Are you kidding me?

Why is it that people only notice the bad weather in their lives? You understand? What do you suppose is the ratio of folks going around complaining on a daily basis compared to those going around happily and joyful? Who knows, maybe it is equal, but I think we tend to notice the negativity more.

So that is what has brought me back to this blog today. I make no excuses for starting a blog and then not posting for ages. I am busy with life, I have a full-time job, I am the Board President of a non-profit organization in my spare time, I have a girlfriend, a dog, a house I am buying to fix up, I like to take up time cooking meals rather than buying them, I like to lay in bed and read sci-fi ---- point being, time is precious and short, and blogging sometimes seems pretentious or otherwise pointless in relation to what I could be doing with my time.

But today I (along with U.) was verbally assaulted on James St in Syracuse, right on the 400 Block as we were riding past the EconoLodge, the Snowdon and the gas station on the Corner. And something ugly like this I notice and it makes me want to write. Turns out that a car of people couldn't be patient over the course of one half of a city block because they just had to get into the Sunoco parking lot 10 seconds sooner. I don't know, maybe they were afraid someone was going to buy the last ice cream sandwich before they got there.

So long blasts on the horn were followed by yelling out the window at me for being inconsiderate or something to that effect, yes, the effect was harsher believe me. I think they said they were gonna call my momma or something. Oh yeah, and here's the kicker, I got threatened that I was "In the 'Hood!" Honey, that's my 'Hood, you just don't know it yet. Get out of your car and soak up some of this beautiful November weather, and get a life.

Now that I got that out, I can be happy again, enjoy the day Syracuse, it's a beautiful world if you're willing to take some time and see it.

EconoLodge Not So Neighborly

I live on Burnet Ave. The Econolodge that resides on ### James St has it's parking lot and trash disposal area butting up against the backside of its property on Burnet Ave. I guess they don't have much respect for those of us around its back end. Apparently, form the evidence of this picture. The Econolodge folks feel it is ok to simply blow their garbage onto the sidewalk and street that I use on a daily basis.

Oh well, I guess if they do not have to look at or have it on its property then its not their responsibility any more. Well they are sorely mistaken. I went to the lobby on Saturday night after I noticed this mess, and had the desk jockey there call the manager to tell him about the problem. Unfortunately I couldn't understand 1 word of it as they were speaking Indian. But I was told it would be taken care of.


Well as of this morning (Wednesday) it's not. I think that's long enough to have your maintenance personnel, or even yourself if you are the manager, to go out and clean up your mess. 4 days is long enough for me to see this mess. Who do I talk to at the city about this?

At least the yard next door, in which much work has gone into cleanup and renovation of the previously discarded home there recently, presents some joy and beauty to our street. Beautiful little purple violets(?) popping up so sweet.

Throw Away Culture Pollution...

...or, can't you at least wait until you find a trash can?

Walking down any street in the city, especially in the spring once the snow has melted, shows just how careless folks are with their consumer lifestyles. There are a number of little pocket parks on N. Salina St. Like this one here, that have nice little rose bushes in them, which however, are perfect traps for trash.

Of course, the simple issue here is that folks are polluting their own environment with their own trash. But the deeper issue is that there is soi much trash in the first place. See all the objects in that first photo? Where do you think they were cradled from?























So, I ask you, who do you think is responsible for our throwaway culture? Throwing away our resources and throwing away our lives?

One More Go

I almost forgot a final issue concerning my need to better implement non-car use into my daily work life. One thing I also have to be aware of is my need to haul large items, like a conference display board and table materials like brochures, computer, etc, to events. So how can I make that easier?

Strategy #4 - Bicycle Trailer. Time to think seriously about buying, designing, building a bicycle trailer to accommodate this sort of need. I could have used this for the ESF Green Building Conference last week, as it was downtown and I wouldn't have needed to drive if I had a different way to transfer all the display items. So why not a cargo trailer for my bike. It would have to be weatherproof too though so as to not harm the papers and such inside. But it could also be used for many other things, like grocery shopping, transporting gardening materials around town, etc.

Frustrating, Strategies for the Future

After having a job at the university last year, as a student Teaching Assistant, in which I was able to do most of my work on campus, I now have a position that requires me to visit various sites around the city and beyond. How frustrating it is becoming to try and use my legs to get where I need to go. Just in the past week I have had appoitments in DeWitt, East Syracuse, and Turning Stone in Verona. These are realistically bikeable (except Verona) though the time required would prevent me from having that time available to me as productive work time in the office. So what is a person to do? Here are some thoughts I have on strategy for the future:

1. Schedule as many of these types of appointments as I can on a single day and link them together so that the driving route with my car is the most efficient one I can come up with. This will take quite a bit of planning on the front end, and won't always be possible depending on the schedules of my clients, but I can try my best.

2. Get very intimately acquainted with the CENTRO bus routes in the city. I don't have much experience riding the buses here in Syracuse, never needed to before as I relied on walking and bicycling mostly. I guess it's time to study the CENTRO website.

3. Take a step back from from attendance at numerous meetings and events that aren't 100% necessary. This sounds easy, but I do make many contacts and network quite a bit, so getting out and to these sorts of business and topical sessions are very valuable to me. I can at least give more critical thought to if I need to attend them or not for now.

Anyone else have any thoughts or ideas for these types of strategies? I'd love to share them on this here blog if ya do!

Start of the Day

The start of my daily walk, is heading up my front steps and past my prayer flags.

from wikipedia:
The five colors represent the elements,^[1] and the Five Pure Lights and are arranged from left to right in a specific order. Different elements are associated with different colors for specific traditions, purposes and sadhana:

• Blue (symbolizing sky/space)
• White (symbolizing air/wind)
• Red (symbolizing fire)
• Green (symbolizing water)
• Yellow (symbolizing earth)

Traditionally, prayer flags are used to promote peace, compassion, strength, and wisdom. The flags do not carry prayers to 'gods,' a common misconception, rather the Tibetans believe the prayers and mantras will be blown by the wind to spread the good will and compassion into all pervading space. Therefore, prayer flags are thought to bring benefit to all.

The I-81 Challenge

Here is a new website I have just come across (or at least it is new to me), although the subject is not new. What the heck to do with the viaduct portion of I-81 on the south side of Syracuse now that it is reaching the end of its built life and is going to need tons of money pumped into it?

Well some folks argue that it should just be taken down, and traffic routed around Syracuse via Rt 481, leaving a more pedestrian friendly and connected neighborhood and city, especially bridging the gap between University Hill and downtown.

The website doesn't have much content yet, but it might be worthwhile keeping an eye on.
The I-81 Challenge