At school, I carefully plan copying & printing tasks and visits to other classrooms to maximize my time (and, of course, to avoid climbing two beastly flights of stairs more than once a day).
When running errands in the car, I work out routes so I can do everything in a loop, making as many right hand turns as possible. And though it was a Godsend to find drive-through anything when my kids were small and required multiple bucklings & unbucklings when getting in & out, now I try to limit idling situations.
Why? Mainly because I enjoy breathing.
A recent Ideal Bite tip reinforced what my non-sciencey brain thought was true (sometimes we English majors make up shit like this to seem smarter about something other than grammar or Faulkner) - idling cars emit loads of pollution and waste gas; I'm not cool with either of those things.
We've been having issues with our elementary school parking lot for years. Parents lining up along the curb to wait for their kids a) make it hard for wee ones to see actual moving cars in the parking lot and b) usually leave the motor running while they sit there. And I'm not quite clear on the b part because, what? You have to be ready for a quick getaway? Did your kid rob the place?
Despite my legendary aversion to exercise, I am perfectly willing to park my car and walk to the school for the kids because again, I enjoy breathing, and also? I actually like to see other parents and have a little conversation while we wait. And it's refreshing (literally) to know I'm not the only one who can take some time and give the environment a break.
