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Short Trips & Errands

Saving the World, One Errand at a Time

Riding a bicycle means you don’t have to feel terrible about wasting gas, depreciating your car, or destroying the earth’s atmosphere just because you run out of bananas.  Riding my Brompton means that I can zip down to the grocer’s on any trivial errand that appeals to me, and feel positively virtuous about it.

Basil’s cue sheet clips are handy for shopping lists, which I write (rather sloppily) on index cards. This keeps the list front and center while Basil is in shopping mode, and I’m collecting the groceries.

Since, on this particular trip, I was picking up a few things for Mr. Diarist, who is a carnivore, as well as Risler Square cheese for raclette, I popped a cooler into Basil’s wire basket.  (As it happened, we didn’t need only bananas.)

Of course, the other advantage to committing this socially responsible act is that Basil and I get a far better look at the scenery that I could from the car, especially since our cycling route is partly on a trail.

Recent torrential rains meant that there were mud puddles everywhere, many of them reflecting the sky, clouds and trees with nearly mirror-like acuity.

I once hated these small errands, but no more.  Now these excursions seem like having one’s bananas, and eating them, too — better than cake, and better than cars!