Windsurfing Rocks!

My boy is amped about learning to wind surf and he's only 3. Here's a picture from early October.

Tree hugging is fun!

Once, in a past life, I was a ground guy for my uncle Frans' tree business (Re-Leaf Tree Care) where I learned to climb.

Now I live on a 1/2 acre property where we have huge trees. It has been fun.

That's me, about 80 feet up our 130' sweet gum tree.




And the view...



Here's an embarrassing video of me but a cool perspective from our back yard tree swing, which is on the same sweet gum tree.

Fight terrorism, obesity, recession and environmental ruin with the mighty BICYCLE

I’d like to be healthier and burn less gasoline by riding my bike to work, but our roads are not bicycle friendly. Most of the roads in Southeast Virginia have little or no shoulder and they’re edged with gravel dust that can pitch your bike into the ditch and you into the path of a truck. Furthermore, some drivers are downright mean to bicyclists. This tyranny of the automobile fleeces us of the benefits of physical and mental health, environmental and economic improvement, and good strategy in the “war on terror”. It’s downright un-American not to share the road.

Whenever politicians address the American obesity epidemic, they mostly discuss junk food in school cafeterias, which is important. However, much more needs to be done to address the sedentary citizenry. In Virginia the only physical education requirement for the entire 4 years of high school is 2 PE credits. With standards so low, cars to take us everywhere, and more entertainment at the touch of a button than ever, we are compromised yet we don’t realize it.

Imagine if kids had safe bike lanes and pedestrian greenways to school. That would take a bite out of obesity. As it is, our local schools don’t provide bike racks for locking up, because they don’t want to encourage the dangerous behavior of kids actually riding their bikes to school. Frankly, I’m glad because it is too dangerous.

This is unfortunate because we’re missing out on some major benefits. Physical activity improves one’s mood, reduces risk of chronic disease, improves sleep, and strengthens your heart and lungs.

Physical activity is also mentally healthful, in that it improves executive brain function. Linked to the frontal cortex, executive brain function guides complex behavior, decision-making and response control. Regular exercise is also associated with fewer incidences of dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Exercise enhances social health as well. There’s camaraderie among bicyclists. Whenever I ride a trail, fellow bicyclists are usually cordial, since we’re all outside together and not de-personalized in our cars. Probably the endorphins help also.

Besides, Mother Earth would breathe a huge sigh of relief if we decided to ride bikes more. How many billions of gallons less gas? My conservative back of the envelope calculation yields 39 billion gallons per year, or about 778 billion pounds of carbon dioxide per year.

Car exhaust is nasty. Not only does it contain a lot of poisonous carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, but it’s also full of corrosive NOX gases that rain as acid, kill trees, and dissolve ancient statues.

Recently, there was an editorial from the associated press where health and environmental issues were connected. They analyzed the benefits of Americans walking to work. Here’s an excerpt:

“Health experts and climate scientists propose that we can fix the obesity epidemic and cut carbon emissions at the same time if all Americans walk for half an hour a day instead of drive. The payoffs, they note, are huge, but they concede they are unlikely to happen.”

Speaking of payoffs, if we rode our bikes to work and school it would make good strategic sense in the war on terror. Pedestrian access could reduce our dependence on foreign oil, which would hit our enemies in their pocket books. More importantly, our increased mental, societal, physical and environmental well being would strengthen us in the face of our shadowy foe.

Speaking of pocket books, check out the one on this guy. Oil rich Prince Walid bin Talal of Saudi Arabia just paid $300 million for a brand new Airbus for him and his entourage.

The bicycle is the new “smart bomb”. This project needs money, and more importantly, the awareness and willpower of society. The politicians won’t do it for us. They just squabble over how to pay for yet another lane on the interstate.

Here’s a chance to save ourselves, save the environment, save the economy, and win the war on terror. Practically, it’s a no-brainer. Realistically, it will be hard.

We’ve overcome bigger obstacles in our short history as a nation, and we can overcome this. I only hope that we don’t have to degenerate too much before we realized the new “smart bomb” is right in the garage. We just need the pedestrian friendly infrastructure to implement it.

Capitol Trail http://www.virginiadot.org/projects/newcaptrail_faq.asp
Biking in Virginia http://www.virginiadot.org/programs/bk-default.asp

Moving costs and benefits

Our current home in mid-Gloucester County has its perks. We’re at the cul-de-sac of a lovely little neighborhood where the neighbors are wonderful, the nights are quiet, and the wildlife is abundant, in that we back up to a beautiful tract of woods. But, we want to move.

An arboreal view of our back yard


We want to move mostly because of the commute. For me it’s only 12.5 miles to work, but for my wife Adrienne, it’s 19. That doesn’t sound like much until you look at the time and fuel. Round trip, I spend 42 minutes a day and Adrienne spends one hour. That's about 8.5 hours per week. The fuel costs also adds up, even though, by U.S. standards, we get good fuel economy (25mpg for my S-10 pick-up and 33mpg for her Civic).

When I crunched the numbers, for time and gas, but not the increased risk of injury, stress or vehicle depreciation, I concluded that we will save over $7000 a year by moving to our target neighborhood in York County which lies between our works, (4.5 miles for me and 2.9 miles for her).

Also, not in the analysis, is our reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. I was astonished to find that we will put 8560 pounds less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere per year! I doubt we could do that if we bought a Prius and carpooled together (which would be impossible due to our different schedules).

Sounds like a lot of carbon dioxide, right? From saving 428.3 gallons of gas (2697 pounds), how do we save 8560 pounds of carbon dioxide? Well, gasoline, being the hydro-carbon that it is, combusts and the carbon atoms are liberated from the light hydrogen atoms. These free carbons bind to the much heavier oxygen atoms in our atmosphere and create CO2. Clear as mud? Check this out: http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/co2.shtml

So even though our new home will have a higher sticker price than our current place, I can sleep easier knowing that we will actually save money and CO2 over the long haul. More importantly, we get to spend an extra two weeks per year together. That's an extra vacation!

I’m looking forward to our new home. Now if we can just get someone to buy our current one.