A Change in Lifestyle

June 21, 2012 was my last day as a public school employee.  As of my birthday on July 3, I will be officially retired from teaching after 20 years.  Ironically, I haven't had a day off since then, but today I can finally relax! My hat goes off to those teachers who love their schools so much that they spend 30 or 35 years working with youth, but for me, 20 years in the public school arena was enough.  I want to spend my time now promoting bicycling and other ways of living a low impact life, as we may have precious few years of profligate consumer living left unless we can radically alter our lifestyles.  Thanks to the Mundo, I am able to drive a lot less - I only filled up the tank once in June, and then again today.  If I'm careful I hope this tank of fuel can last until the end of August.

So, what has the Mundo been doing?  Going to the REC Farmers Market every Saturday from 10am - 1pm with the mobile bike repair kit.  This past Saturday, 6/30, was proclaimed "Farmers Market Day" by the Mayor of Worcester, Joe Petty.  Also in attendance were U.S. Congressman James McGovern and local city councilor Sarai Rivera.

James McGovern getting some fresh Veggies from our friends at Luna's Garden

Another big thing last week was having 3 teenage interns at Worcester Earn-a-Bike.  The interns are part of a program called Upward Bound that provides lots of after-school and summer opportunities for Worcester youth to help their community while preparing academically for college.  I was lucky to host Joseph, Immanuel, and Brittany who worked 6 hours a day in the shop from Monday through Thursday last week.  The major project was to build 3 workstations where we used to store bikes, move the bike storage, rearrange the tools, and generally reorganize the shop.  They really worked hard and not only did we get the shop fixed up better than ever, we also totally tuned-up Brittany's bike and built a bike for Immanuel to earn during regular hours.

Painting the new tool boards and workbenches

All finished with the new workstations

Anyway, a super busy week after the craziness of finishing up my last school year, and now I'm able to relax, think, and plan for the next phase of my life.