I don't mean that bike-riding makes us beautiful, although my own sculptured physique may suggest that it does. Rather, bicycling has the most felicitous of speeds: Fast enough to be a useful means of transportation but slow enough to give the rider ample opportunity to appreciate beauty in all of the little ways it manifests itself. Case in point: Last night around 10:30, I was in the middle of one of my ever-more-frequent rides to Middletown to retrieve my car. On Willow Street in Wethersfield, I was riding past a dark open space somewhat lower than the roadway - maybe a ballfield or a swamp or pond - when I noticed a lovely green twinkling pervading the darkness below the horizon, sort of like those hundreds of flash bulbs you see going off in the stands during slow-motion replays of important moments in baseball games. Naturally, it was lightning bugs, which are not, per se, something worthy of comment. But honestly, I had never seen lightning bugs quite like this: When I was a kid, I would spend twilight at my grandparents' suburban house chasing two or three fireflies around the edge of the yard, tracking then in the growing gloom and trying to catch them in a jar (or in my hand, so I could smush them and smear their glowy stuff on me). But these bugs in Wethersfield were something else altogether: Thousands and thousands of them spread out over a quarter mile space, flashing and flashing without any concern for prowling kids or anything else, like the last sparkle of distant fireworks repeated over and over in an uninterrupted darkness. I think it was the first time since I was eight that lightning bugs inspired me with such unchecked wonder.
Sadly, my digital camera was completely unable to detect this little miracle, so all I can do is recommend that everyone take a bike ride south down Willow Street from Wells Road to Prospect Street in Wethersfield some summer night and look to the right. The sublime, quiet minutes you will spend contemplating fireflies are absolutely worth the trip.
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When I read the above titled article in the Courant I didn't think it really had anything to do with biking in Hartford but the more I thought about it, it really does.
For many of us, this is one of the major reasons we bike to work, school, the grocery store, the bar, etc. So what could be more important than legislature that will (hopefully) further encourage alternative (read: bike) transportation? Not much.
The article is quoted below or can be found here. Be sure to check out the comment section. If you are at all like myself it will baffle, amuse, frighten, and enrage you.
As a teaser here is my favorite comment:
"Finally!! Somebody is putting a cap on all those CO2 emissions coming from the State Capitol. Great idea. Oh, wait, this has nothing to do with gas bag politicians, just another attempt at causing an economic depression over the lies of anthropogenic global warming. Leftists love their pet phrases so they can all sound so hip; the newest one being "carbon footprint" . Yes, everybody is concerned about their "carbon footprint". Or so they say. What nonsense. Remember in the '80s when all the leftists were afraid Reagan was going to have the world nuked, the pet phrases of the era were "nuclear freeze" and "nuclear winter"? Well, Reagan put an end to the Soviet Union w/o a shot being fired. The leftists, sad that the evil U.S. won that round, had to pocket their "nuclear winter/ freeze" mantras for another era. But now that Iran is finally getting a nuclear weapon, it might be a good time to dust off the "nuclear winter/freeze" phrases. It's a lot closer to reality than man made global warming. That said, it's not to late for a special session to stem gas emissions from the state capitol and order that all elected officials drive hy-breds, instead of their gas guzzlers. Right Mr. Blumenthal?." - Alfred E Newman Esq. Wallingford, CT
Great eh? Well here is the article....
"As the U.S. Senate debated its global warming bill this week, Connecticut took a major step of its own toward addressing the issue.
Gov. M. Jodi Rell on Monday signed into law an act that sets mandatory caps on the emissions scientists say are warming the globe. To meet those goals, residents could see many changes in their daily lives over the next few decades, from the price they pay for electricity and the ways they commute to work, to the sources of energy they consume in vehicles and homes.
Exactly what those changes will be is up in the air: The law directs state agencies to produce an inventory of the state's emissions and take other measures to promote energy efficiency and set up incentive programs and regulations to encourage businesses and residents to do more to control greenhouse gas emissions.
The state already has a plan in place to address climate change. But the new law gives it some teeth by making the emissions cuts mandatory.
