Monday, May 23, 2011

Eco Monday ~ Walk and be happy....


The sum of the whole is this: walk and be happy; walk and be healthy. The best way to lengthen out our days is to walk steadily and with a purpose.  Charles Dickens


So let me ask you all a stupid question have you looked at the gas prices lately?  Oh my goodness CRAZY.  Up here in Alberta, Canada it is $ 1.16/litre.  Just last week I paid a $ 1.29.  


One great way I can save on gas is to walk as much as possible.  I'm lucky that I live in a small town, and I'm also lucky that I'm living in a handy location.  I'm within walking distance to our Down Town core so I have grocery stores, pharmacies, restaurants, and the such all within a 10 min walk of me, and that is awesome!  I'm also doubly lucky that I can walk to work so I take advantage of that as much as possible.  Most days of the week Jeremy and I walk to his bus stop, and I then walk to work.


I have to admit I love walking.  As long as it is not -30 or pouring rain I'm very happy to be plugged into my ipod bopping along.  Actually I'm not sure you can call it exactly walking as I'm always singing along to a song, and/or if it is a song I'm working on for belly dance or bollywood then I'll be going over it in my head, and I know some moves come out while I'm walking.  I'm sure I look like a complete mess sigh...lol.  But I'm happy doing it, I feel GREAT doing it, and it is great for the Environment.


Yesterday Jeremy, and I walked over to one of the grocery stores.  Well I walked he rode his skate board.  I have to admit at one point I was thinking I was a nutter as we almost got carried away by the crazy huge misquotes that attacked us.  We made it through the swarm, but there were still lots out.  Of course I forgot to spray us down with bug spray, but we bought a second bottle of the magic juice as I'm almost out anyways.


So back home we went with my MEC back pack, and two cloth bags full of groceries.  One of the nice parts of walking to the grocery store is we can take our time.  On the way back we passed a parking lot that was perfect for Jeremy to ride his skate board so I put my load down, and let him have a few mins of fun.


All my groceries ...lol

There's the J man working the board.


I also had my camera with me as I'm making the effort to bring it along.  So I'm looking around and there is an old fence falling over, old garage with trees growing all around it, some old signs leaning against the fence.  I start getting all excited, and want to start taking pictures, but I hesitate.  That is someone's property...lol....so I try to take some from a distance, but they didn't really work out that well.  What is it about me, and old peeling paint?  Look back over my wordless wednesday posts, and most of them are of old wooden items with peeling paint, but I love LOVE taking pictures of that stuff...lol...go figure.

So once Jeremy had some time to skate board, and I had time wishing I didn't care about trespassing, and could just walk all over someone's property taking pictures we walked the rest of the way home.  So we were kind the environment, and our bodies by walking to the grocery store.  

I challenge others to walk more, ride their bikes more, or maybe take transit more.  Not all the time that might not be practical for your circumstance, but more often than you do now.  Your wallet will like you as you won't be pouring as much of your hard in money into your car.


7 comments:

em's scrapbag said...

I up for the challenge. I also live in a small town. My son also love the skateboard. We have a half pipe in the back yard.

Ariel said...

It sounds like you and Jeremy had quite the adventure!

I tried the easiest way to figure out liters to gallons and then decided just to figure out dollars to dollars. The average for regular unleaded gas in Southern California is $4.19 thereabouts. The last time I filled up it was $55, roughly $54 in Canadian dollars.

Crunchy Diva said...

@ em my son wishes he'd have a half pike...lol. or he would until he had to use it he's my little cautious guy.

@ ariel i drive a sebring so probably $45 or $50 to fill it up. scary.

Natural Momma said...

We pay per gallon here in the US (Florida) and I think I just paid $3.89 for a gallon- it was $69.00 for me to fill my Ford Freestyle!

I could definitely walk to some stores close to me- but with having three kids all 4 and under, someone would have a meltdown and Mommy would probably die LOL. I think I will try to do this once a week or so, though.

Crunchy Diva said...

@ natural momma yeah i could see that...lol. i'm lucky with just the one in that case & i've always walked with him even at a baby so this is his normal...lol. hey i bet even once a week would help save you gas though.

My Inspired Reality said...

I love walking too, and especially the people watching, the tree/plant watching, the old building watching....ha, ha:):)

Crunchy Diva said...

@ Kala ~ i love me some old building watching gawd i'm strange...lol