Fewer Cars Than People

How many families do you know that have a car for each family member? How many have more cars than people? Well my husband and I have been testing the one car per family lifestyle and after two successful months, have decided it works perfectly fine for us! We started by not driving my 1996 Honda Civic. It was there if we needed it, but during most of the two months it has been blocked by mulch and we have never had a reason to free it.

Our system relies most heavily on public transportation. My husband drops me off at the bus stop or I ride my Strida to the stop and take the bus from there. Now that the weather is nicer, I have the option of riding my full size bike all the way into work. The one time that I drove to work, my husband was working from home. When making this decision we thought of scenarios where we would both need a car. We decided that if we run into one of those situations, it is just as easy to rent a car the few times that we will need an extra. We also discussed when we would need to own two cars again. For us, this would be when we decide to have kids, but this would hinge on if we really needed another vehicle. I don't subscribe to the belief that having one child requires that you get another car. This includes adding cars and getting a bigger vehicle. I completely understand the reasons where it is required, but there is still the opportunity to maintain a one car household with one kid. This will be one of those play it as we go situations to ensure that we make the right choice.

As of right now, my Honda is getting tuned up to be passed along to my brother and replace his less efficient S10. Hopefully we will make the hand off this weekend and gain a large area in our garage! The other nicety is that our car insurance will go down a little bit. It won't be a life changing amount since my car is old and we don't have full coverage on it, but it will still be more money that we can put to other, more exciting things.

So try out a new transportation style. Not everyone can give up a vehicle, but driving one less day a week or one less week a month will not only save you gas money, but open your eyes to changes you can make, or changes in transportation that your community could make to help out its citizens.

Couple of quick links

Green Construction Comes to Eastern Iowa:
KCRG.com Article

A link from my mom:
360 Electrical - These are neat outlets you can retrofit anywhere that can turn 360 degrees to allow you to plug in those awkward power blocks, though you should probably have them on a power strip so you can kill the vampire power suckers.

--JOsh

Steve Sleeve

We've heard about how Apple has made efforts to make the MacBook Air green. Now the accessories are following suite. Timbuk2 is bringing us the Steve Sleeve.

We've overbuilt the hell out of this sleeve and spec'd earth friendly materials throughout. Ultrasonic seam welds use a notoxic glue, the durable exterior softshell fabric (just like the stuff in mountaineering jackets) & low pile brushed fleece lining are made from post-consumer pop bottles (PET). The buttons are made of Poly PET and the string can be reused to tie your shoe in a pinch.

I dig the design and the green efforts.

Earth Hour

Plan to go for a walk outside (or any other activity that doesn't require the lights to be on) on Saturday at 8pm Central. Earth hour is a simple way you can conserve even a tiny bit of energy. Turn off your lights. Turn off the TV. Turn off your computer. Maybe you can even turn down your electric furnace for the hour.

Find out more at EarthHourUS.org.

Clarion Hotel, Cedar Rapids

So, today at work I was awarded with a special prize as part of my participation in the "Big Brothers, Big Sisters BOWL for Kid's Sake". The prize was a mini-weekend stay at the Clarion Hotel in Cedar Rapids. On the little gift certificate, I noticed the phrase:

"Cedar Rapids Largest Family Owned GREEN Hotel."

Dem's fightin' words, boy. A quick google search revealed this page on their website: http://www.clarioncr.com/green.htm. What a pleasant surprise! Not only are they doing the standard 'linens' stuff of reusing towels, but they also are using low VOC paints, bamboo flooring, hybrid cars for airport shuttles... and more!

I find it refreshing that they even went as far as putting recycling containers in the guest rooms, empowering us to help in our own little ways. Check it out, and next time you need to stay in CR, consider the Clarion FIRST. It truly is a nice place, and they are doing their part.

-- I

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...