Increasing My Methane Footprint

Since taking my place among the ranks of the mighty +Bike Commuter Cabal, I've now ridden to work twice, and I solemnly swear that I will do so again. I have thwarted the evil oil companies and saved Mother Earth... and it's not even lunch time, yet.

Q: What do politicians and bulls have in common?
(Image of politicians in session courtesy of MLive.com)

However, I had baked beans -- the magical fruit -- for dinner last night, and you know what that means... Yes, I managed to decrease my carbon footprint while simultaneously increasing my methane footprint. And methane, as we all recall from Earth Science class, is another greenhouse gas -- a potentially silent, but deadly, greenhouse gas. (Sorry. Sometimes this blog goes to weird places.) I wonder what good 'ol Washington State Representative Ed Orcutt, who wanted to impose a tax on cyclists for breathing too hard, thinks about that. (If only we could tax stupidity. Christ, we'd have a surplus the likes of which has never been seen...)

But wait! There's more! Not only am I using my bike to get to work, I'm using it to perform errands -- errands that upstanding, everyday people like yourselves might do by car.

Errands such as:

• buying cat food
• clothes shopping
• depositing money in the bank (instead of spending it on gas)
• get lunch (which converts into methane, unfortunately)

All very normal, regular things that regular people (see what I did there?) would do on a regular day. Except, I did them on a bike, which increases my smugness level to 11, which is far below Al Gore but still above the SUV driver that came dangerously close to me, this morning. Come not near to me, for I am smugger than thou!

As we count down the days to April, my commitment to 30 Days of Biking and Team +Loving the Bike remains ever present. Part of me is busy trying to figure out how to go about doing my normal routine without resorting to a car while another part of me is just desperately looking for any excuse it can find to get on two wheels. The rest of me, however, needs no excuse; I'd go out and ride in circles around the block for lack of anything more productive to do. It's just a matter of planning ahead and figuring out my limitations. Until then, I'm just here, contributing to the overall amount of methane in the atmosphere. Sorry. (You'll thank me when we no longer have Winter because of all the greenhouse gas!)