Diamond-Cut Life

My carpool has naturally been discussing whether the government should bail out the Detroit automakers. The bailout question reminds me of the short story “The Lady Or The Tiger” in which a woman decides which door to send her lover to, i.e. death or a new life with a new lady.
Carpool opinions may be influenced [...]

[Read more →]

Yesterday morning I was working at home here in Portland, looking out my living-room window at the cool, misty day. I needed to go down to Metro, just over four miles away, for an afternoon-long meeting.
Like most all people in a city, I had a choice-point: how did I want to transport myself from here [...]

[Read more →]

Future posts will be back to diamond-cut, wholesome fare on building relationships and community and saving money and carbon emissions via energy and gas conservation. But today the addict in me has to come forward and be known. The blogger addict, the one who craves hits.
I jones for blog hits. I check my blog stats [...]

[Read more →]

My friend from Santa Cruz, concerned about global warming as I am, asked for advice yesterday about the car purchase she needs to make.
It happens my husband Thor did lots of research recently about whether to buy a Prius or a Honda Civic hybrid. We chose the Honda, for reasons given here, but we use [...]

[Read more →]

My carpool-pals don’t just help me save gas money and carbon emissions, they also pass good information on to me. Thanks to my baseball-loving ‘pool, I’ve learned about Andrew Brown, the relief pitcher for the Oakland Athletics who uses his bicycle and BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) to get to the ballpark for [...]

[Read more →]

With Summer Solstice and the first day of summer coming up on Saturday June 21, my theme this week will be earth-friendly recreation, or Fun In The Time Of Global Warming.

Professional work tends to keep us up in our heads, thinking so hard we practically get divorced from our bodies. I really hate that about [...]

[Read more →]

I’m hiring! Rather, the state agency I work for is hiring me a full-time assistant to work on the Governor’s Commuter Challenge (I am the program manager). Full job description and link to apply is here
Perhaps I’m biased, but this is the coolest project in the greenest state in the nation (Oregon). The theme of [...]

[Read more →]

I’m reading about the pain of high gas prices, and the auto industry shrinking, and Americans actually driving a bit less. While I care about people’s pain, I’m not experiencing it, myself. My husband Thor commutes via TriMet (the public transit here in Portland, Oregon), and I carpool with five other people to get to [...]

[Read more →]

I’m sipping my coffee at 6 a.m. at Stumptown in Southeast Portland (joy). The Oregonian’s front page shows an ocean of the 72,000 faces that turned out to see Barack Obama yesterday (yes, I voted for him, too) and the lower right corner story is: “Who loves high energy prices? The environment.”

The gist is basic [...]

[Read more →]

We researched ad nauseam what fuel-efficient, low-emissions car we should buy. We finally chose the Honda Civic hybrid for its great ratings all around, plus its state AND federal tax credits. We waited and waited for it to arrive at the dealership. Last night we finally brought it home.

[...]

[Read more →]