Portland is much the same way, although to a lesser extent.  One thing that is for certain is that bikes get a lot of attention here, which is quite evident when you consider the $620 million Portland Bike plan.  Another really awesome aspect of Portland is the Providence Bridge Pedal, which celebrates both the city’s bike culture as well as it’s many iconic bridges.  One Sunday morning in August, the city shuts down all the bridges – including the highway bridges – and 20,000 people on bikes ride around on them for hours.  This year the route took us up and over the I-5 (Marquam) bridge, down onto the 405, and up onto the top deck of the Fremont Bridge, which reconnects the 405 with I-5 to the north of the city.  It was awesome!   And it looked something like this:

On the 405

Atop the I-5 Bridge

On the St. John's Bridge

Which is not to say that Portland does not also love other forms of transportation as well.  There’s the MAX, which is our extensive light rail system; the Street Car, which has hosted many groups from my hometown of Cincinnati for explorations of its success; the REAL train, aka Amtrak, which is an excellent option for going to and from Eugene all the way to Seattle; and of course, cars, which people don’t really drive that well here.  However, if people do have a car, and they are lucky enough to have a diesel car, they can go to this local garage that I just heard about called Green Drop Garage for a biodiesel conversion.  Apparently they are also in the habit of exchanging oil changes for vinyl records or craft brewed beer.  Or perhaps that was a one-time offer?  Nevertheless, it’s so Portland.

I’m still waiting for the Subaru I thought I was going to get for moving here!  Oh well, I still have Dorothy…

BTW, I think this picture represents the last time Dorothy was truly clean

All is not necessarily lost though… Abu Dhabi, as the article states, is in fact, loaded, so where there is not a way, there is a bank account to make a way.   Still, will the richest Emirate find tenants to actually move into Masdar?  I hope so, for the sake of this grand experiment, because I would like to see if it’s actually possible.  And since Abu Dhabi seems to be the only ones with enough money to make it happen, I’m rooting for them.

1. The oil leak that is destroying the Gulf of Mexico. Duh.
2. The likelihood of a major earthquake striking the Pacific Northwest in my lifetime. Let’s be honest:  I love my new adopted city, and I’m not leaving anytime soon.  But I am also probably not going to buy a brick or stucco house in this city, not unless it’s been seismically reinforced, or one story (but what’s the fun in that?).  The last time a major earthquake struck here was in 1700, and obviously the city was mostly settled after that, so many modern buildings were built in the absence of a strong seismic code.  And the chances of a big one hitting are pretty high.  Like, 4 in 10 high.  D’oh!
3. Jevons paradox and Khazzoom-Brookes postulate. Before you get all excited that I’m using strange, big words that you’ve never seen before, check out the Wikipedia articles that I linked to and then come back.  You’ll see that the two concepts are very similar in nature, and that they both allude to one thing: the idea that the more we increase efficiency of technology or energy, the more we consume as a society.   So you can imagine, then, why this might keep me up at night… I work for an energy efficiency company!  Our whole job is to increase the efficiency of buildings and help you save energy, and therefore money.  But I can’t help you save money if – as these concepts state – you end up increasing your consumption because you are saving money.  So, I will beg of you this:  do not become a statistic!  Don’t succumb to these concepts!  Please let me help you save money!
4. And finally, Hovershark.  I mean, seriously.  What the heck is this?!?  Are they evolving that quickly?!  I only live an hour and a half from the ocean, can they hover that far?!?  :)

image courtesy of www.warrenellis.com

1. I was engulfed by “all-hands” company meetings. Although it was a mad rush to get ready for the meetings, I loved it and it was neat to see all the people that I work with in one place.   It was also great to hear that the things that I think are so important are important to the people that I work with as well.  300+ people working towards a higher cause is a pretty powerful thing.  (Net Gain:  Emily + Western U.S.)
2. I found an apartment and I’m moving.  It all happened very quickly but it took me about 5 minutes to decide that I wanted the place… it’s lovely and spacious and has so much character.   I feel really lucky to have found such a great apartment just in time for summer – it’s effectively been 3 years since I had a home in a neighborhood of my choosing, in a city that I feel comfortable in.  So obviously, that’s been a process.  (Net Gain: Emily)
3. I’m house-sitting for some very attention-starved animals, one of which I am allergic to. I love animals and for the past year I have lived in an apartment in a house with a dog and two cats.  I am house-sitting in this same house while the owners are away.  One of the cats got attacked a few weeks ago, so he is recovered at an undisclosed location;  as a result, the dog and the other cat have been following almost my every move in the house.  And as much as I like the cat, I am allergic to him!  So it is hard, especially considering the move.  But I am really going to miss the dog.  (Net Loss:  Emily’s 4-legged roommates)
4. Which brings me to the oily, ruined Gulf of Mexico. Referring, of course, to my love of animals as stated above, what really gets me about this mess is the animals that are being killed as a result.  Not just turtles anymore, but birds, fish, the entire ecosystem.  And as a result of the loss of part of the food chain, people’s livelihoods are being completely obliterated.  I am so disgusted and saddened by the situation, that I have – frighteningly – been rendered numb.  After all, what can I do?  What can YOU do?  We can only sit back and watch as the oil keeps coming out, and beaches keep closing, and more and more ecosystems are destroyed.   It’s totally overwhelming.   I feel, truly, that the best thing I can do is to keep doing my job, and to do the best job I can, so that I can help improve energy efficiency in buildings and hopefully reduce our dependence on oil.    (Net Loss:  Humanity, The Earth, dolphins, etc.)
5. “Privatize the Losses, Socialize the Gains”. Speaking of losses and gains, someone recently told me that there was a movement afoot to push this type of economic system in our country.  And I have to express how dispiriting I think this is.  I am overcome lately with the sheer number of people who are not doing what they are supposed to be doing, so many of whom are trying to take advantage of others, game the system, or flat out cause this country to fail.   BP, Goldman Sachs, Halliburton, nearly every politician running for office this year…. It’s exhausting.  I am amazed that anyone can even watch the news anymore.  I can only watch fake news on Comedy Central and even there, I sometimes can’t handle it.  So, that’s a little bit of where I’m at right now.  (Net Loss:  my sanity)

I'd like to think this dog will miss me when I'm gone

Anyway.  That’s where I’m at.  I will try to get back to you sooner, rather than later.   Good luck everyone…

• 3,060 unique visitors
• 4,209 visits
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• visitors from 91 countries/territories!

Oh how I love statistics.  But let’s see what our top ten countries sending visitors were:

1. United States (duh)
2. United Kingdom
3. Canada
4. China
5. South Korea
6. Malaysia (that’s a cool surprise!)
7. India
8. Australia
9. Spain
10. Turkey

Welcome to all my international visitors, wherever you live!  And to those of you who actually pay attention on the occasions when I post something of value, I’m going to give you a little bonus tidbit:

Check out this article on Treehugger about the zero-landfill Subaru plant in Indiana.  I know I’ve been threatening to write a post about used cars, and I probably will here soon, but reading this article about the Subaru plant gives me warm fuzzies and actually makes me open to the possibility of getting a new car at some point.  Of course living in Oregon means that if I bought a new Subaru, I’d fit right in.  Now just make it electric and give me a wind turbine to plug it into, and I’ll be all set.

I’ll try to write more when I’ve had some time to process, as well as when I have a full keyboard to write on. In the meantime enjoy my iPhone’s photo of Seattle scenery.

I thought about posting something, and then this happened.

And now I pretty much just don’t know what to say.  I mean, a lot of thoughts have crossed my mind since the “Great BP Oil Faucet” turned on at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico (I’ll admit that one of them was “I drink your milkshake“), but generally speaking, about all I can come up with is the following:

Good luck to everyone that’s trying to clean this up, especially to the folks trying to help clean up the animals, and to everyone whose livelihoods are being obliterated by this disaster.  I cannot even imagine.

Oh and good luck to BP … maybe you should start making more solar panels now?  Last time I checked solar panels didn’t destroy entire ecosystems?  Just saying.

On the other hand, when you decide you need to go “real” shopping, you might never really consider Goodwill to be your first choice.  Right?

Well, let me introduce you to the concept of second-hand shopping “for real”, which is to say, going to the second-hand clothing store to buy items that you might wear every day, or at least NOT to a pimp & hooker party.  I realize this isn’t a new concept; vintage stores have been around for a while now and happy hipsters are no stranger to the ironic high school t-shirts from the 70’s.  But shopping at vintage stores has always been an unsatisfying experience for me – unless it’s a really REALLY special piece, I don’t hold the belief that clothing, like houses, appreciate in price over time.  So, NO, I don’t want to pay $80 for that dress that probably cost $15 in 1982.  Nice try though.

All of that changed when I discovered Buffalo Exchange.  Merely coming to the realization that places like Buffalo Exchange exist was a revelation for me.

Image courtesy of Time.com; visit the article here

A quick search around the internet tells me that I might be late to the second-hand clothing party, but then again if it took me so long to figure it out, then I know that there are others who haven’t yet.   Anyway, as per my usual disclaimer, this blogger is not paid to endorse or hawk any particular product or store, but if I find a product or a place that I think fits into a  “greener lifestyle” mantra, then I’m happy to talk about it.   Here’s a few reasons why I enjoy shopping at Buffalo Exchange so much:

1. Their clothes are not so “vintage”. Most of the clothing that seems to show up at the Exchange is from within the past 10 years or so… Sure, there’s some vintage items in there, but it’s actually contemporary stuff.  It’s a bit like having the chance to raid your roommate’s closet except that you are raiding ALL roommate’s closets all at once.
2. The prices are well within reason. Shopping at this second-hand clothing store – which sells both used AND new stuff – will not break your bank.  Most of the clothing I’ve bought has been between $12 – $20, and every once in a while, if you’re lucky, you’ll come across a pair of jeans or a designer piece that was once sold for upward of $200.  It might still cost you $50 at the Exchange, but it beats paying the original marked-up price.  (Back to my housing analogy, I think clothes are much more like cars, in that there is always an initial sticker price that is jacked up for name-brand appeal, and then as soon as you put it on it is worth about half as much.  But I will save my lecture about buying used cars for another post…)
3. Having less choice is sometimes really awesome. So this may not make too much sense, but let me explain.  Sometimes when I walk into a store, and they have an entire section devoted to cute dresses, each in about four or five different colors, I become really overwhelmed.  I am a very careful decision maker and if I like even two or three of those dresses, I could spend an entire evening trying to decide which two I want, and in which colors.  Buffalo Exchange takes that stress away from me.  There’s something almost liberating about going straight to your size section and knowing that what’s there is there, and that unless it’s a new piece sold only at the store, you’re not worrying about which colors to get, because that’s your only choice.  AND, per #2 above, you’re probably going to spend less on it, as well.
4. You can sell your own used clothes there too. It’s very satisfying to know that an outfit you might not be interested in wearing anymore might be very appealing to someone else.  My advice is to purge your closet before going, sell your clothes back to them for store credit, and then reward yourself for recycling by shopping!  They rarely buy all of your clothing but if it’s a unique and well-maintained piece, you’ll probably get something for it.  They also take shoes and bags!

In conclusion, next time you need a new outfit, or next time you start to take that bag of old clothes to Goodwill, try Buffalo Exchange, or another local second-hand store*.  Your wallet will appreciate it, as will the planet, since you’ll be diverting those materials from the waste stream.

*Note:  it’s been my experience that consignment stores are much more complicated than the second-hand stores that I am speaking about… If I remember correctly there are usually membership fees involved, but you should investigate for yourself if a consignment store might be as good – or a better – option.

• Buffalo Exchange   (www.buffaloexchange.com)
• Recently featured in Women’s Day and Lucky magazines
• 14 states nation-wide  (Including two here in Portland!)

I think that Daphne (my bike, above) and Ruby (Erin’s bike, below) would get along well, should they ever have the opportunity to cruise together in person.

Soooo, I know I said that LILAWAC was retired before… consider this post my official passing of the torch and an un-retirement party 

Please visit Erin’s first post here to wish her luck, and don’t forget to add LILAWAC to your RSS feeds!