Random Menace

Reports of the EV's Demise Have Been Exaggerated

2012-01-07T19:59:00.001-08:00

A Year of Driving with Electrons

2012-01-07T11:50:00.000-08:00

Actually, it hasn't been quite a full year since took delivery on January 18th, but it's easier to keep records on a calendar year basis. Here's the data for 2011:

8,302 miles
2,693 kWh of electricity
1,130 lbs CO2
$312 operating expense
2 low-battery warnings
0 strandings

Compared to the car we were previously using, we saved approximately $700 and 3,500 lbs of CO2.

Memory Hole entry #1 - Ivar Giaever

2011-12-21T13:25:00.000-08:00

"I am a skeptic. Global warming has become a new religion. I am Norwegian, should I really worry about a little bit of warming? I am unfortunately becoming an old man. We have heard many similar warnings about the acid rain 30 years ago and the ozone hole 10 years ago or deforestation but the humanity is still around. The ozone hole width has peaked in 1993." --Ivar Giaever, WSJ, 2008

Dr. Giaever is a Nobel laureate. He is a global warming "skeptic". He is also a deceiver. We did, in fact, have warnings about acid rain 30 years ago. The EPA responded by creating a cap-and-trade system for sulfur dioxide. Sulfur dioxide emissions have dropped 40% as a result of this and other actions. The ozone hole did not peak in 1993. Production of CFCs peaked in 1993, with the adoption of the Montreal Protocol. Unfortunately, CFCs persist in the atmosphere for decades. The ozone hole continued to increase in size, with the peak occurring in 2006.

I have no doubts of Dr. Giaever's qualifications in the field of superconductivity. He should leave climate science to others.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

2011-12-04T08:35:00.001-08:00

Haven't updated on the Leaf recently. Sparkii continues to plug along, doing duty as our primary vehicle. He takes my wife to work, my son to school, all of us to the store. Power consumption is beginning to climb as the temperature begins to drop. Here's a chart showing how driving range has varied with temperature over the past 11 months:

So what's going on? Is the cold affecting the battery? Are EVs a failure in freezing temperatures? Not really. Thinking outside the box just a bit, cold storage facilities use electric forklifts. And it gets a lot colder inside a meat locker (-35C) than it does around here. So what is it? It's the heater:

Internal combustion engines are notoriously inefficient. Only 20-25% of the energy from gasoline goes into moving the car forward. The rest is turned into heat. As I'm fond of saying, "gas engines are an 80% efficient furnace that provide locomotion as a by-product".

Not so with electric motors, I'm afraid. On the plus side, a typical electric motor converts 90% of input energy into motion. On the minus side, there is almost no waste heat to keep us comfortable on frosty mornings. So we have to dip into our precious stored electrical energy to heat the car. You can see from the chart above that as the temperature has dropped, our accessory (non-motor) consumption has climbed from the low single-digits to nearly 25% of the total.

Still, I prefer having an efficient electric motor and being in control of our energy/comfort trade-off. We can always follow President Carter's advice and put on a sweater.

August Leaf update

2011-08-31T19:24:00.000-07:00

	Odometer	Miles	Kwh	Mi/KWh	Cost	Per mile	MPGe	Temp(F)
March 2011	2118	650	208	3.1	$24.13	$0.037	105.3	45.1
April 2011	2958	840	272	3.1	$31.55	$0.038	104.1	45.5
May 2011	3570	612	185	3.3	$21.46	$0.035	111.5	52.3
June 2011	4259	689	177	3.9	$20.53	$0.030	131.2	59.4
July 2011	4911	652	173	3.8	$20.07	$0.031	127.0	64.2
August 2011	5664	753	194	3.9	$22.50	$0.030	130.8	66.0

This will probably be the last Leaf-focused update for a while. Owning the first mass-market electric vehicle has been far less dramatic than anticipated. Another month gone by without stalling out on the highway, exploding in flames, or blacking out the neighborhood. I keep looking for an excuse to visit the dealership, just to say "Hi". But our first scheduled service isn't for another 5 months, and that's to rotate the tires and change the cabin air filter.

So, is the Leaf the perfect car? Any vehicle is a compromise. We're limited to 100 miles before a lengthy recharge, we can't tow a boat, or haul 20 bags of compost home from the nursery. But we can do pretty much all of our everyday driving without burning fossil fuels. Think about that as information about the Keystone pipeline and the Alberta tar sands begins to hit the mainstream media. Do you want to continue to be part of the problem, or do you want to be part of the solution?

Range Anxiety

2011-07-31T19:45:00.000-07:00

Photo by: Chandra Ramkumar

Another uneventful month of EV driving. Total mileage was down slightly to 650. Electric consumption was also down, to 173 Kwh, for an average of 3.8 miles per Kwh. I think we crossed the line from heating to cooling, and running the A/C a few times has increased our e- consumption slightly.

Did have one episode of range anxiety this month. No, not in the Leaf. It was in my daughter's Toyota, driving back from Arizona. Getting on towards nightfall, running low on fuel. That's when I realized we were on a stretch of freeway without any services. How many miles of range did I have left? How far to the nearest gas station? Oh, if only I had a telematics system that could tell me these things. Then maybe I wouldn't feel so anxious.

The story has a happy ending, but just barely. We found the only gas station in a 110-mile stretch. It was still open. We filled the tank, and they promptly shut down for the night.

June recap

2011-07-02T08:34:00.000-07:00

	Odometer	Miles	Kwh	Mi/KWh	Cost	Per mile	MPGe	Temp(F)
March 2011	2118	650	208	3.1	$24.13	$0.037	105.3	45.1
April 2011	2958	840	272	3.1	$31.55	$0.038	104.1	45.5
May 2011	3570	612	185	3.3	$21.46	$0.035	111.5	52.3
June 2011	4259	689	177	3.9	$20.53	$0.030	131.2	59.4

Well, it's definitely heating up around here. Average temperatures have nearly broken the 60-degree barrier. Time to break out the cargo shorts. Just over 4000 miles on the Leaf and no issues to report. Deliveries of the Leaf are starting to heat up as well.

So why have I made three references to temperature? Look at the right-hand column in the table. I started tracking mean monthly temperature. With only four data points, it's not statistically rigorous, but there appears to be an linear relationship between MPGe and temperature, with a coefficient of 2.25 (ie Multiply temperature by 2.25 to get MPGe). Check back here in July and August to see if it holds.

May Leaf Update

2011-05-28T07:56:00.001-07:00

Nearly another month of driving with electrons. May's not quite over yet, but I have time to post this morning so here goes. In the first 27 days of May, we've put 568 miles on the odometer and 172 KWh on the emeter, for an average of 3.3 miles/KWh. Up slightly from March and April, when we averaged 3.1 miles/KWh. It's getting a bit warmer, so we're using the heater less.

I also started tracking MPGe, the EPA's fuel efficiency metric for EVs. According to the EPA, a gallon of gasoline contains the equivalent of 33.7 KWh of energy. If you disregard how each is produced (more on that later), it gives a like-for-like comparison between gas-powered vehicles and EVs. For March and April, we averaged right around 105 MPGe. With the arrival of (slightly) warmer weather, we're now up to 111 MPGe. Using that same 33.7 ratio, our fuel cost us the equivalent of $3.90 per gallon, or about 3.5 cents/mile.

Something I've blogged about before, but bears repeating: lack of volatility in fuel prices for EVs. Electric rates are typically controlled by a public utility commission. They go up (and down), but on a timescale of months or years, not days. Since we got the Leaf, our fuel price has not changed. In that same time, gasoline has gone from $3.20 to $4.10, and is now back down to $4.00

What good is an electric vehicle if all it does is move CO2 emissions upstream to a coal-fired power plant?

Answer: It doesn't. Let's start with "base load". Coal, nuclear, and hydroelectric are all base load sources of electricity. Utilities use base load power to service the typical needs of their customers. Utilities keep base load plants running 24x7 whether they need the electricity or not, because they can't be started or stopped quickly.

So what type of power is used to recharge EVs? Most EV owners plug their cars in at night, when overall demand for electricity is low. They make use of capacity that would otherwise go to waste. Remember, base load plants run 24x7, producing CO2 whether or not they're generating electricity. EVs are an option for turning the waste CO2 into something useful.

Finally, sources of electricity will get cleaner over time. Wind, solar, geothermal, tidal are all means of generating electricity without producing CO2. Gasoline will just get dirtier. Deep-water wells, tar sands, oil shale, and coal oil are all methods for squeezing out the last drops of fossil fuel, but at an ever-increasing cost to the wallet and the environment.

String Theory

2011-05-21T20:03:00.000-07:00

Photo by: Mike Bonnell

As often happens on the ride into work, my mind began to wander. On this particular morning, I started thinking about string theory and manifolds. Specifically, I started counting dimensions. There were the basic three. Plus, I was moving at the time, so that makes four. But then I noticed the changes in temperature as I moved into and out of shaded areas. Five? Birds singing ahead on the right and behind on the left. Six. Heavy scent of cherry blossoms. Cinnamon rolls. Seven. Descending, then climbing. Gravity. Eight.

How many dimensions in your universe?

April Leaf Update

2011-05-07T03:28:00.000-07:00

Well, for starters, leaves are finally beginning to appear. And the cherry tree is in full bloom. We're currently struggling through the coldest Spring on record. As a result, the April numbers for the Leaf aren't much better than March: 840 miles and 272 KWh, for an average of 3.1 miles/KWh. At $0.12 per KHw, it's costing us about $0.038/mile to fuel up. At the current price of $4.10 per gallon (yikes!), we're getting the equivalent of 105 MPG.

Otherwise, no issues to report. We did get the service bulletin from Nissan about an issue with the fault detection system. Even though our car isn't affected, Nissan still wants us to have Sparkii reprogrammed just to be on the safe side.

Finally, starting this week, I'm going to answer some commonly-asked questions about EV ownership. This week's question:

How long does it take to recharge the Nissan Leaf?

Answer: 10 seconds. We typically charge the car at night. After parking Sparkii in the garage, I open the hatch cover and plug in. Then I proceed into the house. At 11 PM, the timer goes off and the charger starts up. How long does the charger run? Don't know, don't care. What I do know is I start the next day with a full "tank" of fuel. By way of contrast, how long does it take to put gasoline in your car? If you add up driving to a filling station, waiting in line, pumping the gas, and paying, is it 10 minutes? 15 minutes? With an EV, your "filling station" is at home, and the car refills itself.

Early Days

2011-04-12T09:24:00.000-07:00

These are definitely early days with respect to electric vehicles. Level 2 (240v) and Level 3 (480v) public chargers are few and far between. For the most part, EV owners are charging at home and limiting their trips in order to make it back home before running out of stored energy.

Within a few years, the situation will be quite different. Two federally-funded programs (The EV Project and ChargePoint America) are busy installing public charging stations in major metropolitan areas. Electron stations will soon be nearly as ubiquitous as gas stations.

Remember, the automobile existed before gas stations. Back then, you bought your fuel from a druggist or grocer. If you didn't plan your trips carefully, you hired a horse to tow you to the next town, accompanied by the usual comments of "Only a fool would buy an automobile." "A horse never runs out of fuel, there's grass everywhere."

The difference this time is there already exists a nationwide distribution network for EV fuel. It's called the grid. Electricity is everywhere. So although filling up at a high power charging station is more convenient, it's not required. Simply pull out your 110v trickle charger and ask the nearest homeowner if you can borrow a cup of electrons.

LEAF update

2011-04-04T08:13:00.001-07:00

Another uneventful month of driving with electrons. Our EV Project-supplied Blink EVSE arrived this month, so now we get all kinds of statistics (see above). The Blink was installed on the 7th, so this is roughly 75% of the monthly total. Mileage isn't shown, but was 650.5 for the same period. Extrapolating for the entire month would put us at 870 miles and 280 KWh, for an average of 3.1 miles/KWh or $0.038/mile. If we were buying gasoline instead (at the current local price of $3.90/gallon for regular), it would be the equivalent of 100 MPG.

But I didn't want to talk about cost. As I said before, if you were buying a car on purely economic grounds, you wouldn't -- you'd get a bicycle or a bus pass. We bought the LEAF because the idea of an electric car was just so cool. We missed out on EVs the first time around, so I wanted to make sure we were part of the renaissance.

Completely unexpected was how much fun this car would be to drive. Nissan really did their homework. Gen 1 electric cars (and golf cars, and forklifts, and drag racers) gave you 100% torque instantly. Kind of a hard shove in the small of the back. But once you've got your torque, that's it. You don't get any more. So you have this sensation of the car running out of steam as the speed increases.

The LEAF builds up torque quickly, but continues to add more even as the speed increases. If you step hard on the accelerator, you think "V6 sport coupe", not "overpriced golf cart". All good things must come to an end, and the torque eventually levels off, but from 0 to 40, it's the quickest car in the morning grand prix.

Karma

2011-03-18T11:52:00.000-07:00

Payback time. No, not gas prices. The weather. Back in January, I posted about the "normal" winter we'd been having instead of the anticipated "Snowpocalypse 2011". That changed about a month later. If you look at the temperature plot above, you'll see a dip, leading up to March 1st. Unseasonably cold temperatures and convergence zones blessed us with 8" of snow that stuck around for about a week. From now on, I keep my mouth shut.

2011-03-10T09:46:00.000-08:00

I haven't updated you on our Nissan LEAF for a while. There's a simple reason for that: nothing really interesting has happened. Which may be interesting in its own right. The LEAF has turned out to be an ordinary car with one exception -- it runs on electricity. We drive it during the day, we plug it in at night, and we don't stop at gas stations anymore. Karma's painful, so I'm not going to say, "I told you so!". But I started needling my wife a few years ago about her solo-driver commute. I asked her, "What are you going to do when gasoline hit $10 a gallon? You need to figure out some way to get to work that doesn't involve burning oil." Well, we did. Of course, I would rather she rode a bicycle, but this is probably more practical for most people.

The one change that has occurred in the past month is the installation of our Blink charging station. The Blink has a touch-screen menu system, wireless connectivity, and web access. It also tracks our actual electricity consumption. Since we don't have a separate meter for the car, I've been trying to estimate based on data coming from the car's telematics system. Turns out my estimate was a bit off. We're actually averaging a bit over 3 miles per KWh, when you measure it straight from the wall.

Based on a rate of $0.116 per KWh, our fuel costs are just under $0.04 per mile. That compares with just over $0.10 per mile for the car my wife was using (Toyota Echo), and $0.19 per mile for the minivan we traded in (Toyota Sienna). As a family, we're still buying gasoline. But the oil burners have been shuffled so that the highest-mileage child drives the car with the highest MPG. My son, when he starts driving in a couple of years, will be getting one of these.

One Month Off the Pump

2011-02-19T17:39:00.000-08:00

We've had our Nissan LEAF for one month now. In that time, we've traveled 945 miles, consumed 225 KWh of electricity, and grown 83 virtual "trees". No issues with the car so far (knock on wood). We have learned to ignore the range estimator, putting our faith in the battery gauge. I also bought a ChargePoint prepaid card to take advantage of public charging stations, although we haven't used it yet.

We emitted 350 fewer lbs of carbon dioxide versus the previous vehicle. That's based on PSE's current load mix (32% coal, 36% hydro, 30% natural gas). Given current prices, it's likely that PSE will be using more natural gas and renewables, and less coal in the future, so things should only get better.

We don't get a separate electric bill for the LEAF, so it's a little hard to determine precisely what the actual costs have been. Using the 225 KWh reported by Carwings and a rate of $0.11 per KWh, figure around $25 for the month. By way of comparison, if we had been driving our Toyota Echo instead, we would have used 30 gallons of gasoline, at $3.30 per gallon, for a total of $100.

Which brings me to my final point. During the month we've had the LEAF, electric rates have gone from $0.11 per KWh to $0.11 per KWh. Electric rates are controlled by the utility commission. Local gasoline prices have gone from $3.20 per gallon to $3.45 per gallon. Gasoline prices fluctuate based on supply and demand, market speculation, unrest in the Middle East, and hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. I don't know about you, but I like knowing what my transportation costs are going to be more than a few days in advance.

Horizontal Fracking Isn't the Answer

2011-02-10T11:31:00.000-08:00

"New drilling method opens vast oilfields in US"

Bully for Exxon. Hurrah for Chevron. Three cheers for BP. Renewed cries of "Drill baby, drill!" Horizontal fracking certainly has tangible benefits for large, multinational corporations. What's in it for me?

Freedom from despotic regimes? Don't think so. Last time I looked, I don't buy crude oil -- I buy gasoline (at least, I used to). The gasoline I buy is produced by an independent refiner (Tesoro, in my case). Tesoro buys crude oil from the lowest-cost source at the time they need the next tankerful. Louisiana? North Dakota? Venezuela? Oil is a global commodity. The gasoline in my car may have been refined from foreign oil or domestic. In fact, unless you live in a country where the mineral resources are owned by the state, there is no such thing as domestic oil.

Energy independence? Nope. In the United States, mineral resources are not owned by the government, they are owned by the corporations that extract them. After buying a lease and paying royalties, the multinational owns the oil free and clear. They can sell it here, or they can ship it overseas. Or did you miss the fact that the Macondo well was operated by British Petroleum?

Lower gasoline prices? Sorry, bub. Repeat after me: oil is a global commodity. If we aren't willing to pay top dollar for it, there's someone else who is. To quote from the article referenced above:

US shale oil, on the other hand, will only supply one to two percent of world consumption by 2015, not nearly enough to affect prices.

What are we to do? Are we doomed forever to be at the mercy of tyrannical dictators in foreign lands or corporate boardrooms? I want to say one word to you. Just one word. Conservation.

What I Like About Electrons

2011-02-09T07:21:00.000-08:00

In my last post, I wrote about how the Nissan LEAF was beginning to seem like a normal car. For the most part, it is. But if that's the case, what's the big deal? In a word, torque:

torque (tôrk)
The tendency of a force applied to an object to make it rotate about an axis.

(reference: dictionary.com)

When you step on the accelerator after the light turns green, torque is what gets the car moving. Torque gives a car its get-up-and-go. A gasoline engine typically needs to spin up to 2000-3000 RPM before it hits maximum torque. You push on the pedal and the RPMs start to wind up. The engine roars and the car begins to vibrate. Even with a big V8, you get the sense that the engine is working hard to overcome inertia.

On the other hand, an electric motor achieves maximum torque instantly. If you want to ease away gently, step lightly on the accelerator. If you want to embarrass the BMW driver in the next lane, floor it and hang onto your coffee. In either case, it seems effortless, like the car isn't really working at all. Effortless, silent, immediate forward motion.

One step closer to that anti-gravity drive I've been waiting on.

A Return to Normalcy

2011-02-01T07:29:00.000-08:00

It's been two weeks since we took delivery of our Nissan LEAF, and it's starting to feel like a regular car. We've logged 400 miles and used 96 kilowatt-hours of electricity, for an average of 4.1 miles/kWh. Haven't received our electric bill yet, but assuming PSE's higher-use rate and 10% overhead for the charging station, expecting costs to be around $10.50 to $11.00 for the 400 miles. If we were buying gasoline (at the local price of $3.30/gallon), it would be the equivalent of getting 120 MPG.

My wife drives the car to work every day. We do our usual running around after work and on the weekends. We plug it in every night. And aside from last week's near misadventure, driving with electrons is becoming pretty normal.

I'm also getting over my fear of hills. It takes energy to go uphill. A lot of energy. We use 1/12th of the battery's capacity climbing from sea level up to our house. Which was scary at first. But as long as we have at least two blue bars showing on the battery gauge when we start the climb, I know we'll make it home just fine. And the payoff comes when we go down the hill. I'll have more to say about regenerative braking in a future post. But it's pretty cool to put energy back into the battery, instead of throwing it away as heat and brake dust.

As time goes by, I'm finding fewer excuses to drive the car. The novelty is beginning to fade. I still think the LEAF is the coolest car on the road. But in the end, it's just a car. And even the coolest car is no match for a bicycle.

Running on Empty

2011-01-28T07:24:00.000-08:00

I am now officially an electric vehicle owner: came close to running out of charge last night. I won't go into the specifics, but I spent the last 30 minutes of the drive hypermiling for all I was worth (using the tricks I learned riding my bike).

When we bought the LEAF, I really didn't think we'd use public charging stations. Fill up the battery at home, drive to/from work, plug it in at night. Why would I want to spend 2-3 hours at the mall, trying to get enough electrons to make it home? After yesterday's adventure, my perspective is changing.

Make an unexpected trip during the day? Forget to plug in the night before? Worried you don't have quite enough charge to make it home? A public charging infrastructure addresses these situations, and provides a more important benefit: peace of mind. If I miscalculate, I face the minor inconvenience of stopping for 30 minutes or an hour or two, versus having to arrange towing.

In the US, The EV Project and ChargePoint America are rolling out public charging stations (240VAC and 480VDC) in selected communities. The stations will initially provide free charging, but switch to a subscription model sometime in the future.

Incidentally, Nissan really doesn't want you to completely drain the battery. We hit just the first of three warnings designed to get you to a charging station:

Level 1 - Gas pump/plug icon starts blinking (~10% charge remaining)
Level 2 - Visual/audio alert and console displays map to nearest charging station (~5% charge remaining)
Level 3 - Reduced performance ("Turtle") mode, limits acceleration and top speed (~2% charge remaining)

Update: According to CARWINGS, panic-induced hypermiling reduced my energy consumption by 30%. Life on the edge has its benefits!

I May Regret This

2011-01-24T12:01:00.000-08:00

For the second year in a row, the mid-Atlantic and Northeastern states are getting pummeled by "the worst winter in history". And, for the second year in a row, the Canadian Arctic is having the mildest winter in history. In both cases, the reason is a negative North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). This despite the fact that 2009-2010 was an El Nino winter, and 2010-2011 is a La Nina winter. The NAO is overpowering the effects of ENSO, at least in the North Atlantic.

And maybe beyond. Here in the Northwest, in 2010, we experienced the warmest January on record. But it was an El Nino winter, after all. More surprising is our relatively normal winter this year, during the strongest La Nina event in more than 50 years. Before I go too hyperbolic, we've had a wetter-than-average winter, with snow in the mountains and flooding in the lowlands. But only a few stretches of below-freezing weather, and very little overnight frost.

Of course, now that I've said this out loud, we'll probably get pummeled ourselves next month since Winter doesn't officially end until February 21st.

Embracing My Inner Geek

2011-01-21T09:19:00.000-08:00

One of the velvet handcuffs that comes with the Nissan LEAF is the CARWINGS telematics system. On the minus side, it collects data on your driving and charging habits and sends it to Nissan Corporate. On the plus side, it lets you look at your data and download it to a spreadsheet.

The data collected include electricity used by the motor, electricity regenerated while braking, and distance travelled. I added in temperature, elevation gain/loss, and whether or not the climate control was on. Now I can track how each of these factors affect the car's efficiency.

And yes, I was captain of the math team in middle school.

First Impressions

2011-01-20T02:51:00.000-08:00

We took delivery of our Nissan LEAF yesterday. It's the end of one journey (going all the way back to this post), and the beginning of another. I'll have more to talk about in the weeks and months ahead, and experience shades perception. So here are some first impressions, from an unjaundiced eye:

This is a complicated vehicle But not for the reasons you might expect. The electric part is amazingly simple. Drive the car. Park it in the garage at night. Plug in the cord. In the morning, unplug the cord and drive the car. The complicated part is that this is a new car, circa-2011, with a navigation system, Bluetooth, climate control, satellite radio. Our two other cars are 10 and 12 years old, so all of the electronic gadgetry is going to take some time to figure out.

Living on a hill has plusses and minuses It takes energy to go uphill. I know this from my daily bicycle commute, but driving an electric car really drives the point home. On the minus side, the motor uses extra energy when going up hill. On the plus side, it recovers some of it on the way back down through regenerative braking. I need to do some more experiments to determine how much of the energy we're able to recover.

I have "range anxiety" Heading home, we watched the estimated range remaining drop from 41 miles to 24 during the climb up the hill. What if we ran out of power? It's not like I can walk to the nearest electric station and pick up a bucket of electrons. Maybe that's why Nissan gave us a roadside assistance program. All part of being a pioneer, I guess. And not unlike the situation at the beginning of the 20th century with respect to gasoline-powered vehicles. If you ran out of fuel somewhere along the way, you enlisted the services of the nearest horse to tow you to a town where, hopefully, the druggist dispensed "benzene".

Irrational

2010-12-23T09:42:00.000-08:00

Buying a LEAF is not rational. Here's why:

It never pays to buy a new car You lose too much in depreciation as soon as you drive it off the lot. From a purely economic perspective, the optimal strategy is to buy a 3-year old used car.

Never buy version 1.0 of anything The LEAF has a new motor, new battery, new telematics. There are going to be problems with the car, hopefully minor, probably annonying.

The cost savings aren't there (yet) With gas at $3.00 per gallon and electricity at $0.11 per KWh, you're basically at par with a Toyota Corolla XLE. On the other hand, if gas goes to $4.00 a gallon and stays there, you'd be ahead with the LEAF to the tune of $2500 after 5 years.

On the flip side, reviews like this drive me crazy:

"Of course, the Leaf and Sierra HD are designed for totally different purposes. Despite all the attention paid to the Leaf’s electric drive train, it is essentially a midsize family car designed for commuting, running errands and weekend getaways. In contrast, the Sierra HD is a workhorse built for carrying work crews and heavy equipment to construction sites..."

How many days per week do you spend "commuting and running errands" versus "hauling heavy equipment to construction sites"? Did you know that Lowe's or Home Depot will rent you a pickup if you really need one?

So why buy a LEAF? Because the idea of an electric car is just so cool. Because life three standard deviations from the mean is much more interesting. And let's face it, no one buys a new car for economic reasons. If you did, you'd buy a bus pass. Or a bicycle.

On the Grid

2010-12-10T09:00:00.000-08:00

Our charging station was installed yesterday. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we're buying a Nissan LEAF™. Delivery of the vehicle should be in a few weeks, so we're getting our infrastructure in place. Until there's a network of public charging stations, our LEAF will mostly be recharged at home.

So what is the impact of a LEAF, on the grid, and the atmosphere? The charging station is on a 240V/40A circuit, slightly larger than what an electric clothes dryer plugs into. But we won't use all of the circuit's capacity. The battery charger is actually inside the LEAF, and is limited to 3.3 kilowatts (KW), slightly less than the clothes dryer or an electric oven, and slightly more than a dishwasher. It's also about half of what a typical central air conditioner uses. So not really a big deal.

What if everyone in my neighborhood gets an electric vehicle, and we all start recharging at midnight? Do we have a problem? Look at it this way. Already, pretty much every oven and plasma-screen TV in the neighborhood is going Thanksgiving Day, all day long. No brownouts so far. And all the turkeys get cooked.

Now, what about carbon footprint? If all we've done is move the CO2 emissions from the tailpipe to the power plant, have we really accomplished anything? The answer is: it depends. There are a number of ways to generate electricity: coal, natural gas, nuclear, wind, solar, and hydroelectric. The amount of CO2 produced depends on the source:

Source	Pounds of CO2 per kilowatt-hour (KWh)
Coal	2.25
Natural gas	1.4
Solar	0.24
Wind	0.05
Nuclear	0.01
Hydro	0.01

One KWh of electricity will propel the LEAF approximately 4 miles. We can calculate a "miles per gallon equivalent" (mpge) for the LEAF by taking the amount of CO2 produced by the source and comparing it to the CO2 produced by a gasoline-powered vehicle. Burning a gallon of gasoline produces approximately 19 lbs of CO2. Using this information and the table above:

Source	mpge
Coal	35.4
Natural gas	57.2
Solar	338
Wind	1690
Nuclear	5640
Hydro	5640

Fortunately, no utility is 100% coal-powered. Typically, a mix of sources is used. Our local utility, Puget Sound Energy, is balanced among coal (32%), natural gas (30%), and hydro (36%). Plugging in at home will give us 70 mpge. Across the lake, Seattle City Light is almost all hydro (91%), with a little nuclear (4%). If we recharged downtown, our mpge would jump to almost 1600. American Electric Power, the largest power supplier in the Southeast, uses primarily coal (66%) and natural gas (22%), yielding an mpge of 44.4

So, a LEAF recharging in Georgia is roughly equivalent to a Prius. That same LEAF recharging in Seattle has a carbon footprint 40 times smaller. I'm not keen on moving across the lake, so it looks like my next move is to install a nuclear power plant in the backyard.

December 8, 1980

2010-12-08T17:36:00.000-08:00

It was going to be a long night. Greg, recently emancipated from parochial school, had discovered both marijuana and the White Album. He'd been spending increasing amounts of time in his room and not in class, indulging in both.

We were in my room, cooking up the latest batch of popcorn when Hoover burst in. “Somebody shot John Lennon.” Later, “somebody” would acquire a name and his 15 minutes of fame, but all we knew then was that the world had changed and not for the better.

“Better check on Greg.” He wouldn't take this well. The vacant stare told us all we needed to know. “Helter Skelter” was playing on his stereo. We didn't have much time.

“Hey, Greg. Let's get out of here. Go outside. Get some air.”

Even though it was nearly midnight, we headed out into the snow. Needed to find some way to keep Greg occupied. Kurt recruited him for a snow sculpture, while the rest of us busied ourselves clearing ice off the sidewalk in front of the dorm. Students heading home from the library would stop and ask what was going on. Having heard they joined us, either at the sidewalk or across the street with Kurt and Greg.

I took a break from chipping ice to help with the sculpture. It was a hand, flashing a peace sign, with a headstone. Perfect. After a couple of hours, the sculpture was done, the sidewalk was clear, and Greg was at peace.

Later that morning, as I was getting ready for class, I looked out my window at the sculpture. One of the fingers was lying beside the hand, having either fallen off or been broken off deliberately. I hurried with my coat before heading down to fix it.

I looked out the window one last time and saw someone kneeling beside the sculpture. They read the inscription on the headstone, then gently picked up the finger and put it back in place.

Still here...

2010-10-28T01:42:00.000-07:00

I'm still here, just not blogging. Lots going on, both personally and professionally. We're getting close to taking delivery of our Nissan LEAF, so I'm going to be devoting some bandwidth on this blog to our experiences.

I have made a few other changes, primarily with respect to cycling. I decided to give up racing, on the road at least. I found myself spending more and more time on my mountain bike, just being out in the woods. So I sold my race bike and bought a singlespeed cyclocross bike. I've really come to appreciate the simplicity of a single speed drivetrain. Efficient. Robust. Direct. More than anything else, I have been trying to reduce the complexity of my life. The mnmlist, among other sources, has helped me to remember what I used to know.

Crying over spilled oil

2010-05-18T10:25:00.000-07:00

I'm having a difficult time generating outrage over the ecological catastrophe unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico. What did you expect? The earth is running out of oil. We are now drilling holes 3 miles deep, under a mile of water to feed our addiction. I've heard the remark, "We can land a man on the moon. Why can't we plug a hole in the ground?". The difference is we can equip men to survive on the surface of the moon. We can't equip them to survive at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.

Outrage? Where was the outrage over Ixtoc, off the coast of Guatemala? What about the 5-month leak in the Timor Sea? Nigeria? Northern Alberta? Ecuador? Who will cry when this happens again (and it will) off the coast of Norway? Madagascar? Sri Lanka? Greenland?

Extraction of the planet's resources is a dirty and dangerous business. And yet we continue to consume. Every one of us is responsible for what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico. At least now it's happening where more will take notice.

The Best Bike

2010-05-05T14:48:00.000-07:00

"What's the best bike?" A fair question, but one not readily answered. Where are you going? Across town or across the country? What route will you take? City street, paved path, or forest trail? Do you plan to carry anything with you, or just the clothes on your back?

Don't overlook the most important question: Why? Why do you choose to ride? Ethos or eco? Do you ride to save the planet, or to save yourself? Once you know your own heart, the bike will reveal itself to you.

Turning over a new LEAF

2010-04-23T10:43:00.001-07:00

No, not the truck. We just put down a deposit for a Nissan LEAF. And no, I haven't given up bicycles, either. The LEAF, if we're lucky enough to get one, will be primarily used by the significant other. Her commute is similar to mine, around 20 miles round-trip. So the 100-mile range of the LEAF covers it nicely, with plenty to spare for a side trip to the grocery store. For longer trips, we'll rent something with a gasoline engine.

So why the picture of the Big Ugly Truck (BUT)? It's to highlight the absurd criticisms typically leveled at electric vehicles. "Oh, they're expensive". "The range is too limited". "You'd need a second car". Ummm, couldn't you say exactly the same thing about the BUT? The example pictured above lists for almost $50K. With the miserable gas mileage, the range is less than 300 miles between fill-ups. And do you really want to use something like the BUT as your daily commuter?

Maybe you do. Maybe buying a vehicle is less about practicality and more about image. And so if that's acceptable when your choice is a 150+ MPH sports car, or a 400+ horsepower truck, why isn't it acceptable when your choice is a sleek-looking electric car with limited range?

Updated (4/27/10): In answer to the question "Who could possibly need a truck like this?", Motor Trend posits, "...the Raptor is apparently proving popular among Texas ranchers who regularly drive across rough tracks to the farthest corners of their property". Texas ranchers that like to frighten their own livestock being an underserved market, I guess.

One Less Car

2010-03-15T07:56:00.000-07:00

Trying a little experiment for the next couple of months: seeing if we can live with one less car. We've kind of been doing this for a while, anyway. The minivan has spent most of its life in the driveway, but now we're committed. Well, sort of:

a) We loaned the minivan to the church, and we'll get it back this summer. And we could probably "borrow" it back in an emergency.
b) My oldest is home on break this week, so we have an extra car if we need it.

But I don't think we will. It may take some advance planning, but we should be able to pull it off. Wife has a car. Offspring #2 and #3 have bus passes. I have plenty of bicycles.

Ironically, the biggest challenge may be arranging transportation to my bicycle races, since they usually take place a couple of hours outside town. So I may have to ride the race bike over to a teammate's house and carpool. It's not used to carrying me and a backpack, but we'll survive.

Put the Car Keys Down

2010-03-02T11:05:00.000-08:00

Tried to destroy myself this weekend. Racing is just around the corner, so I'm putting in some hard miles to get ready. Sunday afternoon, I'm lying on the couch and starting to think about dinner. Check the refrigerator. Need milk. Need beer. Need to go to the grocery store. Pick up the car keys.

Think some more. Dog needs a walk. I need a walk to flush the lactic acid out of my legs. Put the car keys down and pick up the backpack. Twenty minutes later, we're at the store. Dog gets a treat and some water. I get the groceries. Twenty minutes later we're back home. Groceries got. Dog walked. Legs flushed. "QED - Quite Easily Done", as my high school math teacher would say.

Monday and the significant other has a medical appointment. She can drive herself there, but won't be able to drive home afterward. Pick up the car keys.

Think some more. Nope, that won't work. Car can take me to the clinic, but how do I get two cars home by myself? Put the car keys down and pick up the bike. I ride over to the clinic, put the bike on top of the car, and drive both of us home. QED.

Oftentimes, a car creates more problems than it solves.

Bahati Foundation

2010-02-04T09:36:00.000-08:00

Short post and a cool video. Rahsaan Bahati is one of the top sprinters in the US. Three-time winner of the Manhattan Beach GP, Athens Twilight, and 2008 US Criterium Champion. The Bahati Foundation, "works with local communities to provide inspiration, insight and opportunities for underprivileged youth through the sport of cycling". Cool idea from a cool dude. And he plays a mean snare:

Bicycles Against Poverty

2010-01-19T02:33:00.001-08:00

A group of Bucknell University students have created a unique aid project that combines sustainable transportation (bicycles) with microfinance. Bicycles Against Poverty provides bicycles to low-income families through a loan/lease program. From their website:

"The mission of Bicycles Against Poverty(BAP) is to use bicycles to encourage community cooperation, to improve accessibility of important resources, and as a tool for economic development for low income families in and around the world."

I'm already a fan/lender with Kiva, and you know how I feel about bicycles. And yes, they are planning on expanding the program to Haiti, and had been even prior to the earthquake.

Too Cold to Ride?

2010-01-14T08:21:00.000-08:00

Deep winter
and my partner
calls to me:
"Come out!
Come out and play."

Send Money

2010-01-13T19:03:00.000-08:00

This will be a short post. Haiti needs help. Send money. There are many organizations sending people, supplies, food, and water. (You) send money. Here are a few (send money):

Doctors Without Borders
Oxfam
The Salvation Army
Partners in Health
Save the Children

Damn, this traffic jam!

2010-01-06T08:14:00.000-08:00

It's been a lonely slog this winter. Especially the first two commutes of the year, when I didn't see another cyclist out on the road. Can't blame them, really. Mid-40s, dark, and raining didn't exactly make me leap for joy to be out riding. Forecast was for rain again this morning, so imagine my surprise to see stars and the moon when I went out to get the paper. Do I ride the nice bike? Better not press my luck. Rain bike it is.

I pull up to the stop sign at the bottom of the first hill to wait for cross traffic. And the cross traffic is: another cyclist! I make my left and pull in behind him. We wend our way to the bottom of the second hill and: the light is still green! Through the intersection, and cyclist #2 turns right, but up ahead I can see: cyclists #3 and #4!

Down the third hill, we pass cyclists #5, #6, and #7 coming up the hill. Stoplight at the bottom, and cyclists #8 and #9 pass through. Onto the bike path, turn right at the next street and I leave #3 and #4 to head north. I make my solitary way for the last mile, but it was nice to have the company this morning. Pulling into the parking lot, I'm greeted by this (can Spring be far behind?):

Aimless

2010-01-05T13:10:00.000-08:00

aim·less (ām'lĭs)
adj. Devoid of direction or purpose.

I'm not going to log my miles this year. I've been tracking myself for several years now, so I can predict with reasonable confidence that I'll bicycle somewhere between 6,000 and 7,000 miles this year, and will drive somewhere between 5,000 and 6,000 miles. So I won't bore you with the daily details.

Instead, I'm going to highlight the unexpected, the unique, the serendipitous. Call it a return to randomness.

Dog

2010-01-02T20:04:00.000-08:00

In the end, after spending the last two years of the cat's life arguing among Shiba Inus, Huskies, Terriers, and Portuguese Water dogs, we ended up getting an animal of indeterminate pedigree. The lower half and rear portion had definite Golden Retriever tendencies, but the front upper quadrant wandered into the Shepherd regions (German and Australian).

It was more useful, therefore, to think not in terms of what he looked like as much as how he behaved. Although the ears were a dead giveaway. Whereas the rest of the dog was something you might approach with hesitation, the ears flopped over and betrayed his true character. Harley might be pushing six years and sixty-five pounds, but inside he was all puppy.

Happy Winter Solstice

2009-12-21T08:14:00.000-08:00

I am singing the cold rain
I am singing the winter dawn
I am turning in the gray morning
Of my life
Toward home.

-Cheyenne poem

A Master at Work

2009-11-25T08:29:00.001-08:00

There's nothing I enjoy more than watching someone perform at the top of their game. And with that, I have nothing else to add:

November

2009-11-20T08:06:00.000-08:00

I awake to the sound
of rain
on the roof.

Which means
I will need
rain cape,
boots,
and wool mitts
on my ride to work.

I step outside
into the drops
striking my face,
washing away all the
accumulations
of an unfocused yesterday.

(Image Source: Richard Masoner.)

Secretary LaHood Gets It

2009-11-13T13:04:00.000-08:00

Here's a quote from Secretary Ray LaHood on "livable communities", from the October issue of the AARP Bulletin:

Q. You talk a lot about livable communities. How would you describe one?

A. It’s a community where if people don’t want an automobile, they don’t have to have one. A community where you can walk to work, your doctor’s appointment, pharmacy or grocery store. Or you could take light rail, a bus or ride a bike.

Finally! A Secretary of Transportation that understands it's the Department of Transportation, not the Department of Highways. And I like his approach: don't force people out of their cars -- entice them. Create communities with a range of transportation choices and let people pick the ones that work for them. Cars, for some. Bicycles, for others. And for some, a comfortable pair of shoes.

Liar!

2009-11-12T09:20:00.000-08:00

From the Wall Street Journal:
"Crude prices slipped below $77 a barrel Thursday after a U.S. government report showed a higher-than-expected increase in oil inventories across the board and a further fall in refinery processing rates."

And now for the money quote:
"...refiners are still struggling due to poor profit margins and are attempting to cut stocks in the face of continued slack demand by trimming back on refinery processing rates with a fall in utilization levels to below 80% of total operating capacity."

So the next time groups like The Heritage Foundation publish claptrap like this, give them the appropriate response: Liar!

Update (11/20/09): Valero to Close Money-Losing Delaware Refinery

Symbiosis

2009-11-05T08:37:00.000-08:00

I breathe.
Pulling into me
all that is in the world.
Despair
and intolerance.
A child dancing on tiptoe.
An old man weeping.
Oxygen.

I breathe.
Sending into the world
all that is in me.
Hope
and compassion.
Dreams.
A smile.
Carbon dioxide.

Are Humans Wired for Empathy?

2009-10-21T09:25:00.000-07:00

If case you hadn't noticed, I donate blood and blood products on a regular basis. They used to pay people for blood, but went to a strictly voluntary system years ago. There have been studies demonstrating that blood collection centers actually achieve a higher turnout if they don't offer compensation to donors. They probably get a higher-quality product. If I'm not getting paid, I don't have any incentive to use deceit in order to donate. Which got me thinking, are there transactions other than blood where voluntary donation yields better results than compensation?

Turns out there's a field of economics asking the same question. I read an interesting article in Ode Magazine, called "The altruism in economics". The article covers the blood donation scenario, along with something called the Ultimatum Game. In the game, two players are given a sum of money to share. Player A is to offer a portion of the sum to Player B. If B accepts, they share according to A's offer. If B rejects, both players get nothing. Traditional economics would say that A should offer B the minimum amount possible, since B should logically accept any offer. Interestingly though, the typical offer approaches a 50/50 split. It may be that humans have an inherent sense of fairness, or that Player A looks at it from B's perspective and (irrationally) decides that he should offer close to half in order to get B to accept.

In either case, it gives me hope for the future. When we finally realize that there is just one Earth, maybe we will learn to share.

A Musical Interlude

2009-10-20T14:47:00.000-07:00

Subliminal-message free

What are you Doing on October 24th?

2009-10-15T09:08:00.000-07:00

Whatever it is, hopefully it won't involve the release of greenhouse gases. I will probably ride my bike (surprise!). Training ride in the morning, then grocery run in the afternoon. If I'm feeling energetic, I may ride down to the farmer's market, instead of the neighborhood Thriftway, and pick up some local produce.

What's so special about October 24th? It's International Day of Climate Action. It's being organized by 350.org, dedicated to "building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis--the solutions that science and justice demand". The number "350" refers to 350 parts per million, a level scientists have determined as the safe upper limit for CO2 in the atmosphere.

We're currently at 387 and rising, so there's a bit of work to do. 350.org recognizes it will take much more than individual action to reverse course. There's nothing wrong with switching out lightbulbs, driving less, and getting an electric lawnmower, but governments need to step up and stop subsidizing the extraction, production, and consumption of fossil fuels.

So leave the car in the garage and take a walk around your neighborhood. Let your family and neighbors know why you're taking a stand. And then call your elected representatives and ask them what they're doing to stop the destruction of our planet.

Gay Marriage Left Me (and my Dog) Unable to Have Children*

2009-10-12T07:46:00.001-07:00

Sadly, it's true. I'm sterile. And so is my dog. Is it because of gay marriage? Over the past several years, my state (Washington) has enacted a series of laws establishing and protecting the rights of partners in a committed relationship. Gay, lesbian, or senior couples can register as domestic partners and receive nearly the same legal status as married couples. Not quite where it should be, but probably as good as we're going to get.

Unfortunately, Referendum 71 seeks to roll back even this measure of progress. Remember, some of these laws have been in place for years. Ask yourself, has your marriage been destroyed? Has the fabric of society been rent asunder? I submit that investment bankers have done more damage to the American family than gay marriage. Maybe we should enact laws prohibiting investment bankers from reproducing.

Vote Yes on Referendum 71. Keep the status quo. My marriage and family survived intact. Yours will too.

*It's probably because of the vasectomy I had after the birth of my last child, but you never know. The dog was fixed when we adopted him.

Do You Really Bike to Work in the Rain?

2009-10-09T14:57:00.001-07:00

We've been having a wonderful indian summer. A bit chilly in the mornings, but dry and sunny. I hold no illusions but that the rains will eventually return. However, the rain bike has a new drivetrain and is waiting patiently in the garage.

Neither rain, nor sleet, nor gloom of night stops the dedicated bike commuter. Take a look at these statistics on commute method from the Census Bureau's 2008 American Community Survey:

City	State	% by bicycle
Portland	OR	6.0
Minneapolis	MN	4.3
Seattle	WA	2.9
San Francisco	CA	2.7
Sacramento	CA	2.7

Heading up the list is Portland, a city known more for ice storms than balmy breezes. I've never wintered in Minneapolis (#2), but I'll wager it's a little on the snowy side. My town, Seattle, squeaks in just ahead of the top-two California cities. San Diego (#22), Miami (#34), Las Vegas (#52) -- what's your excuse? It sure as heck can't be the weather.

Happy International Day of Peace!

2009-09-21T08:11:00.001-07:00

Today, September 21st, is International Day of Peace. I wish you a peaceful day. And to guide you on your way, I offer this Native American prayer:

Oh Great Spirit of our Ancestors, I raise my pipe to you.
To your messengers the four winds,
and to Mother Earth who provides for your children.
Give us the wisdom to teach our children to love, to respect,
and to be kind to each other
so that they may grow with peace of mind.
Let us learn to share all good things
that you provide for us on this Earth.

Tomorrow, September 22nd, is World Carfree Day. Leave the car in the driveway. Walk, take the bus, ride a bike. Be kind to the Earth.

I can't help but think that the two days are intertwined. As we grow more desperate to secure increasingly scarce supplies of energy, we engage in un-civil and un-peaceful acts. If we were able to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, would we have more respect for one another? Would we be more kind?

Just Walk Away

2009-09-17T15:09:00.000-07:00

I just read this interesting article by Osha Davidson, "What My Marriage Counselor Asked", Mother Jones. In it, he compares the current climate change debate to a bad marriage, where the two participants keep circling around and around the same issues, without ever moving forward:

"The battle between those who accept global warming and those who don't is like a really bad marriage where the two sides bicker endlessly over who's right. This marriage cannot be saved. It's time for a divorce."

It's time to move on. The clock has run out on the existential debate. We need to move on to solving the unprecedented problems that lie ahead of us:

"Journalists and others need to turn our attention to solutions. Debating solutions to global warming is a sign of a healthy relationship."

So when faced with a denier, wish them well, and tell them you've moved on with your life. And then pedal away.

Thank you, Rainforest Action Network

2009-09-15T12:25:00.000-07:00

The Rainforest Action Network draped this across Niagara Falls today:

They have a webpage regarding the action here. Nothing further to add, other than a call to action, and a link to another website.

Affordable Green

2009-09-04T09:08:00.000-07:00

I found this post on the Sustain Newsladder website, "Shopping Green Without Spending in the Red". It forwards an interesting concept: our consumption patterns are a set of choices we make. By choosing to buy this particular product, I forgo the opportunity to buy another product. And more holistically, if I choose to spend some of my finite dollars to buy this product, those dollars are no longer available to fund other activities.

What if you turned this idea on its head? There are many issues and concerns I would like to impact in my life and in the world. Some of them require money. There are other things I don't need or care about. What if I stopped investing in those activities? I'd have more money to invest in the things I do care about.

Walk, or ride a bicycle instead of driving/owning a car. Drink tap water instead of soda or imported bottled water. Cook at home instead of takeout. Unplug the television and read instead. Get off the consumption merry-go-round.

How to Convert an Ecosystem Into Synthetic Petroleum

2009-08-26T09:00:00.000-07:00

I've blogged about the oil sands and posted pictures of the destruction, but never really explained how it all works. There's a detailed explanation at the Syncrude website, but here's the CliffsNotes® version:

(1) Remove 1-5 meters of muskeg ("topsoil"), where trees, mosses, lichen, arctic fox, muskrat, beaver, caribou, and moose live. Dump it in a big pile for later use ("reclamation").
(2) Scoop up the next 10-30 meters of bitumen ("asphalt") and dump it into a mixing container.
(3) Mix the bitumen with sodium hydroxide ("Drano") and water from a nearby river, and heat to near boiling using lots of natural gas or another hydrocarbon fuel.
(4) Add more chemicals to separate the synthetic petroleum from the sand and water, then send it on to the refinery.
(5) Dump the toxic sand and water mixture into a tailing pond and let it settle for 150 years. Scoop out the dead birds every so often.
(6) Take the previously-saved muskeg and spread it over the big hole you made. Maybe plant some grass for a golf course.

Congratulations! You've taken a thriving biome and converted it into fuel for automobiles. Next week, we'll show you how to completely decimate a fish population in less than half a century.

Updated (8/27/09): The Pembina Institute has posted some photos of the mining operation on Flickr.

When Life Gives You Lemons

2009-08-22T16:16:00.000-07:00

In yet another outstanding example of the ability of the energy industry to take advantage of other's misfortunes, Weststar Resources has announced plans for an open-pit coal mine on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic. This project is now feasible, according to their PowerPoint presentation, because "recent scientific evidence suggests a climate change taking place in the Arctic that could see continued annual loss of sea ice and an increased shipping window".

Huzzah! And here I was wringing my hands about drowning polar bears and rising sea levels. Soon we'll have access to vast amounts of coal literally lying out in the open. We just need to strip mine and ship it to China. BTUs for everyone!

Here's the proposed site of one of the open-pit mines

Good News!

2009-08-17T10:45:00.000-07:00

The Canadian Oil Sands Trust announced a 90% decrease in net income (year-over-year) for the 2nd quarter of 2009. Cutting the price of oil in half did most of the damage, but production was also down by 10%.

Good news! Unless, of course, you're an investor in this abomination. In which case, I cry crocodile tears for your 401K.

Thanks, Jose

2009-08-16T18:38:00.000-07:00

We had a memorial ride for Jose today. It was a beautiful day. Warm and sunny, with a light breeze to keep things interesting. I found myself thinking that if Jose were to pick a day for his memorial ride it would be pretty much like today. If I carry anything with me from his life, it's an appreciation for all the simple things we are blessed with. Crisp fall days with the crunch of leaves underfoot. Mornings when the coffee tastes especially good. Cold beer on a hot day. Holding hands.

Want to experience life as Jose did? Three simple rules:
Laugh.
Be kind.
Savor life.

Thanks for the ride, buddy. Wish you could have been there.

I admit it: I was wrong

2009-08-06T08:32:00.000-07:00

I was never a big fan of the "Cash for Clunkers", or C.A.R.S. program. The standards were either too lax (1 MPG increase for Class 2 trucks), or didn't target the right vehicles (more than 25 years old). And why tie it only to new car purchases? Why not give the bicycle industry a boost as well?

But in the end, results are what count, and the results look pretty good: (AP) Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said the average mileage of new vehicles purchased through the program is 9.6 miles per gallon higher than for the vehicles traded in for scrap. Buyers of new cars and trucks that get 10 mpg better than their trade-ins get the $4,500 rebate. People whose cars get between 4 mpg and 10 mpg better fuel efficiency qualify for a smaller $3,500 rebate. LaHood said some 80 percent of the traded-in vehicles are pickups or SUVs, meaning many gas-guzzlers are being taken off the road.

It's not that big a surprise, actually. With gas prices poised to resume their upward trajectory, a lot of people were looking for an opportunity to dump their gas guzzlers. The C.A.R.S. program gave the trade-in value of pickups and SUVs a nice boost. Still, four grand would buy a lot of bike...

Remembering Jose

2009-07-28T16:07:00.000-07:00

Jose almost never made it to the start of a team ride. It was always a bit of a guessing game as to whether or not he would turn up somewhere along the way. Jose knew the usual route passed close by his house, so why make the extra trip to the coffee shop when he could have coffee at home with his family. As we'd head south along the lake, I kept an eye open for him. Because although a team ride was good, a team ride with Jose was better.

More often than not, there he would be, pedaling towards us in the opposite lane. He'd make a slow U-turn and catch on. I'd drift back and check in with Jose. I don't exactly remember what we'd talk about. Definitely bicycles. Probably family. He had an ironic and self-deprecating sense of humor that matched my own. After a few minutes, I'd move back up the line. No need to monopolize his time. There would be plenty of opportunities to finish the conversation later. If not on this ride, then on the next one.

That all changed forever last Friday. While Jose was out on a training ride, a van made a sudden left turn, killing him. So Jose won't be joining us on our team rides anymore. But I won't stop looking up the road for my friend. Because even if it's just in my imagination, a ride with Jose is still better than one without.

HOUSTON, TRANQUILITY BASE HERE. THE EAGLE HAS LANDED

2009-07-20T15:12:00.001-07:00

I mentioned in an earlier post that I am a child of the space age. And today marks the 40th anniversary of a monumental day, that I still recall vividly. When those words came through the television, we all collectively started breathing again. The real drama would come hours later, when Armstrong eased his way down the ladder and jumped to the surface of another world. Kennedy's admonition would not be complete for a few more days, when the task of "returning him safely to the Earth" had been completed. But we were on the Moon!

P.S. For the moon-landing skeptics (all three of you), here's irrefutable photographic evidence we were there. The unmistakable sign of human visitation: trash!

Put the phone down, and keep your hands on the wheel

2009-07-01T09:48:00.000-07:00

Our neighbors to the south, Oregon, have passed a law banning the use of handheld cellphones while driving. We've had a similar law here in Washington for the past year. It does seem to be having some impact, although I still see far too many drivers talking or texting while behind the wheel. I read this interesting comment from a Portland resident upset about the new ban:

"This is only going to cause more accidents. Because people will just fumble around with their phones in the seat next to them, while trying to use the speakerphone option instead. Or even worse, text with the phone in their crotch while repeatedly looking down instead of out of the windshield."

So, the implication is that it is impossible not to talk or text while driving and the new law will only force drivers to adopt even more dangerous behaviors to hide their actions. Really? What on Earth did you do before BlackBerries?

Still Here

2009-06-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

Distinct lack of posting activity for the last month. Usual excuses: work, family. So this will be a short post, just to keep the blog alive. I found an interesting study from Denmark, quantifying the health benefits of commuting by bicycle (full article here). This type of study is only possible in Copenhagen, where a significant percentage of the population bicycles regularly. Controlling for all other factors, including leisure-time activity, the study found a 40% reduction in mortality for those who bicycle to work. It's fun, saves money and the environment, and you'll live longer. Come on, join us!

Nothing to Add

2009-05-27T08:45:00.000-07:00

I usually try to provide original content, but in this case the spokesperson (Trilby Lundberg, of the Lundberg Survey) has expressed her views with such eloquence, that there is nothing for me to add: (updated -- couldn't leave it alone, had to highlight some of the choicer bits of "wisdom")

Q: As far as conservation, what are the trends you are seeing?

A: I'm hoping that consumers will see through the rhetoric about consuming less, demanding less, as faulty. It is not a given that consuming less will be good for our economy or for our personal freedom. It is not even established for our environment that we [should] deprive ourselves of gasoline for our personal mobility as well our commerce. And to suppose that it is good to do that, and pretend that we have consensus and put our heads together to deprive ourselves of this great product that makes the country go around, commercially and individually, I think is flawed. I'm hoping consumers and voters will see through that and be able to ignore some of the most extreme suggestions.

I think that there has been friendly as well as unfriendly brainwashing taking place. And when I say friendly and unfriendly, I'm talking about decades of extremist views that have now achieved mainstream acceptance. And the No. 1 item among those affecting current oil politics in Washington is the boogeyman, also known as global warming.

I don't accept it as established fact, nor do I accept that it would be caused by petroleum consumption, nor do I accept that the human species should not affect its environment. So even if it were someday to be shown to have some small effect on the environment, I see no crime. In fact, taking into account the many, many millions of people around the world that envy our way of life, it would seem more humanitarian to wish them the kind of plentiful petroleum products and vehicles ... that we enjoy ... to lift themselves out of [a] backward, poor way of life.

We Have Met the Enemy

2009-05-22T12:38:00.001-07:00

And he is us.

Interesting article by Elizabeth Kolbert in this week's New Yorker: "The Sixth Extinction?". In it, she examines the causes of the five previous "great extinction" events, and proposes we may be at the beginning of a sixth. Except in this case, the cause might be a little closer to home.

Humans now occupy every continent on the planet. We may be the most "successful" large organism in history. We are certainly adaptable and our intelligence has enabled us to dominate our environment like no other species.

Through such "innovations" as industrialized agriculture and high-speed transporation, pathogens can be distributed across the globe in days, rather than millenia. Are we our own worst enemy? Elizabeth doesn't mention it in her article, but I'm deeply concerned about the potential impact of monoculture in farming. Not only are we all consuming vast quantities of a single foodstuff (corn), but thanks to Monsanto, it's all one strain. A single virus could have a devastating impact on the food supply of the entire planet.

Bike-to-Work Month/Week/Day

2009-05-13T08:25:00.001-07:00

May is National Bike Month. This week, at least in Seattle, is Bike-to-Work Week. And Friday is Bike-to-Work Day. My wife sarcastically suggested that I give bike commuting a try. Which made me think back to when I first started. There was a great deal of trial and error in the first year or two, trying to find what worked and what didn't. Then my commute went from 15 miles round-trip to nearly 40, and I had to learn some more lessons. The good news is that I pretty much have things dialed in, no matter what the distance, no matter what the weather. For those of you thinking of joining us out here in the open ("All bicycles are convertibles!"), there are plenty of online resources to get you started. Here are a few:
League of American Bicyclists
Commute by Bike
Paul Dorn's Bike Commuting Tips

Happy National Day of Prayer

2009-05-07T13:37:00.000-07:00

May all beings everywhere plagued with sufferings of body and mind
quickly be freed from their illnesses.
May those frightened cease to be afraid,
and may those bound be free.
May the powerless find power,
and may people think of befriending one another.
May those who find themselves in trackless, fearful wilderness–
the children, the aged, the unprotected–
be guarded by beneficial celestials,
and may they swiftly attain Buddhahood.

New Project

2009-04-29T10:56:00.000-07:00

I've started a new project. I'll be taking pictures every day, and posting them on my Flickr site. Most of the pictures will be taken with my Motorola RAZR, since that's what I have with me every day. It takes crappy pictures, so I will mainly be working on composition.

I like to impose arbitrary limits and then see what's possible within those limits. My all-time favorite camera is my Olympus OM-1. Fully manual, with built-in meter. No spot metering, no subject tracking auto-focus, but it will take pictures with a dead battery. I take it out occasionally and shoot a roll or two with just the 50mm. Forces you to work with your subject to get the framing just right.

Setback

2009-04-26T12:12:00.000-07:00

As I type this, I'm lying flat on my back. Too much gardening yesterday, resulting in a muscle spasm this morning, followed by prone typing this afternoon. Not concerned, just a little frustrated. I don't much like physical inactivity.

For some reason, I don't mind mental inactivity. I find meditation quite relaxing. I guess it's more an issue of wanting to do something I can't. I was supposed to be racing my bike today and instead I'm just lying around. The Zen thing to do would be to lie on my back and focus on lying on my back.

Maybe instead of complaining, I should take advantage of the opportunity and breathe deeply.

Should I Quit My Day Job?

2009-04-21T10:33:00.000-07:00

This is so cool: TerraCab is offering free pedicab rides in the downtown Seattle area this summer. It's so cool, I'm trying to figure out how I can be a rider and still keep my day job.

Oh, and Happy Earth Day! Still driving? How's that working out for you?

750 Billion

2009-04-20T09:11:00.000-07:00

I spent Saturday morning having three-quarters of a trillion thrombocytes extracted. Yep, I volunteered for platelet donation. I've been meaning to give this a try for a couple of years now, and the Puget Sound Blood Center finally talked me into it. Process wasn't any more complicated than having an IV drip, and was under more pleasant circumstances.

One needle: blood goes out, through the centrifuge, and then back in. Goes out for about a minute, then the pump reverses and it goes back in for 15 seconds. Bag slowly fills up with this yellowish-looking fluid. Ninety minutes later, there's 7.5 x 10^11 of my platelets in there, and I'm free to go.

The big test came the following day. I was told that donating platelets wouldn't impact my hematocrit, since they put all the red cells back in. So Sunday, I made six trips up Holmes Point Drive. No problems! Well, I mean it still hurt like hell, but not any more than it normally would. This is great! I donate whole blood during the off-season, but now I can donate platelets during race season.

No post tomorrow

2009-04-16T08:30:00.000-07:00

Keeping my mouth shut, for a good cause:

Hey! Where's my jetpack?

2009-04-14T20:06:00.000-07:00

I am a child of the space age. Saturday mornings were spent watching The Jetsons and Jonny Quest. I grew up believing in miracles. I personally witnessed NASA progress from an organization that couldn't get a vehicle off the launch pad without exploding, to one that sent three men to the moon in less than a decade.

I'm willing to give up on the jetpack and time travel. But Dude, where's my (electric) car? It's been twelve years since GM introduced the EV-1 and we're still "2 to 3 years away" from a mass-production electric car. I'm losing my patience. I even bought stock in ZAP, hoping they'd be able to bring something to market that didn't look like a golf cart.

Is it too much to ask for an electric car that looks like a car, reaches freeway speeds, and goes 100-150 miles between charges? I can live without the hover capability and cloaking device for now.

Spring?

2009-04-06T19:05:00.000-07:00

White falls from the sky.
Is it Winter returning?
No -- cherry blossoms!

Spare Oom

2009-04-01T08:05:00.000-07:00

I've decided to get one of these. No, seriously. I've been thinking that I really haven't been doing my part to help Detroit. This will give the auto industry a shot in the arm, and will probably lift the neighbors morale: "Honey, look at that new Escalade across the street. Maybe the Dow has bottomed. Let's go buy that big 4x4 pickup you've always wanted!"

Besides, there's nothing like the smell of a new car.

Don't get me wrong -- I have no intention of actually driving the thing. But I've been seeing these ads for "man caves". Satellite radio, dual DVD screens, leather upholstery, and 400+ horsepower. Just the ticket for us real men.

Crumbs

2009-03-25T09:16:00.000-07:00

I nearly missed it. Just off the edge of the path, partly covered by leaves: a man's wallet. By the looks of it, it had been there a while. Address on the driver's license was familiar and not too far away. I'm happy I recognized the street name. I recognize so few things these days. In fact, it was a bit of luck that I was out on the path that day. They've only recently allowed me off grounds. Afraid I'll wander off and not be able to find my way back.

Since it was a short distance, I decided to walk over and return the wallet. Much better to be out and about on this fine day than wandering around that musty hospital. A clear purpose. Returning the wallet gave me a clear purpose, something I've been recently lacking.

Almost there. Should be a left at the corner, and then the third house on the right. Odd. How should I know it would be the third house?

I ring the doorbell and a woman opens the door. She starts to inquire as to my business when she suddenly freezes, staring at me. I explain about the wallet and assume that it must belong to her husband, and that it was really no trouble to bring it by, it being such a lovely day and all.

She throws the door aside, taking me up in her arms, tears streaming down her face.

I stammered, somewhat flustered, "My dear madam, there's no need for that. No need at all."

"Frank!" she cried, "Don't you understand? The wallet -- it's yours."

And They're Off!

2009-03-24T02:47:00.000-07:00

Three races started, three races completed.
Three opportunities to test my limits and finding that they really aren't.
Three times remembering what a joy it is to be in motion.
Three perfect days.

I swear, I nearly burst into song.

Alberta Oil Sands update

2009-03-16T11:27:00.000-07:00

Back in January of last year, I talked about the Alberta oil sands in this post. Andrew Nikiforuk has a new book out, Tar Sands, that discusses the environmental disaster unfolding in the boreal forests of northern Alberta. Although I recommend buying the book (it's the only way that people like Andrew can bring us this information), it's currently available as a free PDF download from D&M Publishers. If you don't have time to read the book, National Geographic has a feature article (along with some stunning photos) in the March 2009 issue.

Should be required reading for anyone applying for a driver's license.

Messages, part 2

2009-03-15T18:55:00.000-07:00

This was the last one. Sad in a way, how small your life looked when packed up into boxes. Particularly a life smaller by half than when you first moved into these four rooms, with a view of the bay.

The movers would be here soon. She approached the machine, and with trembling fingers touched the play button. She listened to the message all the way through, and then hesitated only briefly before pressing delete.

Messages

2009-03-15T13:57:00.000-07:00

Somehow, without noticing, she had managed to open the door to the apartment and now found herself wandering, lost in its four small rooms. A pale twilight filtering in through the window offered no clues. The blinking light of the answering machine drew her attention. Automatically, she pressed the play button.

“You have two messages. First message.”

“Jane, it’s Lisa. We just saw it on the news. Oh my God, are you okay? Call me as soon as you get this, I’ll be right over. You shouldn’t be alone at a…”

Not now, not yet. Maybe someday, but not now.

“Next message.”

“Honey, it’s David. The plane was delayed because of weather, but we should be taking off within the hour. See you soon. I love you.”

Her body began to convulse with uncontrollable sobs and would not stop for a long time.

April Showers

2009-03-11T09:20:00.000-07:00

From VeloNews:

American reporter John Tesh caught up with Panasonic’s Theo de Rooy after the race (Paris-Roubaix, 1985) and asked him about his day in the saddle:

de Rooy: "It's a bollocks, this race! You're working like an animal, you don't have time to piss, you wet your pants. You're riding in mud like this, you're slipping ... it’s a pile of shit.”

Tesh: "Will you ever ride it again?"

de Rooy: "Sure, it's the most beautiful race in the world!"

Snowstorm

2009-03-10T14:19:00.000-07:00

I created this world for myself.
Into it, I put everything
that keeps me
comfortable and warm.
Even with my eyes shut tight, I can reach out
and touch the things I know are there.

Today I stepped outside
and saw
that it wasn't a world at all.
It was just a tiny globe.

When I shook it
nothing moved,
except the snowflakes
that swirled around and around.

Why so serious?

2009-03-09T02:59:00.001-07:00

Okay, time for a break from all the gloom and doom about the environment, courtesy of the immortal Glenn Miller:

Whew! That's a lot of driving

2009-03-06T16:07:00.000-08:00

My brother was in town last weekend, so I ended up putting a lot of miles on the car. He's visually impaired, but oddly enough, that wasn't the reason we ended up spending a lot of time in the car. He's perfectly able to travel to/from work daily, using public transportation (he lives in DC). He was also able to make it all the way out to Seattle using a combination of buses, trains, and planes.

I drove to and from the airport because our light-rail link isn't up and running yet. I drove to and from the coast because there isn't any other way to get out there. I use public transportation sporadically, mainly because I normally ride my bike. Another reason is the nearest bus stop is a mile from my house.

My brother is literally at the mercy of our investments (or lack thereof) in public transportation. He's the canary in the coal mine of what will happen to the rest of us once the private automobile goes the way of the dodo.

25 Random Things, more or less

2009-02-25T21:03:00.000-08:00

1. is the loneliest number that you'll ever do.
2. Most of them told the time very roughly by their meals, which were unpunctual and irregular: they amused themselves with the most childish games all through the day, and when it was dark they fell asleep by tacit consent -- not waiting for a particular hour of darkness for they had no means of telling the time exactly: in fact there were as many times as there were prisoners.
3. O prairie mother, I am one of your boys. I have loved the prairie as a man with a heart shot full of pain over love.
4. All your base are belong to us.
5. I am always drawn back to places where I have lived, the houses and their neighborhoods. For instance, there is a brownstone in the East Seventies where, during the early years of the war, I had my first New York apartment.
6. Waffles!
7. Can you hear me now?
8. Why do you park on the driveway and drive on the parkway?
9. They talked on into the early morning, the high, pale cast of light in the windows, and they did not think of leaving.
10. This is a tale of a meeting of two lonesome, skinny, fairly old white men on a planet which was fast dying.
11. I've fallen off my chair, Brian.
12. Victor was dancing with a Lakota woman in a Montana bar. He had no idea why he was there; he couldn't even remember how he arrived.
14. There is no #13.
15. Assembly of Japanese bicycle require great peace of mind.
16. So I turned myself to face me, but I've never caught a glimpse of how the others must see the faker. I'm much too fast to take that test.
17. Oops, sorry. Must have dozed off for a bit.
18. When the war came to Monterey and to Cannery Row everybody fought it more or less, in one way or another. When hostilities ceased everyone had his wounds.
19. I'm not a present for your friends to open, this boy's too young to be singing the blues.
20. What's the frequency, Kenneth?
21. I’m very good at integral and differential calculus. I know the scientific names of beings animalculous. In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral, I am the very model of a modern Major-General.
22. Oh my God -- it's full of stars!
23. Take heart amid the deepening gloom that your dog is finally getting enough cheese. And reflect that whatever misfortune may be your lot, it could only be worse in Milwaukee.
24. Someone has put live piranha in our swimming pool. If we don't swim there anymore, the piranha will starve.
25. You know, everyone thinks we got this broken down horse and fixed him. But we didn't. He fixed us. Every one of us. And I guess, in a way, we fixed each other, too.

Climbing

2009-02-02T08:27:00.000-08:00

Breathe (in), breathe (out).
Down, back, up, forward.
Again (again): breathe.
Stand: down, up, down, up.
Breathe (again): breathe.
Down, up, down, up (stop).
Coast; inhale; exhale (slowly).

Sodbuster

2009-01-19T09:35:00.000-08:00

My shovel turns

the sod
so the grass can be
food for the worms
whose castings provide
nitrogen used by
the tomatoes to turn sunlight
into food for me
so that I have
strength
to turn the sod.

Perspective

2009-01-15T09:47:00.000-08:00

Black Ice

2009-01-15T07:43:00.000-08:00

Didn't see it comin', babe.
Did not see it comin'.
Cruisin' along, all nice and smooth

Then, bam!

Flat on my ass --

still smilin'

That's better

2009-01-14T15:26:00.000-08:00

I spent Saturday on the trainer, climbing the Glandon and Alpe D'Huez with Lance and Der Kaiser ("He's digging deep into his suitcase of courage!" "Oh, he's suffering. My goodness me!"). I clocked a T30 result along the way of 265W. So with a weight of 66Kg, I'm at 4.0 W/Kg. Just need to add 55W and drop 2Kg and I'll be flying!

T30/T60 results for January

2009-01-06T11:01:00.001-08:00

I wasn't going to publish these, since I seem to be going backwards. My excuse is that the test was at the end of a training block, and the block was disrupted by a week off the bike due to snow. T30 results were 256 watts, T60 was 245 watts. Weight was down to 66.2 Kg, so I'm holding around 3.86 watts/Kg.

As punishment, I'm starting under/at/over intervals where I do 2 minutes @10% under AT, 2 minutes @AT, and 2 minutes @10% over AT. Repeat until overcome by nausea.

Recap of 2008

2009-01-06T10:46:00.000-08:00

I finished out 2008 with 6,406 miles on the bike versus 4,922 for the car. I was hoping for a few more bike miles, but bad weather and a child in the hospital put me behind the wheel more often than on the wheels in December. Total vertical feet was just under 400K (392,200).

High mileage month was July (698). Not surprising since 150 of that was in one day (RAMROD). What was surprising was November was the second highest (681), when all I was doing was riding to/from work and some longer training rides on the weekends.

This year, I'm going to track miles walked in lieu of driving. The definition is a little loose, but includes trips to the local grocery store (1 mile each way), and to the sandwich shop at lunchtime (not totally legit, since I bike to work and have to walk to get lunch anyway).

Happy Birthday, Dad

2008-12-26T19:23:00.001-08:00

T30 results for 12/7/08

2008-12-07T09:59:00.000-08:00

Happy Pearl Harbor Day, everyone. Being of Japanese-American ancestry, I always find myself feeling conflicted on December 7th. And don't get me started on the anniversaries of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. But that's the subject of another post. Today's post is a simple recording of my test data:

T30 power is 261 watts. I weighed in at 66.7 kilos, so my power/weight ratio is 3.92 W/kg. An improvement over last time, but I still have a long ways to go.

"Celebrating" a Decade Off the Grid

2008-11-21T08:55:00.000-08:00

No, not the power grid. The propaganda grid. It was 10 years ago that we unplugged the television in our house. We were insulated from 24/7 coverage of: Monicagate, the 2000/2004/2008 election cycles, 9/11, the Global War on Terror. We stay informed: high-speed internet, two daily newspapers, and countless magazines. It's interesting to note how perception of events change over the course of time. When you're not part of the hype cycle, you have the luxury of reflection and contextualization.

I guess that makes us happier, as well. At least according to this study

In the beginning...

2008-11-10T08:17:00.000-08:00

The beginning of another training season. I race bicycles. My racing season runs from March through the end of August. September and October are for yardwork and just putting around on the bike. November is when I start training for next year. So I started off with my baseline test to see where I'm at and will chart my progress over the next 4 months. I'm recording it here so I can refer back to it later. You may or may not be interested.

My T60 power is 248 watts. "T60" is the level of effort I can sustain for 60 minutes. I also weighed in at 68 kilos, so my power/weight ratio is 3.65 W/kg. Horrible numbers, but you have to start somewhere.

Yes We Can

2008-11-05T07:38:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to avoid politics on this blog, but I can't not talk about last night. I feel as though a great weight has been lifted from this country. Instead of casting our eyes downward and backward, we can now look up and forward. Our disastrous experiment in the deconstruction of government is at an end. We now begin the task of putting our country back together.

People, in general, like government when it does things for them; and dislike it when it tells them what to do. We like it when the roads are in good repair, the environment is protected, and markets function efficiently. We don't like it when we're told how to worship, or who we can or cannot marry. The last administration demonstrated what happens when government stops working. Abu Ghraib, Katrina, the failure of the financial industry. Government is not always the problem. Sometimes government is the solution. A good first step would be to stop blowing up infrastructure in countries around the world and start rebuilding it here at home.

It's been eight years since the departure of the man from Hope. Eight years of fear, cynicism, and despair. Now, a young man from Chicago has brought Hope back. The election is over, together we now undertake the hard work of governing. Yes we can, and yes we will.

Slowing down

2008-10-29T08:34:00.000-07:00

This time I'm really taking the pledge. I am swearing off "instanews". You know what I'm talking about. All the online news sources, blogs, and social networking sites that perpetuate the idea that the world changes instantaneously, and if we aren't in constant contact with a source of information, we will be forever lost in the dark dungeons of the Internet.

Basta! My world encompasses my family, friends, neighborhood, hobbies, workplace. And to a lesser extent, my community, environment, government. And to an even lesser extent, radical fundamentalists, commodities markets, MMORPGs. Change occurs over months, years, generations, eons. I don't need Twitter to inform me that a leaf has just fallen. I can notice that for myself. If not today, then tomorrow.

Starry, starry night

2008-10-27T12:21:00.000-07:00

I enjoy this time of year. Cool evenings. Cold, crisp mornings. Even the sound of the word "crisp". It makes me think of ripe apples, frosty lawns. Orion is high in the sky when I go out to fetch the newspaper. The Pleiades are sinking in the West.

The Pleiades are one of those night-sky objects that I have difficulty seeing if I look directly at them. Showing my age, I guess. Retina burnout from too much time in the sun. If I look just off to the side, however, I can see their ghostly wisps reaching out from deep space.

I need to remind myself to do that more often. Stop staring directly at things, sometimes, if I want to see them more clearly.

Neglect

2008-10-24T15:43:00.000-07:00

Footsteps echo down the empty hall.
Through an open doorway, comes the rattle of a can rolling across a deserted street, pushed on by a dry wind.
Who lives here?
And the chorus replies: We do. We all do.

Spam, spam, spam, spam

2008-08-04T08:29:00.000-07:00

One of my joys in life are the little surprises that Gmail sends my way. Invariably, everytime I visit my Spam folder, I get a banner ad for the latest SPAM recipe. This one begged to be shared:

SAVORY SPAM CRESCENTS

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 16 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Sandwiches

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
10 sl Bacon, cut in small pieces
1/4 c Finely chopped onion
1 cn SPAM Luncheon Meat, cubed
- 12 oz
1 Egg, beaten
3 tb Grated Parmesan cheese
2 tb Chopped fresh parsley
2 tb Dijon-style mustard
1/8 t Pepper
2 pk Refrigerated crescent roll
-dough (8 oz)

Heat oven to 375'F. In skillet, cook bacon and onion until bacon is
crisp; drain. Stir in remaining ingredients except crescent roll
dough. Separate each package of crescent dough into 8 triangles.
Spread top half of each triangle with SPAM mixture; roll up. Place on
baking sheets. Bake 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.