Car(e)-Free for Three

October is Halloween and all manner of pumpkin-spiced marketing for many people, but for me, October is the month when I sold my car in 2010.

I marked my decision in this post back then, so I won't revisit the reasons here. But it is worth noting some of the things I've learned and experienced since taking the plunge.

In no particular order of importance...

1. When you go everywhere on a scooter, bike or bus, you can't buy a lot of stuff. This is a great built-in mechanism for keeping you accountable in terms of spending. There are not a lot of impulse purchases in my life. 
2. I'm known as "the one with the scooter" at two different car rental agencies in town. I need to go down south about twice a month for work projects. Unfortunately, they are often not near Amtrak stops, so I have to rent a car (for which I am reimbursed). At Enterprise and Thrifty here in town, they allow me to park my scooter near their offices when I rent a vehicle, even overnight. 
3. The "Tucano Urbano" (Urban Toucan!) leg cover is my favorite new item for 2012. I got this for Christmas last year, and I still love it! I hate to admit it, but it gets a little crisp on the scoot scoot at times. But it's not so bad now with my faux fur-lined "lap apron" (yes, that's what they call it). When I add that to my snowboarding gloves, Patagonia bomber jacket and giant black scarf, I'm bundled up quite nicely.
4. I never get tired of paying just $5 to fill my tank. Nuff said.
5. I love "rock star parking." Tomorrow night I'm going to a concert at the County Bowl, and we'll be able to pull right up to the venue and park on the curb, in some little two foot wide parking space.
6. Riding a bike is both an excellent way to stay in shape and a super way to get around town. I just had arthroscopic knee surgery in August for an old youth ministry injury from 1989 (sigh) and when I returned to the surgeon for a follow-up last week, he said that I didn't need any physical therapy because the bike riding was an even better way to rehabilitate it. Yesssss! I also enjoy picking up my groceries every few days on my bike, or just riding somewhere pretty (and there are some pretty great options here).
7. Taking the bus should be an option for everyone. Admittedly, I get around town mostly on my bike or scooter, but during the rare days of inclement weather, I will gladly take the bus. Here are my extended thoughts on taking the bus... but for this short list, I will simply say that I think Americans have an unhealthy love affair with their cars and need to do the environment a BIG favor and look for ways to cut back. We cannot use fossil fuel indefinitely, and it's environmentally devastating.
8. I enjoy my surroundings far more when I'm not in a car. Whether it's giving a smile to the CalTrans guy on the road, having a conversation with a pedestrian at a stoplight, being able to hear birds sing as I ride by or just feeling the sunshine, there are so many lovely interactions and experiences I've had because I'm not cooped up in my car. 

I've logged over 16,000 miles on my scooter since I bought it in May 2007, and 50-75 miles each week on my bike since 2003. I know not everyone can make this choice, but if everyone just sacrificed one errand or drive in a car each day, the world would be a cleaner and safer place. Please think about it. Ciao Bella!

Car(e)-Free Update May 2011

I recognize two fun milestones today... This morning, as I scooted to church, I passed the 9,000 mile mark on my scooter (pictured at the right, and yes, have no fear, I always wear a HELMET when I ride).

Secondly, I bought the Buddy 125 in May 2007, so this month marks 4 years of "living the dream." I've noted here previously that I sold my car last October and have been living "car(e)-free" ever since.

Since I haven't made any updates since February, I'm pleased to report that I "weathered" this past winter without a car rather easily. Yes, there were a couple of drenchings on my bike (this was a rather wet winter for So Cal), and I even had to rent a car two different times when I flat-out just needed a car for work stuff.

But 99% of the time it works well for me to either drive my scooter, take the bus, ride my bike, walk, hitch a ride with friends, take the train... or even just stay home!

I will also readily admit that I decided (and thankfully, she agreed!) to get added to my roommate's auto insurance so I can borrow her car ~ which she will confirm I do only about once every 2-3 weeks. I decided to do this for two reasons:

• To legally be able to drive her car if needed to.
• To have auto insurance for when I rent a car. Do you know you cannot have car insurance without it being attached to a specific car?

So I cannot claim to be fully car-free, I suppose. But pretty darn close. And as gas prices have coasted upward, I am sad to report that filling the Buddy's tank has increased 25%... from $4 to $5!

I will stop my gloating. I am grateful to live in a town and climate where it's possible to do this. I hope to have many more years with the Buddy, and encourage you to consider ways that you can be a good steward of the environment (plus your wallet and your health) by finding greener transportation alternatives. Over and out. (For now!)

When It Rains....

(...you know the rest.)

I just had someone (you know who you are) email me to say, "You haven't blogged in awhile about you :) "

Which made me smile. Thanks.

Anyway, I haven't posted much in the last week or two because my plate is full. No doubt about it.

These are the plates spinning right now. Please don't ask, "How do you keep it all straight?" It's far too complicated to explain. Rest assured that it is all super fun and interesting. I am grateful beyond words.

• Pastoral coaching projects in East LA, two in Long Beach (starting tomorrow), Escondido, Hermon (near Highland Park), Garden Grove.
• Youth ministry consulting projects in Seattle area, Western suburbs of Chicago, Garden Grove and a new one near San Luis Obispo.
• Teaching a new series on apologetics out of C.S. Lewis' classic Mere Christianity for 8 weeks at Providence Hall High School.
• Coordinating a community-wide presentation titled "How to Talk with Your Teen about Drugs & Alcohol" on Feb. 10. Just organizing, not speaking - phew!
• Preparing to launch at least twelve coin can fundraising campaigns around the country for Eden Reforestation Projects to raise funds. We are currently planting 750,000 trees per month in Ethiopia & Madagascar!!

On the horizon:

• attending a conference in Orlando for Eden Reforestation Projects -- with churches from Maine to Florida in attendance.
• hosting a table at Santa Barbara's Earth Day Festival April 17 & 18.
• teaching my internships class again at Westmont during Mayterm.
• a trip to visit my niece and nephew in NYC over spring break!

It's all good. God be praised.

Sustainable Stocking Stuffers from Eden Reforestation Projects!

I bet you're just starting to think about what to get everyone for Christmas. I won't go on a rant about how much money is spent on mindless gifts. You know all that rot already. Instead, I'll just share a sustainable, tax-deductible, life-giving gift option for you.

For each $5 you give to Eden Reforestation Projects, you can then take the graphics on this post, right click or save 'em or whatever and print them up on cardstock in your printer and hand them out to friends, family, co-workers, your paper boy, your mailman, whoever!

This is so easy, but so life-changing. Five dollars plants fifty trees in Haiti, Ethiopia or Madagascar. These trees provide jobs, shelter, renewed soil and groundwater and most importantly, HOPE.

If you would like to personalize your cards, or increase the amounts listed on your cards, just contact me by email at kelly.soifer@gmail.com, and I can send you the MS Word doc for you to make an insertions or adjustments.

Instructions:

1. Go to Eden Reforestation Project's donation page.
2. If you want to just send in a check for your stocking stuffers donation, send it to the address listed in Azusa. Please write "stocking stuffers" on the envelope in the left corner.
   
3. If you would rather pay by credit card or PayPal, scroll down and select the gold "Donate" button. Fill in the TOTAL amount you want to donate based on how many stocking stuffers you want to send. For example, if you want to give 12 stocking stuffers for $5/each, that will total a gift to Eden Projects of $60. (Which plants 600 trees!!)
4. Please add the note "stocking stuffers" in the "Add special instructions for Merchant" box.

Thank you so much. We planted over 4.6 million trees this year, and our plans are to plant at least 8 million in 2010. Your gifts will give us a great jumpstart as we try to keep up with the many opportunities coming to us on the ground in Africa and Haiti.

Two more sustainable gift options through Eden Reforestation:

• Match the amount you spent on your Christmas tree with a gift to Eden. Just think -- if you spent $50 on a tree, a matching gift would plant 500 trees. (When you send your gift to us, put "matching Christmas tree" in the instructions box.)
  
• Donate $1 to Eden for every Christmas card or photo you send out. Along the bottom include in tiny print, "I donated $1 to www.edenprojects.org for every card I sent this season as a way of offsetting all the trees I killed in sending these cards :) " If you send out 100 cards, you would plant 1000 trees. That would put you well on your way to giving an entire forest to a village. (When you send your gift to us, put "holiday card offset" in the instructions box.)

P.S. Duplicate the impact of your gift by SPREADING THE WORD about this to your friends and social networks. Just send an email with a link to this post, or load up the info on your status updates on Facebook, Twitter, etc.