RI Sustainable Living Fair, June 9th

Hey, Check out the RI Sustainable Living Expo on June 9th in Coventry. I'll probably head up there weather/FARTAB weekend we pick/etc dependant. FlatTires went there last year, said it was a little on the hippy side of things, that could be good too depending on what kind of day you're looking for.

I think this is the year we'll put in a clean wood boiler to heat the house, and use it for hot water storage for the solar panels when we get around to that. First things first tho, insulation and better windows. (Hint: 30 year old single pane windows SUCK. They are pretty much giant holes in the house that all our expensive BTUs sneak out of. )

It should be amusing to go to the fair just to see all the greenies who DRIVE there, then talk about sustainability.

------------------------------
Author's Addendum:

So when I got to work this morning I got some b@ll busting from a friend.

"Hypocrite" he said, "How else do you want people to get there? Its not like they could take the bus out to the woods. How are *you* going to get there? I bet you drive..."

Starting to thing about it, he had a point. People who lived in providence could take the bus there in a reasonable amount of time, but anywhere else it would take half the day.

Yeah, I have a car. I drive it *alot* more than I'd like to. Thats even with the recent move closer to work etc. This time of year (It's light out and warm enough to easily ride from 6am to 7-pm) I could ride my bike just about everywhere I had to go: work, movie store, beer store, pizza place, hardware store, department store, and the grocery store. Tangent: the ride to either the grocery, department or hardware store rides include a *scary* section of road that I wouldn't expect many people to want to ride on, but i'm goign to keep doign it anyway. How could it *possibly* be legal to build a brand new grocery store without there being a road with bike lanes out front??? (Built where fiddlesticks used to be, btw)

anyhow... I could go on for hours. The point is, while cars are a necessary evil, even in new construction we're building infrastructure to continue to encourage people to keep using them rather than some more realistic alternatives.

My favorite quote from people who complain about the bus? "Why should I subsidize something I don't use?" Guess what j@ckass? People who ride the bus helped 'subsidize' the ridiculously expensive road you're driving your private vehicle on.

I guess the point of this is that while I'll probably ride a bike there, its not that reasonable to expect everyone to so I'm going to shut up about it. Put up and shut up will be my mantra. :)