Taking time off - see ya!

I am going on hols and will not even consider going online until the end of August.

What happens when we no longer can fuel our cars?

There has been a lot of speculation about the death of the suburbs over the last year or so including dire predictions on peak oil and what will happen to the economy and the world when we can no longer rely on cheap gas to survive.

Is there any truth to the matter? A quick online search on death of the suburbs returns naysayers, doom and gloomers and links to books on how to regain your spirituality while embracing the suburbanite "culture".

The fact is the 'burbs are a car lovers world. Always have been and for the most part always will be - only thing is car worship is not sustainable. Which of course means that when we do run out of oil whether it is next week or in 100 years we will have to find a better way to get around. Until then necessity is the mother of invention and if there is no need to change we won't. That my dear readers is human nature.

Vacation time can't come soon enough

One more week until I get 2 weeks down time. It has been a very busy summer and I feel like I am running a marathon just to get a little relief.

Hard to keep up with family life, housework, budgeting, facebook, digg, reddit, work, gmail, volunteer work and just staying on top of it all.

2 weeks off will do me good. I hope.

Pesticides - can't live without 'em

My brother came by on the weekend and played devils advocate on the pesticide bylaw presentation I am helping to write.

He got me thinking about what it is we are trying to do with our request to city council to introduce a bylaw.

He said, "What about the average Joe who has lived in the same house for 50 years and every spring has sprayed pesticides on his perfect green lawn and nothing happened to him or his family. What gives you the right to force him to change?"

And I did not have an answer to that question.

But then again I do not have an answer on how to fix climate change, how to wean us off the car or how the U.S. can exit Iraq. I don't have a lot of answers.

The best answer I could come up with was, "How smart is it to pour chemicals all over a lawn?" Pretty pathetic.

We can quote studies, show charts, talk about people dying and generally play the emotional card but will that do any good? If I was a councilor I know exactly how I would vote on this issue but what if I had 60% of my constituents who said "Piss off, I love my chemicals and green lawn and I am not hurting anyone."?

Actually I still know how I would vote - we need elected officials with a clear, concise, green, smart mandate. As long as their mandate is the same as mine of course ;-).

Does anyone have any answers to these conundrums?

Very tired

The CN crew that laid all the track at the new GO station platform over the long weekend must be tired. Maybe even more tired than I am. In fact the slight joy I felt at seeing the track down could not keep me awake this morning as I promptly fell asleep on the train. I woke up at Union feeling more groggy than ever.

This will be a very long day.

Just getting mellow

It is the kind of Sunday morning I love - sunny, calm and still with a hint of the heat of the day to come.

The goldfish are out of the murky depths of the pond breaking the surface to nudge at a piece of apple - one of their favourite treats.

And the Rhubarb faces the sun its broad green leaves. And the new yellow tomatoes sag on the vine ripe and ready for the table. The coffee is hot and life feels full of promise and hope.

GO train not so green?

This morning I wanted to recycle a water bottle I had been carrying around in my bag for a week or so - I know water bottles suck and I should not use them, mea culpa - and looked for a recycling bin on the platform of the Burlington GO station.

Turns out there is no recycling bin on these platforms. Sorta silly, I thought that in this day and age every public space should have-easy-to-find and easy-to-use recycling receptacles.

Whew!

It is hot, dry and brown in southern Ontario. Sure are a lot of dusty lawns and parks out there. Are we officially in a drought?

UPDATE: Apparently we have had (if I am reading this correctly, as the wording seems a little, well wordy) 60% less rain fall from May to July.

Our cities' poor trees are wilting under the waterless onslaught - in fact I have seen some maples (shown in a bad cell phone shot to the left) in the parking lot of the Catholic School board facility at the corner of Drury Lane and Fairview turning red and brown and start to drop their leaves. I pass these trees each day on my morning and nightly bike commute home from the GO station. Every time I pass by I wince. Maybe the city could spare some water from the soccer fields?