I just got off the phone with my benighted internet service provider (I’m writing this message off-line in the hopes that my connectivity will return) and sure enough there is a “major” outage affecting approximately 50,000 subscribers in Oregon and Washington. “Oh joy” he says as he struggles to download the manual for his new phone via G3 network. When that’s done perhaps I can use it as a tethered connection until the main line is restored.

All things considered the network outage couldn’t have happened at a nicer time … if you’re a dog. They were driving me nuts today with their pay attention to me eyes and stealthy crotchings from under the desk. The sun was out and there was a nice breeze so without much of a second thought I grabbed a jacket, the leashes and we headed out.

Originally my intent was to just take them over to the Iron Horse Trail and walk them around the water tower. We arrived there and they ran around like insane canines with V8 engines supercharged with nitrous oxide. There were rooster tails of muddy clay kicked up behind as they rampaged around in circles flying between the sage. They did laps for some time, but I could see that this wasn’t really doing the trick.

“Well let’s head … east!” I proclaimed to two dogs that would be happy to go where the smells happened to be.

We walked to Kittitas and back.

For those of you who don’t know this is quite a stroll. The Iron Horse maintains the easement that was part of the original Chicago-Milwaukee-St. Paul-Pacific Railroad route so there is plenty of area between the hay fields on either side for the dogs to find and smell interesting things. This they did with great enthusiasm although the photo of Gigi shows that she was getting tired near the end.

I was treated to a very nice “rest day” under the blue sky (with limited clouds). My skin feels a little dry from the sunshine indeed and it’s been a while since there’s been enough UV to approximate that sensation.

In other news today two books arrived via UPS. This has additionally provided much entertainment and enlightenment in the absence of a network connection.

First up, Carfree Design Manual by J.H. Crawford. So far, so good! I’m not very far into this lexicon of design ideas yet, but, as usual, this manual is a well described and presented vision of what a functional urban future might be for us. I’m really looking forward to reading this book and already the images that are included are astounding and attractive. In particular I really like the image of Woonerf, Delft on page 128, but I’m struggling to imagine what the guy near the bike is up to at that window. Additionally, I’m very interested to see what Crawford has to say on the subject of bicycle integration within a baseline design.

Also in the box from my favorite book seller was a work of fiction which I have not had the opportunity to crack yet. World Made by Hand only recently hit the market and J.H. Kunstler is a regular blog stop for me on any given day. He also wrote the forward for J.H. Crawford’s first book Carfree Cities.

Finally, I got Scout down from storage today. Pumped up her tires and dusted off the horizontals. After that I plugged in the headlamps and headed off down the road to get some wine for dinner and a couple of supplies. First impressions, what was I thinking about with that rash notion of changing the perfect ride? I mean seriously, minus a couple of pounds of air in the rubber there was *nothing* wrong with this machine. I mounted the saddle and it still fit my butt perfectly. Maybe I could use a new pair of fenders and a chain guard, but I think I’m sticking with the gear that’s on there for a while longer.

The ride to the store (not a long one) was chilly, but there is a new moon tonight. Even with the scattered cloud cover above the Milky Way looked like silver river in the black. Saturn was so bright that it was showing ice rings all the way around it (think of what it’s like to see the moon through high altitude atmospheric ice crystals only smaller and from much further away).

Had I had any more energy I think I might have just continued to peddle right out of town.

I was really hoping to hear two things today at the National Clean Energy Project : Building the New Economy online summit:

• That the lowest hanging fruit on the energy independence tree *is* unquestionably the American home. Improving the efficiency of the American home should be a primary concern of anyone interested in achieving national energy independence. Legislation and incentives need to be offered directly back to the American citizen to accomplish this task universally.
• De-coupling and localized point-source generation need to become the second major part of this dialogue. The days of very large corporations generating very large collections of energy may not be over, but the American people need to the liberty to create human-scale power generation projects. Small is beautiful.

Both of these sentiments were voiced by President Clinton. For this I am grateful. Carbon-caps, using natural gas as a large scale transition fuel, smart-grid technology, and Wal-mart’s efficiency improvements are all nice, but they don’t have an immediate or palpable effect on me or my family.

American’s really need to reach back a little bit in time and realize that they’re part of what ever community they happen to live within. These communities are the basis for a Local Sufficiency movement that could be in the best interests of its constituent membership.

Three days in a row, that’s how many. We’re starting to experience a pattern of weather that’s not, if memory serves, unlike something they call “spring”. Blue sky, warmer temperatures, little growing things poking their little growing heads from underneath last year’s layer of dead stuff. There’s still that undeniable nip to endure when the sun hides behind the horizon, but there’s the very distinct possibility that we’re now headed toward warmer days. All together now, sigh with general relief, winter may be in its death throes.

This year I’m getting back to a saner/healthier kind of living (or at least that’s the resolve). That means many things. I’ve begun to prepare my garden beds so they’ll be ready to host the vegetables I’ll soon plant in them. The house has had an initial “spring cleaning” run-down. Projects, indoors and out, are being addressed as time and resources allow. It also means that it’s time to get Scout out of storage and back on the road again.

Some of the leather looks pretty rough and the paint job has started to show its age, but the bike remains essentially sound. I have a short list of modifications I’d like to make sooner than later:

• I almost never use the drop-outs on my handle bars. Not even when forced to ride directly into gale force, hurricane winds. For that reason I’ve been considering switching to a Nitto Albatross CrMo.
• This would necessitate a general change in the breaking leavers and shifters I currently employ. This time around I think I’m going to stick with simple systems. No more indexed shifters, back to the fraction shifters. Nice compact break leavers are being shopped for as well.
• This year new fenders are a necessity. Ok, not really. But I really want a new pair. I’ll be looking for something that will fit and, as an added benefit, look really groovy. Maybe something in a nice clear maple with a red-ish stain?
• The cantilever breaks on this old girl have seen better days. For cantilever breaks they are extremely compact which means finding replacement parts may be difficult. This may mean I get to spend a really long time sitting with steel wool and a tooth brush, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.
• I’d really like to look into a better way to carry my laptop around. Maybe this will be a bag I have to buy, or maybe I can fabricate it for myself? Ideas are still in a very fluid state.
• Last but not least, I need a new lock. I lost my key to the old one when we moved to central Washington and so I’ve got a very heavy piece of steel floating around inside my seat bag that serves no immediate purpose. Chuck the old, find something new (and lighter).

Finally, while Scout is an excellent utility bicycle for getting around town and even taking short (camping) tours up into the hills it’s not really designed for hauling large loads. Once Scout is made road worthy again I’ll continue to look for and/or design a cargo bicycle for myself. Also the human powered expedition vehicle (HPEV) has not been shelved. I’m getting there only it’s taking me more time than initially anticipated. There’s always something else to take care of.

Seattle Metro Bus

One of my favorite mailing lists just got a letter which I really enjoyed. Seems that there are some regional endeavors to help people live car-free/car-light and this city-by-city approach should really help people leverage the experience of the neighbors who may have good methods for dealing with specific challenges in those areas.

Living car-free/car-light in Seattle for instance meant that I had to routinely deal with crowded bike racks whenever I needed to cross Lake Washington. Routinely there was a queue that formed in the morning at several of the west side bus stops. There were several options for bike riders who wanted to get to the east side.

• Wait in line, eventually you’ll get a bike slot
• Buy and ride a folding commuter bike and carry a copy of the Metro policy which allows you access to the inside of the bus with a folded bike
• Ride around the north end of the Lake
• Ride across the I-90 bridge
• Ride a “dead-head” or “EB” bus to the arm-pit of Redmond

All of these options worked for me at various points in time, however, it took me years of riding over the bridge, or around the bridge, to come up with that brief list of options and for me to understand how each might affect the rest of my day.

Each region, each city, has its own challenges and if you’ve just moved, for instance, welcome back to square one.

I wonder what it would take to get something like this for every major metropolitan area and its surrounding region in the US? What would happen if people started exchanging information about getting what they needed from their local and regional transit authorities as well as the tribal knowledge that’s so important to success in this kind of social endeavor? Maybe a regional, state and national scorecard on how citizens are actually becoming oil independent? Some great possibilities.

Tess just stormed into the office with a sincere scowl on her face and said “MATT!” I know I’m trouble now because there was an “!” behind my name visible in the air after she said it. “In this house there is an unwritten rule.”

I looked at her submissively and inquired, “Put down the seat?”

“No that’s one, but there’s another one. Possibly more important.”

It turns out there is an unwritten household rule to always replace a cold beer in the fridge after you’ve taken one. This makes sense, and I’d be happy to comply. There is the problem of my very limited memory. Thus I have concocted the following list of formerly unwritten household rules. Please feel free to add.

• Always replace the beer you just took from the fridge with another one so the next person will have a cold one at hand when they desire.
• Put the lid down.
• Remember the months associated with loved one’s Birthdays. Better remember the *exact date* if you can.
• “Piles of stuff” are not an organizational unit.
• Read your snail mail sometime before the paper degrades from the acids used to bleach it years ago.
• It’s the cat’s chair.
• If someone is going to take a bath clear your bladder before you must interrupt their cozy warm and wet fun.
• Never ask Dad for help choosing colors.
• There’s always room for more Ska in the collection.
• The sooner the walk is shoveled the easier it will be to shovel.
• Recreational digging is not allowed in garden beds.
• There is a calculus of dirt collection in any house, however if you spend your time measuring the rate the crap collects you’ll never get your room clean.