As I wrote in May:

My new challenge for the year is to put less than 2,000-miles on the car between April 1st and December 31st.

How are we doing? Well, some months have been better than others, but the grand total so far is 1,387 1,440 miles.

April was pretty much right on target. May we took a trip to the beach. June saw some lazy errand trips. July was gorgeous weather. In August we started kickball.

Kickball required a short drive each weekend to the park (10-miles round trip). This was all well and good until the soreness turned to injury. Emily was able to keep playing, so we went to kickball each week and I cheered from the stands, but I was hobbling around for about three weeks. So kickball injuries meant no errands by bike. And those errands piled up the miles in August.

September was a high month too and all I can chalk it up to was air conditioning. It gets hot in Oregon in September in our little apartment. And most of the day this is not to uncomfortable. But in the late afternoon the last thing I wanted to do was cook dinner and that quickly turned into dining out, going to the movies and enjoying the air conditioning where ever we could find it.

So with three months left in the year we have a little more than 600 miles left. I’m sure weather will be a factor, but I think it may just be do-able. We have fenders on our bikes, so with a little fore thought and the my rain jacket, I hope to continue enjoying the brief errands by bike that made the summer so much fun.

Wish us luck and I promise to give you a year end update.

The only hang-up was work. That is what we used the car for the most. I didn’t feel safe riding it to work at the university and no one would argue that riding down Harbor, over the 91, past Disneyland to the hotel was a safe commuting option for Emily. And as often as I fantasized about a light-rail/street car line — making a circuit from CSUF down Chapman, turning South on Harbor traveling past Disneyland to the Block@Orange, the Orange circle then North along the 55 corridor back to CSUF — it wasn’t going to happen this decade.

The spring after the car accident, we did look into bikes. We had already decided that we were not buying a car to replace the Civic. Who needs more loans when you already have university debt to carry around. We read a lot online, gleaned advice from CleverChimp (now CleverCycles) and got suggestions from The Bicycle Lane. We were so close to buying but we opted to save our money and finally move North like we had been talking about for years.

Finally last summer, after moving to Beaverton, we bought ponies. We managed several weekend fun rides, and I got in the habit of riding to the pharmacist and library. And light-rail was covering Emily’s commute into downtown Portland. Still, most errands and trips were in the Volvo which was quickly showing its age.

Our recent move into central Beaverton has made a huge difference however. We are now in a much better location for relying on our ponies for errands. The new apartment is a very brief walk form the MAX for Emily. Our ride to the grocer, bank, bookstore, gym, dry cleaner and movie theater is five to ten minutes. Pleasant, level rides with bike lanes and traffic signal sensors just for bikes too. I am officially addicted to errands by bike, even the last minute, “Wouldn’t wine with dinner be great.” or “We’re out of garlic!”.

Along with this we have been enjoying the car-lite results. We are averaging 25-miles a week on the Volvo, or about 100-miles a month. It makes gas prices way less bothersome. My new challenge for the year is to put less than 2,000-miles on the car between April 1st and December 31st. The average American will drive about 9,375-miles in the same stretch of time. It will be fun to see how we do. Wish us luck and safe riding.

I had never heard of mushy peas before but I love them. They came along side my bangers & mash at Old Irish Times and I couldn’t pass up trying the edamame version on offer at Red Fish Blue Fish. Stuffed into a tortilla with bean sprouts, lemon-pickled onions and chili adobo, mushy edamame is basically cooked edamame, mashed with butter, cream, salt and pepper. I’m sure Red Fish Blue Fish had there own variation, but they are so yummy.

The architectural notion of the little restaurant also fascinated me. I have seen plenty of articles in the architecture press describing residential uses for standardized shipping crates, those things you see stacked two high on trains. But this was a first in person encounter for me. It is a must see (and eat!) in Victoria.

Wes Giesbrecht makes beautiful wooden mosaics that hang like tapestry. Another great find from the trip to Granville Island in Vancouver, British Columbia. We found his work at The Wood Co-op and it is composed of small wood tiles, about 1-inch sq. and 0.25-inch thick. The tiles are stained but not varnished or painted, so the color comes from the variety of woods used. They are then glued to a fabric substrate, though not to each other. As a result, the mosaic can be rolled up like a tapestry or thick rug.