Riding a bicycle to work every day can be wonderful or it can be stinky, I mean really stinky.
Recently my work place had a one day relocation to a church building that was outside town. It was nice for me since it was less than half the distance I normally ride and because it was down a beautiful county road with sheep pastures on one side and shady trees all around.
It was a beautiful day the weather was warm the sky was blue with white clouds drifting idly above. A soft breeze delivered rusty and golden leaves from the rustling branches to the earth. The sheep were busy doing nothing in the field and the farms had the gratified sleepy look of a good harvest. I admired the rolling hills on one side and enjoyed the trees with their cooling shade and autumn colors.
This country road turned out to be a sort of expressway that short cut between two freeways without going through town so there was a lot of traffic. There was no shoulder but being experienced with cars zooming past at freeway speed inches way I just dealt with it and kept on going.
A truck passed belching diesel fumes in a faint black haze. There were other commercial vehicles with thick exhaust escaping at every seam and gasket. The smell made me sick to my stomach. The harder I tried to get home the harder I was panting and sucking in the poison of angry combustion engines. One vehicle would speed by trying to outrun its exhaust of corrosive carbon gas and another would follow with thick smelling diesel that left a burnt rubber flavor in my mouth. The smell mixed with the acrid odor of burning oil and hot tires to create a stew of stink. I felt that I had wandered into a chemical warfare test zone utterly out of character with the beautiful landscape I was passing through.
Thankfully I turned to the shady suburban road that leads directly home. I wanted to raid my wife's garden of rose petals and shove them crumpled into my nose to try to get the stink out, but instead chose a soapy shower which did wonders.
I was disappointed that a pleasant ride turned rancid but the experience has reminded me of the great need to make alternative choices that will help conserve our world. I am not the victim of the exhaust fumes that day any more than any other day because every day all the residents of my community called planet earth suffer. We should all take a moment and smell the roses but if they are covered with carbon exhaust we can.t and should consider what we can do to conserve God's gift of planet earth.
Recently my work place had a one day relocation to a church building that was outside town. It was nice for me since it was less than half the distance I normally ride and because it was down a beautiful county road with sheep pastures on one side and shady trees all around.
It was a beautiful day the weather was warm the sky was blue with white clouds drifting idly above. A soft breeze delivered rusty and golden leaves from the rustling branches to the earth. The sheep were busy doing nothing in the field and the farms had the gratified sleepy look of a good harvest. I admired the rolling hills on one side and enjoyed the trees with their cooling shade and autumn colors.
This country road turned out to be a sort of expressway that short cut between two freeways without going through town so there was a lot of traffic. There was no shoulder but being experienced with cars zooming past at freeway speed inches way I just dealt with it and kept on going.
A truck passed belching diesel fumes in a faint black haze. There were other commercial vehicles with thick exhaust escaping at every seam and gasket. The smell made me sick to my stomach. The harder I tried to get home the harder I was panting and sucking in the poison of angry combustion engines. One vehicle would speed by trying to outrun its exhaust of corrosive carbon gas and another would follow with thick smelling diesel that left a burnt rubber flavor in my mouth. The smell mixed with the acrid odor of burning oil and hot tires to create a stew of stink. I felt that I had wandered into a chemical warfare test zone utterly out of character with the beautiful landscape I was passing through.
Thankfully I turned to the shady suburban road that leads directly home. I wanted to raid my wife's garden of rose petals and shove them crumpled into my nose to try to get the stink out, but instead chose a soapy shower which did wonders.
I was disappointed that a pleasant ride turned rancid but the experience has reminded me of the great need to make alternative choices that will help conserve our world. I am not the victim of the exhaust fumes that day any more than any other day because every day all the residents of my community called planet earth suffer. We should all take a moment and smell the roses but if they are covered with carbon exhaust we can.t and should consider what we can do to conserve God's gift of planet earth.
