Today Carrick and I headed for Hollywood, for an interview and personal tour of Ed Begley Jr.'s green home. Things got off to a bit of a rocky start when we were about to head out for the interview and found our left front tire flat as a pancake! No spare tire, that's where the vegetable oil tank goes. Luckily I planned ahead and brought a little air compressor that plugs into the car. I couldn't find what the problem was but I've been having to add air to the tire for the last several days. We got to Ed's house with about 5 minutes to spare, even though we left with plenty of extra time, but that Los Angeles traffic is awful, even on a Saturday!
If you don't know, Ed Begley Jr. is an actor who has been in many TV shows and movies over the last few decades, and currently has a reality TV show called 'Living With Ed' about all the things he does in life and at home to be green, at times to the dismay of his wife! Ed has been widely recognized as one of, if not the most long-time, visible proponent in Hollywood of living an eco-friendly lifestyle.
Ed was very kind and generous, and Carrick got a great interview with him in his living room for 30 minutes, asking him all about what sustainability means and what we can all do as individuals. If you're going to talk sustainability, why not go right to the green guru himself? Unlike some famous people who promote going green, Ed actually walks the talk, big time. I emailed around as a long shot back in the fall to see if we could meet him and to my surprise he emailed back promptly and invited us over! After the interview Ed gave a tour of his house to a visiting group, with Carrick in the lead! Ed's home is a modest ranch house in a neighborhood of Hollywood, and he did all the retrofits he could to make it eco-friendly. It was great to spend some time with him this afternoon!
When we returned to the car the tire was, again, flat as a pancake. I was so embarrassed but took out my little air compressor and inflated the tire again, making lots of noise in this quiet little neighborhood. Ed probably was looking out the window wondering what the heck all that noise was! I took a picture so that I could laugh at myself later...
Once again thanks to the GPS, I quickly located a tire shop a few blocks away from Ed's house and drove over for a quick tire replacement! At least I don't have to worry about that any more...
Two more reader questions today:
Question: How do you keep the school truant officers/CPS, who are notorious for insisting via force that their way of life is the best way of life for every child (i.e. full days indoors at government schools, sleeping in a non-moveable house every night, etc), from interfering?
Answer: So far nobody along the journey has given us any trouble about our kids being out of school. We homeschool our kids, and our cross-country journey has been one big schooling adventure! Forget geography books, they're experiencing it! I can't imagine we will encounter any trouble with truancy officers but I'll let you know if we do!
Question: OMG, you guys are having such an adventure! So many experiences! How do you process it all?
Answer: Hmm...well, for starters we have lots of time sitting in the car to contemplate our adventures! We've been taking lots of pictures along the way, and writing these email updates have been a great record of our project. Once we've done our interviews we put the video tape in the bag and get ready for the next one, and the tape will stay in the bag until we get home and ready to edit. It's all going by so quickly but we're continuing to have so much success with our interviews and destinations.
Be well,
Colin
www.OurRenewableNation.org
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