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No Polluter Commuter!

Olaf — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 17:33:56 +0000

I’m not much of an activist, but I have taken action in support of our environment. As of this past Monday, I began what I hope to be a consistent plan to reduce my gas consumption, reduce mileage on my car, and increase my fitness level. I am currently riding a bicycle for the most idle-intensive leg of my 40-mile commute to work. Depending on the season, the idle-intensive phase consists of approximately 30-45 minutes of time over about 10 miles. I’m working my way up to this distance, possibly further, with each day that I commute on the bike. I started Monday with a 3-mile ride; Wednesday was 4 miles, and now Friday is at 6 miles. Friday is unique in that I went off my normal route to meet-up with a friend for the ride in. That may have added an extra mile. I’m trying to keep my average speed at or above 10 miles/hour so as to one day ride the whole distance in an hour or less. So far, this has not been a real problem. I have been able to keep my average up over 15mph during this innagural week. It has been 10 years or more since I last rode any, so I can only assume I’ll get better. The hardest part has been finding a place to park my car so it won’t get towed while I’m at work! That, and getting over saddle-soreness. I was told before that that was the part of my body that needed to get broken in slowly. A person of moderate fitness can probably hop on a bike and ride 12 miles, but the saddle pains will make them regret it. So it’s best to work your way up, if for nothing else, to break-in the tush.

At any rate, the ride has been exhilerating and not nearly as difficult as I thought, even in the summer heat. I haven’t ridden in the rain yet, but expect to. I’m still trying to outfit myself appropriately; bike gear and accessories can be very expensive. Right now, I’m trying to get some good panniers to carry my stuff. I’m using a great backpack to carry my laptop and a change of clothes, but this is less than ideal for several reasons.

As a side benefit of breaking out the old bike (13-14 years old, actually), Balthazar took an immediate interest in riding with me. He has done really well in picking up on the mechanics of riding. He’s still in training wheels for his first week, but I don’t think it will take him long to graduate.

It’s so funny because I’ve had this bike forever and never put any thought towards trying to make time for it. When I was younger and didn’t have a car, the bike was my only mode of transportation. I don’t know why it never occured to me that I could again replace my transportation with a bicycle, even if only for a small portion of my total commute.

So here I am, doing my part for the environment and being green. Fitting. I am sporting a tattoo of the Green Man on my shoulder blade.

The Guerrilla Tipster

Olaf — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 11:21:36 +0000

The Guerrilla Tipster invokes his mighty right, passed down by the hands of the gods, to assert wisdom upon the unwitting.

Today I find the signature of the Guerrilla Tipster upon the windshield of a car in the Barnes and Noble parking lot of Duluth:

LEARN HOW TO PARK DUMB SHIT!!

The words are poignant. I only wish I could have been present when the recipient benefited from this sharing of wisdom. I’ll bet it was truly inspirational.

I’m considering having some custom stock made up with these choice words to continue the work of this Guerrilla Tipster. Perhaps with only slight grammatical adjustment:

Learn how to park, dumb shit!

…I don’t know, does a fully capitalized sentence give a sense of urgency? It certainly emotes well.

And to take the words of Ben Harper to heart, “What good is a cynic with no better plan,” some reeducation is in order. I’ve got some really brilliant ideas around this, but I should brainstorm on this to fully realize the genius. I’ll bring you more as this materializes.

A Surreal Morning

Olaf — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 20:29:19 +0000

Monday morning I began my day like many others. It was the first day of school for many, and it was the beginning of the work week for me. I also managed to get out the door in record time (related) that morning; the sun was just creeping up above the horizon as I set out for work. As the roads were particularly empty, at least in the opposite direction to the commuter’s pilgrimage, I noted a single SUV driving opposite my direction across the median. I noted it, though it was for no reason other than my significant training in Zen Driving. Over the next 7 seconds, I would take special note of this vehicle as it careened out of control and ended up on its side in the middle of the lane.

It began as what I took for childish misuse of an SUV by brazen young kids on their way to their first day at school in the new year. There was a wild swerve into the median – a hard hit against the curb wall followed by a brief foray on a narrow median, ending in the erratic jerk back into the vehicle mainstay. This was the opening act for several more wild swings of the SUV’s rear end as it tried to come to terms with the perfectly straight road. You might say it was going through corrective maneuvers, but each swing seemed wilder than the former until the wheelbase could no longer handle the large vehicle’s centrifugal force. I witnessed the slow and labored moment where the driver-side wheels lifted off the ground and I knew the driver had lost. The truck rested on its side in the middle of two lanes; as though it had happened sometime in the night when no one was there to see it, and now it is found with the surrounding mystery of how it got there.

I pulled around at the very next median break to see how I could help. I have a cell phone, vague knowledge of CPR, and I’m 2 meters tall with great dexterity – surely that makes me useful in some ways. However, people were already running out from stores on the side of the road and other cars behind me had stopped in the road to lend their hands. In seconds, the scene was covered in people looking down into the truck’s interior. I have no idea what happened in there, but I can only imagine a few circumstances. A) There was a fight between the driver and at least one passenger. B) The driver had a seizure. C) It was intentional. All of these are pretty bizarre circumstances in my book. The oddest thing is that it has taken me three days to actually blog about this and I didn’t mention it to anybody until late Monday. The whole event seemed to have taken place in my imagination. It was difficult for me to keep the memory from being a nebulous dream in my mind.

I Wish I Bought Electric

Olaf — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 18:34:51 +0000

Gas is out of control. I’m waiting for siphoners and car-jackers to rise into the norm. I told my wife to be wary of how she leaves her car in order that she not create an easy target. She locked my car doors for me last night at the house. It’s not something we usually do, but it’s something we’re thinking about now. I’m beginning to equate locations with costs when it comes to driving. For instance, my round-trip drive to work is about $9.00. That adds up when you look at the week, or even the month. I just tacked on $180.00/month to my car payment. Car pooling helps. If you don’t currently car pool, you should seriously find a way to do it. Check out Commuter Rewards for information. They can help you find other car poolers in your area and time frame. I bought my Mazda3 only recently, a compact, but I’m thinking I should have spent the extra money and gotten an electric car.

Commuter Blues (Cont.)

Olaf — Thu, 09 Sep 2004 15:22:03 +0000

So I didn’t actually get up in time to be at work at 6:00am the other day. I missed my ride and had to drive myself through annoying traffic. However, I was able to comprehend the alarm clock this morning and proceeded to get up and begin my morning duties. The drive in took us (carpooling) less than 30 minutes, which is unprecedented. That’s about 40 mintues from my doorstep. I can deal with that. Now if only I could wake up at 5:00am every morning.

Commuter Blues

Olaf — Wed, 08 Sep 2004 03:21:58 +0000

For those of you who commute, this is an all too familiar problem to you. It took me slightly more than two hours to get to work this morning. This is ridiculous, perhaps not to some, but to me. It’s only thirty-seven miles from my doorstep to my chair, and it takes between one and two hours to get there. This has particularly been emphasized since school is back in session. That doesn’t make any sense to me, as my commute schedule is not synchronized to the school bells. As a result of this frustration, my commuter-buddy and I are looking for the right window to conduct our driving. As it is now, we’re spending about three hours a day driving to and from work. We’ve tried the later track, but that’s still bad. I’m not too interested in pulling in around 10:00am or 11:00am, so now we’re going to try the early route. Tomorrow I’m going to attempt to arrive at work by 6:00am. That will give us plenty of time to work-out and still get into the office by 8:00am or before. Now if I can just get to bed by 10:00pm, this may just work. Drat! I’ve already missed my bedtime tonight!