His painful shoulder didn’t stop him from patiently [...]]]> Today was a day for lessons. Tim’s shoulder throbbed all day, reminding him of his longboarding lesson last night. He worked it all afternoon, gradually increasing his range of motion until he could go without his sling. But he’s very achy tonight from the workout.

His painful shoulder didn’t stop him from patiently teaching me the ins and outs of digital photography over dinner. We covered depth of field, aperture, focus and light. Tomorrow is Shannon and Jimmy’s wedding and Tim is the photographer. As assistant, I’ll be snapping away with his smaller camera and I need to learn some tricks!

Our last lesson learned for the day is one we’d like to share with everyone else. When we were traveling to Las Vegas this past March, we stopped for groceries at a Walmart SuperCenter in Mesquite, NV. We brought in our cloth RRR bags. When we got to the checkout, the young girl ringing us up looked at us like we were crazy.

“You want to put your food in that?” she asked.

“Yes”, we told her, “it saves on plastic bags”.

“Wow” she replied incredulously, “I’ve heard of those, but I’ve never actually seen one”.

In a huge Walmart Supercenter, you’d think our reusueable grocery bag had flown in from Mars. Scary.

Now that being said, Tim and I don’t always remember to bring the cloth bags with us for every grocery trip and still end up with a wad of plastic at the end of the day. But after watching this video, we’ve changed our tune. If we forget our bag, we just shell out the $1.99 and buy a new one. It’s a self imposed bag tax. After all, 22,176 bags in a single lifetime adds up!

It was a busy day, which wrapped up with a meeting for [...]]]> Today was a blue sky day in the Tetons! And another work day for Tim and me. Tim’s morning took him over the Pass to Driggs for Teton Valley Cabin meetings while I stayed in Jackson and repaired, rebuilt and reformated.

It was a busy day, which wrapped up with a meeting for Tim with local activist Jonathan Schechter about an events calendar for the community. In addition to the events calendar, Jonathan’s primary focus is 1% for the Tetons.

Inspired by Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard’s 1% for the Planet, 1% for the Tetons is a nonprofit which encourages businesses and organizations that focus on sustainability of the Teton region. Encouragement come in the form of annually awarded grants funded by local businesses who have pledged one percent of their gross sales to the effort. The organization is only 3 years old but seems to be building momentum.

What does sustainability mean? Well that is kept intentionally vague so that the organization can’t be pinned to a particular environmental mission. But past grants say a lot. In 2007 our local library received money to build solar panels; Teton Valley, Idaho received grants for bike paths and recycling; and funds were allocated to a Jackson composting project. It’s an interesting organization striving to make Jackson a better place.

Before heading out, Tim snapped this picture of the Tetons in the last light of the day….and Frasier, Tim claims that any “photoshopping” performed is no different then your view of the world behind those Maui Jim’s!

It was a green themed day on all fronts. This morning, Tim discovered Zipcar, a [...]]]> Today Tim and I continued our heads down planning for upcoming travel. Our picture du jour is the top of Frank’s solar panels, shot when Tim was checking out storage space for the newly purchased internet satellite dish.

It was a green themed day on all fronts. This morning, Tim discovered Zipcar, a car-sharing company with a cool twist. At first they don’t sound much different from the average Hertz dealer. Rent a car for the day – not too original – but these guys are unique.

You reserve a car on the website with a few clicks. Next head down to their nearest lot (I checked out NYC and they have cars available about every 10 blocks), flash your id card across the windshield, the car unlocks, you drive away. Simple. You can rent it for an hour to do your grocery shopping, or a few days to head out on vacation. Rentals are about $10 an hour or $70 a day and cover insurance, gas, maintenance. And when you’re done you pull back in and walk away.

Their markets are big cities and college campuses. I’d have saved a bundle from the parking tickets I amassed while trying to find a decent long term spot at JMU. For Tim it would have been ideal, he went through 9 or 10 cars in his college years, according to the stories I’ve heard.

But as cool as the idea is, the selling point is in the statistics. On average, Zipcar members drive 369 miles a year versus 5,295 before they joined. They report a 26% increase in walking and 10% increase in biking. Sure, the reduced driving and increased exercise is because a Zipcar is less convenient than your own. But it’s just the incentive I would need to make a real change. After our extended time in a vehicle this year (no offense, Frank), I think Tim and I will definitely join up in 2009.

And because I’ve always heard the best stock buys are the products you use, I checked into their financials. They are currently private but have plans for an IPO in the near future. It seems like a good investment on all fronts.

The class was taught in two [...]]]> Tonight Tim and I attended a seminar titled Creativity and Right Livelihood. The course was taught by Gifford Pinchot III, President of the Bainbridge Institute. Our friend, Steve Jansen, is working on his MBA in Sustainable Business through the Institute and sparked Tim’s interest in the course.

The class was taught in two sections. The first focused on the creative process. Gifford has a long history as an entrepreneur, creativity consultant, author and now educator. Emphasizing class participation, Gifford taught us how to foster new ideas through brainstorming with no judgement, understanding that all ideas are welcome in the initial stages of the creative process. We discussed the source of creative ideas and how to create the mental attitude for inspiration. Once you’ve done some brainstorming, you must respect your initial ideas no matter their value and listen to the quiet creative voice when it speaks. If you immediately begin judging your ideas or the ideas of others then the voice invariably stops talking and you may never get to a solution. The process takes time and patience, humor and positivity. Encourage yourself and you’ll bring out your creative side!

The second section of the course covered what to do with a big list of ideas once you have them. Tim’s picture of the day is the map of criteria to judge an idea by to see if it is worth pursuing. Focusing on finding new career paths, we walked through each of the criteria to better understand how to decide what is the best fit. As I work to figure out how to make money on the road, it was an extremely well timed discussion.

After the seminar, we had an opportunity to talk more with Gifford. He began the Bainbridge Institute to create an MBA degree balancing traditional business management with sustainability and environmental awareness. It’s a refreshing outlook in a field obsessed with ROI and shareholder interests at the expense of all else. Once we learned a little more about Gifford’s background, his advocation is more understandable. His grandfather, Gifford Pinchot I, began the US Forest Service and served as it’s first Chief. He was a vital voice in public policy reform throughout his life. It’s easy to see where Gifford gets his inspiration. He truly does a great job sharing that inspiration with others!

It was a late night of work followed by not one, but two cop stops in a 3 mile [...]]]> Whew! After a busy weekend, we launched into a busier week! I didn’t get home from work until 1:30 am after a long server upgrade. Thank you so much Tim for picking up the blog!

It was a late night of work followed by not one, but two cop stops in a 3 mile stretch for a burnt out headlight. I hadn’t even noticed it was out, but Jackson’s finest sure did.

“Ma’am have you been drinking? You seem a little out of it.”

“No, sir,” I answer, “I’ve just been working for the last 17 hours.”

“Well ma’am, at 1 at night, we’re looking for drunks. And drunks usually have headlights out.” Fortunately, I wasn’t in that boat. So after both pullovers, they told me to drive safe and I headed home.

The good thing about being so busy is that both Tim and I are starting to feel caught up. We have a week and a half of being home to prepare for our next adventure in Park City. It will be a wild reunion of 429, full of hot dog skiing, football and a probably a margarita or two. We need to get ready now, because there will be no working then!

So we are doing our errands, getting tons of work done and firing up projects. Today Tim organized our recycling as part of our goal to reduce our carbon footprint by 20% for 2008. As we work on the effort, I’ll post any good green hints we come across! Green Hint #1: Lower Valley Power and Light offers 100% green power (wind energy) to their customers for a modest increase in price.

A little goes a long way!