Posted inHome life

How I sold our 2007 Prius: what worked, and what didn’t

Yesterday I sold our 2007 Prius Touring for a fair price: $16,000. The buyer was happy, and I'm happy. So now that I've had the vast experience of one recent private party used car sale, I'll share my tips for car-selling in this Internet age. In short: AutoTrader good, Craigslist bad. I only got two serious inquiries about the car, both through AutoTrader. My Craigslist ad mostly resulted in email messages that said: "Location? I can pick it up," along with "How much are you asking for this car ?? Ive been wanting to buy one like this so if…
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Posted inSalem

Salem’s riverfront development looks like a loser

Salem, Oregon is cursed by a Blah Witch. That's pretty damn clear. Whenever something creative, energetic, and enticing comes on the Capital City scene, it encouragingly flashes into life, then starts to dim until Salem's stultifying atmosphere snuffs it out. At best, a few mildly glowing embers remain to remind us of the luster that a genuinely vibrant urban area, such as Portland, offers its residents. One example is the Sustainable Fairview project that my wife and I bought shares in quite a few years ago. Plans were for a world-class mixed use oh-so-Green development featuring residences, lots of open…
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Posted inSalem Sustainability

“Farming or Folly?” forum in Salem (Oregon)

Friends of Marion County, a land use advocacy group my wife and I are close friends with, is having a "Farming or Folly?" community forum this coming Thursday, October 6, 2011 at the Salem Public Library. See press release info below. I'll be attending, because I haven't made my mind up on the farming or folly expanded uses question. Some people don't like the idea of a winery, say, being able to host marriage parties or other events. They consider that bringing a hundred or more people onto farmland isn't really appropriate, and fear non-farm uses will steadily erode the…
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Posted inSustainability

Car conversations make me appreciate Oregon’s Green’ness

Too often, we Oregonians take our state for granted. We focus on what our Pacific Wonderland lacks rather than feeling appreciative for the oh-so-special nature of Oregon. Every time I fly back to Portland from some flat, brown, fir-tree-lacking part of the country, and a Mt. Hood panorama fills the airplane window, I think Wow! I'm so fortunate to live here. The past few days some car-related conversations helped reinforce that feeling. Last night we had dinner with some friends. I mentioned how Laurel and I had recently bought a Nissan Leaf, the first 100% electric car offering from a…
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Posted inSalem

People and places I like in Salem, Oregon

Wow! I'm about to say some positive things about Salem -- the capital city of Oregon, where I've lived for thirty-four years. My usual attitude toward Salem (boring, sleepy, uncreative, lethargic) is reflected in a multitude of other blog posts. (For example, see here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.) But today was a warm, sunny late September day. I rode my maxi-scooter around town and had a thoroughly enjoyable time. That got me to thinking about how much I like some favorite Salem people and places. Betsy at Hair Headquarters. A few blocks south of Mission, on Commercial…
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Posted inSustainability

Oregon’s wolves are more important than cattle

So far as I know, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife still plans to kill two of the few remaining wolves in our state. The guy in charge of the wolf management program at ODFW deserves a raise, because he must be getting lots of phone calls and letters from wolf-lovers and wolf-haters. Today I listened to my wife, Laurel, leave a message on his voice mail. She isn't happy with the planned wolf killing, to put it mildly, and wasn't shy about forcefully expressing her opinion. Which I share. It seems ridiculous that wildlife officials are willing to…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Sustainability

Oregon Cattlemen’s Association seeks wolf extinction

Do you eat beef? If so, make sure it doesn't come from a rancher who belongs to the Oregon Cattlemen's Association (OCA). This group appears to be committed to killing every single wolf in our state -- causing wolves to once again become an extinct member of Oregon's top predator ecosystem. If you don't believe me, take a look at the OCA Facebook page. Friday's entry says "Good news for ranchers in Eastern OR," referring to a La Grande news story: Two Imnaha pack wolves to be killed after another confirmed livestock loss Yesterday’s investigation scene showed clear evidence of…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

Salem Statesman Journal shouldn’t reveal retiree info

The Salem Statesman Journal, for reasons known only to its generally right-leaning editorial board, went to court so the newspaper could release hitherto private information about the retirement benefits of Oregon state government workers. My wife is one of them. A few days ago she got a letter from the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) informing her that because of lawsuits filed by the Statesman Journal and Portland Oregonian, on November 21, 2011 her name and benefit amount will be made public. Download PERS Letter Then, on March 9, 2012 anyone in the world will be able to learn my…
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Posted inSalem Sustainability

OLCV “Wheels & Wine” event in Salem tomorrow

If you live in the Salem area, here's two good reasons to attend a "Wheels and Wine" energy efficient wine tour tomorrow, Thursday September 22. It's sponsored by the Oregon League of Conservation Voters, and will feature...drum roll, please... Our brand new Nissan Leaf! Shown here, getting its first charge in our carport after being driven home from the Jack Scoville Nissan dealership in Corvallis late this afternoon. So Reason #1 is: Come to the event from 5 - 8:30 pm at the Santiam Wine Company, 1555 12th Street in Salem (details here, and below) and you'll get to see…
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Posted inSalem Sustainability

Sunday, support sustainability with the Strongs in Salem

Sesame Street should be proud of me. Look how many "S's" I used in my blog post title! I stretched my alliterative mind muscles because the house party in honor of the Crag Law Center's 10th anniversary that I'm publicizing deserves to be noticed by people in the Salem, Oregon area who care about protecting our state's natural environment. Without attorney Ralph Bloemers and the Crag Law Center our south Salem neighborhood couldn't have successfully fought the threat that a 43-lot subdivision posed to our ground and surface water. So in addition to friends and neighbors, I'm spreading the house…
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Posted inPhilosophy Sustainability

My question for Humane Society of U.S. leader

This was my big chance. Would I ever get another opportunity to ask the President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), Wayne Pacelle, a question about animal consciousness? Almost certainly not. So I stuck my hand in the air tonight when Wayne said that he'd welcome a few questions from the passionate band of local animal activists who'd assembled at Ted and Beverly Paul's beautiful home in the south Salem hills to meet Pacelle. As soon as we arrived, I plunked down $27 to buy a copy of his book, "The Bond: Our Kinship with…
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Posted inHome life Humor

Will our dog fit in a Nissan Leaf?

I have many unanswered questions.I'm still trying to learn the meaning of life, what will happen to me after I die, and why the Kardashian sisters are famous (I do have a guess: they're famous for being famous). But today I focused on a query assigned to me by Laurel, my wife. "WIll our dog, Serena, comfortably fit into the Nissan Leaf electric car that we're poised to buy? We'd made a stab at answering this question during our first test drive, learning that the $250 cargo floor organizer included by the manufacturer on the car earmarked for us produces…
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Posted inHome life

What I learned from a cut phone line

Life has a way of teaching me lessons, even though I have no idea who the instructor is. I mean, who the hell is this guy called "Life" anyway? Everybody talks about him, but I've never seen the dude. Well, whoever or whatever LIfe is, here's what I learned today: don't assume; keep your cool; be positive about people until you can't help being negative. This was a pretty weird experience, now that I think about it in the calm of a pleasantly cool September Oregon evening, blogging on our deck while listening to nearby crickets cricketing and distant owls…
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Posted inHome life

Buy our 2007 Prius! Just 36,500 miles on it!

[Our car has been sold. Sorry, would-be Prius buyers. Disappointingly, the couple who bought the car learned about it via an AutoTrader listing, not this blog post. We ended up selling it for $16,000, which is about what I expected to get -- once I realized that nobody was going to pay $1 million for a 2007 Prius Touring, unless it was made of gold.] I've never wanted to be a real-life car salesman, but it's kind of fun to play one in a blog post... BUY, BUY, BUY! -- THIS CAR WON'T BE IN OUR DRIVEWAY FOR LONG!Wow, a…
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Posted inHome life Salem

Why we didn’t buy our Leaf from Salem Nissan

Us bloggers believe in giving businesses praise when praise is due, and also publicizing buying turn-offs. So here's how I just replied to an email from Salem (Oregon) Nissan. I'd gotten a message from Salem Nissan asking if we were still in the market for a car that included this request: If you are no longer looking or would like to be removed from my follow-up list, please send a quick note to let me know. I did just that, saying "We're buying a Leaf from the Corvallis Nissan dealer, so you can take us off your follow-up list." When…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Jon Huntsman — only sane Republican presidential candidate

Driving home this evening, I tuned my car's satellite radio to MSNBC. I wanted to hear at least a little bit of the Republican presidential debate in Simi Valley, California. If I'd heard more, my head might have exploded -- the rhetoric was that ridiculous. I couldn't understand why the audience didn't laugh out loud at some of the answers candidates gave to questions. For example, Ron Paul ranted on about the uselessness of building a fence along the Mexican border to deter illegal immigration. He said that this fence could just as easily keep people in the country, not…
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Posted inEntertainment Sports

Why the Oregon football team lost to LSU

Wow, that's a gutsy title for this blog post. Me, little blogger Brian, is going to explain why the Oregon Ducks, ranked #3 in the country for a frustratingly brief time this 2011 football season, lost ignominiously to the LSU TIgers last Saturday. (The final score 40-27, doesn't reflect how badly the Ducks were dominated by the Tigers.) My qualifications for this feat? I've never played organized football at any level. I watch a lot of college football on TV but haven't gone to a live game for decades. I know next to nothing about the intricacies of play calling,…
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Posted inHome life Sustainability

We test drive a Nissan Leaf. How dog friendly is it?

So there we are today, looking over a blue 2011 Nissan Leaf, all 100% electric and high techy, wondering if we should go ahead and buy the car after putting down a $500 deposit on it upon learning from Russ Goodyear at Corvallis' Jack Scoville Nissan that a Leaf could be ours much sooner than expected, owing, I believe, to someone cancelling an order for this car. Russ is ready to show us its technological marvels, and let us take our first test drive, but first Laurel needed to closely inspect the car's dog friendliness. How comfortably and safely would…
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Posted inRecreation

Shadow Lake firefighters with BIG trucks get lost

I greatly admire forest firefighters. Watching four or five large semis filled with equipment take a wrong turn in Camp Sherman, Oregon a few days ago doesn't lessen my admiration for them in the slightest. It just shows that they're human. (Maybe these guys hated to stop and ask someone for directions, like me; or the government needs to fork out a few bucks to get them a GPS app like Navigon for their iPhones, which I have -- and love.) Tuesday my wife and I were at our co-owned forest service cabin in Tract C along the Metolius River,…
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Posted inBooks

Keep independent bookstores alive! They can’t die.

I'm a long-lapsed Catholic, but it still felt right to call my purchasing of a book in the wonderful Paulina Springs Books a penance. That's what I said to my wife after we met up again in charming Sisters, Oregon. Laurel had returned from her clothes shopping safari, and me from a bookstore exploration. (We do this a lot, having different material desires.) I showed her my big, thick, intellectually meaty/tofuy copy of David Deutsch's "The Beginning of Infinity." I knew I was going to buy this book almost as soon as I read the subtitle: Explanations That Transform the…
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