I took this earlier this year as a summer storm rolled in.
by James Brush
Year: 2006
This morning one of those thick fogs settled in over the whole area. The kind of fog that makes me lose track of where I am on my route as all references to time and space disappear only to reveal hints and outlines of objects as I drift past wondering if I’ll miss the exit, the turn off, an oncoming car.
Drifting through memory to other foggy mornings, I recall driving to Dallas in ’94. I had a gig working as a grip for one of the networks that was covering a golf tournament. My car was on its last legs, but I hoped it would make it since the pay would be solid.
After about an hour on the road, I completely lost track of my location. I felt like a living example of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle. I knew my speed and direction, but had only the vaguest notion of my location, which had been reduced to a series of probabilities: I was somewhere between Austin and Dallas.
Somewhere in the great foggy between, the car stopped, and I coasted through the gray predawn, drifting on a downhill slope towards what appeared to be an exit. I steered to the exit and picked up some momentum, enough to take me a little ways down and over to the shoulder of the access road.
Naturally, the car wouldn’t start, and I couldn’t see more than about twenty feet in any direction, so I started hiking north. I didn’t have to walk far before shapes began to materialize. As I approached, these shapes took on the outline and density of cars. Lots of cars.
As I walked closer, a sign emerged and I saw that I was at a car dealership. I walked in out of the fog and a salesman, who was just opening the place up, came to greet me and asked, “What can I help you find?”
“Umm, me. Where am I?” Sounding a bit like an amnesiac.
That’s when I found out I was in Waco…
And then, this morning, I drifted out of memory, off the highway, down another exit ramp, a bit unsure of my exact location, uncertain if I was on the right exit, but knowing the road would lead me somewhere.
There are these times,
And then some days…
There are the leaves on the neighbor’s tree
That haven’t fallen yet
They’re golden crisp and burned
Standing out form the mistletoe
All around
Some mornings the sky is just the opposite
And the leaves stand out
But never seem to fall
I’ll watch them every morning
While the dogs investigate the yard
I know those leaves will never fall
Until I stop watching
All of this, this time, this day
It’s falling all around…
There is all of this and then these people too
A little bit of everything:
- “My Baby’s Gone” – The Pogues – Waiting for Herb
- “Telegraph” - Medeski, Scofield, Martin & Wood – Outlouder
- “Lollie Lou” - T-Bone Walker – The Complete Imperial Recordings
- “Hairdresser on Fire” - Morrissey – Bona Drag
- “Get Lost” - Sasha & John Digweed – Communicate
- “I Against I” - Bad Brains – I Against I
- “Big Time” - Medeski, Martin & Wood – The Dropper
- “Elizabeth” - Ornette Coleman – Broken Shadows
- “Living Alone” - John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers – A Hard Road
- “Wild Blue” - Dave Douglas – Freak In
Guest blogging at In the Pink Texas again: To EOC or Not to EOC.
According to the Official Records Division of the Slate/Treehugger Green Challenge my final score is 8399, which means I’ve promised to take the annual equivalent of 0.86 cars off the road.
I have reduced 45.95% of the carbon emissions I reported at the start of the challenge, and I’ve actually reduced 343% of the emissions I pledged to cut over the last eight weeks.
To reward myself, I think I’ll have me an organic beer.
And so all things must end including the Slate/Treehugger Green Challenge carbon diet. In this final action quiz I pledged to reduce my carbon load by 617 lbs or .06 cars.
This brings my total reduction to 8498 lbs (~.89 cars) off of my original footprint of 18274 lbs (~1.83 cars), a 47% reduction to a new total footprint of 9776 lbs, which appears to be less than the equivalent of one car so I’m assuming that the statistical cars used for these calculations must be gas guzzlers because I can’t seen how my footprint could be less than a car since I do, in fact, own a car, and did not plan to purchase any carbon offsets.
Regardless of imaginary cars, though, the final quiz focused on home and office issues, and I pledged to use recycled paper, avoid printing emails whenever possible, reduce my garbage by 25% and replace the monitor with an Energystar model.
I’d already done these things, except the garbage which – based on unscientific calculations – has been reduced by at least 50% just by recycling all paper. I’m basing this on the fact that it now takes three weeks to fill my garbage can instead of one.
If I could recycle the dog shit in the backyard, I’d probably be able to save the world myself. But I scoop it up so that I can use the unpowered hand mower that I’ve had for a few years now, which was another item on the action quiz that I’ve already got covered.
My action quiz results included the following information:
- Switching to 100 percent recycled paper for your home office can save about 75 pounds of CO2 per person per year.
- Reducing your garbage by 25 percent saves about 500 pounds of CO2 per person per year.
- Replacing your home fax machine with an Energy Star-rated one saves about 82 pounds of CO2 per person per year.
Overall, this whole thing hasn’t really opened my eyes to anything I didn’t already know. In most cases, I was already doing the things that they are encouraging.
I guess that bottom line is that climate change is one of those issues in which anyone can make simple, easy changes that when combined with others doing the same can ripple outwards and have effects far greater than we might initially imagine.
Not everyone can do everything, but I think anyone can make some changes. All it requires is changing a few habits.
Apparently there are awards for blogs. The blogs that people actually read, anyway. The ones that are closer to the bright center of the blogosphere.
This year, there is an award for best science blog and the Bad Astronomer has summoned his legions and asked them to encourage their own readers to vote for The Bad Astronomy Blog. There is intense rivalry between the astronomer and the biologist who runs Pharyngula who feels he should win.
I’m voting for the Bad Astronomy Blog because it’s one of my daily reads and it keeps me connected with a passion I’ve had all my life. I encourage you to do likewise, but regardless of who wins, I feel lucky to have found out about Pharyngula, which is a very cool science blog and will probably become a daily read as well.
The best thing about this? Everyone may vote more than once. I suspect even the dead are allowed to vote. Of course what should I expect in this outlaw region that is the blogosphere.
On Saturday we went to Gruene, did a little Christmas shoppin’, some food eatin’ and, yes, even a bit of beer drinkin’.
It’s about the same down there every year, but then some samenesses are pretty refreshing, whether it’s lunch at The Gristmill or listening to some band I’ve never heard play in Gruene Hall while we put off the drive back up to Austin.
I enjoy walking off lunch and wandering through the old junk stores along the main strip, but my favorite is Gruene Hall. There’s something about sitting around in these old Hill Country beer joints forgetting about the world and everything in it.
Most years the trip to Gruene is when December starts to feel like Christmas.
Yesterday Emily, Ernest and I celebrated our birthday and just as she did not write and he did not draw yesterday,
I forgot to post at every chance
And finished blogging — then —
…at least for the weekend, but in my revel, I forgot to hound blog. So, instead of tales of my greys, I will point you, gentle reader, in the direction of Ironicus Maximus where you shall learn the tale of Greyhound Grace who saved a man’s life and probably earned herself a permanent place on the couch, if not her very own couch.