Clean air... some facts...

Here's a good article on the whole "clean air" thing.

It's funny how the automobile is always made out to be the bad guy in the fight for clean air and it turns out that automobiles only account for less than 10 percent of smog-forming emissions in Canada and further to that, new vehicles are one-tenth of 1 percent! Wow, how much more can be gained from new cars? Perhaps it's time to shift our focus to other areas to improve the air quality.

You should also note that as far as greenhouse-gas emissions, new vehicles account for one percent of the 12 percent Canadian total for on-road cars and light-duty trucks.

I agree with Gerry Malloy's closing statement:

It will take a multi-faceted approach that goes well beyond further regulation of new-vehicle emissions to significantly improve either situation.

Like the approach to renewable, cleaner energy sources, reducing emissions will have to be tackled across many areas to see lasting improvements.

Cool "green" technology...

Check out this article in yesterday's business section of the Toronto Star. I'm crazy about the whole biodiesel thing so I found this really facinating.

Here are a few highlights that caught my eye:

Bio oil is a "green" fuel that contains no sulphur dioxide and half the nitrogen oxide of conventional oil. But just like conventional fuel oil, bio oil can be used in industrial boilers, diesel generators and in turbines that generate electricity.

In a biorefinery, the gases and charcoal can be recycled as fuel for powering the system and for pre-drying the biomass. The oil — representing about 60 per cent of the mix — is separated out and can be shipped off as fuel oil or used as a source of chemicals for making everything from plastics to foods to fertilizer.

and this brings up an interesting point:

"We have to start thinking of bio oil as a major biofuel," says Layzell, pointing out that bio oil's potential as an industrial fuel tends to be overshadowed by sexier renewable transportation fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel.

and that is, (I believe) there is going to be success only if we approach the renewable energy challenge from multiple points. I thing this whole bio oil thing coupled with biodiesel, ethanol, solar, etc is where we will find our future energy needs. I'm no scientist like Geoff but I can understand enough to know that the future is not as far off as it once seemed.

I wonder what the emissions are from the biorefinery? I'll have to see what I can find out about that.

Easy install of new DSL modem and service...

Jim found a great deal on DSL service that I couldn't turn down. $18.95/month taxes included is an awesome deal. It's a one year special but even in the second year it's still $1 cheaper/month than Bell was willing give me and I have all my services with them (land line, 2 cell phones and satellite TV). The install was easy but now I just need to see if I can connect to work via the VPN and then I'm home free and enjoying the savings!

Have a good day everyone, I'm off to bed now for about 5 hours.

g.

Yesterday was an AWESOME day...

Marie had a couple of appointments at St. Mike's and we couldn't get anyone to take care of my youngest or drive her down so they came into the city with me, I dropped Marie off at the hospital and then my son came to work with me. It cost me a half day vacation time to take them back home but it was worth it. It was great having D with me at my desk as I worked. He drew on my whitboard, played a little gameboy (we brought hi older brother's gameboy) and we went on a little tour of the office and visited the two admin assistants on my floor who of course spoiled him rotten with candy and trinkets. He left the office with a little flashlight and a three flexible frisbies for him and his brothers. I was on a conference call for a good part of the time we were there and it was so nice to look over at him and see him smiling back at me. I wish I could have him in a few times a month... hmmm, maybe I can do that... sommit to think about anyway.

On other topics... check out Geoff's post about diesels. It's at the bottom of the post about Beer Intervals and the part I'm referring to begins with "...another good read is over at CNN/Fortune..." and read the linked article from CNN/Fortune. I found it to be an good read and I'm quite excited about more diesels coming to North America. My dream vehicle (keep in mind I'm about to have my fourth child enter this world so functionality is the order of the day) is a minivan with a diesel engine. I think that all those people who drive minivans would have their eyes opened if they had a chance to drive one with a diesel in it. The tourque is just what you need when you're hauling around a van full of people. (mind you, there are a lot of single child families that "have to have" a minivan that could use a more fuel efficient car but that's a whole other discussion).

I'm still convinced that the way to go is more diesel vehicles on the roads with biodiesel available at every diesel pump in North America.

I gotta go for now so... have a good day!

g.

Blogger is startin' to frustrate me...

Is anyone else havin' problems creating and publishing posts? Specifically, sometimes the posting page just won't load and other times the whole dashboard takes forever to load... as in, I start it loading and several minutes later (if it doesn't time out) the page loads. It's to the point that there have been a few times I wanted to post a quick update and I didn't 'cause it wouldn't load when I had time to post and then I got busy and never came back. Oh well, I guess I can't exactly ask for my money back eh?

Random observations about my life...

Music is very powerful... Jim sent a song over to me that was on the satellite radio when we were drivin' out of Algonquin Park this summer and man, is music powerful. I instantly felt happy listening to the song. I mean, the stress I was feelin already this early in the workday started to melt away as I remembered the warm weather and sunshine shining through the thick canopy of trees as we weaved our way along the twists and turns of the Brent access road. Awesome. Oh, and the song? Cruisin', sung by Gwyneth Paltrow & Huey Lewis. A little sappy but I love the strong bass line and retro clean guitar sounds. I also really love Gwyneth's voice. I remember the first time I heard her sing the song... I was absolutely mesmerized. Such a silky, sultry voice…

Okay, I'm back...(shut it Jim... before the comments start! lol!)

Anyway, other observations... where am I gettin' the happiest feelings in my life lately... I gotta say that spending time with Marie and my 3 boys is something that always makes me happy. We've had some good times lately, making little adventures out of the smallest tasks. The boys are at a great stage right now and Marie is in the best place, mentally, since her seizure.

For those who know me, I do a specific volunteer role that I really enjoy and find myself smiling as I a finish up and drive home. I really enjoy doing that. I know that's kinda cryptic but I'm not sure how much I want to blog about that particular activity since it can draw an unpleasant element from certain segments of society. Nonetheless, I really feel like I'm making a difference out there.

Autumn… this is my favorite season. I love the leaves changing colours, the cool, sunny days, the abundance of the harvest… pun’kins and corn stalks – cheesy and predictable but I love it.

I worked on my car this weekend and I have to say I enjoy doing that. I replaced the handbrake cables; one had cracked and rusted so the rear passenger brake was draggin’. That entailed removing a few interior trim pieces and crawlin’ under the car. I changed the oil and managed to patch the exhaust system. I’m hopin’ the patch holds so I can delay the $1100 for a new catalytic converter. I’m pretty sure the patch will hold for a few months.

Well, there are a few other things I’d like to write about but I’m runnin’ short on time so I’ll save ‘em for another time. Specifically, I’d like to talk about my niece’s illness next time.

Have a good one,
g.

Sometimes you just need to slow down...

Jim put up an excerpt from something he was reading and the last paragraph was really awesome so I thought I'd share it with you...

While navigating white water stretches it often is necessary to position the
canoe with a "back ferry" or by paddling in such a way as to force the canoe to
go slower than the current. At times the proper positioning of the canoe is a
matter of determining to not give in to the urge to "rush" with the current.
When asked what was the most important piece of advice he could give,
mountaineer and wilderness preservation advocate Harvey Manning responded, "Slow
down

No that is a really cool observation... sometimes you have to slow down or even stop in order to move forward. How true is that eh? How often do I do that... not enough for sure. I get caught up in the current of life too often.

It's gettin' hard to get up...

and get goin' in the morning now that it's dark when the alarm goes off. I used to love the winter and felt it couldn't get here fast enough but the older I get, the less I like the winter it seems. Maybe if I took up skiing again. I tried it a few years ago with my two oldest sons but they out grew the equipment I had so now it'll take a bit of cash to get them outfitted to try again. My oldest wants to try snowboarding and I'd really like to let him try it out. Perhaps we'll do a half day rental at Mt. Kirby this season. I imagine I'll look funny tryin' to make it down the baby hill on a snowboard. I dunno, I'll see.

Not much goin' on that's worth writing about. I did go running last week... not bad. I figure it's between 4 and 5 Km's. With all the weightloss I find it's a little easier than when I was carrying around the extra 50lbs. Marie bought me a running magizine that I found to be a good read. I'd really like to make up for not attaining my goal of running the half marathon with Jim this past September. I think I may shoot for a short run in the spring... maybe 5 or 8 K and see how that goes. If it goes well, I'll train and try to complete the half that Jim did this year.

Well, as usual, I should get back to work.

I'm hoping to get back to a more regular writing schedule in the coming weeks. After all, with the baby coming there'll be some good stuff to write about I'm sure. Hey, remind me next time to tell you about our recent vehicle purchase.

Have a good one,
g.