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Saving Gas?
May 25, 2008
The United States is in a crisis. People are having to stop driving everywhere and decide whether to feed themselves or pay for gas! Or so I hear.
Much of what I read online and what I hear, in church, at work, or on the street, leads to the conclusion that people are extremely concerned about gas prices. However, I really feel that this is a case of words without action.
In my recent travels to Tulsa and Wichita Falls, as well as in driving around our rather large City, I haven’t noticed much of a change in the way most people are dealing with the “crisis”. We’ve reduced our travel speed by 5 mph or so, but, being passed as much as we were, I really don’t feel that other people are taking it seriously. Even more interesting is the amount of large pick-up trucks and SUVs that continue to blow by on the highway. Maybe Oklahomans and Texans, being insulated from the economic downturn and the highest gas prices, are more able to withstand the higher prices, or maybe they just don’t feel it’s really an issue to them yet.
Christa and I, however, have actually started to do things differently. I’m trying to ride my bike to work (saving 3 miles of car travel a day… small, but it helps). We’re driving slower on the highway, and we’re trying to drive the slightly more efficient Honda more often. The little things help. Now, if we have more frequent and more far-reaching mass transit or train travel, we’d be golden.
Posted by paul at 02:41 PM | Comments (1)
Whole Foods Rant
May 20, 2008
Whole Foods is in the process of opening a second store in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Ann Arbor has a population of 100,000 or so; 200,000 if you get generous and include the surrounding areas.
Oklahoma City has zero Whole Foods stores. OKC has a population of 550,000; 1,000,000 if you include the metro.
Whole Foods is based in Austin, Texas; 8 hours from OKC and about 20 hours from Ann Arbor.
Where’s the love? We like good, wholesome, organic, healthy food here too. Sucks that one state law is standing in the way, or so I’m led to believe.
Posted by paul at 11:14 PM | Comments (4)
Morning in Spearfish, SD
May 02, 2008
Our Toyota Highlander is the right-most car in this picture. Last night at 8:30 pm when we parked, we walked through about 4 inches of snow. This morning, Spearfish has about 24 inches… We’re also under a snow emergency; only emergency personnel are allowed on the roads. I-90 is closed from the Wyoming border to Wall, SD, approximately 100 miles!. The hotel restaurant cannot open because they don’t have enough employees. We were lucky to get a pastry for each of us at breakfast - we’ll see about lunch.
The snow is supposed to end by 6:00 pm tonight… maybe, if we’re lucky, we can go into downtown Spearfish to the Irish Pub for dinner. Looks like we’ll be doing a large sightseeing trip tomorrow. Maybe we’ll try to catch Mt. Rushmore tonight if the roads open up.
Posted by paul at 11:38 AM | Comments (1)