Swamp Head Brewery

Gah, I can't help myself - I have to blog about Swamp Head Brewery before it gets into the Gainesville Sun.  There's a scoop to be had!

There have been microbreweries in Gainesville; recently, Land Shark Lager (based in Jacksonville) became a state-wide available beer.  But, this is the first locally-brewed beer to be distributed in Gainesville, and that's a big deal. 

Haven't tried it, yet, but I know you can get it at Tasty Buddha at Millhopper (this links to the original one on 16th ave.), and I will be sure to look for it at Ward's.

Okay, before anyone corrects me on this, this is great because it is locally brewed, not because it is locally produced - the ingredients still come from a far away (probably Nebraska) state, so for it to be truly locally produced it would have the ingredients grown here, as well.  I'm just sayin this for the record; I could almost not completely care about that fact, but it is something to consider when we consider locally produced foods.

Picture swiped from the Swamp Head Brewery website.

National Bike Month Media Ops in Gainesville, May 31st 2011 at noon

Hey all you local citizens and/or bloggers of Hoggetowne!  Mr. Batey, coordinator of the Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Board (BPAP) for the City of Gainesville, sent me a comment on the original post about National Bike Month, so I thought I'd break out of my hermitage to spread the link love:


The City of Gainesville Bicycle/Pedestrian Program announces a media conference to closeout National Bike Month for Gainesville, Florida on Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at noon. The event will be held in front of the Alachua County Library Headquarters downtown location.

Also featured will be a ribbon cutting for the Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Board (BPAB) “Bicycle Repair Station” pilot project structure and the results of a bicycle vs. car “Commuter Challenge” race involving Gainesville Mayor Craig Lowe as the cyclist and University of Florida Police Officer James Thomas, former bicycle officer, cyclist and recent Alachua County Commission Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Board (BPAB) appointee. Local and state groups will be on hand to provide bicycle related information and updates.



Link to event flyer:
Web Page link
Or visit directly: www.cityofgainesville.org + I WANT TO + Learn About + Bicycle/Pedestrian Program


For more information on "Bike Month" and bicycling information, please visit: www.bikeleague.org, or contact Dekova Batey, Bicycle/Pedestrian Program Coordinator, at 352-393-8493 / bikeped@cityofgainesville.org

Two Week Hiatus From Blogging and Other Internets

In order to complete my thesis for the final time (this is my second go-around) I am taking the advice of my ADD coach (yes, I have one of those, now, to help me through this wall I've seemingly hit at 40+ years of age) and taking myself off the information autobahn for two weeks.

Eschewing all online activities for two weeks is going to be one of the hardest things I've ever done (and that includes writing a thesis) and of course that means no blogging instead of thesis writing; I've done this in the past with the rationalization that at least I'm writing, even though what I'm doing is feeding my ADD scattered-ness. 

Will be back in two weeks or so and am already planning a new feature, "Because You Googled It," where I look at the search terms folks use and research them - it's like having a living, breathing Google to answer your environmental questions!

Speaking of which, please check out the many fabulous links on this blog to access lots of great information about environmental issues and other stuff - What We Need Is Here: Our Local Life is my favorite local blog on the Hoggetowne Links, but they are all wonderful.  Another great resource is Ask Umbra on Grist (Grist is also pretty great all-around, btw).  At the top of the front page there is a feed to DK GreenRoots posts on Daily Kos - all well-worth your time and effort for in-depth commentary on environmental issues.

Well, that's it.  Thanks for your patience and continued readership and look forward to blogging at AE again in about two weeks!

Got this hermity pic from Puerto Vallarta Journal

Bike/Bus Combo in Gainesville, Part 2

Hello again, I just got back from my bus trip and it was very successful.  I really enjoyed riding my bike downtown and catching only one bus to my appointment, so I think that is going to be my technique from now on.  I thought about taking my bike on the bus, as I mentioned earlier, but am glad I didn't because there are only two spots for bikes and they were mighty crowded on the way back.  I also wanted to show you what the rack looks like but felt uncomfortable taking pictures of buses...so I swiped this from the RTS website instead!

Bicycle Procedure

You can take your bicycle with you anywhere RTS goes! Most RTS buses have bike racks on the front that hold up to two bicycles. If you wish to use the bike rack, signal the driver that you are going to the front of the bus. You will be responsible for loading and unloading your bicycle.
1. Pull up on the release and lower rack.

2. Place bike wheels into the slots labeled "front" and "rear." Pull out bike support and lift it over the front wheel. The spring in the arm will keep your bike secure while the bus is moving.

3. To unload, release support arm and lift bike from the rack. Return rack to the upright position.

I ended up somehow getting an earlier bus downtown so I was able to stop at Fresh Market for some by-the-pound salad before hopping back on the next bus and getting to my destination.  This bus, because it carries a lot of students, is probably one of the more frequent buses on the whole schedule so it was definitely nice; I missed my bus coming back but only waited 30 minutes for the next on, versus the hour, hour and a half with other buses on my route. 

On the way home I stopped at Publix and got a couple of things (bogo Ben and Jerry's for one thing) and now I'm home.

Bike/Bus Combo in Gainesville

Pick up this bike?  hahaha...

So, I've been taking the bus more often - our family has one car and we've done pretty well for over 5 years this way, but it's getting a little tricky when I have appointments that take me outside the 2-mile Rule zone.  We've been doing a combination of things:

• I bike, the Old Man drives
• I drive and drop everyone off and then pick up
• I ride the bus, the Old Man drives

Yes, the onus of finding alternative transpo falls on my shoulders but that's fine; I get the feeling the Old Man is not comfortable biking near traffic in an urban setting; besides it's better for me to not be tied to leaving the house at a certain time to pick everyone up. 

Today, I'm trying something different.  Gainesville Regional Transit System (RTS) is our public transportation system, and their website is pretty spiffy - it has a route finder that interfaces (does anyone actually use that word anymore?) with Google Maps, so you can get a pre-planned route with schedule and transit times.  I won't diss the route finder even though I've never actually found an agreeable route this way.

For instance, I need to go to the NW part of town so I input my address and the termination address and it gave me this cocamamy route that requires me to go in a completely different direction for an hour and then I have to walk for 22 minutes.  The walking is fine, I love to walk and have the gait of a metropolitan dweller, but the section of road they're talking about can be walked in 22 minutes if you are an Olympic athlete.  Srsly.  So I said "forget that noise," and I'm doing something a little bit different today; I'm riding my bike to the main downtown depot, locking it up and then taking the one bus I need that will drop me practically in front of my destination.  Because our buses are equipped with bike racks I could alternatively take my bike with me, but this thing is no lightweight, so meh. 


I'll try to get a pic of the bus bike racks to show you what I mean.

Mother Earth Mags for Mother's Day

The Old Man and DJ got me three Mother Earth News magazines for Mother's Day, which is really nice.  So far, however, DJ seems to be the only one reading them, but at least one of us will be well-read on organic gardening.  The one he was looking at last night was MEN Guide to Growing Your Own Food, and every so often he'd chime in with, "oh, look, it says that you should have a mini pond in your garden area to encourage frogs and lizards..." - he's been bugging us for a garden pond since forever.  Then, he showed me this hilarious looking gadget called Nite Guard, saying it would scare the crap out of coyotes and wolves (DJ was polite enough to not actually say the word "crap" but trace his finger over it while reading the advertisement to me).  He thought it would be good for scaring racoons and possums, since we don't have wolves and coyotes in our neighborhood, and he's convinced the racoons are to blame for messing with our green pepper plants (why do racoons always get blamed immediately for this stuff?  Is it the mask?).  So, our conversations of late have been mostly about gardening and that's perfectly fine with me.