One Hundred Thirty-Four

Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2006 16:34:27 -0800 (PST)
From: John Spurgeon
Subject: Why I've stopped shopping at Costco
To: customerservice@costco.com

Dear Costco,

I contacted the Costco store at 1255 NE 48th Ave in Hillsboro, Oregon. I was told that the packaging materials used for several types of fresh fruit can not be recycled. It must be thrown away.

I'm very disappointed by the lack of social responsibility that Costco is exhibiting. Of all the stores my family shops at, Costco appears to me to be the worst offender when it comes to plastic packaging for fresh fruit.

To preempt some of my wife's buying habits, I have decided to start buying much of the fruit our family eats at the New Seasons Market in Orenco. I believe I get more for my money from New Seasons when I factor in food quality and their emphsis on sustainability. I will also attempt to grow as much food as possible in our garden and buy directly from local farms and markets whenever possible. Finally, I will encourage my wife and others to stop shopping at Costco until the store changes certain business practices that deeply offend me.

Today I read an article about Walmart's plans to start selling more organic products. This gives me hope that large corporations in this country are beginning to listen to customers like myself who are concerned about the impact our buying habits are having on future generations. I sincerely hope that Costco hears this message and acts appropriately.

Regards,

John Spurgeon
Hillsboro, Oregon

CC: To whom it may concern at
Costco Corporate Headquarters
999 Lake Drive
Issaquah, WA 98027

CC: Mayor Tom Hughes
City of Hillsboro, Oregon

CC: Roger Gamino
Store Manager
New Seasons Market at Orenco Station

CC: To whom it my concern at
The Northwest Earth Institute

One Hundred Thirty-Three

People have very similar reactions to my decision to give up my driving privileges.

Why?!
Why don't you just stop driving?
What are you going to do in an emergency?

In some ways it's like deciding to do Race Across Oregon on a fixed gear.

Why?!
Why don't you just stop shifting?
What are you going to do when it gets too steep to pedal?

OK. It's not a perfect analogy, but you get the point.

I think one of the reasons I do the things I do is because I'm curious and I love a good adventure. Can I survive without a drivers license? What would it be like? Let's try! That's really not a bad explanation IMHO. However, I do have other reasons too:

Basically, cars suck. I'm not saying they don't provide value and enhance our lives. But at what cost? How many people die in car accidents every year? How much time do people waste behind the wheel of a car? How much does driving a car contribute to poor public health? Does the demand for oil cause foreign relations problems? What impact has the automobile had on the environment? How many hours do people have to work to pay for their driving habit?

Call it a statement. Call it an adventure. Call me crazy, if you want. It's a free country after all.

That's about all I have to say about that.

Here's what other people are saying about cars:

http://www.nwei.org/ecotips/CarImpact.pdf
bikeforums.net > Living Car Free
http://home.comcast.net/~oil_free_and_happy/

One Hundred Thirty-Two

Surrendered on March 30, 2006

Banana Belt III was fun. The pace was definately faster than last week. I stuck my nose out in the wind a time or two and was in 7th place pulling the pack with about two miles to go. I sort of blew up at the end. Making matters worse, someone hit my rear wheel. (I think they went down, but I don't know for sure.) I thought maybe I flatted, so I stopped breifly to check the tire. It was fine. I ended up with 22nd place out of 41 finishers. I rode there and back.

Today I gave up my driving privileges.

One Hundred Thirty-One

I finished 8th in the Cat 5 race at Banana Belt II. I used a freewheel this time. I left the house around 9:30 Sunday morning with a 47 tooth chainring and my 18 tooth freewheel. After a couple of miles, I turned around and came back home. I decided my gearing was too low, so I swapped out the chainring for the old 53 tooth ring that came with the bike. (I felt kind of stupid for shelling out all that money for the shiny 47 tooth ring. More stuff for my inventory, I suppose.) It was getting kind of late to ride to the race, so Matthew and I car-pooled to Hagg Lake.

For most of the race the pace seemed slow to me. A solo break was 1:30 ahead of us at one point (around the 3rd lap?). Later he was 2:00 ahead. I think we could have ridden much faster if we had a good paceline going with everyone taking turns at the front. I'm not sure I know what I'm talking about, though. So I'd better just keep my mouth shut.

On the first significant descent, I got some serious shimmy action going. I hadn't read much about shimmy (a.k.a. wheel wobble) before the race, so I didn't really know how to react. I thought it might have something to do with the fact that my hands were on the top of the bars near the stem. After that, I kept my hands on the hoods and didn't have any more trouble. Maybe the wheel started wobbling because I had more weight on my saddle when my hands were on the top, who knows? I have noticed that the bike started to shimmy more after I got the new fork with the disk brake, especially when I ride no-handed at higher speeds. At least I've got some more things to try next time it happens.

A mile or two from the finish I broke away from the pack for the first time. I thought I might have a chance to place higher by going long instead of trying to sprint at the end. A few guys stayed with me. I'm not sure what happened to everyone else. But that plan soon fizzled when a pace car slowed us all down because we were gaining on a group in front of us, and they didn't want us all sprinting on top of each other. At least the final sprint was up hill. That's definately the ideal way to finish on a single-speed.

One-Hundred Thirty

In case ewe were wondering, I have been riding. Not a lot, but hopefully enough for now.

Last Sunday I rode to Hagg Lake and raced at Banana Belt (my first road race ever). I finished 26th out of 37 Cat 5 finishers, and 63rd out of 78 Cat 4/5 finishers. I stayed with the main pack for less than a lap (boat ramp C to boat ramp A, going clockwise) before a handful of us split off the back. I stayed with that group for the rest of the race, which was fun. The sprint to the finish left me on my fixed gear in the dust.

After the race, I learned that it's against the OBRA rules to ride a fixed gear in a mass start unless everyone else is riding fixed too. So this Sunday I plan to flip my wheel around and use my 18 tooth freewheel. On Tuesday I drove downtown and picked up a 47 tooth chainring from Bike Central. We'll see how that combination works. My freewheel probably has less than 20 miles on it, so I'm not sure what to expect. I'll still be breaking the rule about having a brake on each wheel. But I do have two brakes in the front. (Shhhh.. Don't tell.)

The previous week (Saturday, Feb 25th) I rode with Doug Peterson to Salem and back. I was fried after that one. A few weeks earlier (Feb 5th) we did a shorter ride up Logie Trial, down to US 30, east towards Portland, and back up over the hill. The hills felt really tough that weekend too. Oh yeah, Doug kicked my ass both times. Prior to that, my longest ride of the year was about 50 miles (mostly flat with some rollers). At least I feel sharp mentally.

I've ridden to work several times this year. Lately I've been pulling the Bob trailer behind the Country Road Bob instead of carrying panniers. Once I tried picking up David from swim practice with the trailer hooked up to the trail-a-bike hooked up to the bike. With David on the trail-a-bike, I was scared to death. I could hardly control such a long train. I thought there was a good chance we might swerve out into traffic. I get chills just thinking about it.

Monday I had a mole removed from my right calf, which left me with four stitches. The doctor suggested that I stay off the bike for a week or two. But I'm convinced there is no way I can possibly accidently rip out the stitches at this point. The skin is healing fast, and it just doesn't streatch that much.

Enough information for now, I suppose. Aren't you glad you asked?