So, here’s the thing. We planned a conference for 30 people, but put it at a bad time of year, right before school starts. So we won’t do that again. Still, we have about 10 people coming, to find out from us how to do production for a small planetarium. While they are here, I feel sort of responsible for their footprint, since I am making lots of their decisions for them. So, I’m trying to be a little thoughtful and creative where I can. Here are some examples...
1) Our water in our building is terrible. Seriously. It’s often brown, usually smells funny, and some people say it makes them sick. For those of us that ‘live’ there, there are two options, and we use them both: we have a filter connected in the faculty office hallway; and over in the planetarium, we have bottled water delivered in those big, blue, 5-gallon, reusable kegs. So here comes the conference, and catering services wants to sell me water for my guests. In little tiny bottles. Like several of them per day, per person. In my head, I look from the conference person (who’s actually on the phone!), to the water dispenser (which is actually in a whole other building), and I think, I have a better idea. So I called the Public Relations people, and they donated the re-usable plastic water bottles that are branded with the University name! Ok, so there is still the pthalate and bpa worry, but at least it’s only one bottle per person for the whole week, instead of several per day! A huge improvement, footprint-wise. Why don’t I just have them use the filter? It’s slow and expensive, compared to the water cooler. Also, we are behind on our water usage from the summer slowdown, and have several of the jugs just sitting there, waiting to be used!
2) Interestingly, catering services offers china and silver instead of paper and plastic, if you ask. This was even at no extra cost. So we will be minimizing trash at snacks and lunch!
3) Originally, I had planned to just have everyone get to campus from the hotel however they chose. But then I realized that that would be a huge pain. I’d have to worry about parking passes, and all these people would be going the same way at the same time but not sharing, and there’s all this construction on campus... Anyway, I decided to rent a University shuttle bus to take people back and forth to the hotel. But then only 10 people signed up, and here I was paying many, many hundreds of dollars for a shuttle bus and driver. So, given my car-free challenge experience, I thought, ‘I have a better idea’. So I went off to the Smith’s, and got everyone bus tokens and maps for the 603. It picks them up a block from the hotel, and drops them off right outside the door of our building. This little brainstorm saved me nearly $700. I don’t know what’s going to happen when the charge shows up on my University credit card, but I’ll think about that tomorrow...
4) We had also planned to use a different shuttle bus to get everyone down to the Clark Planetarium one evening, to see a show, and then get dinner in SLC. AHA! Front Runner to the rescue! By the time I send these people home, they are going to be so jealous of our public transportation, they’re going to want to move here!
5) The only event that we couldn’t get to by public transportation is a star party on Antelope Island. I’m the speaker, as if there wasn’t enough going on, and I thought it would be fun for everyone to go. But no buses go out there, and even if they did, it would be at the wrong time. So I rented a mini-bus from motor pool, to drive them all out there and back. My driving of the mini-bus should be an exciting addition to the already over-loaded schedule! Maybe it will rain... just kidding... sort of... ; ) At least we will all be together in the ‘ultimate’ carpool, instead of heading out in 12 separate cars!
So I’m working on it. Maybe the next big thing is the virtual conference, but somehow, I don’t think so. We are social animals, and chatting by computer is just not the same.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Zoom, zoom, zoom...
I am SUCH A HUGE FAN of not having any idea what I’m doing. ‘What, what, what!?’, you say. Here’s the thing: when you start doing something new, you start out being totally lame, and then you gain proficiency, and then you look back and all you can say is ‘Bwah-hah-hah! Look what I can do! I LEARNED something!’ And that pretty much totally rocks.
We have a new land-speed record.
We went the usual route to the barn today. From the moment we turned onto 24th, every time I looked at my speedometer, it was over 20 mph!
It took us 35 minutes to get out there. That’s means we were averaging ~17 mph, even with all the stop signs on Tyler.
Dude, I’m a monster.
John and I had a discussion about it, and he figures we go faster when I’m in the lead because I’m always way up in my highest gears. He likes to keep a faster cadence, and tends to stay in his lower gears so he can pedal faster. I have a horse rider’s leg muscles (sometimes it’s a matter of life and death to STAY ON THE HORSE). So I’m all about slow-twitch, high power, slow cadence pedaling, and spend most of my time at the top of my gears.
What that tells me is that if I follow him a couple more times, and stay in my lower gears and keep pedaling, instead of just powering for a minute and then coasting most of the time, I’ll learn to pedal faster. And then I’ll be pedaling fast AND having high power, and I’ll practically get to the barn before I leave the house.
We have a new land-speed record.
We went the usual route to the barn today. From the moment we turned onto 24th, every time I looked at my speedometer, it was over 20 mph!
It took us 35 minutes to get out there. That’s means we were averaging ~17 mph, even with all the stop signs on Tyler.
Dude, I’m a monster.
John and I had a discussion about it, and he figures we go faster when I’m in the lead because I’m always way up in my highest gears. He likes to keep a faster cadence, and tends to stay in his lower gears so he can pedal faster. I have a horse rider’s leg muscles (sometimes it’s a matter of life and death to STAY ON THE HORSE). So I’m all about slow-twitch, high power, slow cadence pedaling, and spend most of my time at the top of my gears.
What that tells me is that if I follow him a couple more times, and stay in my lower gears and keep pedaling, instead of just powering for a minute and then coasting most of the time, I’ll learn to pedal faster. And then I’ll be pedaling fast AND having high power, and I’ll practically get to the barn before I leave the house.
Whatever Happened to the Car-Free Challenge?
S went off on Science Safari with a bunch of K-12 teachers, exploring the science of Utah, from particle physics to microbiology to astronomy. That was a week of riding around in a bus, with a less-than-stellar bus driver. That’s enough to make anyone start to hope that the combustion engine is on it’s way out! ; )
During that week, J stuck to the car-free challenge, riding his bike everywhere he went, stopping off at the grocery store, and so on. So far so good.
Then Trinket got sick. Again. This happens every August. Arg. She stopped eating and drinking. So we needed to get out there and check on her two or three times per day. But the car is still in the shop! Out comes old red, the 1989 F250 pickup truck that we keep around to haul the horse trailer. It typically sees about 2000 miles per year. This week, it went about 1/10 of that, all at once. Plus, J needed to go to a conference in Cedar City, so he rented a car from motor pool to get down there.
So we didn’t do so well for a week or so...
But then! Yesterday, we went down to C and N’s house for dinner. They live about 8.24 miles from us, according to Mapquest. The 640 bus goes right past their house, but the last bus coming back is at 7:15 on Saturday. That makes for a short, un-fun evening!
So instead, we rode bikes down to the train station, took Front Runner to get across the appalling mess of I-15/Riverdale Road/Hill Air Force Base. (We have yet to find anything remotely like a good way to get through there on a bicycle.) We got off the train at the Roy station, and rode bikes the remaining 4 miles to C&N’s house. All told, that’s about 7 miles on the bikes and 8 miles on the train. It took about 1:15 minutes to get there. Ironically, we average about 12-15 mph on the bikes on that type of terrain, and so could have gotten there in under an hour if there was a good way to go...
We left their house at 8:30, so that we could catch the train that would hook us up with the 603 bus coming back up the hill. We are still nervous about riding up the big hills in the dark... also, had too much wine to feel like riding bikes up the 36th street hill at 10 at night!
The 603 bus, it turns out, change its route at night (at least it does at the moment, apparently because of construction). So we wound up getting out at the Smith’s, and coming home across campus---can’t you just see the headline now? “Two University Professors get Bicycle DUI’s on Campus” We laughed all the way across campus as we wove our way through construction zones, deadfall from Friday’s windstorm, and the random insertion of stairs into walkways.
Did it take longer? Yes. Definitely. A lot longer than driving. But did we enjoy ourselves more? Yes, we did. And no ill-effects from our wine-drinking and pasta-eating this morning, since it took us an hour and 45 minutes to get home, and an hour of that was riding bikes. Nothing like exercise to help you metabolize butter, alcohol and carbohydrates!
Oh, and I have to say that there’s nothing like riding your bikes across a college campus at 10:30 at night to set your mind right and make you feel like you are 22 and invincible!
Today, bikes to the barn (Trinket is doing better---she is on some ulcer medications that seem to be helping). Hooray! And the car is still in the shop! If we didn’t know better, we’d think it was sulking... ; )
During that week, J stuck to the car-free challenge, riding his bike everywhere he went, stopping off at the grocery store, and so on. So far so good.
Then Trinket got sick. Again. This happens every August. Arg. She stopped eating and drinking. So we needed to get out there and check on her two or three times per day. But the car is still in the shop! Out comes old red, the 1989 F250 pickup truck that we keep around to haul the horse trailer. It typically sees about 2000 miles per year. This week, it went about 1/10 of that, all at once. Plus, J needed to go to a conference in Cedar City, so he rented a car from motor pool to get down there.
So we didn’t do so well for a week or so...
But then! Yesterday, we went down to C and N’s house for dinner. They live about 8.24 miles from us, according to Mapquest. The 640 bus goes right past their house, but the last bus coming back is at 7:15 on Saturday. That makes for a short, un-fun evening!
So instead, we rode bikes down to the train station, took Front Runner to get across the appalling mess of I-15/Riverdale Road/Hill Air Force Base. (We have yet to find anything remotely like a good way to get through there on a bicycle.) We got off the train at the Roy station, and rode bikes the remaining 4 miles to C&N’s house. All told, that’s about 7 miles on the bikes and 8 miles on the train. It took about 1:15 minutes to get there. Ironically, we average about 12-15 mph on the bikes on that type of terrain, and so could have gotten there in under an hour if there was a good way to go...
We left their house at 8:30, so that we could catch the train that would hook us up with the 603 bus coming back up the hill. We are still nervous about riding up the big hills in the dark... also, had too much wine to feel like riding bikes up the 36th street hill at 10 at night!
The 603 bus, it turns out, change its route at night (at least it does at the moment, apparently because of construction). So we wound up getting out at the Smith’s, and coming home across campus---can’t you just see the headline now? “Two University Professors get Bicycle DUI’s on Campus” We laughed all the way across campus as we wove our way through construction zones, deadfall from Friday’s windstorm, and the random insertion of stairs into walkways.
Did it take longer? Yes. Definitely. A lot longer than driving. But did we enjoy ourselves more? Yes, we did. And no ill-effects from our wine-drinking and pasta-eating this morning, since it took us an hour and 45 minutes to get home, and an hour of that was riding bikes. Nothing like exercise to help you metabolize butter, alcohol and carbohydrates!
Oh, and I have to say that there’s nothing like riding your bikes across a college campus at 10:30 at night to set your mind right and make you feel like you are 22 and invincible!
Today, bikes to the barn (Trinket is doing better---she is on some ulcer medications that seem to be helping). Hooray! And the car is still in the shop! If we didn’t know better, we’d think it was sulking... ; )
Sunday, August 3, 2008
The Car-Free Challenge: Saturday
Yep, bikes to barn, rode the pony, biked back downtown, took the 603. The first bus that came was already loaded with bikes, so we had to wait half an hour. So we got lunch, and then put our bikes on the next bus. On the way up the hill, there was someone waiting at a bus stop with their bike, but no room to put it on the bus... we felt kind of bad, but what can you do?! They are going to need to engineer a way to put more bikes on each bus, I think!
We went back downtown on the 603 to see the new Mummy movie, and took the 603 back again. We had to wait about 20 minutes on the way back, but it was a good opportunity to people-watch!
Then, we were too tired to cook (riding bikes and ponies when it’s 95+ degrees out makes you really tired!). So we got delivery pizza from the Runner.
I’ve started investigating options for Socorro. I think it’s pretty much a bike-able town. At least, I know people who’ve used a bike for the main form of transport down there...
We went back downtown on the 603 to see the new Mummy movie, and took the 603 back again. We had to wait about 20 minutes on the way back, but it was a good opportunity to people-watch!
Then, we were too tired to cook (riding bikes and ponies when it’s 95+ degrees out makes you really tired!). So we got delivery pizza from the Runner.
I’ve started investigating options for Socorro. I think it’s pretty much a bike-able town. At least, I know people who’ve used a bike for the main form of transport down there...
Friday, August 1, 2008
The Car-Free Challenge: Friday
Well, we might not be going to Idaho to visit friends, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t have a nice time right here on a stay-cation!
This morning, we are going to walk with Cassie along the trails over to the Kaffe Mercantile. It’s a nice little coffee shop that has organic coffee and chocolates, along with actual made-in-store scones and other dainties. Mmmmm, yummy.
Otherwise, who knows what we’ll get up to?!
We also need to go pick up our bikes from the bike shop!
Later...
Did the following car-free errands today:
Went out to breakfast at the Kaffe Mercantile this morning, then...
took the bus and
Stopped by the library
Picked up bikes at Bingham’s, where the ‘Bingham’s guys’ nicely tuned them for us
Rode those bikes to the grocery store (the Smith’s on 12th)
Took a new (to us---the 625) bus back to our favorite end-of-the-street bus-stop!
John tells me he’ll call the dealership about the car on Monday.
This morning, we are going to walk with Cassie along the trails over to the Kaffe Mercantile. It’s a nice little coffee shop that has organic coffee and chocolates, along with actual made-in-store scones and other dainties. Mmmmm, yummy.
Otherwise, who knows what we’ll get up to?!
We also need to go pick up our bikes from the bike shop!
Later...
Did the following car-free errands today:
Went out to breakfast at the Kaffe Mercantile this morning, then...
took the bus and
Stopped by the library
Picked up bikes at Bingham’s, where the ‘Bingham’s guys’ nicely tuned them for us
Rode those bikes to the grocery store (the Smith’s on 12th)
Took a new (to us---the 625) bus back to our favorite end-of-the-street bus-stop!
John tells me he’ll call the dealership about the car on Monday.
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