make a smaller ecological footprint

Serious consideration is being given to moving to a smaller place.

instead of driving – 5.5 km round trip.

and tested it out for 25km.

to a meeting instead of driving or other mechanized transport.

Flying home from T.O. today but that is only because there is no passenger rail service within 300 km of my city!!! WTF!!!

Come on, Canada, get it together on this and make it quick. It’s not like I’m asking for a subway from T.O. to Vancouver.

There are a million people in Saskatchewan who need a better way to get to Calgary and also the reverse is true because everyone knows that at least half of Calgary’s million people are members of the ‘flatland society’ making it Saskatchewan’s largest city.

Maybe the powers that be are waiting until Calgary builds a larger stadium for Calgary Stampeders football games before committing to a rail link. Then even more Saskatchewan Roughriders fans can come from SK to cheer.

The Roughriders already have the advantage of having 3 home fields after successful invasions of Edmonton and Calgary by the flatland society ;-)

eating less take-out style meals with disposable plates/cups/paper/styrofoam.

So hoping to avoid the car the rest of my visit to T.O.

Took a 4.5 km walk and enjoyed a glorious sunny afternoon of 27 Celsius/80 Fahrenheit with low humidity… instead of bus and subway rides.

Also enjoyed a milkshake from a small restaurant along the way but oops, busted the proprietor on his improper sales tax calculation. It wasn’t planned, it just happened!

Memo to businessowner: I love your milkshakes (so does my mother and my uncle) but please stop cheating your customers of 1% on all their purchases at your restaurant. It has been 1 week since the change came into effect. The whole entire country of Canada has already made the change so please join us in July 2006. Either change your cash register to calculate the proper rate of GST which is the honourable thing to do (probably the least amount of work for you); or if you want to legally pocket the difference, just change your prices on the sign inside the restaurant (yay it is not the kind of restaurant which requires any printed menus) to be the total of the prices including the tax before it was lowered, and add the line, “prices include Goods and Services Tax” somewhere on the sign. Either way, dude, get your act together. And I will be back! ... for more milkshakes.

Tried walking distances of 4 and 5 km instead of taking a motorized vehicle this week. Great! Take the time to enjoy the journey.

Over the past 80 days, the car has carried me 1402 km.

More car-free days; careful trip planning; taking bus and/or C-train more.

The C-train is being celebrated: http://www.calgarytransit.com/ctrain_on_track_25years.html