I'm sad to admit that I am a car owner, and not a sensible eco-friendly car either. I have a 13 year old product of detroit that I cannot wait to unload forever. I would love to not have to own a car, and I know many people that don't, but in the meantime I can choose not to drive the beast. I don't know how many miles I average, but for the last three months I think it was about two miles, and that was to have new brakes put on.
Every summer here in Yosemite, an ungodly amount of people pile in to the Valley and sit in hours of traffic to reach whatever destination they think they're going to get to, only to find absolutely zero parking anywhere. By the time they make the loop, which is about seven miles, they will have waited about four hours idling in traffic. It is the biggest nightmare and at the end of the day, a dark cloud of exhaust hovers over our beautiful granite monoliths. Nothing I have said here is an exaggeration!
My car, however, sits serenely in its spot, it knows it's not going anywhere. I can never care about gas prices because I hardly ever have to fill her, maintenance is very minimal, pollution on most days is zero! I have a bike that I love almost more than anything that gets me where I need to go in the quarter of the time it takes anyone in a car between the months of april and september. Oh the joy of weaving in and out of traffic, speeding by, I can't help but to slightly mock everyone stalled in traffic. Sometimes I openly mock them, because they can't catch me on my super fast bike!
When the weather is bad, or there is snow on the ground, I walk! Simply put, park your car and give her a pat, let her know that she's been good and now she deserves some time off. A lot of time.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
CSA
Want to simplify your weekly dinner menu? Try a CSA box! I know I'm a little behind on the bandwagon, but I recently received my first of many boxes from Mountain Meadow Farms in Mariposa, California. What a spread! You can get a weekly or biweekly box from them for $22-24 per box and they deliver straight to your door. You can also receive fresh eggs, additional fruits and veggies for an added fee. Everything is fresh, organic, and totally local! That means you get to try all kinds of new things depending on what is in season.
Now, I am vegan and have been for going on four years, so a box full of vegetables is the best thing that could ever be delivered to me! I know that making supper is somewhat of a burden for people, especially people with busy lives. I however, am not one of those people and thus far I have made two outstanding curry dishes with all of my rainbow chard, smashed parsnips and potatoes, and fed a head of fresh lettuce to my bun. And I still have brussels sprouts, a leek, and carrots to go through!
If you have a CSA box already, great! A very good website to visit for delicious recipe ideas is vegweb.com. It's a website for sharing vegan recipes and there are literally thousands of them to choose through.
Wow! Look at all that great produce!
Unrelated, but also delicious and fresh! Home made English Muffin bread! Great with chickpea curry!
Now, I am vegan and have been for going on four years, so a box full of vegetables is the best thing that could ever be delivered to me! I know that making supper is somewhat of a burden for people, especially people with busy lives. I however, am not one of those people and thus far I have made two outstanding curry dishes with all of my rainbow chard, smashed parsnips and potatoes, and fed a head of fresh lettuce to my bun. And I still have brussels sprouts, a leek, and carrots to go through!
If you have a CSA box already, great! A very good website to visit for delicious recipe ideas is vegweb.com. It's a website for sharing vegan recipes and there are literally thousands of them to choose through.
Wow! Look at all that great produce!
Unrelated, but also delicious and fresh! Home made English Muffin bread! Great with chickpea curry!
Friday, March 2, 2012
Kill Your Phone!
When I was 22 I signed up for my first adult wireless plan and received a complimentary Razr to go with it! All I had to do was promise the wireless company that I would pay them an absurd amount of money every month for the next two years for providing me with a nonessential coverage plan. I could talk for 700 minutes a month and text all I wanted for ten extra bucks!
And then I learned the awful truth about myself, I would never use all that talk time and embarrassingly the only texts I would get were from my roommate, and it was while she was in the same room, literally three feet away from me. I was spending seventy five dollars a month for a useless item that stayed at home on most days. Then I met my boyfriend who had a pay as you go phone. It was cheap, not frills, no thrills, just a basic phone that you could send and receive phone calls and text messages from. That was it! That was all that little thing did. At first I made fun of him because, who uses pay as you go phones except for drug dealers anyway? Then I got around to canceling my phone service with provider X and changing to the dark (or lighter) side of pre-pay.
My phone totally sucks now, and I love it! It still stays at home on most days. Really it only makes it into my bag if I'm driving somewhere. When I get home to check it I almost always have no missed calls or text messages. That means that for 25 bucks every two to three months, I can talk and text as much as I ever needed to, which is obviously not very often at all!
Why should we pay for something we're not using? At least this way I'll always use what I pay for and nothing I don't! And I thankfully will never have to worry about making another pointless and overpriced phone bill again!
And then I learned the awful truth about myself, I would never use all that talk time and embarrassingly the only texts I would get were from my roommate, and it was while she was in the same room, literally three feet away from me. I was spending seventy five dollars a month for a useless item that stayed at home on most days. Then I met my boyfriend who had a pay as you go phone. It was cheap, not frills, no thrills, just a basic phone that you could send and receive phone calls and text messages from. That was it! That was all that little thing did. At first I made fun of him because, who uses pay as you go phones except for drug dealers anyway? Then I got around to canceling my phone service with provider X and changing to the dark (or lighter) side of pre-pay.
My phone totally sucks now, and I love it! It still stays at home on most days. Really it only makes it into my bag if I'm driving somewhere. When I get home to check it I almost always have no missed calls or text messages. That means that for 25 bucks every two to three months, I can talk and text as much as I ever needed to, which is obviously not very often at all!
Why should we pay for something we're not using? At least this way I'll always use what I pay for and nothing I don't! And I thankfully will never have to worry about making another pointless and overpriced phone bill again!
Monday, February 27, 2012
Easy Does It
Hey everybody!
This is how I am going to respond to my most recent quasi-obsession, living simply. It's a new blog! A whole new reason to get up in the morning and shake your tail feathers! Recently, I turned 27 years old and with that has come a slew of wisom that has been telling me for some time now that I have waaaayyyy too much crap-o-la. In reality, I don't have that much but I do live in a very small space with another human being and a rabbit, and it's starting to become a little chaotic. Also, I have been on a big anime kick recently and in vewing the wonderful film, "My Neighbor Totoro" realized how nice it would be to get along only with necessary items.
Something the Japanese do that I really like considers their sleeping situation. They have these individual mats and blankets they sleep on and roll up and fold every morning out of the way. They do this because they have so little space to live in, just like me! Check it out Japanese Futon Mattress.
I really like the sleeping system and am hoping to implement it for myself soon, but first I need to start weening myself of objects. I believe that the more "stuff" you accumulate the more stressful your life will be because it becomes so difficult to focus on any one thing at a time. That goes for physical items such as furniture, electronics, and clothes, as well as the non-physical, such as phone calls/texts, e-mails, twitter feeds, and apps, apps, apps.
I'll be the first to give it a try. Consume Less to Live More! More to come...
This is how I am going to respond to my most recent quasi-obsession, living simply. It's a new blog! A whole new reason to get up in the morning and shake your tail feathers! Recently, I turned 27 years old and with that has come a slew of wisom that has been telling me for some time now that I have waaaayyyy too much crap-o-la. In reality, I don't have that much but I do live in a very small space with another human being and a rabbit, and it's starting to become a little chaotic. Also, I have been on a big anime kick recently and in vewing the wonderful film, "My Neighbor Totoro" realized how nice it would be to get along only with necessary items.
Something the Japanese do that I really like considers their sleeping situation. They have these individual mats and blankets they sleep on and roll up and fold every morning out of the way. They do this because they have so little space to live in, just like me! Check it out Japanese Futon Mattress.
I really like the sleeping system and am hoping to implement it for myself soon, but first I need to start weening myself of objects. I believe that the more "stuff" you accumulate the more stressful your life will be because it becomes so difficult to focus on any one thing at a time. That goes for physical items such as furniture, electronics, and clothes, as well as the non-physical, such as phone calls/texts, e-mails, twitter feeds, and apps, apps, apps.
I'll be the first to give it a try. Consume Less to Live More! More to come...
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