Ok, new milestones every single week. I've, maybe for the first time in my life, turned down a offer from my roommate who has a car to take me on an errand > 2 miles away in lieu of riding my bike there. Last sunday was a gorgeous day and I knew I wanted to go for a bike ride and get some copies made at Staples, but wasn't really sure if I wanted to do them simultaneously. As I was leaving, strapped up with my back pack, wallet, and helmet, my roommate, who was headed that direction anyway, asked me if I wanted a ride. I proudly said, NO. One constant crutch and loophole has been to borrow other people's car's. And while carpooling is great, it doesn't directly result in the independence i'd like and the carbon footprint reductions I'm shooting for. It was great to finally do things on my own, even if it meant a little more time doing it; it was time well spent.
Well after almost two months without an personal automated form of transportation, I honestly feel better than ever. I've been walking, biking, and running a lot more often: things I always wanted to do anyway, but needed a little kick to get into.
Off for a walk right now to the grocery store during my lunch break!
Friday, July 13, 2012
Monday, July 2, 2012
Week 5
I'm really getting used to this whole biking and/or walking everywhere routine. Since I have most of my transportational needs in downtown Burlington, my favorite part of the day is whizzing past cars at traffic lights on my bike. For most of the things I do, it doesn't even make a whole lot of sense for me to have a car, but I hit two milestones this weeks on errands that do typically involve some form of automobile.
Since I don't have a washer and dryer in my apartment unit, I usually grab a ride from a friend and we'll both do laundry together at a laundromat, but instead I huffed and I puffed and I walked my enormous bag of 2-week old laundry to the closest laundromat without any sort of motor. I can now totally see why people steal shopping carts.
The second thing I did which I have been putting off is biking a bulk purchase home with a backpack instead of driving it. Granted, this wasn't the largest of shopping trips, but I definitely loaded up my 4,000 cubic inch backpack full of 20 lb of catfood, 5 lb of carrots, spaghetti sauce, milk, cheese, eggs, and took a couple extra shopping bags in my hands with bread and other crushables. It was, by far, the largest (and heaviest) grocery run without the aid of a car.
Still no pictures of my cruising around on my bike, because I usually fly solo around town, but I'll have to go on a group trip or stage a couple photos sometime coming up soon to really bring in some other forms of media besides boring old letters and numbers. To make up for it, here's a picture of a cat:
Since I don't have a washer and dryer in my apartment unit, I usually grab a ride from a friend and we'll both do laundry together at a laundromat, but instead I huffed and I puffed and I walked my enormous bag of 2-week old laundry to the closest laundromat without any sort of motor. I can now totally see why people steal shopping carts.
The second thing I did which I have been putting off is biking a bulk purchase home with a backpack instead of driving it. Granted, this wasn't the largest of shopping trips, but I definitely loaded up my 4,000 cubic inch backpack full of 20 lb of catfood, 5 lb of carrots, spaghetti sauce, milk, cheese, eggs, and took a couple extra shopping bags in my hands with bread and other crushables. It was, by far, the largest (and heaviest) grocery run without the aid of a car.
Still no pictures of my cruising around on my bike, because I usually fly solo around town, but I'll have to go on a group trip or stage a couple photos sometime coming up soon to really bring in some other forms of media besides boring old letters and numbers. To make up for it, here's a picture of a cat:
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