I'm greenifying, are you?

I was going to start this post by asking if you knew that I was born on Earth Day, but then I had the good sense to look it up, and found out that it's actually celebrated on the day after I graced Earth with my presence. Oh well, we'll deal, right? With a baby on the way, the pressure is on to pinch those pennies. And since I drive a big SUV, I'm a card-carrying member of the gas-pump-blues club. When gas hit $3.75, I started paying more than $75 to fill up after my gas light comes on (which happens more than I'd like to admit). This isn't a pity party though, and if it were, you wouldn't be invited. I don't like my situation, so I'm doing something about it.

The obvious fix is to get rid of the truck, and it is something we've carefully considered and decided against. We go camping and fishing (with our canoe) regularly and there's no way we could do those things with a compact car, let alone fit all of our stuff and the dog. We would end up taking two cars, defeating the purpose. We have always limited use of the truck to necessary occasions, and always take wifey's car when going out together, and I use mass transit or telecommute where possible. But at $4.10+ per gallon now, I'm dreading my next trip to the pump. Megan reads Readers Digest and showed me an article about some nutjob who can eek out 180mpg (in a hybrid) by — basically — driving slower. He despises hitting the brake, so he tries to time everything to where he coasts to a stop when he has to. He regularly takes turns at 50+ mph in order to not waste his downhill momentum. Obviously he's an extreme case, but it did make me think about how I can improve my own mileage, and soften the blow to my wallet a bit. So lately I've been making a conscious effort to drive slower overall — going 55 as opposed to 70 on highways takes an average of about 3 minutes longer to get "there," but has improved my mpg by about 3 or 4. I'm more aware of my brake use and follow further behind people to allow me room to coast when they tap their brakes. I take my roof-rack (sail) off between uses. I try to stay on top of filling my tires with air if they get low (Wawa has free air), and so far I've been good about routine maintenance and oil changes. Put the windows down when driving less than 40mph, and use the Air Conditioner for anything above that — because having the windows down on the highway causes more drag-related gas efficiency loss than using the AC. All in all, I've improved my mileage by about 4-8, up to about 18 now, and I hope to get it over 20 soon, and in the process I've decreased my stress and haven't had to make any significant sacrifices or changes to my lifestyle or schedule. The only way to bring gas prices down is to reduce dependence. I'm doing my part… are you?

The Texas Debate

We recorded the Democratic debate that took place in Austin, TX and just got around to watching it last night. Hoo boy. Going into it, I already didn't like Hillary. Between her recent family history and the fact that she is the first formidable female hopeful, she's got a lot to overcome; and I think that this has made her lose sight of what's important. I don't think she's honestly given much thought to what will happen after the election and instead is just focusing on winning — and doing so by making promises she can't keep. (Specifically, she mentioned that she would address immigration, taxes, health care, and NAFTA all on her first day in office!) Something in particular that she said that caught my interest was that discrimination based on race, religion, and creed are unconstitutional, but that discrimination of the sick is not (and she would change that)… Here's some news for you: Insurer must pay $9 million for canceling policy – Health Net dropped coverage for woman undergoing cancer treatment. How's that for legal precedent? (And without you in office, I might add!) To add insult to injury, throughout the debate she ignored the moderators indications that she was taking too long to respond, she repeatedly and deliberately went off-topic, and the straw that broke this camel's back was the mud-slinging at the end. Immediately after Obama explained the situation behind his alleged "plagiarism" and dismissed it as something silly to discuss, she dove onto the topic as if it was something she had forgotten to bring up herself. To me, that looked childish. It looked like she was grasping at straws. I think that Hillary feels like she's fighting a losing battle, and she's doing whatever she can to win. Kind of a "shoot first, ask questions later" campaign. On the other hand, Obama was calm, cool, and collected throughout the debate. Unlike SOME hopefuls, he didn't raise his voice when he disagreed. He answered every question directly, and still managed to rebut some of the ridiculous off-topic claims Hillary was making in a reasonable amount of time for each response. I think that Obama feels like he's ahead in the race, and went into the debate with a conservative attitude and the intention of not alienating anyone who might be leaning to his side of the fence, rather than trying to convince people to hop the fence. What saddens me is the idea that it's quite possible we could see an Obama-Clinton ticket. I honestly don't want to see Hillary in the White House, but if that's the price we have to pay to get an intelligent, well spoken, proven leader in, I'm willing to pay it.

Breakfast at Huckabee's

When I was in grade school, my parents urged me to join the cub scouts. Probably just to get me out of the house and some peace and quiet for themselves… but that is another story altogether. I joined the cub scouts, and found it was something I really enjoyed doing. Before I knew it I was a wolf, bobcat, bear, and weebelo. Soon I got to move up and become a real boy scout. I felt like I was on top of the world. I mean, now I get to crap in the woods and play with knives and fire! Every boy's dream! Life doesn't get any better! Scouting was something that stuck with me throughout my teenage years. Camping and brotherhood being the two things I loved most about it. It took a little pushing towards the end when I was tiring of all the work necessary to make the leap from Life to Eagle, but I did it. I had been a member of no less than 5 Boy Scout Troops, and I was awarded my Eagle Scout rank during my freshman year of college. (I completed the requirements just under the 18-year-old wire, and had my ceremony later.) My name is on a plaque of Eagle Scouts from Troop 817, from Salisbury Maryland. So is Matt Robins. Matt is about my age, and still hails from Salisbury. He made Eagle around the same time as me, too. You may have heard of Matt Robins, especially if you support or follow Mike Huckabee. Because Matt and a friend of his wrote a song parody about supporting Huckabee. It's become so popular that they were asked to perform before Huckabee's speeches to the GOP Primary this Saturday. I don't support Huckabee, but I think the song is brilliant. Definitely go check it out! They have other Huckabee-related songs, too.