Bandolero by Day

I don't really make New Year's resolutions, but I figured it would be good to make some Earth Day resolutions.

1. Get into better shape so that I can ride my bike to more places. I think I'm going to follow this "couch-to-5k" running plan. I started yesterday, and man, it felt great to be exercising again. I'm so glad I found an inhaler that works; it's hard to believe that a little over a month ago I couldn't even make it up the stairs to my apartment.

I think I'll have to stretch week one into two or more weeks, though, because I am so out of shape now that you'd cry if you saw me in action.

2. Buy some fluorescent light bulbs once I run out of incandescents.


I'd like to add a number 3, "buy more locally-grown food" to this list, but for the fact that there is some sort of Tucsonian conspiracy going on where the only farmers' markets in this town run while I'm at work. All farmers' markets in Tucson: Thursday, Saturday, or Sunday, between nine and five. My work schedule: Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, between nine and five. What the fuck. Conspiracy.


So far, since moving out in August, I've done the following Green-ish things...

1. Found a local recycling center, since there's no recycling pick up at my apartment complex, and started taking all my goods there every week or so. Now that I've met some of the neighbors, maybe I'll offer to bring their stuff to the center as well? I can foresee this ending badly, though: "HOW MANY TIMES MUST I TELL YOU THAT YOU CANNOT RECYCLE USED TISSUES? CAN'T YOU READ? YOU ARE DOING THIS ON PURPOSE!"

2. Got some canvas bags at Trader Joe's to use when I shop, even when it's not at Trader Joe's. The difficult part is remembering to bring the damn bags WITH me, but I've gotten much better at it. I think I remember about 90% of the time now.

3. This one always sounds a bit lame to my ears, but oh well: I've started reusing the plastic beverage fountain cups from various convenience stores. Take them home, wash them, use them again next time I have a long drive ahead of me and need a drink. Most of those cups aren't recyclable, and those motherfuckers don't biodegrade at a reasonable speed. I do the same thing with water bottles, but those are at least recyclable (even if they don't recycle particularly well). I've ALSO been cutting down on the amount of plastic material I buy, which is much easier for some food products than for others, and sometimes downright impossible.


That's about it, really, besides being very frugal with my goods and electricity and water. Waste not want not and all that. Hopefully I can keep doing more.


HAPPY EARTH DAY. Remember: the planet will long outlive anything we do to it, but that doesn't mean that we can't kill OURSELVES in a horribly grotesque fashion. Maybe if we keep pushing it we can look just like Venus in a couple hundred years. Mmm, scorched descendants.

A Meej also asked me what my favorite exercise is, and the answer is: HIKING.

AND I GOT TO GO HIKING YESTERDAY.

The health issues I mentioned a while back are apparently due to asthma that does not respond to normal asthma medication and does not acutally manifest in any tests for asthma. Of course, that makes sense. At any rate, my doc hit upon a medication that IS working, and now I can ride my bike and go hiking and climb stairs without passing out and EVERYTHING, it's fantastic. I no longer have to be jealous of Meej and her fierce running. Of course, I need to get back into shape since it has been many a month since I've exercised with any regularity, so we'll see how that goes.

I also need to give props to mko for coming to visit me yesterday so that I would have someone to hike WITH, and watch stupid movies with and eat bad Mexican food with (next time we will eat GOOD Mexican food).

It's just like the Titanic, only filled with bears.

Meghan and I went hiking TWO WEEKENDS IN A ROW because we are AWESOME. Honestly, maintaining any sort of exercise routine is a big deal for me.

We did not get very far because there were allegedly coyotes at the other end of the trail. It seemed a good excuse to go back early, for as I pointed out, the coyotes were probably in better shape than us. And we were very worn out.

Week one: dead end at the top of a mountain.

Week two: coyotes.

If we're waylaid by bandits next weekend, I'm just going to take it as a sign that we should not be hiking (or at the very least, we should not be hiking at T-bird park).

Since Lesley was at home with a fever, we held off on "Curse of the Golden Flower" and saw "Children of Men" instead. I find I'm strangely drawn to Clive Owen. The movie itself was enjoyable, but I was a bit surprised when I came home to find out there was "Oscar buzz" for it. I'm just not sure it was that good. Of course, maybe I've just read too many dystopian future sci-fi books and so nothing really jumped out at me. I can imagine it having a greater emotional impact on, say, someone who hasn't read 1984 and Brave New World (and especially Childhood's End, though that's sort of a different story) over and over again.

Still a movie worth watching, I think. In fact, the greatest endorsement I can give this movie is that the TRL-reject teens sitting behind us stood up and proclaimed "That sucked!" when it was over.