One of the best things about going to races is the conversations you have with your teammates. I headed up to Pinehurst for state CX champs. with Double Down two weeks ago. After he argued with me about my CORRECT directions being different from what his super-crappy GPS said, we started talking about cars. Now DD drives a big Chevy Tahoe. I think it gets like 2 mpg or something crappy like that. DD was telling me that his dream vehicle is a Hummer. After I got through cussing/harassing this "dream", I started talking about alternative fuel vehicles and hybrids and such. Then DD had the most cogent insight: people will not buy electric vehicles because they lack the right "noise". Now, where I live, we have a varied assortment of big, out of shape, rednecks who think pushing an accelerator to make a car/truck go "VRRRROOOOOOOMMMM" really loud is some sort of secondary sexual display of male verility. It never ceases to amaze me how caught up we can get in how the stuff we own establishes who we are...
I am not perfect and I am not rabid, but as a science teacher and a semi-intelligent human, I am trying to recognize my small responsibility in the current global environmental problems that we now find ourselves embroiled in. This has been an attitude that Jeff and I have brought to the shop as well. Bike companies are an absolute nightmare of packaging and we have made a concerted effort to recycle as much of this waste, plus the glass that we seem to magically produce through the consumption of various frosty beverages and I gotta say, all that stuff adds up. During the summer, I was taking a full truck load of recyclables to the recycling center (outiside the city limits, thank you Lenoir city council) every weeks or so. We have also been purchasing NCgreenpower energy credits to offset our carbon output due to electricity consumption. It's a start at least...
When Owen came along, Golden and I did not want to contribute another crap load of disposable diapers to the landfill and so we did some research and decided to invest in a set of Fuzzi Bunz cloth diapers. I was amazed at all of the "experienced" parents who said things to our face like: "Oh, that'll never last." Now let me explain, these aren't cloth square with diaper pins people. We have put men on the moon, a computer in the home and a phone in your pocket, but cloth diaper technology remains unchanged since the 18th century? Right... Anyway, the diapers work extremely well. At first, due to recurring cases of both monkey butt and baboon ass, we had to use the dreaded disposables. I should have just wrapped Owen up in money, it probably would have been cheaper and I wouldn't have felt so bad about throwing it away since it would biodegrade in a reasonable period of time. Now, with the exception of when he goes to bed, we use them exclusively. They are easy to use, you wash them in the washing machine and you don't feel like a wasteful ass when you use them.
Alright, enough ranting. I've been making some changes to this site and plan on doing more. I want to point out the contact me link in the About me box. Drop me a line and let me know what you think, even if you want to point out how I'm an idiot!
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