CARLESS DAY

It was no easy task with temperatures in the 90's today, but I did it. I loaded Jacob into the BOB stroller and took off from 9:30am - 2:00pm. Play date, Farmer's Market, swung by a friend's house, then home. We live on top of a ridiculous hill, so coming back home was a b*tch. But during my commute, I saw a house for sale in a neighborhood that I like, and I got a bit of a tan. As I was pushing Jacob and my booty of farmer's market produce down busy streets to get home, I could not help but wonder if the people sitting in their cars did not experience a bit of guilt - like when you pass people on their exercise runs, and you think to yourself, "I should be doing that..."

With the stroller, I am pretty limited on how far I can go from our house. There is no cutesy downtown area for miles. Right below us is the mall, and though they do have Sees Candies and Peets coffee, it's not all that pleasant to walk around. Down the street is a strip mall with Walgreen's and Safeway. Blech. I have not tried grocery shopping yet with the stroller. I am afraid that it will be arduous and therefore very discouraging. So I plan to wait until I acquire a bike, and then we'll tackle grocery shopping. But then I still have that damn hill when I come home...

*Big Sidebar* When I'm driving to the city, I constantly fantasize about a railroad track running straight down the middle of Highway 101, with pedestrian overpasses linking to the platforms. I think about how AMAZING it would be to walk down the hill from our house, past the mall, crossing Freitas Parkway to a walkway that goes into "Terra Linda Station." I even know which stops would be local and which would be express. Terra Linda would naturally be a big express hub. Next express stop is Central San Rafael, then Larkspur, Corte Madera, Mill Valley, Sausalito, then under the bay and pop out to the first San Francisco stop, which I guess would have to be the Embarcadero. It may never happen in Marin, but I can dream.

My birthday is coming up - maybe my big present to myself will be a bike. Which means that Jacob's 18-month birthday present will have to be the iBert. And a toddler-sized helmet. Screw the hill, it will be good for both of us.

Mom's iced tea

Mom's iced tea

Time for a rant

The BP oil spill has been looming in my mind - like the horrible 20-page paper in college that you put off until the last minute to write - and still haunts you in your dreams. I say that because my conscience is nagging at me to do something - anything - about the suffering that my kind is inflicting. Oil-slicked birds, dolphins and whales dying, sea turtles being burned alive! I hear these things, and I feel like the world would be a lot better off if we had never evolved beyond the Australopithecine stage. I might not feel this way if I still lived in Japan - except, wait, yes I would - because in THAT country, dolphins living in captivity in Okinawa are throwing themselves out of their tanks in an effort to end their suffering!!!!! The reports are horrifying and heart-wrenching, I am sitting here in tears and I just cannot take any more.

So I am making a promise - at LEAST one day a week, I will not drive my car. At all. Which sounds ridiculous. I should be able to do better than that, right?? Agreed - how about a series of steps to choke off petroleum use:

1. One day a week, no car.

2. Save enough in gas to get a new bike.

3. Get the iBert baby seat for said bike - see if I can't increase to more days w/o the car.

4. Replace our old 2nd car with the Nissan Leaf as soon as possible.

5. Switch from PG&E to Marin Clean Energy.

6. Buy more of our food from the farmers markets.

7. Re-use petroleum-based products (plastic bottles, bags) with a vengeance.

It pisses me off that so many would-be pedestrians are forced to compromise because of car-centric infrastructure - you don't have a chance in hell of riding a bike and/or using public transit somewhere like Houston, for example. Or Jacksonville, Florida. I can remember getting so incredibly pissed off walking along busy roads - no sidewalk, nothing - and cars whizzing by at 50 mph. You can bet your ass that this design was intentional. It's insidious, it's killing our environment, which in turn eventually kills us. Why should it be so? Can we not save ourselves, or will history go on repeating itself until we've gone extinct? What's the verdict, People?

What I want to see is people giving a shit. I want to see Critical Mass slowing traffic to a crawl on a major highway in Houston, Texas. I want to see the feedlots where cows and pigs spend the majority of their lives mired in their own shit, force fed antibiotics and god knows what, cited for cruelty and shut down for good. Next time you go to a supermarket for a steak or pork chops, think about what the real cost was. Action. Making a difference. For those of you who are wondering about the apparent disconnect between petroleum use and meat-eating in America, I urge you to read "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan.

If only it were so simple as to promise to eat tofu and home-grown veggies for a year straight in order to prevent an environmental disaster. Like a magic spell. I swear I would do it in a heartbeat.

Home projects

Home projects
Originally uploaded by js_hale

Out with the old (brass), in with the new!
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