sarahmichelef: (Default)
sarahmichelef ([personal profile] sarahmichelef) wrote2008-06-03 12:58 pm

Our Tipping Point

Our tipping point is apparently $4/gallon.  We're not canceling any trips or anything, but we are definitely economizing our car usage.  I'm planning on ONE trip out to do a whole list of errands this week (instead of running out a couple of times during the week - always combining trips, but not on this scale).  We're starting to plan such that the car only makes one trip downtown every day - depending on our schedules, M will transport TRex to or from school via public transit.  Often I drive to the train station to pick them up when they take the train home, but yesterday I walked to meet them and brought a stroller (she is not up for walking over a mile by herself yet).  If it's not raining this afternoon, I expect we'll do the same today.

One of this week's errands is dropping my bike off for a cleaning & tune-up, and we are thinking about getting either a trailer bike or a seat for TRex.  Her friend J apparently did really well on their trailer last weekend - maybe once my bike is tuned up we'll see if we can hook their trailer up and try it out sometime.  (One concern is that my kid has extra-short legs... J is a good 2-3" taller than her.)  With a way to transport TRex by bike, we can bike to the library, to the farmer's market (which opens this weekend), to the playground, etc.

Next time I go out, I have to put gas in the car.  I am NOT looking forward to that.  The first time I paid over $4/gallon was when I filled the gas can for the lawnmower last week.
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[identity profile] helwen.livejournal.com 2008-06-03 05:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Sounds like some excellent planning. We reached ours a while ago, but we have the minivan so it's always been a concern for us. Now I'm working on being able to walk to town more often. It's only 2 miles each way, but if I've been working in the garden I'm usually too tired. At least I can do the 1 mile each way to Sidehill Farm regardless of what I've been doing beforehand... and they have salad greens alread (greenhouse), so I may add that to my list of stuff to get from them, at least until mine come up...

[identity profile] tracytris.livejournal.com 2008-06-03 05:43 pm (UTC)(link)
unsure if Trex is big enough, but they also have little bike add ons that are similar to creating a tandem bike - that may be another solution.

[identity profile] alphasarah.livejournal.com 2008-06-03 05:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, that'd be the trailer bike. The concern is that she may not be able to reach the pedals - she is short anyway, and most of her height is in her torso.

[identity profile] cranky-dragon.livejournal.com 2008-06-03 08:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh lawdy, the poor thing is long-waisted like me.

You're going to have sooooo much fun going jeans shopping when she's a teenager.

[identity profile] alphasarah.livejournal.com 2008-06-03 08:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, she definitely is. She consistently gets too "tall" for shirts and swimsuits before they're too small on any other dimension. And we buy her capri pants to wear as, well, pants.

[identity profile] meneleth.livejournal.com 2008-06-03 08:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Good for you! When Meg was a toddler and we lived in NoDak, I biked to work and had a back seat so I could drop her off at day care. That was just to be healthy way back then. Now I *would* bike to work, but 7 miles each way through city traffic could be considered suicidal on a lot of levels. And I would take the metro except that I have to stop and pick up the office mail every morning. They put in a bus stop at our driveway and we wanted to take the bus/rail for concerts downtown but of course, it doesn't run to our place that late. However, once the weather is decent, hubby is going to take the motorcycle and I'll switch from my minivan to the Cruiser. It's a little savings anyway.