Wednesday, July 31, 2013

bye-bye gas guzzler

Sometimes I think in pictures.  When I can't find a clipart that expresses the img in my mind, I get creative!  Right now, I'm heading into a car-free future and I'm excited and terrified.

Why am I scared?  I worry that we will be hit by a gas guzzler, which is ironic because we've been driving sooooooo much over the past two years it's remarkable that we've not been in an accident.

A rough estimate of husb and myself's driving habits (21 miles and 36 miles to work, respectively) and husb and myself's fuel economy of our vehicles (35 mpg and 41 mpg, highway, respectively) gives roughly 1500 gallons of gasoline we used in two years.  That's 28,600 pounds of carbon dioxide emitted.

We're investing in Metrolink and taking the green route, at least for the month of August to see how it goes.  What are your stats?

Monday, July 1, 2013

SUPERMOON = SUPER-PMS?

I'm a scientist.  We observe and form hypotheses.  I have one going right now about the supermoon.  Remember that weekend where everyone watched the moonrise because the moon was closer to the earth than usual causing it to appear larger on the horizon?  Yeah, and it made the tides higher.  I am thinking that it also synchronized the world's women's menstrual cycles, and not just humans -- animals, too.

Strange things have been going on in my body and in the creatures around me.  I was cleaning up the backyard and heard the neighbor's cat really wailing.  It was like she was strummin' my pain with her finger, singing my life with her meows, killing me softly... with her song...

I ran into a stranger who asked me within 3 sentences if I was PMSing.  I also caused someone to burst into tears with my own bitchiness.  Awesome, not awesome.

So here comes my hypothesis: if the moon is exerting some kind of control over the tides, then is it too far-fetched to say that it affects us (animals) too?  And what about plants?  I read in the Farmer's Almanac that the moon's cycles influence seed germination.  I'm not sure I believe it since it said not to plant on the 9th of June because "seeds planted on this day will rot in the ground" but mine germinated just fine.  So, like I said, it's just a hypothesis.