Riding my bike

I have been looking for ways to reduce my carbon footprint before the words "carbon footprint" became popular.
We have always recycled. That was easy.
We have reduced for several years, with low-flow shower heads, always turning off unused lights / appliances when not in use, buying Energy Star rated appliances where possible and affordable. Attempting to buy goods with as little packaging as possible.
Reuse wherever possible, from buying reuseable bottles, and finding other uses for items when their original useful life is depleted.
I have a reel mower so use only my strength, or lack thereof, as energy to clip my lawn.
BUT, I own an older car, 1996 six cylinder 3.0 liter gasser and a newer model 3/4 ton 6.0 liter heavy gasser.
I "needed" these vehicles beacuase I live in the city and need to be able to get to work "efficiently and quickly." My wife needed the second vehicle to be at her disoposal. Pick-up the groceries, the kids, the shopping, everything. When the weekend comes we like to hook up the trailer and head to the country or the mountains and get away.
This dependence on the vehicles is insane. With the price of gasoline, paying to maintain the vehicles, and insurance. Then there are the soft costs. Our health of driving the truck or car. We go to the store to buy a bag of groceries or worse a small prescription or even worse a donut and coffee and take the truck! I drive to work, a distance of just uder 7KM in the car. It takes about 10 minutes on a good day, and most days, I must admit are good. When the days are not good though I have had commutes of 20 - 40 minutes!
Physically and mentally things had to change.
In the summer of 2008 I began riding my bike to work. It was difficult at first of course, not physicall but mentally. My route takes me down one of the busiest roads in my town, Country Hills Blvd. A four lane road divided by a median with traffic travelling at a maximum of 70KM/h. (Maximum! I think that should read minimum?) Then there's the hill. Yeah, its not the Alpe d'Huez, or even the Edmonton Trail / 14 th Street hills here in Calgary but with no sidewalk or pathway along the side of the road, I am riding with traffic along the curb lane. Since I probably top out at about 30KM/h on a flat track, I probably only go 5-7KM/h while riding up the hill. Its about 180 to 210 seconds of "keeping my cadence."
But all the sweat, the sleepy feeling at work, during that first couple of weeks, and the seemingly very early mornings have ben worth it. I rode my bike to work about four days per week. I had comittments with our company having satellite offices and places to be that I would not be able to get to in a timely manner without the vehicle. I rode through rain, hot sun, frosty mornings and evenings, bright blinding sun, wind, (how I hate the wind at my front, how I love the wind at my back!) snow, dust storms, lightning storms, ice crystals and anything that God threw at us during those five months.
My last ride in 08 was "the first big snow of the season." It was a Friday afternoon and traffic was backed up and would have been one of those 45 minute drives. I got on my bike and because the bike path near my office was covered in about 20 cm of snow I "hopped" onto the road. I followed the well travelled tire tracks weaving in and out of the 5km of vehicles backed up on the road to nowhere. Meanwhile I got home only five minutes later than my standard 20 minute commute time. I was extremely motivated and was ready to ride through the whole winter. But alas, that weekend was freezing and the snow was not cleared on the roads or the paths. It became a highly dangerous situation and I suffered for the next several months and took up driving to work again. Oh yeah I was able to ride on five of the nicer days we had during the winter, but it was so irregular that I started to lose my motivation for riding. Driving was easy again and I could handle the bad days of 20 minute commutes. It's not that bad, I thought.
Well this week the weather improved enough that out came the bike, (I need a name for it, any suggestions?) Now here I am fully motivated again. There is still ice, snow, gravel and debris all over my route, but with careful navigation I am fully back in the saddle. The best part too is the tires on my car need to be replaced and I will not have to worry about it till next fall. I filled up the car with gas on Sunday and should not have to fill it up again until June, likely.Yeah my wife still drives the truck and runs the errands and we will still be heading out of town. For the next nine months though I have become autoless for the majority of my needs.
So if you see me while on my way to work, the store, the coffee house or anywhere else please give me one meter clearance and let me have my space on the road. I have as much right to that space as anybody else. Also know that I am enjoying myself and although I may struggle up the hill or against the wind or be tired of a long distance ride or may be struggling with a load of bags or goods, I have made this choice and I this is the best thing I can be doing right now.

For LDK - I Work to Live! I Live to Bike! I Bike to Work!

So this is my blog....

This will be my spot to write down all the wisdom that I have.

End of Blog.

Yeah, I know it will not be much, but
When I run long distance,
When I drive long distance,
When I bike long distance,
When I _____ long distance...
When I do anything long distance, my mind wanders on the main task,
running,
driving,
blanking,
biking
all these random thoughtless musings and diatribes spill out of my mind.
I will come here to put these into this concrete form. What do I think about, other than SEX, not much, but stay tuned and see what I am thinking. I am male, so on days that I do not post, I probably have not thought of anything, REALLY. I am male and sometimes I am thinking about absolutely nothing! We'll see.