OK, so I felt a little smug. I thought, I won't ride in a car this Sunday. I had it all planned out, I would ride my bike to church, I would hang around the house, dinner plans with a couple down the road.
Well, the day before, this 50 year old man went running. Now, I run from time to time. I can run a good 5k with no problem. I can run a 10k. I can run 10 miles. But what I did was, I ran 17 miles. What in the world possessed me, I don't know. I had company, it was slow and pleasant. However, did I mention I am 50? Oh boy, did I pay the next morning.
The next morning, the Don't Drive Sunday, I awoke to rain. I wanted to go to church to honor some high school graduates, one of whom was the daughter of a friend of mine. I could not ride. Heck, I had trouble walking. So I accepted a ride in my wife's hybrid. Now I could have felt really bad, and I was not happy. However, I also knew there was nothing I could do about it.
I took solace in the fact it was a hybrid. I did not ride, drive or use a car the rest of the day. I even carried a crock pot full of soup down the hill for dinner. Just as importantly, I spent two nights using a reel mower (no gas, electric, or whatever) to mow our 1/3 acre lot. Saved about a gallon of gas. Probably more than my wife's hybrid used to take us to church.
So although do not drive day was not perfect, the idea was. It was intentional. It forced me to think about my fossil fuel consumption (the wife in the couple at dinner took great delight in turning the lights on and saying "Now you are using fossil fuels" and then turning them off and saying "Now you are not"!). All in all I feel this is the greatest success of all. I cannot simply stop the world and go back to the stone age. Nor would I want to. But I can be mindful.
I cannot wait for the next great experiment!
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