A Global Warning!

Another beautiful day, another stroll to Subway, but that was the only common part. I walked down to the waterfront with the sub and with the view of the shiny waters in front of me, the ferry traveling peacefully across the water, a sailboat gliding across the horizon and the snow-capped Mount Rainier standing majestically in the distance, nibbled at it. It wasn’t long before I realized that one of the sea-gulls had spied an opportunity and was sitting on a railing nearby, hoping for a treat. I gave it a crouton-sized piece of “Italian Herbs and Cheese” bread, and it few away after happily gobbling it down.

Thus started the test run of my newly acquired funky gadget – a TomTom GPS device. This marvelous piece of equipment is less than an inch thick, fits in the palm of your hand, works for 3 days on battery and can be taken along on foot, on a bike and in the car. Fully touch-screen operated (no stupid buttons), it is made, and works perfectly for, the only purpose of taking you to your destination. Make a mistake and it quickly reroutes to compensate. It even has a traffic feature, paid of course, that gets you around traffic!

I got it to navigate to “Starbucks near Home”, where I worked on my east coast trip snaps (yes, I still have not finished!) as I tried to connect to the WiFi. Eventually it struck me that Starbucks had shifted from free broadband to T-Mobile paid service, and decided never to visit the place again, except for a drive through.

Back home after running out of battery, I hit the gym and was done by evening time. With food already in the refrigerator, I subscribed to Blockbuster Online, got a free movie coupon and got myself another amazing movie – former Vice President Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”. It is an absolute must-see, with so many believable facts and figures indicating that global warming is going to hit us hard pretty soon (50 years) that it scares the cr@p out of you! Check out http://www.climatecrisis.net/thescience/

The good part is that we still can turn this around – if each one of us makes a difference. So as they suggest, the next time you get an opportunity,

• Use one less paper napkin
• Turn off the lights if you don’t need them, even in your work place!
• Turn down the thermostat just 3 degrees – makes little difference to you but a big difference to mother earth!
• Replace a regular incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb
• Buy the most fuel efficient car you can get – a hybrid if you can afford one! In case you’ve always sniggered that the advantage of buying a hybrid is lost in the price, Toyota is said to be coming up with a new Prius in 2009 (end of 08) that gives you 80 – 110 mpg!!! Snigger at that! The new Camry hybrid gives 40 mpg city, where other midsize/large sedans struggle to get beyond 25 at best!
• Check out http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction to see how else you can help.

It isn’t a lot to ask, and it isn’t much different from the normal person’s priorities. So next time you walk out of the door, make an effort to flip the light n heat switch!