Over the River

Saturday was all about transportation for me. I started the day (or rather ended Friday) with a drive, then got onto my moped to head home. Even though I’d been up late I had to be up early to catch a train back into Boston for the Green Transportation fair at the Children’s Museum. When I got to South Station, I walked the few blocks to the fair.

I was at the Fair with GM (one of my clients) and had all sorts of things to set up: signs, bags, water bottles, information on GM cars, etc. By 9:00 we had a hybrid Tahoe on the scene (which I also got to drive) and set up for the day.

It was a pretty perfect day for the event - clear, warm, sunny - a total change from the gloom and rain of much of the week. I hung down by the car for the day, talking to people, taking pictures, etc. Most people who stopped by were positive about the Fair and the Tahoe. Lots wanted to get in and look around (which was totally fine).

As the day went on it got warmer. At noon a band - Cooper Boone - set up to play. They were good and get people up and dancing a bit. One cool think that they were doing was to power their equipment without electricity. There was a modified exercycle to one side and they asked people to come up and pedal to charge the batteries for their PA system. It seems to have worked since they were able to play for several hours.

Over the course of the day we probably had a few hundred people stop by to check out the car - which seemed good. At 2:00 I headed out to catch the train back to Natick. But was my day of transportation fun finished? Not by a long shot. Yes I took the train home and yes I hopped on my moped to get to my house, but I also decided to go for a little ride.

I cruised around town and here and there and even made a little video:

All-in-all it was a totally transporterrific day.

Technorati Tags: batavus, boston, childrens-museum, cooper-boone, gm, gmfyi, gregpc, hybrid, moped, natick, tahoe, transportation, zuco-103

I read a lot and have a fair number of books. (I used to buy a lot but now trade them on Swaptree - check it out.) I try to be careful with my books but I have two that I’ve wrecked in exactly the same way - dousing them with water. Now drenching two books in and of itself might not be strange but here’s what is . . .

The first was the Penguin Classics edition of Thucydides (dropped in a bath while trying to recover from a hangover). The second was the Penguin Classics edition of Herodotus (soaked in a backpack in a torrential rain). It isn’t like this is what I read most of the time and the damage was separated by more than a year and a half. I don’t know, it just seemed strange to me.

I was late on Saturday and all wound up. I got in after noon. My daughter - who was leaving to spend a week with her grandmother - asked to hang out for part of the day. How could I refuse? She and I went on a photowalk around Mass Hort at Elm Bank. We had a great time.

I had every intention of attending sessions at PodCamp - and I did - but something pulled me away. I became stuck on the idea of photographing everyone at the event. More than 450 people registered for the event and there were about 350 that showed up. As soon as this idea came into my mind I started talking pictures. In the end, I only got 140 people but it was good fun and I like the results.

For me, the high point of any event is the fun and PodCamp was full of it. The photos frolic aside, Saturday turned epic as it turned into Sunday. From dinner at Brown Sugar (where the food was awesome) to drinks at Tequila Rain to Dancing at the Good Life to Jazz at Wally’s to fireworks on Columbus to hip hop in Brookline - the music never stopped and everyone was dancing.

Sunday started late again. Really late. I started the day at a GM event on Newbury Street and then made my way in the pouring rain back to PodCamp. I arrived just in time to help Adam Zand get set up for his session of Social Media as High School. (If you haven’t already - check out his PCB3 Year Book and sign it when you have the chance.)

By the time I got home on Sunday night I was bushed but happy. Thanks to everyone that made PCB3 so great on so many levels.

It’s another totally beautiful day in Boston and it started perfectly (for me). Had a half hour to get up, dressed and packed for a trip to NY, made it to the train on time and then got onto the Red Line at South Station. That’s when things got really terrific. There was a disabled train somewhere on the system so we had to sit for a while. A baby on the train started to absolutely wail and wail and wail and wail and wail. I was listening to music and couldn’t really hear the kid (thanks to my Bose noise canceling headphones) but I could tell other people were getting really, really mad. For some reason I started cracking up. I couldn’t stop laughing about what was happening. This get people glaring at me but that’s OK, I was totally loving life at the moment and couldn’t have been happier.

As I read a seemingly endless stream of bad news: global warming, fuel prices, food prices, etc., I’ve been wondering - when was the last sustainable year? What was life like here on earth just before we crossed that unrecognized and invisible line toward unsustainablity?

Was it some time in the 70s? Was it in the 50s? What has happening in a boardroom? in a classroom? in a living room? when we slipped unnoticed onto the path we find ourselves on today? Could anyone have recognized or imagined all the consequences of decisions that probably weren’t even consciously made?

If we knew the year, the time, the place when we were still living within our global means - could we go back? Could we recreate the world into an image of its earlier self? What would we have to roll back to reach that day and year? How much (if anything) would we be willing to sacrifice to reclaim a world - though teetering - still essentially in balance?

Does anyone have any ideas? answers? clues? When was the last sustainable year? I’d really like to hear.

Last week was an odd and uncomfortable week. It started with my birthday - somewhat subdued by the fact that I was feeling ill and that my Batavus - a gift - had been stolen the week before. As the week wore on, the discomfort grew as the illness I was feeling turned out to be Lyme Disease.

This has always been one of those conditions that I’ve dismissed as a lack of gumption of the part of its sufferers. Something that is best treated by sucking it up and getting back to work and life. There are any number of illnesses that fit this bill for me - and every time I name one of them either I or a friend or family member is diagnosed with it as fate works to demonstrate the validity of the condition.

I now know that Lyme Disease is real and it really sucks. I had fever and chills for ages, aches and fatigue that were persistent and an overall feeling of malaise and malady that simply wouldn’t let up. I am still feeling like crap but I kind of feel like I need to get out and get back to life. It might not be the wisest decision . . .

While this illness was irritating me I was also trying to sort out replacing my bike. I had one in mind but it was pricey(ish). I was anxious and impatient to get my hands on it and kept peppering the owner trying to find a time when we could meet. This weekend wasn’t going to work but I thought I might do something late Sunday.

Shortly before 10:00 on Saturday I got a call from the police. They had a moped that they wanted me to see and ID. I was on the scene in minutes and sure enough it was my bike. The fellow who had it was using it as a bicycle - peddling the damn thing around. It can’t have been easy, that’s for sure. The bike has only one speed and weighs nearly 100 lbs.

He claimed to have found it on the side of the road and no have painted it to make it look better. I noticed that the paining was largely limited to those areas of the bike that had names or logos . . . I also know that he will have passed at least a half dozen posters looking for the bike in the few minutes before the police stopped him. I guess he didn’t have a chance to read them.

Here’s the bike with the current paint job:

I am going to have it painted I think. Orange perhaps.

In any case, I am beyond happy to have my bike back. I want to thank everyone who’s been helpful in my search and recovery - the gang at Moped Army who had lots of great suggestions, the folks who saw the posting on Craig’s List and contacted me with tips and clues, the Natick PD for taking this seriously and being totally helpful and most of all Rich Berg of Natick who spotted the rider and contacted the police.

Pretty crazy that everything worked out in the end - and that was thanks to so many people helping out and playing their own part. Now I can get back to making my bike the most awesome moped around . . .

Sometimes I feel like a total blockhead - not in a bad way but more in a comfortable, easy and familiar way. This is one of those times. I have a ton going on - all of which is pretty cool - but an equal number of distractions - most of which totally suck. On the plus side is starting work with some new companies, being touched and surprised by the unexpected kindness of others having an overall feeling of (perhaps unwarranted).

On the downside are the fact that I still haven’t found my bike (and at this point doubt I ever will), that I have been sick for the past several days - suffering from a fever in the midst of the recent stifling heat and that my mind has been in a fog of late - all of which have made it difficult to be as focused and creative in my thinking as I would like.

Being optimistic though - and starting to feel better and having found a new bike - I am expecting the fog to life and for me to be able to do more of what I want more effectively. At least that is my hope.

Update

At this point I think my Bat is gone for good and I’m looking to get a replacement - but that isn’t going to happen for a few more weeks :(.

So I bought a moped just a week ago. It was a birthday gift (which isn’t even until 6/9). I spent the past weekend getting it working and had only ridden it a few times. Then today, I locked it up at West Natick station and went to work. When I got home it was gone. Lock, stock and barrel. It’s really bumming me out.

Here’s a picture of it:

If you see it let me know. It wasn’t super expensive but it’s not like I can just go buy another one . . . and I have $100 in parts en route. What a shitty day.

Weber Shandwick has an active and growing Clean Tech practice and will be co-hosting a Renewable Energy Business Network reception this evening in conjunction with Cleantech 2008. Here are the details:

Time/date: 5:30pm, Monday June 2nd
Place: The Hynes Convention Center, room 304 – in conjunction with the Cleantech 2008 event going on next week
What to expect: Lots of open conversations, a drink or two, a few brief words of encouragement from your co-hosts and some announcements from the REBN.

In order to get into the convention, you need to register – FOR FREE – with the conference organizers. Your registration will enable you to attend the REBN reception, as well as tour the exhibit hall.

To register, go to https://www.eshow2000.com/nano2008/nano_reg.cfm. Fill in your contact info, and select “Cleantech2008” as the event you’re planning on attending. Important: On the second page of the registration site, you need to enter both the Registration Code “REBN” at the top of the page, and select “Exhibit Hall only” – the page will indicate that the cost is $80, but don’t worry, on the next page you’ll see that your REBN membership means the fee is waived. There will be a name badge waiting for you at the Hynes Center when you get there.

Last week I went and bought a moped. It’s a Batavus Starflite. It was only $300 and it should do fine getting me to and from the West Natick train station every day. Every day that I drive it I’ll be saving $2 on parking and since it gets around 100 miles per gallon I should managed to save *some* money on fuel - not to mention the reduced wear and tear on my car.

Sure it’s 30 years old and it might not be the fastest thing on the road but I like it - and it seems that I can fix the thing myself (so far).