What part of "Spare the Air" don't you understand?

Here in the SF Bay Area, when the temperature gets (and stays) in triple digits, and the wind goes away, we get smog. Maybe not like LA smog, but bad enough. To try to minimize that, the worst of these days are declared to be "Spare the Air" days.

On Spare the Air days, we are asked to cut down any unnecessary power usage, and especially cut down on driving. Instead, we are encouraged to car pool or take public transit. To encourage this, all the local transit agencies provide free rides. Most of them are free all day on Spare the Air days. A few - like BART and the ferries - offer free rides through 1pm, and charge the regular fare thereafter. They started that this year, because last year a lot of commuters were unable to get on the trains and ferries, because those were full of people who took advantage of the free rides to spend the day playing in SF.

But an odd thing happens, and I notice this on almost every Spare the Air day: traffic is actually worse on those days, and it's mostly solo drivers. I've thought about why this might be, and I've come up with a few possibilities:

• They didn't find out that it was a Spare the Air day before they left for work
• They didn't feel that transit was sufficiently convenient for them (and maybe it wasn't - we have good transit here, but it's not perfect)
• They figured that everyone else would be car pooling and using transit, so they'd have the roads pretty much to themselves.

I think the last one is the most likely, and I think it's the most common reason for it. The trouble is that when everyone thinks that everyone (or someone) else is doing something, what usually happens is that no-one does it.

I haven't owned a car in over a dozen years; I've managed quite well using transit and the occasional taxi. On most weekdays, I walk to the BART station (about a half mile), take the train to the second station down the line from me, where I catch an express bus that drops me practically on the doorstep of my office. This has removed a major stressor from my life. Instead of spending an hour behind the wheel in traffic being mad about the waste of time, I can spend that hour reading or writing or just staring out the window - whatever, that time is my own to use as I wish. On alternate Fridays, I work at an office that's closer to my home - about 1.5 miles away - so I walk to and from work. Yes, it takes longer than driving, but it's free workout.

Anyway, if you have Spare the Air days where you are, leave your car at home!

Found Money

The other day, I found a nickel on the sidewalk. I picked it up, even though it was head-down. Some people will only pick up a coin if it's heads-up, believing that to pick up a head-down coin is bad luck. For that matter, many people don't think it's worth the effort to bend down and pick up any coin. My feeling is that if the universe wants to throw money at me, in whatever form or condition, who am I to snub it?

Don't be Eeyore

Don’t Be Eeyore - lifehack.org

A lot of what's negative in our lives we impose on ourselves. This article talks about how not to do that.

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"should be" versus "is"

“Should” is the most stressful word I know. It is the sound of expectations unfulfilled.

“I should be able to handle this.”
“I should be a homeowner at my age.”
“I should be able to support my family on my earnings.”
“I should be cleaning the house right now.”

Unrealistic expectations are one of the biggest sources of stress in our lives, because we get all set up about what should be instead of dealing with what is.

One of the best things we can do for ourselves is to banish “should” from our lexicon. First, think about whose expectations are reflected in those “should”s. Now substitute “want” for “should”. Note that I said “want”, not “need”. If you have a roof over your head and are eating more or less regularly, “need” is pretty well taken care of. Treat anything else as a “want”.

When you put the word “want” in place of the words “need” or “should”, it’s easier to get a useful perspective on it. Who wants it? Do you? How badly do you want it? What does it do? Will a part of it serve, or do you want it all? What can you do to make it happen? This brings your head back to what is, and what you can do to affect it.

It may be that what is really sucks, and it may be that you can’t change it right now. In which case, how important is it, really? Can you get around it? Can you skip it? Is there another way to take care of that want? Can you get help with it?

All we can do is what we can do, and getting wrapped up in what “should be” doesn’t change that. It just gets us upset for no reason. When you hear “should” in your head, give yourself permission to say “Fuck it; I don’t need that”, and go on with your life.

Mother-Daughter Bonding

I love my daughter; I always have, although the whole mother-child thing was hard for us. Well, mainly it was hard for me. I've never really been the "mommy" type, but I did my best to give her the tools she'd need to function in the world, and I do seem to have done so.

Now that she's 21 (as of about a month ago) and officially an adult, we're free to just be the friends we've always been, and we like it that way. Instead of me telling her what to do, we can ask and offer advice of each other, and enjoy our common interests. This past Friday, we went to a local pub, for what we thought would be drinks and bar food. It's the first time I've been to this particular place, even though it's only a block away, but it won't be the last. It turns out to be a pretty good German restaurant, which carries imported German and Czech beers. So, it wasn't the outing we were expecting to have, but it was a nice dinner, and we had a good time. We'll do drinks and bar food some other time.

Pages tagged with "diyplanner" on del.icio.us

Pages tagged with "diyplanner" on del.icio.us

The list includes the blogs and other sites of some of the DIY Planner regulars.

1 More Day!

One more day until my daughter gets here. At least, that's the last I heard from her. She called last weekend to tell us that her flight is tomorrow morning, and she's scheduled to land at about 10am our time. I should be doing housework, but I'm playing with fabric instead.