Carpooling, week 3

Well, as most of you know or maybe you don't, I am now into week 3 of my carpooling experiment.

What, you ask...carpooling? If you can believe it, yes. It all started after reading the book, Ishmael over the Christmas holiday. This story was written to make you think, be aware of how we came to be and how we have become insensitive to what is happening on our earth; how we only have one earth, and so forth. It was very inspiring and I decided I should do what I could to lessen my impact on "mother earth" so to speak.

We began to think about how many miles Monty drives to work(16 miles one way)and how many I drive(11 miles one way)to get to work. We figured it really wasn't that much out of his way to drop me off first and since we work the same hours, it was a no brainer to at least give it a shot. Funny thing is, total mileage one way is 17 miles. So, in essence we are saving 20 miles a day, therefore reducing at least one car's toxic emissions into our air, not to mention the gas saved.

We're settling into a routine of sorts, and even on the days I'm not working he still drives the car since it gets the best gas mileage. The only problem is I have to wait on him in the evening. I rationalize this wasted time as being no different, as if I were waiting to catch a bus to take me home.

With several successful weeks behind us, we are now looking at how we can combine shopping trips to save even more miles driven. But, to stay organized I am going to need to purchase a weekly planner so I can keep up with our route. After several months I hope to be able to see if it also will positively affect our budget, which will be a nice little kickback.

Sometimes being "green" just takes a little effort on our part and yes, we are feeling pretty good here at the ranch.