Fireworks

I didn't go out to see any fireworks tonight (unless you count stepping out the door to take out the trash while people on my street are setting a few things off). But earlier there was a very dramatic thunderstorm. I was in the midst of printing out a manuscript that a friend had asked to see when after one big boom, all the power went out.

A couple of years ago during the big December ice storm that left me without power for eight days, I swore that I'd never complain about the Oklahoma summer again. Tonight I was reflecting that being without power during the Oklahoma summer could be a worse thing than going without it during an ice storm.

I wandered around my neighborhood trying to figure out how far the outage went. Just around the corner from my house, some nice young people sitting out on a porch offered to let me barbecue a marshmallow on their charcoal grill. So I did, since it had been ever so long since I'd had a toasted marshmallow. Then I proceded to survey the extent of the blackout. It seemed to extend from the north side of 31st to the south side of Hill, and from Western to at least as far as Walker.

When I passed the substation at 31st and Western, there was an OG&E truck parked out front. Just then, some very loud popping sounds emanated from some of the substation equipment, and large sparks jumped into the air. This was not encouraging, but a few minutes later when I passed my house again, I could see that the power had come back on.

Meanwhile, the nice young people on the porch had been joined by another friend, and they were all discussing whether a straight man might shave his testicles without any aspersions being cast on his masculinity. This question was actually posed to me. I gave the only answer possible, which was, "I'm an old-school lesbian feminist, how the hell should I know?" But I offered the opinion that everyone should shave whatever they wanted to shave, and leave alone whatever body hair they liked as it was.

Now there are loud popping sounds out on the street that seem to be caused by fireworks rather than by thunder, and my little cat is sitting under the bed. But she doesn't seem terribly distressed.  All in all, a fairly pleasant evening.

Cooking with the sun...

...is usually practical in Oklahoma nine months of the year. But this spring is a little bit different, as Peak Oil Hausfrau discovered when she tried to demonstrate solar cooking to a Sierra Club outing last weekend.

Right here in Oklahoma City

There is this really cool blog: Peak Oil Hausfrau. Check it out.

Alternatives to the private bicycle

Thanks to my friends Ginger and Terri for this link to something called B-cycle.

This seems to be the high-tech version of something I remember seeing back in Moscow, Idaho, when I lived there during the very early 1980s--shared bicycles. Back in Moscow, these were old beater bikes, spray-painted orange and left at public bike racks. You could borrow one, bicycle around on it to your heart's content, then leave it at another bike rack. I'm not sure how successful this venture was. The bikes were supposed to be too ugly to steal, but I'm sure a few of them got stolen. I don't know who was in charge of maintenance, and since you didn't have to pay to use the bike, there wasn't a maintenance fund. Besides that, although Moscow had a fairly small population and not a huge amount of traffic, it was very hilly and not much fine to ride around on a single-speed bike. I can't be sure of this, but if I went back to Moscow, Idaho today, I bet that all of the public bikes would be gone.

B-cycle, on the other hand appears to be a co-operative venture of the advertising agency Crispin, Porter + Bogusky, the bicycle manufacturer Trek and the health insurance company Humana. I found this by doing a little googling, and reading a post on the Inspired Economist. It seems to be presented as an effort of these companies to combat environmental degradation and improve public health. The idea is that riders can check out these simple single-speed bikes at numerous convenient public locations, then return them to the same or a different B-cycle rack.

It's not a free service. Riders pay for the use of the bikes with a credit card or a B-cycle account. I haven't seen the business model for B-cycle. I'm not sure what the use of the machines costs--the B-knowledge link on the B-cycle site offers to answer the question "What does it cost?", but the answer is, "Rates will be coming soon." so, on the one hand, this public rent-a-bike system offers the advantage that the bicycles can be tracked, and there is income to use for maintenance of the machines. Is the hope of the sponsors that the fees for the bikes will also generate a profit? Or is the project meant as a form a community service (as well as public relations for its sponsors)?

Let's see what else I can find...

April Streeter on the Huffington Post thinks it's a great idea, but doesn't offer a lot more details. Writing on the New York Times Green, Inc. blog, Azadeh Ensha says that a B-cycle membership is slated to cost $50/year. Each bike reportedly costs $2500-$3000.

Ensha notes that other bike-sharing programs worldwide have had mixed success, but that the president of B-cycle is optimistic that the company can succeed:

“We’ve done a lot of research on both successful and unsuccessful bike-sharing programs — about 100 throughout the world,” says Nate Kvamme, the president of B-cycle and a former director at Humana’s Innovation Center. Mr. Kvamme says his bike-sharing program boasts some distinct advantages over earlier comers — including fourth-generation bicycles that will track and measure usage, and a business plan that relies on integration with local businesses.

Meanwhile, according to the Cafe Evoke's A Thought Over Coffee blog, Oklahoma City is second in the nation in people who have voted on B-cycle's Who Wants It More? page to bring B-cycle to our city.

I'm not sure what I think. B-cycle sounds like an intriguing idea, but I tend to be wary of corporations bearing gifts. For myself, I like the OKC Infoshop, where they have a free bicycle recyclery. Anyone out there have any different opinions?

Urban Infill vs. Urban Gardening

I've read that Oklahoma City is one of the most geographically dispersed, least dense cities in the U.S. This causes all sorts of nasty problems. For one thing, public transportation is nearly nonexistent, in large part because there is too much area to serve for the number of passengers involved. Because businesses, stores, restaurants, public libraries, and neighborhoods are so dispersed, people are forced to rely more on cars and less on bicycles or walking. I've often thought that "urban" infill is just what we need to add some urban vitality to this vast suburban wasteland.

As with most difficult situations, there's another side to the story. You can read about it all at the link below:

The Locavore’s Dilemma: Finding Places to Plant - CommonDreams.org

Home Energy Audit | City of Edmond, Oklahoma

Here's another interesting looking site about home energy audits:

Home Energy Audit | City of Edmond, Oklahoma

Saving energy in your house in Oklahoma

Here's information on two ways to do that:

Online Energy Audit - Oklahoma Electric Cooperative, Inc.


OK Gives Credit for Conservation Efforts - Journal Record, OKC