BOOM!

EcoGriff

Vol.9

Although I am not a Star Trek fan, I am beginning to feel the challenges Captain Kirk must have felt in trying to save the planet. He was working to save the planet from freaks and beautiful alien women, and I am saving it while trying not to become a freak and alienate all the beautiful women. It is pretty easy to see the parallels.

I am still saving the planet one step at a time. Literally. If you are a new reader to my blog, I have been walking to work 3 days per week. I have been doing it for about a month now. Overall I would say that it is a very pleasant experience. I have enjoyed looking at the Arizona landscape and having some me time in the morning and afternoon. It is difficult to hold a bad mood after a good 2-mile walk! Good for the heart, good for the soul, good for the planet!

There are two things I have learned in my walking. 1. The driver has the right of way. Yield signs where crosswalks are mean yield for oncoming traffic, not pedestrians. If you are a pedestrian and there is not a light for you to cross, you better cross quickly and with your eyes on the traffic. When you are at a light and can press the button for the little lighted dude to say it is okay to cross, nothing changes. You wait two minutes for the light to change and before you get to the other side, the hand is telling you to hurry your ass up or else. 2. There landmines everywhere. By landmines I mean dog crap. Try to cut through the grass somewhere and boom! Sidewalks are better, but if you aren’t paying attention, BOOM! They just jump out of nowhere. Sometimes I wonder if it is man poo! It does make me wonder what it must be like to have to world be your toilet. Oh, wait, I guess we do that as well. We just call it trash.

Walking so much has changed the way I drive. I have become more aware of not pulling into a crosswalk, yielding for pedestrians to cross, and asking others to pay more attention.

Six weeks, no meat! Although we are not planning on staying long-term vegetarians, Kelly and I both are struggling to find the meat to break the streak with. Do we do it with an expensive dinner or just eat a piece of Nate’s bologna? We plan on staying on a plant-based diet for the long haul, but we will add meat (fish mostly because of shrimp and sushi) when we go out to eat. If you have ideas on what you think would be a good meat to break with we would love to hear it. Kelly’s birthday is coming up and we will most likely break our streak on Friday, April 23^rd. If not then, it may not be until July when we go back to the Syracuse area. There is restaurant there called the Dinosaur BBQ. Come July we will be tearing some meat from the bone!

ECOcation:

We talk a lot about saving the planet. The reality is, the planet does not need to be saved. If we go away tomorrow, Earth is good to go. These changes we make to become more eco-friendly, eco-sensitive, green, etc. are for us, human beings. When we say save the planet, we really mean save the humans. Just remember, it only takes a ripple to start a wave! One person can make a difference. You just have to believe you can. I do.

Best,
EcoGriff