Don’t Forget Me When I’m Gone

I’ve been on a very unMinusCar like vacation. Happy Thanksgiving and all that. We went to the tropics.



I saw a sunrise…



over the…



We ran…



in the sand…



and jumped over the tide…



I'm a dumb South Dakotan who used to be very skeptical about riding a bike on the beach…



now I know.

We got in a boat and found some dolphins…



Occasionally we sneezed…



and while Letterboxing found some still waters…



The wind blows too much where I live to get many shots like this.

We climbed a fake lighthouse with a real moon…



and saw the sun set on the other side of the island.

Shopocalypse

Ever heard of the Reverend Billy? He leads the Church of Stop Shopping?

Morgan Spurlock produced a movie about him, "What Would Jesus Buy?"

Here's the trailer -



And here's a television interview -



May have opened tonight in a cineplex near you...didn't open tonight in mine. I wonder if it's showing somewhere in South Carolina.

"Try to buy your gift right in your own neighborhood. Walk to your gift this year. Maybe take a bicycle. You don't have to get in that SUV this time."

Report: November 5 - 11

Monday the weather tricked me. It got colder as the day went on and the soon to be headwind increased too. After work I made a last minute dash to a bus stop to try to get a ride at least for the headwind parts. I caught the bus but a combination of events conspired against me; at one point during the mad dash my forward momentum stopped and I, unable to de-clip, toppled over in the presence of an appreciative audience.

And so it goes…

I drove one single occupant mile that day…I decided not to make my surely underdressed The Boys walk home with me from school.

Trips -
MinusCar: 9
Multi-occupant Auto: 5
Single occupant Auto: 1
Destinations: 21

Wednesday was a good day. I caught The Dad departing his job and we rode together most of the way to his home. It was his birthday. Happy Birthday The Dad!

My Car Miles: 17
My Bike Miles: 106

Saturday we had an appointment at the Dell Rapids Pizza Ranch with The In-laws. I stepped outside and couldn’t help but notice what would be a tailwind and 50 degrees. Since the best way to enjoy a pizza buffet is by biking to it, I packed some clothes and headed out.

I ran out of daylight, temperature and wind before I got to Dell Rapids. I got off the dark highway in Baltic and begged The Wife to alter her route to pick me up. She did. I think I ate a slice of pizza for each of the 20 miles I rode to get there...it's probably good I didn't ride all the miles to get there.

You Are Midnight

If it's good enough for Snakebite and BikingBrady, it's good enough for me...

You Are Midnight

You are more than a little eccentric, and you're apt to keep very unusual habits. Whether you're a nightowl, living in a commune, or taking a vow of silence - you like to experiment with your lifestyle. Expressing your individuality is important to you, and you often lie awake in bed thinking about the world and your place in it. You enjoy staying home, but that doesn't mean you're a hermit. You also appreciate quality time with family and close friends.

What Time Of Day Are You?

Friday’s Funday

Friday’s are special.

It all starts at the grocery store with my weekly 2 apple fritters and grande chai tea latte. They know me there. She said every window she saw this morning had frost on it. I said I didn’t need to scrape a thing to ride my bike today. I just blink occasionally to clear away the ice crystals.

From the store with latte in hand I roll against the traffic on the sidewalk. DON’T DO THIS. Riding against traffic, sidewalk or not, is a very good way to end up doing automobile undercarriage inspection.

One of the most common ways to accomplish that comes courtesy of the right turning motorist. So intent on the spacing of traffic to their left, they almost never check their right until they’ve started their turn. So it was that I came upon a crosswalk, green light, walk sign brightly beckoning, and I’m stopped at the curb looking at the back of a driver's head.

I could have laid out a table setting on the hood of her SUV and been half way through my fritters before she knew what was happening…she also would have driven away with half my breakfast. Sometime it would be fun to ride in this dangerous manner with a helmet cam just to catch the instant when drivers realize they never ever, not once, checked to the right before making that turn.

This morning it would have been priceless.

I went long on the way home. I love this time of year because I love night riding. During summer I have to patiently wait for enveloping darkness. In November the darkness comes to me. I saw The Dad on his way home from work on his bike. A few minutes later I froze two deer with my helmet light...and that was an ultimate ending to a very good bicycling day.

Just Do It? Already Doing It Chuck

Big thanks to long time MinusCar reader and forever patient Noel for pointing me to the article referenced below.

It took an “oil-belt Texan” and $1.1 million in cold hard cash, but convicted felon and national evangelical Christian leader Chuck Colson has finally put into words something helpful and constructive about global warming. He says, "Just Do It." Somewhat surprisingly he means take action.

Since June the Little Blog In The Big Woods has been writing about pushing icebergs. The foundation of the idea is this:

"…huge societal problems are very much like icebergs. They are huge; massive, with tremendous momentum and inertia. Walk up to an iceberg (standing on anything you can) and push on it, as hard as you can. You will not see ANY response from the iceberg; it's just too massive for you to affect, you and all your force are infinitesimally small in comparison to the berg."

But it’s worth doing your own pushing. And if everybody pushes, even if some push in the wrong direction, eventually the iceberg could move in a favorable direction.

LBBW is happy to report (and I'm happy to read) that the iceberg is moving.

I’m happy to report that on November 2, 2007 Chuck Colson gave his own little push. Somebody alert James Dobson.

It turns out Chuck Colson has a friend named Bill. “Bill is a solid Christian, a native oil-belt Texan, a conservative, and an environmentalist wrapped up in one.” (No need to apologize for him Chuck). Bill, through his company Energy Education, Inc, helped a 7,000 member congregation in Texas save $1.1 million in energy costs by, you know, teaching them to turn off lights and stuff.

"Working with institutions to reduce their energy usage, like Energy Education does, is good stewardship. And it does not depend on what the scientists eventually can prove about global warming. It is all laid out for us already in the Scriptures. All we have got to do is stop arguing long enough to start being good stewards today."

In the scriptures? I’m 11 months ahead of you Chuck. Start today? I'm on it. Stop arguing? Does this mean you'll stop trying to get Richard Cizik fired?

What’s a church do when they pull off the drywall to add insulation and they find $1.1 million in energy savings? I don’t know. But The MinusCar Project has recently come into some money. The other day, after a long week of sitting in the driveway, I found dollars leaking out from around my car's gas cap. I know this sounds weird, but everytime we take a sock off the clothesline there's a dollar in it.

Coming soon…I Hear Charitable Giving Can Make You Rich (it must be true, I read it on the internets)

The rest of Chuck Colson's actual words can be found here.

Report: October 29-November 4

Maybe it’s the lower temperature showers. Maybe it’s the lower temperature house. Maybe it’s the lower temperature bikes rides. Maybe it's a massive cold temperature feedback loop, causing increased comfort in colder temperature.

I broke new ground, I made a new high in low, I can now ride to work without a jacket down to around 30 degrees. This is about 10 degrees cooler than previous years. The downside of this is the margin for error is lower. A flat tire or injury could lead to some new experiences in cold, but overall I’m happy with this turn of events.

I have found it necessary to store a jacket at work though. Riding to work without a jacket is one thing, walking for or to lunch without one is unbearable.

Trips -
MinusCar: 11
Multi-occupant Auto: 4
Single occupant Auto: 2
Destinations: 22

I drove to work Thursday. I couldn’t get started in the morning which led to a choice between being a little late and a lot late. I chose a little. I drove. Friday I drove alone after riding into downtown to get The Wife’s car. I fetched The Boys from school and left them with The Wife while I met Snakepants for Friday night enchiladas. We talked about plans and goals for the new biking season (I guess that means fall begins a new biking season)…and yes, we talked about you.

My Car Miles: 9
My Bike Miles: 51

This weekend I noticed The Google has a new photo of my house. I’m pleased with how it turned out. The MinusCar Car is right where it belongs. In the driveway.

Items: Halloween

A bit of Halloween morbidity - Sunday evening someone visited after Googling "michael christensen - suicide 2005." I was pleased to see the hit was from Arizona, lending me plenty of hope it wasn't someone who knows me (or recently heard me speak) and was wondering just how bad my 2005 started out. Thankfully The MinusCar Project isn't the #1 hit for that search. Erm, at least it wasn't on that day.

I received an unusual food allergy alert today. Seems Dutch Kettle failed to include anchovies in their BBQ sauce ingredient list (seafood is one of the main food allergens). Being a guy who is interested in the variety of secret ingredients that can be tossed into a BBQ recipe I was pleased to learn of this unique one. I suppose they didn't want to include anchovies on the list for fear that nobody would buy it.

Speaking of allergies - how was trick or treating? We did the usual. Send the kids out and have them occasionally drop by home to fill up our candy bowl with all their nut tainted candy. Re-trick-or-treating, it's great fun.

Happy Halloween

For something truly scary head over to the Living on Liguid blog. You'll find a photo of mewithhim and the mewithoutyou drummer. I'm the one who doesn't know how to act when he's getting his picture taken.

Report: October 22-28

I guess I’m healed. I watched CNN’s Planet in Peril this week. I didn’t lose a bit of sleep. Excellent. I think that means I can finally watch An Inconvenient Truth. That’s so last year!

I understand from Planet in Peril that the UN says the Earth is losing species at 1100 times the natural rate. That’s interesting.

Have you ever sat amongst the cars at a red light on a cold morning and all around you are those nice puffs of white steam from the nearby exhaust pipes intermixed with the shiny red brake lights? We understand that’s poison right? We understand on that cold day when we warm up the car for 15 minutes before we travel 20 minutes to work, if we fail to open our garage door the species population in the garage will decline at much higher than natural rate.

Speaking of Al Gore and his energy sucking home…next time you hear someone complain about it you’ll be sure to ask them to show you how they reduced electricity consumption in their home over the last 12 months.

When you hear someone complain about the CNN crew visiting 14 different countries for their TV show and the environmental damage it causes, you’ll be sure to check with them about their flying habits now that they seem to understand the damage just one flight does.

I’m feeling good. I had an exceptional weekend and today didn’t let me down either. Moron that later.

Trips -
MinusCar: 14
Multi-occupant Auto: 6
Single occupant Auto: 1
Destinations: 30

I was in the car alone on Wednesday so I could pick up KT. We me The Pastor and the blogger that is Living On Liquid and enjoyed the musical stylings of mewithoutyou. It was like a Souled Out Stage reunion there. Lots of Too Write Love On Her Arms t-shirts, which I guess is all the rage these days. Just once was I in a car by myself this week. He’s a mile away.

Otherwise, I was in a car Friday so I could date my wife. Sunday we drove to The Parents to jump in their pile of leaves. It was fun until someone got hurt…and then it was still sort of fun because it wasn’t me that got hurt.

My Car Miles: 0
My Bike Miles: 91

I met my friend (yep I have one) for lunch on Thursday. On the way out the restaurant he told me about a required 2 hour bit of solitude he needed to do for a seminar or educational experience. He was pleased it seemed like 20 minutes. I declined his offer for a ride back to work, on the grounds that walking is a solitude type experience for me.

Not 2 minutes later I’m helping a young man and two rather helpless women stuff a 5 foot wide mattress into a 4 foot wide SUV. We put 10 years of wear on that mattress before it left the parking lot, and she thanked me for my good deed of the day. I said it wasn't a problem, I’m not in a hurry. If I was in a hurry I’d be driving, not destroying your mattress.

Date Night

I dated The Wife tonight. We tried and failed to go to a movie.

I was reading Ebert reviews to pick some possibilities. Near the bottom of his Rendition review I found the best turn of phrase I've heard in a long time.

See, Rendition is about Extraordinary Rendition, the procedure of removing a suspect from their life and doing stuff to them that - depending on what your definition of is - is torture.

Ebert quotes James Rocchi from Cinematical.com - "Anytime someone tells you that you can't make an omelet without breaking eggs, immediately demand to see the omelet."

CX

This is LB CX.


This is what goes on in other cities while you were sitting in your garage with cold fingers wiping last week's rain off you bike.

Report: October 15-21

If you’re not riding now, you’re never going to be riding when it actually gets cold. It’s most helpful to me to track windchill, clothing, and perceived comfort. I know from year to year what to wear at most any temperature giving me NO temperature related EXCUSES for not riding.

Rain! Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Rain! I didn’t get to ride my bike much because it was too wet for me. I became practiced at getting ready for work early enough to catch a ride downtown with The Wife. From there I took the bus toward work. Ironically, Friday it stopped raining but I wasted my extra morning minutes until I had to drive or be unreasonably late.

I got stranded at a bus transfer station Monday. Bus A was so late I was unable to catch bus B. I had to call The Wife out of work to go pick up The Boys. Not good! I caught a more frequent bus to downtown and brought them home. As the week progressed they appeared to continue to struggle with that route.

Trips -

MinusCar: 10

Multi-occupant Auto: 13

Single occupant Auto: 4

Destinations: 43

My notes say I was a single occupant once because of the transit fiasco. The second time to return The Car home after having the radiator replaced (driving the car for the sake of the car). Once to pick up The Boy 9 and two friends at the school skate party (we car pooled but I could have made it better by just going to the party), and finally Friday’s previously mentioned laziness.

My Car Miles: 16

My Bike Miles: 44

For all the rain I’m pretty happy with 16 miles on my car. I’ve had bigger weeks with much nicer weather.

Most of the bike miles came from the Friday FAB Starlight ride. I hooked up with a nice group of 12 for a nighttime lap around the local multi-trail.

Is This Kansas?

"Citing concerns about global warming, Kansas’ top regulator today denied a long-awaited permit to build a controversial coal plant in western Kansas."

It doesn't matter to me if this was a good or bad decision. It doesn't matter to me if the decision gets overturned in court or somewhere else. What does matter to me is...

"'I believe it would be irresponsible to ignore emerging information about the contribution of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to climate change and the potential harm to our environment and health if we do nothing,' said Rod Bremby, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment

Surely there are huge concerns about the economy -

"The announcement comes as a huge blow to Sunflower Electric Power Corp. and many in western Kansas who had argued the plant was vital to the region’s economy."

But just as surely there are more important things than the economy -

"...I'm encouraged by this decision because protecting the people of Kansas in every corner of our state has always mattered to me more than anything else." - Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius

I was unable to determine if pro-life Kansas presidential candidate Senator Sam Brownback agrees.

Report: October 8-14

Trips -

MinusCar: 9
Multi-occupant Auto: 6
Single occupant Auto: 5
Destinations: 30

I’m in a pretty unmotivated period right now. I seem to have misplaced my muse. Or I burned out. Or both. Maybe I’ll uncover it later. In the meantime starting up these reports again will give me a good way to keep The Project alive.

My Car Miles: 23
My Bike Miles: 82.5

The highlight of the week was the 50 mile Saturday. Beginning with the Snakebite led Coffee & Doughnut ride. A trip to the LBS where somehow I ended up hanging the I.F. in the back room and rode away on a single speed roadster (Cannondale Capo).

After a bit of lunch I then joined the FAB Apple Orchard ride. I rode nice and slow behind The Owner and his three daughters. It was fun to hang with them and watch the 30 some riders ahead of us mixing it up with the unusually heavy traffic. Most everybody seemed to get along fine. Speaking of FAB children, I count 6 child rollers on that trip.

Pizza and FAB board elections followed that. I’ll be treasurer for another year.

Off to The Boy 5’s soccer game. “I don’t know dear, these bikes just seem to attach themselves to me.” And back home.

E. Coli Nation

To mark the passing of the "bad week for burger" I watched Fast Food Nation today. I thought it was an excellent movie.

Road Trip: MC In MPLS

Saturday morning, after covering up The Boy 5’s vomit on the fine linen table cloth with the fine linen napkin, The Family left The Car behind in Minneapolis for a day.

It all begins here on Nicollet Island. That’s our car, the one with the South Dakota plates.

The playground beckons.

We walked along the river front to the Stone Arch Bridge. We gazed downstream and said things like, “see the bridge between the one we’re on and that one? No? That’s because there only used to be a bridge there.”

We had a very nice vantage to link what we learned in Chicago about river locks to this trip. That’s quite a drop! Almost 50ft if we believe the nearby Segway tour guide.

We visited the Mill City Farmer’s Market. The dried apples from Ames Farm became a weekend companion for The Boy 5 and a suitable substitute for the breakfast he left on the table earlier.

We were also particularly impressed with Molly O’Brien’s Sassy Knitwear (not so much her website), “always organic or recycled content.” I have a feeling I’ll be seeing some of this stuff around the house before too long…but we can’t consume on this trip for want of a vehicle.

We couldn’t resist the nearby Guthrie Theater’s reflective - things.

We got some tourist to take this family photo.

We abandoned our visit to the Mill City Museum after The Wife had the presence of mind to inquire after the likelihood we’d encounter wheat within. Apparently allergic reactions have even occurred in the lobby.

We ventured by the Metrodome to catch the light rail. The Boy 9 was impressed that the Packers would be playing there Sunday.

In this family no trip is complete without a train ride. This one took us to Lake Street to catch the fabled Bus 21 and included the following conversation:

"Would you mind if I gave your son a $1?"

"I appreciate the thought but I'd rather you didn't."

"Uh...it's for, you know, his bank."

"Yes, I know. Thank you. Please don't."

Lunch and an actual clothing purchase at the Midtown Global Market. "We exist to develop and maintain a public market that builds upon the economic, social and cultural assets within the surrounding community..."

The Boy 9 scans the directory for vendors that might be selling Legos.

Back on the 21 to Lake Calhoun. Please don’t bother the boys at Calhoun Rentals when it’s raining. Instead of a tandem, trailer and rollerblades we sat under the pavilion and wondered if the wind surfers would get struck by lightning. They didn’t. We didn’t either.

The Sculpture Garden was next. This is a photograph of the most photographed sculpture in the garden, "Spoonbridge and cherry."

Look. Traffic.

Back on the train to ride to the end of the line. The Mall Of America. We supped. The Boy 9 wanted Legos. The Boy 5 wanted to play the boats. In the food court The Boy 9 observed the log ride logs are…wait…fake. I suggested, in fact, the whole building was fake. He rightly pushed back about the McDonalds he was about to enjoy. I abandoned the argument and resolved to resume the conversation after he’d seen The Matrix.

Indeed the length of this post somewhat matched the length of the day. We returned to the inn and observed it still standing and The Car still parked.

Blech

I threw up on my way to work today. I've never thrown up on the bike before. A new experience. I can't remember if it feels better to throw up in a car.

I got left behind in a conversation today because I don't watch TV. Apparently there's an iPhone ad with a song. Apparently I'm the only one who hasn't seen it. I'm ok with that because if I saw an iPhone I'd want one. I don't want to want one. Right now, I don't want one. (It's working.)

The TV was on this morning long enough for them to switch to the weatherman who was on the street saying how he loves to give away Crest Whitener mouth strips. Yeah, me too buddy. That's what I went to weatherman school for. Today's crappy weather was sponsored by Crest. Click.

I'm supporting No Impact Man as he swims around the southern tip of Manhattan. You can too. Don't know No Impact Man? You should.

No too long ago (but not yesterday either), my friend The Prairie Progressive bestowed on me The Pissant Provocateur Award. Thank you very much Tim. He also wrote a few very nice sentences about The MinusCar Project. I like to encourage that sort of behavior so I'm linking to it.



Last and not least, in the mail today I received my Facility Bike Club Mojo Bag. It's hanging off The MinusCar messenger bag. Thanks Jeff (MinusCar essay #17) & Kristy.



Have a happy Friday.

It's Bloggerrific

I had great fun reading the internets today. Starting first with Curt at Can't See the Forest who quoted Alan Watts:

"I find that the sensation of my Self as an ego inside a bag of skin is really an hallucination. What we really are is, first of all, the whole of our body. And although our bodies are bounded with skin, and we can differentiate between inside and outside, they cannot exist except in a certain kind of natural environment.

Obviously a body requires air . . . in order to occur, the body must be on a mild and nutritive planet with just enough oxygen in the atmosphere, spinning regularly near a certain kind of star. That arrangement is just as essential to my body as my heart, my lungs, and my brain.

So to describe myself in a scientific way, I must also describe my surroundings, which is a clumsy way of getting around to the realization that you are the entire Universe. However, we do not normally feel that way because we have constructed in thought an abstract idea of our Self."

Later in the day I found this quote from Will Braun of Geez Magazine. It's published in The Idea Factory Magazine, online here:

"I am a Mennonite farm boy from the Bible Belt of Manitoba. Sometimes Mennonites drive me nuts, but I claim my heritage and identity. I don't really see it as a choice – it's who I am.

I believe it is okay to have a love-hate relationship with the church. I don't have to decide if it is all good or all bad. It is both – like me – and I can be part of it anyway.

I believe in being connected to other people. It is popular these days to say ‘I am spiritual but not religious.’ I say bunk to that. I am worried that that leads to the individualization of belief – we all just pick and choose our own little beliefs and do our own thing. It can be a rather arrogant, me-first approach. I think the individualization of belief is the end of belief.

Faith is about connecting to that which is larger than ourselves, and doing so in humility, recognizing the value of relating with others who have varying beliefs and lives. I believe in organized spirituality. I want to be part of a collection of people that includes different generations, people of widely varying backgrounds, and people with whom I disagree."

Walk This Way

I went for a lunchtime walk the other day. I do this often. When my company moved the changing room situation degraded and I’m no longer comfortable changing clothes for lunchtime rides.



(goof - cameraman is clearly visible in the frame)

I don’t mind the walking thing though. It’s two or three hours a week to further minimize the number of man-made things around me. It’s paths by green pastures...



and quiet waters type stuff.



The sky was blue.



I took my camera this time. I once saw a piece of tree bark...



with legs moving through the water with purpose. Another time I came across a turtle the size of a quarter.



This time I was looking for signs of fall. Sure it’s early, but there are a few more leaves on the ground than usual at home .

I didn’t find any signs of fall.



The next morning I found this. I hope it didn’t fall too far.

Apparently mammal extinction is in the news lately.

I'm hiding my nipples.