Biodiesel Jetta - gotta love her!

Let’s talk about diesel…and biodiesel, and specifically about my diesel Jetta…a lovely car – although she is black, and lately these hot summer days are crazy with black seat leather and light skirts - but, lets talk about the CAR…

I flew to Boston to buy this car in October of 2005…since certain newer diesels are not readily available in California, I searched all over the internet for a diesel Jetta wagon, and hard to find they were! Worth it - power sun roof, lots of headroom, fold down seats with plenty of room to sleep in back or for gear - and even a small craft fair booth will fit! The top rack is built on, the lights a gauges are a wild blue neon enhanced with red – feels like a purple haze driving at night…

To get this baby back to Willits a great cross country road trip was created & enhanced by the shooting of a camcorder video of – “The Last Great American Road Trip”. Well, it could be a great video someday – when I have time to learn how to edit it…

Ok, I was a few years before my time – as usual, because for sure - people are still driving cross country in 2008, even in their RV’s - although fuel is now well over $4 and higher prices are certainly in sight. Diesel is even over $5!! With that in mind - Why did I want this diesel car so badly? Try 45mpg for a start, and I have been almost exclusively driving on biodiesel made by Yokayo Biofuels from completely recycled veggie oil… which I pump out of my backyard 200 gallon storage tank! Now – there is fuel security for ya. Much better than a foreign war, huh? In fact, my pal Mikey gets over 50mpg because he got a manual shift, same car - 10 more mpg. You can take that to the bank, er - tank.

To be sure – I have made my share of biodiesel errors…had hose melt downs, clogged fuel filters, etc…but – I still love the idea of driving - yet not supporting our energy wars, esp the one in Iraq which threatens to spillover into Iran, and is costing us Americans over $400 Million a day!! ! If you can even understand how much money that is – I can’t quite comprehend it myself, but I know that we could put a huge number of freight and passenger trains on the tracks, fix those tracks all over the country and build more so we have a 2 track system nearly everywhere for a fraction of our yearly dues in that misguided, may I say – illegal - “war”.

So – I encourage all of you to turn in those gas hog SUVs & cars, and if you must have one at all – go diesel! In fact - go biodiesel! Enjoy the ride…

By the way - I wrote this partially because of the guys who blog at http://thingsthatmakeyougogreen.com/…but, now I can’t find their cool post on diesel…if anyone can find it in their substantial archives…well, let me know and I will link it right HERE!

Walkable Communities

Hey - I just bought a house near down town Willits - never mind that it is a cool house that I am exctied to fix up and be in….never mind that I have to downsize my closets ( yes, yes - a good thing, Iv’e heard from almost everyone)

The best part is that I am finally in a neighborhood - a place where people know each other and say hello and walk to work and make time to lean on the gate ( I hope)

After years of living “up the mountain” - in a mountain suburb of our village, a beautiful place - but must drive my car back and forth every day…I am going to reduce my gas consumption, get some better quality exercise and make new friends! Check it out, everyone…maybe you are ready to make a move too…it is becoming a back to the future trend….I plan on biking to work, walking to the movies!

As for other ways to change my lifestyle - I now have a sunny garden plot, a solar hot water heater, and enough sun to put up solar panels as well!

The 70 year old single pane glass is a pain, but - I think some thick curtains ought to help next winter…