty gritty guy pretty much answered it when he told us that the US version had to be beefed up to weigh almost 200 lbs more than the UK model.


Driving the Smart made me wish that we had a good reason to buy one, but both of our cars get good gas mileage and we're actually thinking about getting rid of one of them because we don't use two frequently enough. If you're lucky enough to live near a dealership or don't mind driving to get to one, I highly recommend taking one for a test drive just to get a new perspective on small cars.

Benefits of a Contortionist

This past weekend my husband and I went to Chicago with several missions. We visited quite a few of our friends, but I also had other reasons for going. The first was to find a folding bike.

Background: I have started riding our bus system almost daily. In fact there are few reasons that I don't ride any more. One is not waking up in time which isn't usually me being lazy, but rather because I'm sick. This doesn't happen often and all I can do to control it is prevention. Another cause is if my husband is sick or otherwise unable to take me to the bus stop. This also isn't me just being lazy, but instead a problem of our city's bus system. The closest bus stop to our house is only a 14 minute walk, but it only comes every hour and a half and the times don't work well with my schedule. The second closest option is 1.4 miles according to Google Maps so my husband drops me off on his way to work and this requires him to be a part of the plan which can cause problems for both of us.

Options: I can increase my riding rate by finding an alternate way of getting to the bus stop. One option would be for the large post office parking lot across from the stop to double as a park and ride, but that will take a lot of pushing and more people than just me to make that official, plus that would require me to drive and I don't like that option even if it is only 1.4 miles. I could walk, but maybe I am being lazy here or maybe thinking of the unshoveled sidewalks turns me off. This would also require me to get up earlier to allow time to walk and if I'm going to do that I might as well take the bus that comes closer.

Solution: Ride a bike. This is not a complete solution because our buses don't have bike racks and I wouldn't be allowed to bring a full size bike on the bus. The complete package is to ride a folding bike to the bus stop, fold it up and then hop on the bus. I started looking into this option several months ago and have been digging through the options since then. There are several companies that sell folding bikes and for the most part they are just like regular bikes with frames that allow the folding part. Of course these won't work for me. These "regular" folding bikes fold into a compact form I call a "bike ball" and they almost require a bag to be easily carried. I wanted something that folded into a form similar to an umbrella or cheap baby stroller. In all of my searching I could only find two options, the Strida and the A-Bike (see comparison video here). I preferred the A-Bike because it was the smaller, lighter, and more compact of the two even if Ryan thought it looked like a circus clown bike. The problem is that they are currently sold out and I sometimes have problems with patience. The other problem was that I could only get one from the UK as they have no US dealers and I like to try before I buy. This is how the Strida became the better option and I decided that I needed to go to Chicago (the closest dealer to me) and check one out. That brings me to today, well yesterday, when we arrived at Rapid Transit Cycle Shop. I talked with the sales rep for quite a while on their experience with the Strida, the positives, the potential negatives and I was very pleased with his helpfulness and honesty about the bike. He also showed me a Bike Friday folding bike which was the closest "regular" folding bike in weight that they sold and they highly recommended. I decided that the folded form would not work in my situation and went with the Strida especially after he told me they had a trial period and would be somewhat flexible with me since I lived so far away. The following is a series of pictures of me demoing how the Strida folds along with some tidbits that I discussed with the sales rep.

Me on the Strida. Both the Strida and A-Bike are called A Frame bikes so they are more upright than a normal bike. This one makes me sit almost straight up. The seat is adjustable for different heights so others may not be as upright as I am.














This is the Strida by itself. It also came with a rack that I had them take off at the shop. I still have it, but I plan on using my back pack to transport stuff and the rack just added extra weight and an extra thing to get in the way.






The pedals fold in to stay out of the way.



















The bottom part of the A frame attaches to the front with a pin clip. It slides right on and clicks into place, and to take it off you push on a tab to release and pull up. The sales rep mentioned that this was the part that I had to be the most careful with. The top point of the "A" is a pivot point that has a spring and a plastic cap. They experienced a problem with the plastic cap cracking when the front leg is allowed to go much further forward than it is when fully assembled. Strida did supply them with a replacement cap, but it's something to note.




Next, the front leg swivels to the side enough to get it past the pedals and lock into place with the rear wheel. Magnets on both wheel axles keep the wheels together. I noticed that the magnets are very strong and it is pretty hard for me to get them apart. While looking through the manual tonight I found a section that talked about changing the strength of the magnets. I may have to play with this if it continues to be too hard for me to pry apart.






The last fold of the frame is to bring the bottom bar up and snap it between the two other bars. This feels very secure and provides that umbrella form that I was looking for.






The last folding that is done is the handle bars. they pop out and fold down. There are also loops at the end to hold the brakes down and lock the wheels if you want to lean the bike against a wall.













And now you have a folded Strida ready to roll or hang out in a tight spot.












I haven't had a chance to put the Strida into action yet and we just received another dose of snow today so it may not happen right away. Some things that I will note that I don't like, yet still purchased to try out. The last picture shows how tall the bike is when folded. It is taller than I would like in a perfect world and that is one of the key reasons I preferred the idea of the A-Bike. The A-Bike has telescoping legs so it folds into a shorter package. Also, it is pretty heavy. It is listed at almost 20 lbs. which could get annoying if you had a long distance to carry or maneuver it. These two issues will be ones that I plan on analyzing to see if this solution works for me. I will be posting updates about my Strida experience as I give it a try.