Yahoo Answers!

Wow, if there is one thing that I have found addicting lately, it has been Yahoo Answers! It is a site that allows you to ask and answer just about any question imaginable. It also has a point-based system where you get points for answering questions, get more points for the person asking the question deeming your answer the best, and for other various things. The points allow you to move up in "the ranks" to become a "better" more active user in the Yahoo Answers environment. It almost seems like a prestigious thing to have more Best Answers and it is arranged that way to show how many that each person has. You can find questions on most anything and there are people who either just know a lot about everything or are great/quick/do not mind researching everything under the sun to get the best answers. Anyways, this has just become such a fun time-consuming diversion for me! Give it a try! If you already have a Yahoo account, you're already set to go!

A Sad 'Bike To Work Day'

This is a tough Ride Your Bike To Work Day for me... I've been telling people for a few weeks about it and how they should all ride their bikes into work on the 18th of May and on and on. Well, needless to say, I was excited about the ride in on the 18th as well! Although I was thinking about the congestion, the fact that so many people were going to be riding was a good thought!

Well, my luck with transportation has really soured lately. From cars that won't go to brakes that won't stop, things have not been going exactly as I've been planning. Well, yesterday's ride home fell right into the pattern, although I know that it was really my own carelessness that caused it all. I had gone from Redmond to Lake Forest Park via the Snohomish River/Burke Gilman trail and then had gotten off the trail to cut over towards Edmonds. I was cruising down a hill at a pace of about 25 mph on the left side of the road as it had a large shoulder to ride on, unlike the right side. When I finally decided that it was time to cut over to my side of the road, I looked in my helmet mirror to check the road and then for some reason, I turned my head all the way around (while still cruising on down the hill at around 25-30 mph) to check the traffic. When I turned my head back, I was literally 1/2 a second away from riding up this rock wall/hill on the left side and as I turned back to face forward, my trike started riding up on it. It was already way too late to turn out of it. I flew up on what became like a hard-banking ramp on the side and my trike started flipping clockwise while still continuing on down the hill. Man, if I could have landed that, that would have looked like the most amazing stunt ever! I couldn't. I couldn't even come close. It came up so fast after turning around that I just got a glimpse into the future, but before I could really process it very well, the future was here. Apparently, I landed pretty awkwardly on the right front wheel on the way over and then at some point, also onto the front gearing between the pedals. I got up, flipped over, started laughing and walking around. I made a call to get a ride and felt very defeated as the trike was not rideable.

So, fast-forward to this morning. I get up and shower and all at 4 am, gear up and carry my mountain bike downstairs. I wasn't planning on riding it, but what can you do? So, I'm downstairs about to mount up when I notice the back tire is flat. I don't have a spare. ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?! I already had to limp downstairs, both legs feel like I was flogged all evening, and my hip would be broken if I was any older... Now, I start pumping up quickly until I notice that the stem core of the tube has been rubbing enough on the rim of the wheel that there's a hole in it. I carry the bike upstairs very defeated. I consider swapping out rear wheel from my trike with my mountain bike. I look at the clock and realize it's just not happening. This is not the 'Bike To Work Day' I had envisioned. Well, not exactly...

Gas Savings Update

So, now I've saved approximately 15 gallons of gasoline from being purchased and from being burned! Now that's getting to be a decent amount, as that's a full tank for my van (which I sold last weekend, forcing me to bike around and seek out alternative transportation)! This is Bike To Work Week anyways, so it's really pushed me into it even when I wake up and my legs have been tired. Knowing there's no car outside my house has been a good incentive to rise up to the challenge! Transportation is the largest source of pollution in the US. The US creates an absurd amount of pollution via automobiles and the convenience of sitting in my car, stuck in traffic, has been far outweighed by the reduced stress of not dealing with traffic jams.

Still, I'm going to get my Jetta fixed and back to the ready in a few weeks for the occasional necessary trip. I really need to get bike racks on my trike and mountain bike so I can carry more than a backpack and use them for more labor-intensive tasks than carrying me around (i.e. shopping & bringing work clothes to/from work).

The Great Fuel Boycott of 2007

I know that I wrote about this before in another blog, but it just astounded me how far-stretching this "boycott" went. What I'm talking about is the so-called gas boycotts that were proposed for May 16th and were distributed through all sorts of Myspace bulletins, posts in all manner of forums, and email forwards and such.

There has been a number of gas boycotting bulletins/emails that I've seen in the past few years. Some of them have been aimed at taking away revenues from specific vendors like Exxon or Chevron, while others have aimed to just lower gas prices by taking a 1-day stance against purchasing fuel. None of these "boycotts" have proposed taking a steady amount of fuel profits out of the oil companies' pockets, such as by a continual decrease in fuel usage, yet that's what it would take. If everyone decreased their fuel usage so that the demand was lessened, we'd get a decreased gas price. Oil companies know that one day of bad sales aren't going to ruin them and there's going to be increased sales the day(s) before and after the "boycott" as people find themselves needing to fill up after their day away. Most people don't fill up their gas tanks every day so the profits lost aren't going to be those that would have come from every driver anyways.

What I was really surprised about was the amount of mention that was given to this last proposed "boycott". It was supposed to be yesterday. I first heard it mentioned on KUBE 93.3's T-Man Show. Later, the Q13 morning news weatherwoman, M.J. McDermott also mentioned the boycott, although she said that boycotts such as these 1-day gas protests didn't work to lower gas prices. This call for a gas protest really was a widespread phenomenon this time, unlike past efforts. People were actually talking about it and hearing about it from all different sources and I think people were really expecting a difference to have been made.

While I sold my cars and haven't really been driving, I did put some gas in my sister's car yesterday, after using it in the morning to run an errand.

Short note...

So, I've saved approximately 7.5 gallons of gas so far. It's not an incredible amount, but thinking about it, it's about $25.87 at average local gas prices. Also, there's all of the noxious tailpipe emissions that weren't released into the atmosphere, so it's a start. I'm shooting for selling my van by the week's end and that's my least efficient car, so that's another step forcing me towards cycling as my main source of transportation. It's a start! Sure, someone else is driving and using up their fuel, but they'd be doing it regardless of what I did, so the air is just a little bit cleaner... Now, hopefully, as many people as I've told about May 18th, Bike To Work Day, will ride and keep the air even cleaner!

Commutin'...

And so the commuting via trike has begun! Today was the first day that I did commute from Edmonds to Redmond via my trike. I had already decided that Friday was the start of riding in the beginning of the week and I stuck to that decision although it wasn't seemingly the best day to start. It was raining pretty good this morning and by the time I turned out onto the street, I was pretty well soaked. There were large portions of the trip that I was unable to keep my eyes open during (Note to self: Get Goggles), due to heavy rains. I really would have appreciated fenders/splashguards as my arms and the back of my head were really wet and muddy by my arrival, but I had a change of clothes so no problem. The thought of turning back and driving came to me pretty early in the ride because it was cold enough to see my breath and rainy enough to make it hard to see that same breath. But no, I was setting a precedent and turning back would just be like admitting defeat on the first attempt, so I trekked on. I made my way with a planned route in mind, but as you can see from my actual route that I rode, I missed a little bit of the original plan's direction. I lost my way when I was getting on the Interurban Trail and as it was dark and I'd forgotten my headlight at my friend's house last night, I made a detour and rerouted my path. Oh well, it was raining, dark, and I arrived at my destination of work 45 minutes early so it wasn't too bad of an error. All in all, at least for my wet clothes I saved over 2 gallons of gas today! Maybe I can keep a running tally of the gasoline I "saved" by not driving!

May is "Bike To Work Month"!

Coinciding with my starting to commute to work via bike (trike), I've found out that May is Bike To Work Month! What a cool coincidence! The way May is starting out, the weather is already getting ready for it! Going along with this fact, REI is offering a whole host of options to help make biking to work a little bit easier for you. They are offering free bike maintenance classes at their Alderwood, Redmond, and Seattle stores to teach the essentials of bike maintenance to get you ready for riding. Friday, May 18th is also Starbucks Bike To Work Day and there will be 37 commute stations set up at various locations throughout the region to stop and pick up some free goodies like water bottles, snacks, and maps! This would be a great thing to let your coworkers know about and get everybody to ride into work on the 18th, or all month for that matter! Join in the fun and make a difference by getting your car off the road, if for only a day or a month, as every little bit helps!