NYCBRFAN:

I've been ditching the car in favor of walking for a couple or reasons. But I'm finding that even with the kids (my five-year-old complains) it's good to get them used to not being dependant on driving everywhere. Of course in some areas this is a near impossibility.

I think that is really smart Ray.   Many of my friends moved to the burbs once they had kids.  These kids grow up driving all the time because there is nothing to walk to.  When the kids were small I used to have them over for sleep overs etc.  It blew my mind but they all (different families) complained if we had to walk anywhere and when I say walk I mean two or three blocks to the beach or to rent a movie.  Their young minds could not comprehend that I didn't own a car.   It was a real eye opener to me. 

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Greg Keelor met Jim Cuddy and then I met you people. Serendipity is a marvellous thing.


"I guess I don't know if I believe in God but
I know a song can make you feel good once
in a while." ~Greg Keelor~

This is about the topic of kids & walking (not so much the topic of this thread), but I just had to comment.

Do you remember when we were younger we walked everywhere?  I've noticed so many kids now whining that there is nothing to do in their hometowns. It's BORING!

We had even less activities, but just walking to the store, the roller rink or a friend's house occupied a good chunk of our time, so we were never bored like the kids today! Getting from Point A to Point B was part of the outing! And if it was raining, our parents suggested an umbrella!

Anyway, that's my rant....back to An Inconvenient Truth!

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...then curl up by the fire and sleep for awhile,
it's the grooviest thing, it's the perfect dream ~ The Cure

One man's 'ridiculous' is another man's 'Yabba-dabba-doo' ~ Charlie on Two & a Half Men

Keep it simple

I have to laugh when Megan complains that she's tired walking to the park (it's about a mile away) but once we get there she's all over the place!!! I have to admit that some mornings I do not look forward to the 15+ minute walk to the train. But I'm also finding that my patience level has risen and stress level gone down. You just can't expect to get everywhere quick quick quick and it makes you pause I try to just enjoy the journey. You get where you need to go eventually and things like bad drivers and traffic lights become inconsequential. Plus you meet more people.

Now it is kinda funny because walking with the kids is an adventure. Typically the twins are in the stroller and I usually end up with Megan on my shoulders at some point. I swear if I hear one more person say "You've got you're hands full" I'm gonna say something stupid back.

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Where my designer B*tches at?

MAGNETS....COWS....HERD....it all makes sense now?

There's nothing worse than driving in a snowstorm with a GPS that's on the rag

Do you take PAYPAL?

Sammie:

Do you remember when we were younger we walked everywhere?  I've noticed so many kids now whining that there is nothing to do in their hometowns. It's BORING!

I'm sure that starJACKstar regalled you with lots of stories of his youth......the Pony Express, riding the Surrey into town.....taking <THWACK!!!........................ouch>

now that was inconvenient.............

---

Where my designer B*tches at?

MAGNETS....COWS....HERD....it all makes sense now?

There's nothing worse than driving in a snowstorm with a GPS that's on the rag

Do you take PAYPAL?

NYCBRFAN:

Sammie:

Do you remember when we were younger we walked everywhere?  I've noticed so many kids now whining that there is nothing to do in their hometowns. It's BORING!

I'm sure that starJACKstar regalled you with lots of stories of his youth......the Pony Express, riding the Surrey into town.....taking <THWACK!!!........................ouch>

now that was inconvenient.............

Ah, yes, Jack is SOOO much older than me!! Actually his favourite remembrance is of the horse-drawn milk wagon. I always tell him he's crazy because our milk came on a truck! I guess we were just in a more progressive part of town! LOL

K....Sandbox, before we get the boot! Hehe...boot, get it? Walking?....boot?

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...then curl up by the fire and sleep for awhile,
it's the grooviest thing, it's the perfect dream ~ The Cure

One man's 'ridiculous' is another man's 'Yabba-dabba-doo' ~ Charlie on Two & a Half Men

Keep it simple

It’s funny, Ray, how you say your daughter complains about walking to the park. My son used to complain walking home from school. He’d get so mad at me for walking instead of driving. It was about 1.5 miles and if the weather was good, we walked. We’d get half way there and he’d ask to call a cab…LOL…he was about 5 then too, but playing, never mind, he was everywhere for hours, still is.

 

I like walking, I wish I could walk to work, but that would be a killer 40 miles each way. So I take walks at lunch time. Get about 3-5 miles in, its hot and sweaty, but oh well, I figure I only have a few hours left and it’s not like I get stinky or anything. I tried desperately to find a bus that would work for me, can you believe it turned out to be completely impossible. If I had know the public transportation was that bad I don’t think I would have taken the job.

 

So instead I drive windows down, no air. It saves a gallon each way. I just put my hair up and go. (Can’t stand having my own hair whip me in the face).

 

So I’m off for my walk now, yesterday I saw anothery Cayman and a bunny, lots of vultures too. Wonder what I’ll see today.

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"There's one in every crowd, for crying out loud,
why was it always turning out be me"

Jenn, I hope the cayman, the bunny & the vulture sightings were not connected in any way!!!

---

...then curl up by the fire and sleep for awhile,
it's the grooviest thing, it's the perfect dream ~ The Cure

One man's 'ridiculous' is another man's 'Yabba-dabba-doo' ~ Charlie on Two & a Half Men

Keep it simple

No not at all...good thing too, that would have really made me lose my will to walk. Today was rough 98% humidity. Blecch!

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"There's one in every crowd, for crying out loud,
why was it always turning out be me"

No one has been round these parts in a while, so I thought I would pop in and say Hi....Popular Science has some amazing articles concerning the environment and just exactly what's happening.

They also featured some "fixes" that people are contemplating, some seem very odd and I wonder if messing with mother nature too much may cause even bigger problems...one of the fixes was making salinated ice cubes around greenland to keep the weather currents on the same path they need to be on...another was cooling the gulf mechancially, the gulf of mexico, to power down hurricanes....of course the science is available and the cost is huge, but what would the other ramifications be, now hurricanes suck, but like forest fires, they do have a purpose, it's like a spring cleaning of the oceans and the atmosphere, its weird, after a hurricane, its like looking at everything through shiny, perfectly cleaned windows, even breathing the air is a noticeable joy. So manipulating the oceans to do what we want them to do, or what they should be doing seems a bit dangerous to me. Any thoughts?

Insulating the polar caps was another one..

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"There's one in every crowd, for crying out loud,
why was it always turning out be me"

Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize this morning for his tireless efforts to publicize the ecological catastrophe that is global warming and to devise solutions to this crisis. Gerorge Bush on the other hand is still waging a bloody and pointless and immoral war in Iraq. I voted for Al Gore in 2000. Any questions?

Here's some video of response to the news, the first from David Suzuki and the second a viewpoint from CTV's Washington reporter:

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/HTMLTemplate?tf=/ctv/mar/video/new_player.html&cf=ctv/mar/ctv.cfg&hub=TopStories&video_link_high=mms://ctvbroadcast.ctv.ca/video/2007/10/12/ctvvideologger2_500kbps_2007_10_12_1192186715.wmv&video_link_low=mms://ctvbroadcast.ctv.ca/video/2007/10/12/ctvvideologger2_218kbps_2007_10_12_1192184646.wmv&clip_start=00:32:51.60&clip_end=00:01:35.09&clip_caption=Canada%20AM:%20Washington%20Bureau%20Chief%20Tom%20Clark%20with%20reaction%20from%20the%20U.S.&clip_id=ctvnews.20071012.00217000-00217190-clip7&subhub=video&no_ads=&sortdate=&slug=&archive=CTVNews

 http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/HTMLTemplate?tf=/ctv/mar/video/new_player.html&cf=ctv/mar/ctv.cfg&hub=TopStories&video_link_high=mms://ctvbroadcast.ctv.ca/video/2007/10/12/ctvvideologger2_500kbps_2007_10_12_1192186715.wmv&video_link_low=mms://ctvbroadcast.ctv.ca/video/2007/10/12/ctvvideologger2_218kbps_2007_10_12_1192184646.wmv&clip_start=00:32:51.60&clip_end=00:01:35.09&clip_caption=Canada%20AM:%20Washington%20Bureau%20Chief%20Tom%20Clark%20with%20reaction%20from%20the%20U.S.&clip_id=ctvnews.20071012.00217000-00217190-clip7&subhub=video&no_ads=&sortdate=&slug=&archive=CTVNews

Also, here is a link to National Geographic News information about global warming:

 

 http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/12/1206_041206_global_warming.html

 

Peter:

Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize this morning for his tireless efforts to publicize the ecological catastrophe that is global warming and to devise solutions to this crisis. Gerorge Bush on the other hand is still waging a bloody and pointless and immoral war in Iraq. I voted for Al Gore in 2000. Any questions?

Yes, I have a question!  Peter, will you be in the Gramercy Theatre on Tuesday October 23?

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The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.

katiescarlet:

No one has been round these parts in a while, so I thought I would pop in and say Hi....Popular Science has some amazing articles concerning the environment and just exactly what's happening.

They also featured some "fixes" that people are contemplating, some seem very odd and I wonder if messing with mother nature too much may cause even bigger problems...one of the fixes was making salinated ice cubes around greenland to keep the weather currents on the same path they need to be on...another was cooling the gulf mechancially, the gulf of mexico, to power down hurricanes....of course the science is available and the cost is huge, but what would the other ramifications be, now hurricanes suck, but like forest fires, they do have a purpose, it's like a spring cleaning of the oceans and the atmosphere, its weird, after a hurricane, its like looking at everything through shiny, perfectly cleaned windows, even breathing the air is a noticeable joy. So manipulating the oceans to do what we want them to do, or what they should be doing seems a bit dangerous to me. Any thoughts?

Insulating the polar caps was another one..

Hi Jenn!  I still care, very much!

All those crazy fixes... they don't make sense to me.  None of them have anything to do with the cessation of using fossil fuels.  None of them mention solar power.  But they are all about not giving up the North American lifestyle, a lifestyle of excess and waste.

So what have I been doing lately?  I switched all of my household cleaning products to green alternatives.  How will that stop global warming?  Hmmmm... well, that I'm not sure of, BUT it does mean less harmful chemicals in the water supply which is better for aquatic life.  And no more bizarre hormone disrupters in my home.

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The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.

I've been away from this thread for too long!  I agree that we need to focus more on renewable energy sources like solar panels and wind turbines because these things do not generate the carbon dioxide emissions which are at the root of the problem.  At the same time, I don't feel we have to give up our current North American lifestyle because wind and solar energy sources can provide all the electrical power needed to continue using transportation and recreation at the current rate and the future rate as well.  The sun and wind are limitless sources of electical power.   Think of the money waiting to be made in producing the new technology at mass volumes which will bring down the purchase cost for consumers (us).  It's phenomenal.

Maybe if people understood that they don't have to give up their lifestyles they would embrace the new technology (really not all that new) and make the switch.

One thing that I find encouraging is the use of solar powered traffic lights at road work/construction sites that I've driven by lately.  I've also seen them on school zone speed limit signs which have flashing lights at certain times of the day as well as on Hwy 400 traffic/construction road information signs.  It demonstrates to people just how "normal" and convenient solar panels are.

Saw a factory issue VW Biodiesel Beetle and a Prius last Friday.  Felt like applauding.  Told the Prius guy that I really liked his car.  He said "Thanks!"

 

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"Over straight and crooked miles
Falling out of favour or embraced
Wondering where was love...
It hadn't happened yet"
~Ron Sexsmith~

Nearest to all things
Patiently waiting
So let the angels sing
Silently weeping