be the change i want to see in the world

I am only one, but I am still one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. And because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.

- Helen Keller

It feels good to have reduced my personal dependence on fossil fuels. I am hoping to get the Bug up to 50% bio-diesel by the summer. I do miss my Honda mini-van and having room for 7 people, but honestly, my need to move more than 4 people at any given time is slight. I feel less guilty driving just myself 40 miles round trip in my Bug than I did taking my 26 mpg minivan the same distance. The whole point is a smaller footprint. I am happy to do it.

Next reuse: Instead of buying a package of valentines for my son to give to his class, we went through our cardboard recycling and cut hearts out of cereal and other boxes, affixed some foil heart stickers, and are turning these hearts into valentines. One of a kind, plus a little more goes into it than just writing his name 20 times.

I am about to start converting my TDi to biodiesel! Yeay! I will start at 10% and try to work my way up to 50%. I don’t yet know if my beautious bug will be able to take much more than 50%, but it still feels like a major difference. If everyone in my state could reduce their fossel fuel emissions by half the outcome would be enormous!

The change that we make in our own lives are small on the scale of life, but they loom large in the perspective of the self, and of those who are near to us. I invite the world to join me, but it is ultimately me I am responsible for changing.

This is so cool. Everytime you buy something from the Hunger Site they donate 25 to 50 bowls of food to needy folk. Makes me feel better about consuming when I know the money is going to a good cause. I hope that my family doesn’t read my posts (he he) but I found some great items for them there. Pearls, T-shirts, pins, toys, cards, instruments, backpacks, you name it. Plus, I didn’t have to start up my car and search for these items.

My brother found a Bug for me, and I have started loan procedures! I need to sell my current Honda Odyssey… which is a wonderful good vehicle… for a mommy with lots of kids to tote about… but for just me to and from work, and my one last nestling… it is over-kill. It will all work out if it is supposed to. Maybe the chain of events will work out where I switch to a Bug, another person switches from an Explorer to my Honda, and eventually we get one less Hummer on the road! You can say I’m a dreamer…

Who-ever it is who starts a business converting cars to biodeisel is going to be a millionaire. The US is a decade or more behind the times in gas conservation, alternative fuel use, and mass transit (with some exceptions in large cities).

Well, to one of them. I have a line on a VW bug which I plan to convert to Biodiesel. Yeay!

I want a smaller car now that my family is smaller. I will sell my van soon. And the plan is to find a used deisel bug and convert it to bio-deisel. Also, I am walking more. I used to drive out to the country to walk. Now I am walking in the city more during the week and limiting my hikes. Still need the hikes. This is my step to be the change I want to see in the world. Well, one of the steps.