While looking to see what the weather would be like this weekend, I noticed this on the page:

“..AIR STAGNATION ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 12 PM CDT
SUNDAY..

THE IOWA DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES HAS ISSUED AN AIR
QUALITY ADVISORY FOR THE STATE OF IOWA. OZONE AND FINE
PARTICULATE LEVELS APPROACHING ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
HEALTH STANDARDS WERE PRESENT OVER MOST OF IOWA EARLY SATURDAY
MORNING. WINDS ARE FORECAST TO INCREASE SUNDAY WHICH WILL CAUSE
ELEVATED AIR POLLUTANT LEVELS TO DISSIPATE.

AN AIR STAGNATION ADVISORY INDICATES THAT DUE TO LIMITED MOVEMENT
OF THE ATMOSPHERE ACROSS THE ADVISORY AREA..POLLUTION WILL
INCREASE TO DANGEROUS LEVELS. IF YOU HAVE A RESPIRATORY ILLNESS..
FOLLOW YOUR PHYSICIANS ADVICE FOR DEALING WITH HIGH LEVELS OF AIR
POLLUTION.”

Can’t say as I’ve seen THAT before. Ugh. Oh well. It’s actually raining here right now, which sort of flies in the face of the whole air stagnation thing..except it really does feel icky and sticky and like the air isn’t moving, in between the raindrops.

Anyway. While I’m inside, hiding from air stagnation, I’ll be reading this:

Really great little comic about a young girl named Jesse Sanchez who is this ass-kicking skateboard hero. She fights all sorts of villains from ninjas to demons. Totally rad!

Well, it’s been a year this week since Erin + I had our tornado trashed car towed away. Pretty cool, actually. It seemed like a fairly easy adjustment too. I mean. Iowa City is really pretty bike-able. You can get almost anywhere within a few miles. There ARE lots of hills, but I’ve gotten used to most of the ones I encounter on a routine basis.

Erin is much more dedicated than I am. She biked all through the winter, no matter the weather, whereas I took about 3 1/2 months off for ice/snow and rode the bus everywhere.

When a road trip is at hand, we just rent a car. It’s still cheaper than owning one. No car payments, no insurance, no gas, no maintenance–all of which is pretty sweet. So even dropping $50 to rent a car (which is the general daily cost here including insurance) isn’t bad when you consider what I’ve been saving. All of that saved money has been diverted to other debts, which are now getting paid off much faster.

And, I’m in better shape then I’ve been in years. win-win all around!

I will say, there WAS one moment when I did really wish we had a car, and that was when Erin sliced her feinger open on a broken glass and thought she might need stitches. Even then, she got a ride from her sister and it all worked out well.

So far so good!

As a post script:

I’m a huge fan of apocalyptic fiction. Octavia Butler, John Brunner, etc., and I’ve really been loving Brian K. Vaughn’s comic series, “Y: The Last man”.

Movies too..last night we went to see 28 Weeks Later, which was actually pretty terrible, but contained lots of zombie goodness. Anyways, one common thing I’ve started to notice in all these post-apocalyptic worlds is: where the hell are the bicycles?! Does it occur to no one that it would be easier to flee the zombies and to travel across country if one had a bicycle?