Attention Deficit David

Behind the green door.

It might seem odd to live in one of the least-well insulated houses in the county (with possibly the largest per-capita empty square footage as well—so when I bought it I thought someday I might want to have kids, sue me...) but I've taken a bit of a green turn.

It's not really the first one, I spent eight years as a vegetarian—first for health reasons and then for environmental and moral ones—before my body began craving meat.

As of about a week ago I've decided to embark on a one-thirds to two-thirds policy. My goal is to eat two of three meals a day meat-free and at least one. It's like lent, only without the seven day calendar or the rigid control of the Catholic church.

In truth I was my slimmest when I was a vegetarian (though not always the healthiest) and it's not really an issue to do that again most of the time. That said, I have no problems with the thought of slaughtering an animal and eating it, I just think we're too gung-ho about meat consumption in this country.

I've also become one of the first members of a committee in Nyack to make the village more green. This one's pretty exciting to me, as the president of the Rockland Bicycling Club this gives me the opportunity to take something I like to do and extend it out to the community.

We have some nice idea to start off with, for example the village is looking to get their own truck to do recycling so they can actually recycle the items from the businesses in town. I suggested getting a diesel vehicle and converting it to bio diesel, fueling it with the crud that comes from the town's restaurants. Then Nyack can smell like french fries. Yumm!

Since about November I've made more than 90% of my trips to Nyack by bike or foot. I've only stopped in Nyack in a car on the way back from somewhere else. In fact the only trip to downtown I've taken by car was a trip for a meal at OD's when it was utterly freezing out.

(Actually, you can read about my winter riding here: http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080130/REPOSITORY/801300364/1019/NEWS03)

I'm not really able to do that four-mile circle around my house to see where else I should go by bike, since you can't get anywhere up 59 without getting killed. I actually can get to the mall but it takes about 8 miles to do it safely. That's a lot of biking for a shitty shopping craptaculon and a Jamba Juice. (Though I do love me my Jamba.)

Our house has recently replaced all the tungsten lights we could with fluorescents. I'm not completely sold on the environmental aspects of this—there's some narsty stuff in those bulbs—but the energy savings are clear, and reduced production of electricity is important too.

Okay, your turn. What green things are you up to recently?

I'll be thinking of some more while I'm out riding my bike in global warming induced 45 degree weather in February!

Racquet fever

Did I mention that I also love Racquetball? Okay, I know, I get it. I have a LOT of hobbies, sure. But I've been playing racquetball now for, oh shit, what is it? Well I suppose the first games I played were with Marc Wolfe, back at Fairleigh Ridiculous University in, I'd guess, my sophomore year, and Marc's senior year. Despite the fabulously poor education provided by our university (our whatsa-matta if you will) we were endowed by a tremendously fantastic athletic center which just about no one on earth used.

The racquetball courts were located at the back of the facility, and Marc would take me there for regular abuse. To say that I was not in good shape through most of college was an understatement. I was at the peak of my weight then (probably around 220 or higher, but you couldn't have paid me to be on a scale) and March had a pretty easy time of kicking my ass around the court. I have some very fond and vivid memories of playing for about an hour and then going to get spare-rib tips at the chinese place in Hackensack to make up for it. Good times.

There was a hiatus while Racquetball fell away to the back seat in my life, first to weight lifting and then to cycling, as I changed my lifestyle. But in 1997-1998 I ran a dotcom in Nyack, and the gym that I went to had racquetball courts. I'm not sure whose idea it was to actually use said courts, but it was a good one, and Wil Matt and I spent many, many a lunch time (and extended office hours, explaining partially why I no longer own a dotcom) playing sweat-filled games involving much cursing and much laughing.

Matt's got his own fun style, where he'll try to get to any ball, no matter how physically impossible it seems for him to get to it. Wil, meanwhile, will occupy a position on the court that's dominating, and thanks to his massive frame and unwillingness to yield said position, ended up being slammed into full-speed while I tried to cross the court to get a ball. One time, in particular, I was spinning around from a rear-wall return shot and moving forwards when I ran smack into his backside, and collapsed on myself. Wil did not budge, bent over in his "ready" position as my 180 pounds of high-speed spasmodicism slammed into him and then fell in a heap to the floor.

I also have a pretty vivid memory of one match where I was sitting out (we often rotated through playing singles rather than play cutthroat) and watching the game through the glass wall, when Matt, in an attempt to return a rear-wall kill shot took a running dive from about half-way down the court and slid directly into the window in front of me.

I'm not really a summertime racquetball player, I have a violent reaction to being inside when it gets nice out, so my season is often November through March or so. This year I'm going to try to take advantage of the fact that one of the places we play is open 24 hours during the week (we're pretty sure it's a money laundering facility).

This year has been great, although Matt's working a lot, and I recently broke Wil during a match. (I also broke Glenn, but that was more his own fault, as he hit himself in the knee with a racquet and then claimed he didn't.) I'm a bit more athletic in the court than usual, I actually ran up the wall to return a shot today, matrix style.

Today's game involved breaking in (or not breaking in as the case might be) new glasses from Evolution Optique in town. They work very well, though I don't have enough anti-fog coating on them yet and so as I sweat they fog up but just for a second and then clear again. It's like playing racquetball outside in the San Fran bay area.

I'm hankering for more games, so come on and let me know if you want to play. Loser buys the spare rib tips.