Friday pieces

[magid]

More on gasoline prices: Hawaii is instituting a cap for wholesale gasoline. The state claims that prices are not in line with the mainland, even including transportation costs. I notice that the state's choice for how to keep the price down is to force companies to cut profits, without considering reducing their cut by charging less tax. And then there's the quote:

"The gas prices that are continuing to go up — how am I supposed to afford it?" Nathan Slenk, a 25-year-old student at Kapiolani Community College, said as he pumped regular unleaded gas into his black sedan for $2.79 a gallon in Honolulu.

Um, you're not? Try taking a bike or a bus? (OK, I do know that many people do need to use cars, and some car owners even pay attention to such things as fuel efficiency and such. But it's so easy to snark at this college guy, who seems to believe that it's a right to have cheap gas.)

I brought the sun-hating plant Hrafn gave me into the office, figuring I'll remember to take care of it more regularly there, and presumably the overhead fluorescents will be easier on it. Plus it joins the plant menagerie at the end of my desk. I wonder if I could get some actual shade plants, like violets? Maybe if I shade them under a shelf, with other plants as camouflage? I don't want to bother with yet another ivy designed to live in offices, though; not interesting enough. I know that there's enough light by the windows: an orker has grown a tomato plant taller than I am. It's skinny, with far too little dirt, but there are a couple of tomatoes on it, even.

In the fall, the mums appear, and around here, anyway, they always seemed like boring flowers, used only because they were blooming when other things weren't. When I read Japanese fairy tales, there'd be mentions of chrysanthemums, and they sounded beautiful; I was crushed to find out they were "mums". Yesterday I saw some dahlias an orker had gotten, and I immediately thought they looked like what I wanted chrysanthemums to look like.

A sign that typing is my normal print communication except at work: having the impulse to mark each comma with the little hat, so it's not missed.

Yesterday I tried getting home grocery-laden (They had turkey thighs this time. Yay!) from the Butcherie by bus, and it worked pretty well. Of course, the bus happened to be arriving just when I needed it to; I could've tried getting frozen food after all. Oh, and I noticed that Kupel's is now offering two kinds of knishes (potato and something else). Something to try next time I'm there.

I'm pretty bad at frisbee, which is why people who are good at it impress me. Yesterday I saw two firemen playing in the little wedge of a parking lot at the fire house by Mem Hall, every pass having to be right so neither would have to run into traffic.

I can't believe next week is September. As usual, I haven't done nearly as much this summer as I'd wanted. And this morning I noticed new ads on the T for the Harbor Islands. Lots going on, and I have all of September before the chagim hit. I believe an expotition is called for!

Comments

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

I would love to visit the Harbor Islands with you if you are so inclined.

[danger-chick.livejournal.com]

Try taking a bike or a bus?

I might have said that years ago, but I wonder if Hawaii is much like NM.

There is no public transport here in Los Alamos. You can call a "bus service" that is more like a large taxi and costs like one, but that's about it. Depending on where you live in relation to the lab, driving might be your only option. Citizens of our bedroom comunity would have to bike 10 miles each way on the highway, including a 2,000 feet change in elevation. It's not to say that there aren't devoted White Rockian bike commuters, but they are a grizzled lot. Given my after work schedule, I have given up biking to work, which is why I run so much these days.

The other problem is getting in between towns. Los Alamos is not self-sustaining, and most people need to shop in either Espanola, Santa Fe or Albuquerque at distances of 20, 35, and 90 miles away. There are some park and ride programs for LANL workers between the lab and Santa Fe or Albuquerque, but it's not possible to do your weekend shopping on these busses. Even getting between the airport and Los Alamos is not easy. There is one bus to Santa Fe and another bus to Los Alamos. The cost is nearly $90 round trip.

I know a few people who don't drive out here, but they are constantly at the mercy of biking/walking/begging rides. I know someone who was relying on using his bike to get around Los Alamos...and then broke his wrist in a bike accident. He was begging rides for months.

Great Gas Price Cartoon

[(Anonymous)]

Look at MommyCool.com (http://www.mommycool.com/?p=128#comments) for a great cartoon about what happened to one mom's piggy bank when adding gas to her minivan yesterday.

[magid.livejournal.com]

But there are choices to be made in how communities are formed geographically (a little late, now, for Los Alamos...), and choices in how life is set up. Lots of cities that could have public transportation don't, and people still live there, deciding to rely on their cars instead.
(Obviously, it's easier for me to say this about cities.)

Though, really, I'm not that dogmatic as that makes me sound. I just wish people would make active decisions about things like this, rather than whining about gas prices, or maybe I'm just saying I wish they'd care about the things I do.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I'll keep it in mind. I've not been so good about organizing stuff lately, unfortunately, but this might just happen... sometime.

Re: Great Gas Price Cartoon

[magid.livejournal.com]

Heh. Poor piggy.

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

Harbor Islands, Harbor Islands
I'd go too, I'd go too...

[magid.livejournal.com]

More impetus... I know Pheromone's not around on Labor Day, the only non-Sunday I could go without taking time off (which is an option, definitely). Which days would work for you?

[magid.livejournal.com]

I assume you won't be back until after Labor Day?

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

LAbor day might work, might be crowded and we might have too much stuff to do after being gone a week. Other times possible, I might be able to take a day off work for fun!

[danger-chick.livejournal.com]

I think that would be very hard here. We were situated on top of the five mesas for a reason -- it made it easier to protect the lab and the town. It was only in the late 1950s that they moved the fence from around the whole five mesa structure to just the lab. Up until then, everyone came in and out through guarded gates and the army patrolled the area outside of the fence on horseback. People in Los Alamos are pretty space conscious, though. Most people don't have big houses/yards and people who do are roundly criticized. The problem with building on top of five mesas is that any expansion has to be off the mesa, which creates incredible physical separation. White Rock is not just 2,000 feet lower, it has a completely different climate than we do. But all of NM is kind of like that -- every 10 miles you are at a completely new elevation.

[spwebdesign.livejournal.com]

What is an expotition?

[magid.livejournal.com]

Something sort of like this.

[magid.livejournal.com]

The meas you've got in NM, but not in HI, or most of the US, where sprawl is pretty conspicuous.

And yeah, a pretty good reason to have a car :-). I don't understand why there aren't stores and such around though, unless it's about security. (Which in and of itself makes Los Alamos a kind of outlier.)

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Indeed -- I will be flying back the following Tuesday. Although I would imagine Labor Day could be terribly crowded. A weekday seems ideal, although I realize that could be a bigger deal to manage...

[danger-chick.livejournal.com]

HI does have mountains, though, which makes things always a little bit more ardeous.

We don't have stores, since the city council favors locally-owned businesses. People still want to shop at Target and Walmart to save money. Plus, the furniture store has a very small selection. It's ended up creating some oddities in the culture here. Most restaurants are closed on Saturday, since many people will do shopping-dinner-movie outings to Santa Fe. You can really see how one decision (locally-owned businesses only) has had a ripple effect (restaurants). I'm just happy they allowed a grocery chain and a Starbucks in.

[powerfrau.livejournal.com]

I'd like to go to Harbor islands, A sunday would be great as I teach on Saturdays starting in two weeks.

I think gas is not expensive enough--mostly because I see a butt-load of people idling their cars/SUVs in temperate weather, leaving them idling while they run into banks and such. In German people turn off the offender's car, throw the keys under the carseat and lock the doors. It is agianst the law to idle for more than a few minutes. Golly beaver I like breathing other peoples vehicle fumes, don't you

[powerfrau.livejournal.com]

Sing ho for the life of a bear!! That book has such a sad ending...I creid for a week...

[magid.livejournal.com]

I'm also surprised at how much waste there is in idling and such. I've seen signs about trucks not being allowed to idle some places, but I think that's for sound, rather than emissions.

Weirdly, except for really obvious emissions culprits, what I notice most in the summer is how hot the cars are. I can walk by one and know it's been driven recently, just because it's still radiating heat. And on really hot days, it's particularly annoying, having that extra heat added to my misery.

Are you around on Labor Day? (Just to get the whole picture for planning purposes.)

[magid.livejournal.com]

Sing hi! No, that doesn't work :-)

When I think back on it, I don't remember the ending as much as the other adventures; I wonder if my parents never quite managed to get themselves there as they read it to me, or whether I just block it out, since the rest of the stories are so happy and silly.