Everything is Going Green

Well, the future is here. Technology is changing our lives. It changed mine this weekend.
My friend let me use his hybrid gas-electric car while he went to Arizona for a few days.

It was a light, pastel blue with enough windows to be a greenhouse. It looked like a car a stuffed animal would take on his morning commute.

"Yeah, sure," I thought, "thanks for the offer anyway."

The morning we were set to leave we took his car to the airport. We walked out to where it was parked, glistening in the rain, its pastel paint looking like an Easter egg in the intense green and wet of the northwest, and we climbed in.

My friend went to start the car but he was missing something; his key chain lacked a key. Never mind the new-found dilemma of what we are all going to call key chains when everything opens with small, black electronic devices that flash and beep, lets just focus on the fact that there was no turning involved in turning on his car.

Should we celebrate for the wrist muscles that will not need to strain themselves when starting our cars? Or should we morn for the piles of unused words that are being blown into obscurity by advancement?

I don't care. I don't care because the whole thing was just so cool.

The thing started by pressing a power button that looked like it came off of your vacuum cleaner. There was a screen in the dashboard that told us just exactly what was happening with the spinning gears and beeping computers below our seats and in the hood.

By the time I had seen my friend off at the terminal I could not wait to get behind the wheel. I waved goodbye and put the hybrid into gear–or the "on" position–or whatever, the point is I started going.

I buzzed around town and got some errands done and while I was going the display showed me exactly how much power I was using, how much I was charging the battery and what gas-mileage I was getting. Little symbols, much like badges awarded to boy-scouts, flashed on the screen at certain times. I never figured out exactly what they were for but they looked like leaves, and everyone likes to get badges.

At a stop sign the car turned off. That is right, it just turned off. My initial reaction was to worry that I had just killed the engine with a poor shift. I hurried to find the clutch pedal with my foot and I glanced to my rear-view mirror to see if I was holding up traffic. Then I remembered that I was driving an automatic hybrid. I tentatively pushed on the "gas" and sure enough, the car moved forward smoothly and silently. It was using its electric engine.

I felt like I was skating across the asphalt. I felt like rolling down my window at every stop sign to explain to the driver next to me not to worry because it was a hybrid, and the engine would turn off from time to time to conserve gas.

By the time that my friend came back to Portland I thought that his car was sleekly shaped with the benefit of many cool, futuristic windows. Plus, pastel blue is the new rugged black, right?
Our surroundings are shifting all around us because of technology–it has certainly shifted mine. Suddenly cutting down on air pollution is easier and starts by inserting a small black electronic device and pressing a power button.

The love you give comes back in the end.
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Let it Snow

Kids were throwing snow balls rather than basketballs and building up snowmen rather than their muscles all last week as a flurry of ice and snow forced many schools to cancel many of their practices and games. In a time when many local teams are pushing for a surge into the post-season the loss of valuable gym time was a legitimate concern.

"We only practiced but once last week," Molalla girls’ basketball head coach Ray Williams said. For a team that is young and not used to extended hiatus in play it might have been a contributing factor in their loss on Friday to Cascade.

As the cold white flakes piled up all around Molalla and the surrounding areas teams were forced to reschedule games where they could and it forced them into back-to-back situations. The boys and girls teams from Colton and Country Christian played on Friday and Saturday nights. The Country Christian Girls did not get back from their game on Friday night against Jewel until close to 1:30 a.m. Saturday morning–less than 16 hours before tip-off time with C.S. Lewis.

"My girls were tired, they were just dying on the bus ride over," Country Christian girls basketball head coach Russell Halverson said of their game Saturday night at George Fox University.

With the short notice of rescheduled games–sometimes only three days before the games–some local players could not get out of work shifts. Country Christian was missing two regular starters at game-time on Saturday as well as a primary rotation player from off of the bench.

Colton wrestling lost some practices all together and were missing members of the team for others as some wrestlers could not make it in to practice. This meant that the team did not have enough bodies to match-up kids in practice, and all of this less than a month before the state meet is set to begin.

"I told the kids to come in only if they could make it in safely," Colton head wrestling coach Kerry Benthin said. The Viking wrestlers were forced to have their Thursday meet on Friday and because the Colton basketball teams were using the high school gym. They held the three-way dual at the middle school instead.

As the snow and ice melt from cars’ roofs and rain gutters’ edges some kids were able to nurse lingering injuries in the unexpected midweek vacation. It allowed a much-needed breather from the daily wear and tear of daily practice.

"It gave some kids with ankle injuries a chance to recover a little bit," Country Christian boys basketball head coach Doug Nofziger said.

Colton boys’ head basketball coach Greg Adams was more concerned with the mental setback it would have on his team rather than the physical. His team, which had won all five close-game situations it faced previously in the season, dropped two games to Sheridan and Gervais by four points or less.

In those situations it is execution that is the most important aspect of play, something that is instilled in practice time.

In Colton's Friday night game against Gervais, Adams drew up a last second play for a three-pointer when the Vikings were only down by two points.

"I told the kids, 'maybe the time off had an effect on me as well,'" Adams said.
By the time that Adams noticed the fact that they were only down by two points it was too late and so they went with a three-point shot that they subsequently missed and lost the game.
In a time when most local teams are focusing on fundamentals for late-season surges the Molalla area was jammed into a snow globe and shook up in winter weather. Kids were slipping on the ice rather than sliding into screens and pinning little brothers into the snow rather than opponents on the mat.

The love you give comes back in the end.
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