Mountain Biking: Rubber side down- Time for a TurnaroundWell, my friends, things are finally looking up, and good timing, too, since I’m sure you’re all sick of me bitching. Recent bike build, including wheels… fun! In what feels like a fairly short time, I’ve come from sitting around … Continue reading → […]
- This Raised My PulseHey, baby… wanna ride? I may be injured, but I’m not dead yet. I can still have racy thoughts. Here’s more info. In other news, UBI was an awesome success! I had a blast. I highly recommend it. Overhaul day…. … Continue reading → […]
- Time for a Turnaround
- Edgy Veggie
Green Drinks Boulder: February at Bacaro
Last night was one of my favorite Green Drinks Boulder events yet. Even though it was pretty chilly out, it was the easiest for me to get to, as it was just across the street from the ol’ office.
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The crew at Green Drinks Boulder in Feb. 2010 at Bacaro
In addition to that, it got me to Bacaro for the first time in three or four years. I think I negatively associated it with the last time I was there — business meeting gone wrong! So, hey. Whaddya know, it was still a nice place, and the kindly barkeep even let me sample a ginger liqueur I’d seen around and wondered about. It’s not really my speed, but I’d been curious. Nice bottle, too.
But that’s not why you’re here. You’re wondering if I met any interesting folks at Green Drinks, aren’t you.
Well, wouldn’t you know it, but I did. The first person I met was Casey, and I think we’ll get to her in a later post, so you’ll have to trust that she seemed like a pretty darn smart and engaging person who’s currently looking for some work. She’d done carbon footprint analysis for big industrial types, and it turns out we were at Columbia a year apart. How ’bout that? Like I said, more to come, but for now, she makes a cameo in the foreground of the photo below.
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Green Drinks Boulder -- say hey to Casey, foreground left. I didn't meet the gentleman with the dapper cap.
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Laurie Adams of Clean Air Lawn Care
Next up, I got a chance to talk to Laurie, who told me about her Clean Air Lawn Care franchise. Who knew they were franchising that sort of thing? In addition to telling me about the advantages of the service (quieter, doesn’t use gas), she said she was a mosaic artist and occasionally sells some of her work over at Clutter Consignment.
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She also suggested a Clean Air Lawn Care franchise for folks looking for a fresh start. I like that I tend to meet people who make me realize how many different ways there are to get in on greener business (though we could talk about the whole issue of lawns later).
Somewhere around this point, I finished up a 5 Barrel Pale Ale and looked up long enough to realize that back bar area had pretty well filled up. Sure, we were still missing Lori Powell, who organizes the thing, but she showed up a little later (in plenty of time for me to hassle her about being too popular for Green Drinks). Naturally, she had good excuses, and even brought a small posse from her earlier event.
So, you know how the City of Boulder converted some of its fleet vehicles to plug-in hybrid electrics?
2008:
In the near future, three of Boulder County’s hybrid vehicles will be able to charge off the sun’s energy during the day and then feed electricity back to the grid when power demand is peaking.
Xcel Energy is launching the nation’s first large-scale test of “vehicle-to-grid” technology with the conversion of three of the county’s existing Toyota Priuses to plug-in hybrids, which can be powered off the solar panels installed on the West Wing of the courthouse.
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Two EEtrex guys, Kyle Miller at left and Steve Mayer at right. Pretty generic names, gentlemen. Almost too generic. Spies?
Yeah, well, I met two guys who were pretty instrumental in the actual conversion. In addition to engineering and programming the systems on Boulder’s fleet electric vehicles, they got their hands dirty (or not — I guess I’ve never looked under the hood of an electric car) and assembled some of them.
Kyle and Steve work for EEtrex, and let me say this: if you ever want to feel dumb, but more interested than ever in the rapidly-changing world of automotive engineering, talk to a couple of guys like them.
They must have answered the dumbest questions I had all evening. Thanks, fellas.
That just about wraps it up. If you weren’t there this time, I hope to see you in March!
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