TheBanyanTree: lowering my emmissions

[Julie Anna Teague]

The oil companies are really bugging me.  Honestly, I've been pissed 
off for enough years to do a lot of walking and biking around town, but 
now I've just reached my limits and I'm trying ever-harder to break my 
own personal dependence on a motorized vehicle.  Here's a couple of 
exciting facts for you: ExxonMobil reported a record $9.28 billion 
profit for the first quarter of 2007.  And Saudi Arabia's annual oil 
revenues have gone from $98 billion in 1998 to over $200 billion today.

And that's just money.  I can barely talk about the war and how many 
souls have died for our own oil-related insanity, because I step off 
into the deep end without so much as a downward glance.  Democracy, oh 
yeah, I gave that a shot by exercising my right to vote, but that 
hasn't worked yet. In our town, and my church, we're back to holding 
signs on street corners, and when a lot of people are angry, it's a 
slippery slope to civil disobedience.  I've considered not paying my 
taxes until we stop killing people with my money, but that's never been 
a very successful tactic on the personal level.  One of my most viable 
options at this point seems to be checking out, as much as possible, 
from the game.

To that end, I've been catching a ride in to work with my partner Lee, 
who has to take a van full of tools, else he'd be on our little scooter 
that gets 80 MPG. (This has become our vehicle of choice for going out 
on date nights, and we've had more fun than a barrel of monkeys.)  Then 
I walk the five miles home, an arduous walk to be sure, especially 
after a long day at work.  I have a decent mountain bike which I've 
ridden to work in previous summers, but it has needed some repairs and 
new tires, and I needed a better way of carrying stuff, like a change 
of clothes for the office (I am required, at the very least, not to 
smell bad), lunch, groceries I pick up on the way home, etc.  And then 
there was the bad bike wreck last summer that left me anxious for a 
time, but I'm pretty much over that fear and have a new un-cracked 
helmet.  And as of today, a new lock, since I lost the key to my good 
bike lock. (I lost my entire key chain full of keys somewhere inside my 
own home.  It has never resurfaced.)  And a basket.  And I'm having new 
street slicks put on on Friday so I don't have to slug along on the 
nubby mountain bike tires I currently have.

I'll have my new commuter vehicle all ready to go. I'll save a lot of 
wear on the treads of my shoes and even more wear on my conscience.  I 
will give /them/ as little of my money as possible, and spend it on 
something I believe in.

Julie