Greetings from Alison Wiley here in Portland, Oregon. I'm a writer/doer/thinker who lives happily by putting people, nature and God ahead of accumulating more stuff. Read more →
Watching General Motors going through its tortured downsizing, bankruptcy and reinvention of itself makes me think of how bloated our relationship to cars here in the U.S. has been for decades. (And I wish with all my heart that every laid-off employee will find a new job soon.) What all of us need and have [...]
Tags: carpooling·cars·General Motors·green living·happiness·Oregon·thrift·vanpooling
As much as I like people and friendship and community, I rarely feel I have enough of any of these in my life. I want more. I blame the deficit partly on my own individualistic tendencies. (After all, I was a self-employed artist/writer from 1992-2004, and some individualism goes with the artistic territory). But more [...]
Tags: artist·carpooling·Christmas cards·conferences·email·friendship·happiness·movies·people·trainings·vacations·writer
I’m back after a week-long break from Diamond-Cut Life. I’ve been reading Bill McKibben’s excellent book Deep Economy . . . . . was delighted by President Obama’s speech last night (clean energy, what a concept!) . . . . . attended a good Illahee lecture about desire . . . . have been organizing [...]
Tags: carpool·carpooling·environment·happiness·relationships·vanpool
I have a 100-mile commute here in Oregon, from Portland to Salem, the state capitol, that I do three times a week with a congenial carpool (six of us in total). Carpooling is saving me $6,800/year, using this cost calculator. I also telework two days a week, and teleworking will be the subject of a [...]
Tags: carpool·carpooling·commuting·consensus·fantasy leagues·majority rule
Coming up on my one-year anniversary in my carpool, I recently wrote a post about how it is saving me $6,800/year according to this cost calculator. (I have a 100 mile round trip, and five carpool partners). I’m also saving a lot of carbon emissions, and arriving at work and back at home sweeter and [...]
Tags: carpool·carpooling·cars·commuting·thrift
Next month I’ll celebrate my one year anniversary at my job — and my carpool will have saved me $6,800. To figure that out, I used the calculator at Carpool Match Northwest, which is also where I found my congenial carpool (six of us now) in the first place. My situation is actually both better [...]
Tags: carpool·Carpool Match Northwest·carpooling·climate change·commute·green living·happiness·Oregon·telework·thrift
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 [...]
Tags: automakers·carpooling·cars·climate change·Detroit·economics·energy conservation·General Motors·global warming·GM·hybrids
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 [...]
Tags: bicycling·carbon footprint·carpooling·energy ndependence·exercise·green living·halfandheart·happiness·Oregon·outdoors·thrift·walking
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 [...]
Tags: addiction·blogging·carpooling·endorphins·energy conservation·influence·Internet addiction
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 [...]
Tags: auto safety·carbon footprint·carpooling·cars·electric cars·energy conservation·environment·global warming·green living·happiness·Honda Civic hybrid·hybrids·life·Prius·renewable energy·soundproofing·SUVs·time management
Read via RSS reader of your choice (for example, Google Reader).
Subscribe