Ride Your Bike to Work Day Friday, May 19

Did you know for every mile you ride your bike, you keep 3.6 pounds of pollutants out of the atmosphere? I guess that sounds impressive, but I'm curious, how do you measure pollutants? Pollution always looked quite light-weight to me, light as a cloud floating high above the city, that little strip of brown haze. But I have no doubt that riding your bike once in awhile would make a huge difference in your life and the life of the planet.

National Ride Your Bike to Work Week has brought back memories I have from shortly after my move to Florida. My Suzuki samurai was broken-down, I had no money to fix it, so I decided to ride my bike. First thing I had to do was quit my job, because It was way too far on bike, so I took a new job a few blocks from my home. At first I felt invigorated, like a huge burden of responsibility was taken off my shoulders. I set out on my first day taking in the sunshine and the fresh air. I soon realized the fresh air wasn't so fresh, with every passing car I'd get an unhealthy dose of exhaust fumes. And the noise was a huge annoyance. These things I never noticed while on four wheels. Then the near loss of life became evident, almost on a daily basis. Cars, pick-ups, semi-trucks, you name it, no one seemed to notice, or show respect for a bicyclist. I decided to use my own two feet the next day, but it didn't seem to make a difference, if anything the situation became worse. In fact, a study in 2004 ranked 4 regions in Florida as the most dangerous places to walk-Orlando, Tampa/St. Petersburg, West Palm Beach/Boca Raton and Miami/Fort Lauderdale. On top of that walking is considered the most deadliest mode of transportation in the U.S., it tops trains, planes and cars. So how do we as a nation spend more time walking or riding our bikes when our life depends on it? That's a really great question. I'm going to depend on the people who live in small towns to do more walking/bicycling. In the mean time, I'll bike where it's safe, and dream about the day I live in a place that it's safe to walk or bike down the street. Since I work from home, I'll spend Ride Your Bike to Work Day, leaving my car parked in the driveway for 24 hours.

till next time....remember, pedestrians have the right of way.

Compost Awareness Week May 7-13, 2006

We're celebrating compost awareness week in the U.S., Canada and the UK, May 7-14, 2006. If you're looking for something green to do, get down to earth and make a huge difference with composting. Yard trimmings and kitchen waste make up approximately 25%-30% of our landfills. Back yard composting is something simple you can start today to decrease landfill waste, and create free fertilizer for the garden. If you've ever driven past a landfill, the smell alone is enough motivation for personal action. You ask, why won't my yard trimmings and kitchen waste break down in the landfill? Landfills have liner systems to keep the waste contained. Your kitchen waste needs contact with soil and worms, and insects, and microorganisms to break it down into compost.

Forget all the complicated instructions you've heard on how to compost. If you have a yard, all you need to do is:
1. Pick a sunny spot, remove the sod in about a 3' x 3' area, and enclose it a little (I used some large rocks I found)
2. You're ready to begin! Wow, how easy is that?

Ideally, layer your kitchen waste, alternating with yard trimmings. Turn it about once a month, and make sure it gets some water. Don't worry about adding worms. If you create a compost the worms will come, along with a lot of other insects you never knew existed. I recently dug up some compost from the bottom of my pile and it looked like "A Bug's Life" under there with a small, very quick black snake. If you have bug-phobia I highly recommend using a shovel with a very long handle for turning. There are some items you should and should not put in your compost:

Do Compost

Fruit& vegetable scraps
Egg shells
Coffee grounds and filters
Tea bags
Cardboard
Fireplace ash
Leaves
Grass
Yard clippings
Vacuum cleaner lint
Sawdust
Crumpled up non-recyclable Paper
Manure


Don't Compost

Dairy products
Meats, Fish & Bones
Fats
Grease & oil
Pet waste
Diseased plants
Weeds (the seeds may cause excessive weed pulling in the future)

*I keep a large bowl next to the kitchen sink for scraps and take it out to the compost pile once a day.

If you live in an apartment you can still compost, it's a little more labor intensive, but not that difficult. Look up "vermicomposting" on the web.

Today, make a worm smile.....

Until next time...Peace & Love

Solar Flare Effects

I've been feeling a lot of solar flares the last 4-6 weeks. This has been manifesting as a more than ample amount of dropped cell phone calls, as well as a meltdown of most things electronic. We're all needing a lesson on how to do without technology. An assignment on how to get off the phone and the computer and connect on a personal level with people. It's not working too well, since here I am in front of the monitor. So I've been making a special attempt to really connect with the lady checking my groceries at the grocery store. And I've established a friendship with "Mike" who takes my groceries from the store to the car. I actually have some deeper conversations with him standing in the Florida morning sun, than with some of my friends. Some times the people that others may label as "weird" you can learn the most from, if you just stop and take the time to connect.

I got confirmation on this solar flare thing this week when my cherry tree in the pot on the front porch grew two new branches. Now here's the weird thing..the new branches are growing away from the sunlight. Everyone knows plants grow toward the light. I've never seen this happen before and I'll be watching the other plants to see what they do. Could the cherry tree have some kind of intuition about the solar flares? Does this create an aversion to the sunlight? I'm heeding the knowledge of the cherry tree and staying out of the sun as much as possible. But could there be another meaning to the mysterious behavior of the cherry tree? My thoughts go back to a famous story of the first president of the United States, George Washington. Young George chopped down a cherry tree and when questioned by his father about it, he told the truth and was not punished for his actions. Could the current President, George W. Bush, need to be more truthful about his actions? Could his dishonesty be destroying the spirit of the cherry tree, along with the spirit of the American people?

Till next time...visualize world peace and love...

The Changing Earth

The reason people aren't making the connection between earth changes/climate changes and the environment is because they don't realize the planet is actually a living thing. The reason we have all these "natural" disasters today is because the planet Earth is pissed off....Royally. Think about the disrespect she gets and you can't blame her. She has tried shaking us off like a horse bucking it's rider, that would be earthquakes. And when that worked minimally, she tried to burn your ass with fire, that would be active volcanoes, and wildfires. We could say a few tornadoes and hurricanes may be her letting off a little "hot air". I won't even mention the "T" word, you know, the big wave, we all know what that did and it's way too painful. The point is, she's a lot bigger than us, and has a lot more energy. I've been through my share of natural disasters and I'm telling you it's scary what she can do. She's tired of the disrespect and we need to start being really nice to her.

I believe if we first estabished and accepted the fact the planet is alive, she would be treated a lot better. Look out the window. You see those trees, and flowers and grass? (I'm assuming you actually have some kind of shrubbery outside your window, if not, this would be a fantastic time to plant a tree.) When you see all the life growing out there notice the connectedness of things, the life that's extended from the Earth, it's our supply of food and oxygen and everything good. It's our lifeline. The whole planet is part of the food chain. Take a deep breathe, take it all in and feel the vastness of it all and our role in it. This is a great grounding meditation. So now what? "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." This works for all living things including mother earth, even if you're not Christian, some call it Karma. And if you believe the karmic grid is broken, it's just the right thing to do. Anyway, if every living thing is connected, when you do unto others you ARE doing onto yourself. Wow, that's really deep.

Until another day, peace and love...