New Rule #1

New rule about talking with or around me:

If you fail to make even the slightest effort to save gas, you are not allowed to complain about gas prices, no matter how high they get.

This rule comes from two stories my wife told me and one story I got on my own.

First story: My wife has started commuting by bicycle 2-3 times a week. She noticed that there was another guy who had been biking to work, but that he had stopped. She asked him why he didn't ride any more and he replied he was riding while his car was in the shop. He said he prefers to drive the less than 3 miles to work because at lunch he likes to take a nap in his car. With the air conditioner running.

Story 2: When picking up our CSA box, (CSA is community supported agriculture. At its most basic, we pay money to a local organic farm and get a box of produce and fruit every two weeks) another woman came to get hers box. She pulled up in her large SUV, an Expedition I belive, went in to get her box, but chose not to even turn off the engine of her SUV for the 5 minutes or so it takes to get your produce.

Story 3: During our last heat wave a few weeks back my coworkers and I were talking about how hot it was in the areas where we live. My boss chimes in with his story about it being so hot that he had to let his car "cool down" before he could get in to drive it. He cooled it down by starting it and letting it sit with the A/C on for 15 before starting his drive.

Do you have any awful gas wasting stories?




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That is exactly how I feel!

I was reading one of my favorite blogs, How the World Works at Salon.com and the fabulous Andrew Leonard who writes the blog finished up a post about peak oil with the following paragraph:

The high price of oil is a serious economic downer with regressive implications
for the poor and working class, all the world over, but it's also the best
incentive we've got for forcing conservation, improvements in energy efficiency,
and investment in alternate energy technologies. And that's how you prepare for
the age of peak oil, not to mention attempt avoiding the disruptions threatened
by climate change.

It struck me as exactly how I feel about oil, driving and innovations. I know it is gonna hurt, but I cannot see making it hurt more in the future by making it hurt less now. It makes much more sense to tackle the root of the problem so that at some point in the future there won't be any pain at all.






Cycling