grateful

I haven't posted in a while...busy with kids, holidays, family good stuff and then a nasty cold, not so good. Anyway it's been a while and frankly on the green front I've been bummed. The oil spill in the Bay, the fires in L.A., news from the Arctic, stories about tar oil etc frankly lots of bad news and combined with a head cold well, it can make one gloomy. So I wanted to write about what makes me grateful and hopeful. This storypassed on to me by Mary V. Marsh about a young people's green summit gave me a glow of hope. As did the news of google's investments in solar. My hope comes from smart people willing to take risks, financial, career, artistic, and people brave enough to change the status quo, to come out and profess their fear and love. Those people give me hope and I'm very grateful to all of them, all of you out there, thinking and creating in this most challenging time.

ifixed it

i do love my old ipod. i got it on craigslist and it is loaded with our whole library. This makes for some odd segues on shuffle. ACDC to Mary Poppins to podcast of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell me (love that show!). Anyway it stopped working the other day BUT I googled and followed these easy directions and it worked! I am scrubbing the paint palettes to the dulcet tones of Karl Kastle again!

a good day

Today was a good day. Today the headmaster of my school, the facilities manager of my school, students from the middle school and high school, and faculty from both campuses sat in a room with a representative of the green business program and heard how to certify our campuses as a green school. This is something I have worked for over a year to have happen. Hurray! Everyone sat there together and nodded in agreement. It took a lot of work to get to this day and there were a number of times I was close to giving up, putting my efforts elsewhere, or just getting so tired of trying. But today was a good day! Hurray!

biking to work

I ride my bike to work a couple of times a week, on the days when I don't have to drop off or pick up kids. It takes about 20 minutes with a few steep downhills and some up hills too so I get to work rosy cheeked and needing to change my shirt but not so sweaty I need a shower. My route starts with a big downhill that wakes me up then a small uphill enought that I have to pump my legs, then more zooming along with the view of the bay off in the distance. I feel like a kid, free. Sometimes I sing outloud.
My route takes me past Lake Temescal and often there are loud choruses of birds in certain bushes and then at one point a serene reflection of trees in the water. When I get to the frontage road there is a longish uphill stretch. From there I can see highway 24 just packed with cars. I feel so inconsequential pedaling my measly miles. Where are the other bike riders? When will this eight lanes of traffic be as empty as my frontage road is?
Sometimes a real bicyclist passes me. They are on their touring bikes resplendent in tight, bright spandex. They look amazing and go so fast but I feel virtuous with my pannier and work clothes. Hey, I'm going to work, I think to myself, not just on some bike ride for fun. I am NOT driving. But it's more than just not driving.
Unlike the car ride to work each bike ride feels like a unique journey. I'm aware of the weather and my mood in much more detail than in the box of the car. I feel my heart and legs pumping and know I have a body. I'm aware that I'm lucky to be able to do this, both healthy enough and living close enough to my job. So while on the outside I look like a middle aged mom puffing up a hill, on the inside I feel like a saint and a rebel and a wild kid all just from biking to work.