The Mp3 Experiment 21
1 week ago
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
It is sometimes easier to wake the dead than 2 little sleeping girls
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Maybe I shouldn't admit this, but sometimes at night after the kids have gone to bed, we lock them in the house and go for a walk. They are old enough that even if they woke up, they will be ok.
So, Sunday night we went for one such walk around the park. When we got back to the house we realized neither of us had remembered our keys. We are usually so good about double checking we have the keys before we lock up, but apparently not this time. Still feeling cool and collected we thought, "no big deal" we will just call the kids. We felt bad about waking them up, but what else could we do? We called their cell phone, but no answer. Now what? We called a bunch of times, and it rang like it was turned on, but maybe the ringer was off, or maybe it was in the other room.
I already know that I am pretty careful to secure windows, but we proceeded to check every window. Of course they are all very secure.
During this process our downstairs neighbors came out to see who it was that was trying to break into the house. Too bad they didn't have a spare key to our apartment.
So, we moved on to the next phase: of waking the kids up. Their window is directly over a stairway that leads to the basement. So getting to it isn't easy. I found a stick, well actually a pole of a scarecrow, and went around to try to tap on their window. I was pretty sure at this point I would either scare them to death, scaring them for life, or someone would call the police on us. I began knocking on their window, but couldn't really see what was going on.
Howard tried for a while to break in the back door using his old Payson library card. But all it did was destroyed his chance of ever checking out a book from them again.
I found a flashlight in the car and found that if I climbed up on the railing that led downstairs I was high enough to see what was going on their bedroom. Keep in mind, the only thing keeping me from catching my death of stairs was a narrow, old, rot iron railing. At least I could steady myself by holding on to the wall.
I was glad to see they were not in their freaking out from fear of who was knocking on the window, they were still sleeping soundly. I shined the flash light right in Taio's face, but she slept through it.
Dang daylight savings time sleepiness.
I couldn't see Asia, she was shielded by blankets. I began knocking/pounding and waving the light around in Taio's face, and where I thought Asia's face might be, but they slept on. I went to check on Howard a few times when I got tired, and debated calling a locksmith.
I couldn't believe how deeply they were sleeping! How can you sleep through someone pounding on your window?Good grief what if it was a fire they were sleeping through?
Finally after I don't know how long Taio began to stir, and Asia sat up. I went crazy pounding and calling their names, giving up on being at all quiet and not disturbing the neighbors. Then when Taio actually opened her eyes and looked my way, I shined the flashlight at my own face so she knew it was me, and convinced her we needed to be let in the house. She came to the window and said slowly and loudly, like I was very far away, "I am going to go unlock the door."
The next morning Asia asked me why she had 26 missed calls and two text messages from us.
She may have looked like she was waking up but actually she slept through the whole thing.
I guess it is time to put a spare key somewhere, or install some sort of buzzer in my kids beds that gives them an electric shock.
So, Sunday night we went for one such walk around the park. When we got back to the house we realized neither of us had remembered our keys. We are usually so good about double checking we have the keys before we lock up, but apparently not this time. Still feeling cool and collected we thought, "no big deal" we will just call the kids. We felt bad about waking them up, but what else could we do? We called their cell phone, but no answer. Now what? We called a bunch of times, and it rang like it was turned on, but maybe the ringer was off, or maybe it was in the other room.
I already know that I am pretty careful to secure windows, but we proceeded to check every window. Of course they are all very secure.
During this process our downstairs neighbors came out to see who it was that was trying to break into the house. Too bad they didn't have a spare key to our apartment.
So, we moved on to the next phase: of waking the kids up. Their window is directly over a stairway that leads to the basement. So getting to it isn't easy. I found a stick, well actually a pole of a scarecrow, and went around to try to tap on their window. I was pretty sure at this point I would either scare them to death, scaring them for life, or someone would call the police on us. I began knocking on their window, but couldn't really see what was going on.
Howard tried for a while to break in the back door using his old Payson library card. But all it did was destroyed his chance of ever checking out a book from them again.
I found a flashlight in the car and found that if I climbed up on the railing that led downstairs I was high enough to see what was going on their bedroom. Keep in mind, the only thing keeping me from catching my death of stairs was a narrow, old, rot iron railing. At least I could steady myself by holding on to the wall.
I was glad to see they were not in their freaking out from fear of who was knocking on the window, they were still sleeping soundly. I shined the flash light right in Taio's face, but she slept through it.
Dang daylight savings time sleepiness.
I couldn't see Asia, she was shielded by blankets. I began knocking/pounding and waving the light around in Taio's face, and where I thought Asia's face might be, but they slept on. I went to check on Howard a few times when I got tired, and debated calling a locksmith.
I couldn't believe how deeply they were sleeping! How can you sleep through someone pounding on your window?Good grief what if it was a fire they were sleeping through?
Finally after I don't know how long Taio began to stir, and Asia sat up. I went crazy pounding and calling their names, giving up on being at all quiet and not disturbing the neighbors. Then when Taio actually opened her eyes and looked my way, I shined the flashlight at my own face so she knew it was me, and convinced her we needed to be let in the house. She came to the window and said slowly and loudly, like I was very far away, "I am going to go unlock the door."
The next morning Asia asked me why she had 26 missed calls and two text messages from us.
She may have looked like she was waking up but actually she slept through the whole thing.
I guess it is time to put a spare key somewhere, or install some sort of buzzer in my kids beds that gives them an electric shock.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
The Long Story of New England in the Fall
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Intro:
It's long, but you can always just look at the pictures.
Chapter 1:
THE FLIGHT
Sleeping in the back of your truck in long term parking may be white-trashy, but it gets you to your plane on time.
The flight was uneventful, except for the crazy lady we met on the airplane. I don't remember ever talking so much to someone on a plane. She was headed to Boston to see an old fling who looked her up on Facebook after her husband died. She had so many stories that taken individually were believable, but great stories. But, when you put them all together I start to wonder. She was a good story teller, but that doesn't make them true. There was the one about the car accident in Denver where the police thought the Comet cleanser that flew all over the car was cocaine, and she was arrested and put in the cell with the naked guys peeing in her hair. And her husband had to rescue her from the paddy wagon, or who knows what would have happened.
Then there was the story about the Raven that was getting into her friends pond that she tricked by stringing fishing line or something to make an illusion that the pond was covered. There was something about the FBI questioning all her friends and neighbors after Jimmy Hoffa disappeared. Cause she worked at the horse races. Then there was the actual fish story about catching a Marlin by the tail when she was on the fishing boat with all men, who were not impressed that she was the only one to catch one. She won a $500 prize cause it was so big, and then cost her $400 to stuff it.
She tried to convince us to come down to Suffolk to the horse races, telling us that New York City is only an hour south of Boston. But she is wrong about that. She said she hadn't been to Boston since she was a 18, going to see Jimi Hendrix. So maybe things have changed, or maybe she forgot. We left with each other's contact information. Very interesting flight. Maybe the stories were true. I have no reason not to believe her. Perhaps if you take everything that has ever happened to you in your life you could come up with three hours of outlandish stories.
Chapter 2:
BOSTON
It doesn't do any good to bring your GPS if you forget the power cord.
We got to Boston early enough to wander around for a while, eat, wander around some more and end up very far from our car so that we had to pay a bicycle rickshaw to take us back. Note to self: park outside the city somewhere and take the train in. $35 for parking!!! Not cool. Boston is practicing an urban planning tactic that enables them to invest in transit instead of roads and parking. If you make driving painful enough people will use transit. On our way out of the city we had to stop two times to ask for directions. We got to my friend Synthia's about midnight. That is a long day when it started at 4:45 am.
Chapter 3:
PLYMOUTH
If, like me, you didn't grow up in New England you didn't go to the Plimouth Plantation for your fifth grade field trip.
Thursday we drove to Plimouth Plantation.
Plimouth Plantation is a reenactment and replica of the original Plimouth Colony. It also includes the Wampanoag Homesite, the Mayflower and Plymouth Rock. The great part is the people walking around, going about their business that appear to be the original colonists, and natives. If you ask them questions they will tell you about their life, their trip from England, and so forth. And no matter how you try to trick them into revealing their knowledge of the 21st century, they stick to their time period. They had not heard of Utah (because it wasn't around in 1621), and certainly knew nothing of modern things.
It had threatened rain all day but didn't start till we were almost back to Synthia's. We actually managed to get there before Eric went to bed. That is a first. Synthia fed us some delicious taco soup and we got to watch a bit of a movie before we crashed.
Chapter 4:
PORTSMOUTH & PORTLAND
On the New England coast everything has "Port" in the name.
Friday morning, we headed north toward Maine through a never ending rainstorm. We stopped to get raincoats at a hardware store and the clerk knew Synthia. She thought it was sooo cool that she met us strangers from Utah. We stopped in Portsmouth, Hew Hampshire. It is a cute little town. We were glad to have our rain coats so we could walk around. We followed a self guided tour that showed us some historic buildings, but without paying to go inside them, they are not much cooler than every other old historic building in New England.
We stopped in Portland, or rather Cape Elizabeth to see the Portland Head Light.
It was raining so hard that the bottom half of our legs were wet from dripping off our rain coats. I felt a little like the sailors, looking for that lighthouse through the storm, so dependent on it for direction.
We found a little wood you know, the type Little Red Riding Hood went into. By this time I was pretty hungry and the rain still hadn't let up so we headed for Oxford Hills with a stop along the way for some fish and chips before we got to Howard's parent's house.
Chapter 5:
OXFORD HILLS
Some places still think Def Leopard is cool. Places like Norway and Paris.
After spending some bonding time with the parents and seeing the horses we met up with one of Howard's old friends. The only place open was a pool hall/disco club playing Def Leopard in one room and techno in the other.
Very strange.
We played some pool, which I won, only because everyone else was too busy talking to pay much attention to the game. Later we went to a trail-head where it was way too dark to see anything. We sat in a blueberry field and the boys reminisced until I was too tired, and too cold to stay another minute.
Saturday we visited Howard's grandmother in the Senior Center and visited a real fruit stand, nothing like the tents we have in Utah. This was a permanent structure with varieties of apples that I had never seen and REAL apple cider. We went and saw Howard's sister Darcy and did a house blessing because their resident ghost is getting a bit out of control. THey have a barn that is bigger than our house. Structurally there are issues, but still very cool.
Then Howard introduced me to a couple Maine originals: Red Hot Dogs and Candle Pin bowling. I know you think your hot dogs are red. But they aren't. In Maine hot dogs just weren't red enough so they die them. Some people told me once you try a red hot dog you will never go back. But to me they tasted like any other hot dog. Maybe it was just the thought of hot dog chemicals on steroids that turned me off.
Then we went and did some Candle Pin Bowling. Candle Pin Bowling is similar to "regular" bowling. Except the pins are thinner and the ball is miniature...with no holes. At first I thought it was easier to control the ball, but I changed my mind. They don't clean then up between your shots, so there is always the possibility of rolling pins knocking down other pins. Mostly I was really good at getting it in the gutter, but sometimes the ball bounces out of the gutter and knocks stuff down. I seemed to get worse as the night went on. It is good for Howard to have a game where he can beat me.
Chapter 6:
BURLINGTON
If you drive all the way through two states to take a ferry ride, it might be a good idea to find out when the last ferry leaves.
On Sunday we drove up to Burlington Vermont. It is about a three and a half hour drive through beautiful fall foliage.
I tried to listen to general conference along the way, but my internet connection was intermittent and eventually my computer battery died.
I really like Burlington. It has a very chill vibe. They have a pedestrian street in the heart of their downtown, which I am in love with, and lots of people wandering around, fountains, and tons of fiberglass cows painted different ways.
Although I didn't get any great cow pictures here is a website that has them on parade.
And here are some little videos I found of the story behind the cows.
Apparently the cows aren't a permanent feature, they were part of a fundraiser and have now been sold at auction. You can go here to read more about it.
We intended to take the ferry across Lake Champlain to New York state, but didn't pay attention to what time the last ferry left so we missed it. Instead we walked along the Boardwalk and enjoyed the sunset.
Chapter 7:
PORTLAND PART 2
An Irish Restaurant/Pub sells more than alcohol. Yum.
On Monday we went to lunch at a small town home cookin cafe in Norway called Boomers. The kind of place where the waitress calls you Honey, and they serve things like corn chowder and Lobster Cake.
Then we drove down to Portland and took a little cruise out around the islands. Imagine how fun it would be to live on an island and have your morning commute on a ferry. I could really get into that.
Then we met up with some of Howard's friends for dinner at an authentic Irish restaurant pub. If you have ever seen Ballykissangel, it is just like Fitzgeralds. If not take my word for it, the atmosphere and food were great.
Chapter 8:
FRYEBURG FAIRE & PERSEPHONE'S TORCH
They call it Senior citizens day for a reason.
On Tuesday we went with Howard's parents to the Fryeburg Fair. The Fryeburg Fair is one of the largest county fairs in the the country. Unfortunately we went on Senior citizens day. Every elderly person within 200 miles was there. I didn't know there were that many people in all of Maine, or in New England for that matter. We saw some old wagons,
Some old tractors,
And a fine drake.
After the fair we had enough time for Howard to film his debut professional acting role.
and make a late night stop at LL Bean.
Chapter 9:
GOING HOME
Good trips make for sad departures.
It was a really nice trip and Howard wasn't too anxious to leave. To give us closure it rained all the way back to Boston, just as it had all the way from Boston.
So there you go. The much anticipated and long awaited story of our trip.
THE END
It's long, but you can always just look at the pictures.
Chapter 1:
THE FLIGHT
Sleeping in the back of your truck in long term parking may be white-trashy, but it gets you to your plane on time.
The flight was uneventful, except for the crazy lady we met on the airplane. I don't remember ever talking so much to someone on a plane. She was headed to Boston to see an old fling who looked her up on Facebook after her husband died. She had so many stories that taken individually were believable, but great stories. But, when you put them all together I start to wonder. She was a good story teller, but that doesn't make them true. There was the one about the car accident in Denver where the police thought the Comet cleanser that flew all over the car was cocaine, and she was arrested and put in the cell with the naked guys peeing in her hair. And her husband had to rescue her from the paddy wagon, or who knows what would have happened.
Then there was the story about the Raven that was getting into her friends pond that she tricked by stringing fishing line or something to make an illusion that the pond was covered. There was something about the FBI questioning all her friends and neighbors after Jimmy Hoffa disappeared. Cause she worked at the horse races. Then there was the actual fish story about catching a Marlin by the tail when she was on the fishing boat with all men, who were not impressed that she was the only one to catch one. She won a $500 prize cause it was so big, and then cost her $400 to stuff it.
She tried to convince us to come down to Suffolk to the horse races, telling us that New York City is only an hour south of Boston. But she is wrong about that. She said she hadn't been to Boston since she was a 18, going to see Jimi Hendrix. So maybe things have changed, or maybe she forgot. We left with each other's contact information. Very interesting flight. Maybe the stories were true. I have no reason not to believe her. Perhaps if you take everything that has ever happened to you in your life you could come up with three hours of outlandish stories.
Chapter 2:
BOSTON
It doesn't do any good to bring your GPS if you forget the power cord.
We got to Boston early enough to wander around for a while, eat, wander around some more and end up very far from our car so that we had to pay a bicycle rickshaw to take us back. Note to self: park outside the city somewhere and take the train in. $35 for parking!!! Not cool. Boston is practicing an urban planning tactic that enables them to invest in transit instead of roads and parking. If you make driving painful enough people will use transit. On our way out of the city we had to stop two times to ask for directions. We got to my friend Synthia's about midnight. That is a long day when it started at 4:45 am.
Chapter 3:
PLYMOUTH
If, like me, you didn't grow up in New England you didn't go to the Plimouth Plantation for your fifth grade field trip.
Thursday we drove to Plimouth Plantation.
Plimouth Plantation is a reenactment and replica of the original Plimouth Colony. It also includes the Wampanoag Homesite, the Mayflower and Plymouth Rock. The great part is the people walking around, going about their business that appear to be the original colonists, and natives. If you ask them questions they will tell you about their life, their trip from England, and so forth. And no matter how you try to trick them into revealing their knowledge of the 21st century, they stick to their time period. They had not heard of Utah (because it wasn't around in 1621), and certainly knew nothing of modern things.
Making Nails
Theology Geeks
The Mayflower II
We spent the evening in Plymouth
Plymouth Beach
It had threatened rain all day but didn't start till we were almost back to Synthia's. We actually managed to get there before Eric went to bed. That is a first. Synthia fed us some delicious taco soup and we got to watch a bit of a movie before we crashed.
Chapter 4:
PORTSMOUTH & PORTLAND
On the New England coast everything has "Port" in the name.
Friday morning, we headed north toward Maine through a never ending rainstorm. We stopped to get raincoats at a hardware store and the clerk knew Synthia. She thought it was sooo cool that she met us strangers from Utah. We stopped in Portsmouth, Hew Hampshire. It is a cute little town. We were glad to have our rain coats so we could walk around. We followed a self guided tour that showed us some historic buildings, but without paying to go inside them, they are not much cooler than every other old historic building in New England.
We stopped in Portland, or rather Cape Elizabeth to see the Portland Head Light.
It was raining so hard that the bottom half of our legs were wet from dripping off our rain coats. I felt a little like the sailors, looking for that lighthouse through the storm, so dependent on it for direction.
We found a little wood you know, the type Little Red Riding Hood went into. By this time I was pretty hungry and the rain still hadn't let up so we headed for Oxford Hills with a stop along the way for some fish and chips before we got to Howard's parent's house.
Chapter 5:
OXFORD HILLS
Some places still think Def Leopard is cool. Places like Norway and Paris.
After spending some bonding time with the parents and seeing the horses we met up with one of Howard's old friends. The only place open was a pool hall/disco club playing Def Leopard in one room and techno in the other.
Very strange.
We played some pool, which I won, only because everyone else was too busy talking to pay much attention to the game. Later we went to a trail-head where it was way too dark to see anything. We sat in a blueberry field and the boys reminisced until I was too tired, and too cold to stay another minute.
Saturday we visited Howard's grandmother in the Senior Center and visited a real fruit stand, nothing like the tents we have in Utah. This was a permanent structure with varieties of apples that I had never seen and REAL apple cider. We went and saw Howard's sister Darcy and did a house blessing because their resident ghost is getting a bit out of control. THey have a barn that is bigger than our house. Structurally there are issues, but still very cool.
Then Howard introduced me to a couple Maine originals: Red Hot Dogs and Candle Pin bowling. I know you think your hot dogs are red. But they aren't. In Maine hot dogs just weren't red enough so they die them. Some people told me once you try a red hot dog you will never go back. But to me they tasted like any other hot dog. Maybe it was just the thought of hot dog chemicals on steroids that turned me off.
Then we went and did some Candle Pin Bowling. Candle Pin Bowling is similar to "regular" bowling. Except the pins are thinner and the ball is miniature...with no holes. At first I thought it was easier to control the ball, but I changed my mind. They don't clean then up between your shots, so there is always the possibility of rolling pins knocking down other pins. Mostly I was really good at getting it in the gutter, but sometimes the ball bounces out of the gutter and knocks stuff down. I seemed to get worse as the night went on. It is good for Howard to have a game where he can beat me.
Chapter 6:
BURLINGTON
If you drive all the way through two states to take a ferry ride, it might be a good idea to find out when the last ferry leaves.
On Sunday we drove up to Burlington Vermont. It is about a three and a half hour drive through beautiful fall foliage.
I tried to listen to general conference along the way, but my internet connection was intermittent and eventually my computer battery died.
I really like Burlington. It has a very chill vibe. They have a pedestrian street in the heart of their downtown, which I am in love with, and lots of people wandering around, fountains, and tons of fiberglass cows painted different ways.
Although I didn't get any great cow pictures here is a website that has them on parade.
And here are some little videos I found of the story behind the cows.
Apparently the cows aren't a permanent feature, they were part of a fundraiser and have now been sold at auction. You can go here to read more about it.
We intended to take the ferry across Lake Champlain to New York state, but didn't pay attention to what time the last ferry left so we missed it. Instead we walked along the Boardwalk and enjoyed the sunset.
PORTLAND PART 2
An Irish Restaurant/Pub sells more than alcohol. Yum.
On Monday we went to lunch at a small town home cookin cafe in Norway called Boomers. The kind of place where the waitress calls you Honey, and they serve things like corn chowder and Lobster Cake.
Then we drove down to Portland and took a little cruise out around the islands. Imagine how fun it would be to live on an island and have your morning commute on a ferry. I could really get into that.
Then we met up with some of Howard's friends for dinner at an authentic Irish restaurant pub. If you have ever seen Ballykissangel, it is just like Fitzgeralds. If not take my word for it, the atmosphere and food were great.
Chapter 8:
FRYEBURG FAIRE & PERSEPHONE'S TORCH
They call it Senior citizens day for a reason.
On Tuesday we went with Howard's parents to the Fryeburg Fair. The Fryeburg Fair is one of the largest county fairs in the the country. Unfortunately we went on Senior citizens day. Every elderly person within 200 miles was there. I didn't know there were that many people in all of Maine, or in New England for that matter. We saw some old wagons,
After the fair we had enough time for Howard to film his debut professional acting role.
and make a late night stop at LL Bean.
Chapter 9:
GOING HOME
Good trips make for sad departures.
It was a really nice trip and Howard wasn't too anxious to leave. To give us closure it rained all the way back to Boston, just as it had all the way from Boston.
THE END
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
The Garden that Grew up a Tree
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
I know you think I am crazy. And that is OK, I think I am crazy too. A long time ago someone told me you can grow pumpkins up a fence. I thought that was the silliest thing I had ever heard. How can you grow pumpkins up a fence? And why would you want to? I thought, people sure do silly things. After a while I forgot all about the silly fence gardening thing. But, earlier this year, when I realized that my Blue Hubbard squash were going to take over the whole garden if I didn't do something, I had a flash back. So I gave it a try. I only had to help them a little at the beginning. They really wanted to grow up the fence.
The pumpkins found their own way to the fence.
You may not be able to tell, but this pumpkin is in the neighbors tree.
Silly pumpkin. I think now he is just showing off.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
People Who Ride Bikes
Friday, July 30, 2010
What we need are more "people who ride bikes".
If you haven't hung around me lately, you might not know that I am geek. Well I have always been a geek, and I am sure everyone knows it, but now my geekiness has taken on new form.
You see, I think cars are the downfall of urban life. I am a bicycle person. And besides that, I think we should put more money toward transit, make cities more friendly for pedestrians, and even more importantly plan development so that the things you do everyday are within biking are walking distance. Also, I read blogs with names like Treehugger, Streetsblog and PlaceShakers.
And the worst part is that it isn't enough to just read this stuff I have to try to indoctrinate everyone else too.
So, let me tell why bikes are great. According to the League of American Bicyclists, 40% of all urban trips are less than 2 miles long. Yet 90% of them are made by car. What would happen if some of those trips were converted to bicycle trips? I'll tell you what would happen: we would save money on gas, put less pollutants into the air, there would be less dependence on foreign oil, less traffic, AND we all might get a little healthier. Well we wouldn't want that, now would we?
Wouldn't it be great if we had even a few more people making some of their everyday trips by bike?
To quote treehugger:
We’re not talking about spandex-clad “cyclists,” but more “people who ride bikes.” There’s a difference, because we’re not talking about sweating-for-50-miles cycling. We’re talking about rolling-to-the-corner-store biking, pedal-to-a-playdate biking, and glorious rolling-down-a-dusty-road-on-a-hot-summer-day biking. If we want to cut carbon emissions, decrease obesity, and stop air pollution, then we need more people-who-ride-bikes."
You see .... more people riding bikes is the answer to all the planet's woes.
Are you surprised?
I told you I was a geek.
One of the things I love about where we live is that I am a 10 minute bike ride from the mall, the library, the grocery store, my dance class, and a lot of other stuff. Now if only I could convince my kids to ride with me.
And on that note I will show you my bike. The basket was an Easter present and the fenders were a Mother's Day present. It is a work in progress, but I like it, and it gets me where I want to go. Maybe some day it will be purple with flowers, who knows.
If you haven't hung around me lately, you might not know that I am geek. Well I have always been a geek, and I am sure everyone knows it, but now my geekiness has taken on new form.
You see, I think cars are the downfall of urban life. I am a bicycle person. And besides that, I think we should put more money toward transit, make cities more friendly for pedestrians, and even more importantly plan development so that the things you do everyday are within biking are walking distance. Also, I read blogs with names like Treehugger, Streetsblog and PlaceShakers.
And the worst part is that it isn't enough to just read this stuff I have to try to indoctrinate everyone else too.
So, let me tell why bikes are great. According to the League of American Bicyclists, 40% of all urban trips are less than 2 miles long. Yet 90% of them are made by car. What would happen if some of those trips were converted to bicycle trips? I'll tell you what would happen: we would save money on gas, put less pollutants into the air, there would be less dependence on foreign oil, less traffic, AND we all might get a little healthier. Well we wouldn't want that, now would we?
Wouldn't it be great if we had even a few more people making some of their everyday trips by bike?
To quote treehugger:
We’re not talking about spandex-clad “cyclists,” but more “people who ride bikes.” There’s a difference, because we’re not talking about sweating-for-50-miles cycling. We’re talking about rolling-to-the-corner-store biking, pedal-to-a-playdate biking, and glorious rolling-down-a-dusty-road-on-a-hot-summer-day biking. If we want to cut carbon emissions, decrease obesity, and stop air pollution, then we need more people-who-ride-bikes."
You see .... more people riding bikes is the answer to all the planet's woes.
Are you surprised?
I told you I was a geek.
One of the things I love about where we live is that I am a 10 minute bike ride from the mall, the library, the grocery store, my dance class, and a lot of other stuff. Now if only I could convince my kids to ride with me.
And on that note I will show you my bike. The basket was an Easter present and the fenders were a Mother's Day present. It is a work in progress, but I like it, and it gets me where I want to go. Maybe some day it will be purple with flowers, who knows.
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