Taking a Golf Swing

As a family, we have grown increasingly concerned about carbon emissions. Last year we took a big step to reduce our use of fossil fuels by moving out of the suburbs and back into town. We chose a neighborhood where we can walk to almost all the daily errands, with our pharmacy, cleaners, vet, coffee shops, library, park, and small restaurants only minutes from our door. We're flanked by two bus lines that connect us to almost any neighborhood we need to get to. Our elder son, who is 16 and "should" be driving, actually prefers the bus.

But there are always times we need to drive: our neighborhood's former grocery store closed, and the next closest one is just a bit foo far to walk with several bags of groceries. (A folksy little neighborhood store is being built, but nobody knows when it will be finished.) The kids' pediatrician is five miles away and not on a convenient bus line. (And I always need to get there in a hurry, it seems.) It does pour bullfrogs here in the winter and some days I'm less noble than others. And so forth... I felt I was still putting too many miles on our aging mini-van. We put our heads together and decided to replace my car with a biodiesel car.

We had visited the Green Car Company last summer (thinking we might splurge on a Smart Car, the cutest thing we've ever seen on the road), and were impressed with the owners' commitment to the planet and their down-to-earth way of selling cars. So, who better to consult about a biodiesel car? Last night we traded the mommy van for a 2003 VW Golf.

When I went out the door this morning, my first thought was "Where's my van!?!" No green behemoth at the curb. Instead, just a cute little blue car, ready to take us to church without melting any arctic ice.

Gratitude list for today: Getting a great trade-in deal. Being fairly close to a biodiesel fueling station. The fact that my family is all of the same mind on this issue. Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth." (Watch it if you haven't already.)