New2Maine.com

I just found a link to a pretty cool initiative here in Portland to promote green living. Portland Green Streets is

a grassroots effort to encourage the use of alternate transportation - and is comprised of people who commute through, live, work, study, or send children to school in Greater Portland.

Their most visible effort is Green Streets Day, which is the last Friday of every month. Participating is simple and helps raise awareness for green transportation. To join the effort, simply wear green and travel green on the last Friday of the month. This month’s Green Streets Day happens to be Halloween, so wearing green should be pretty easy!

If helping out the environment and saving on the cost of gas isn’t enough reward to get you interested, a number of local Portland businesses also offer coupons, gift certificates, and other incentives to join the effort via a monthly raffle for all participants (see September’s winners).

With the overnight low in the mid-30s, and the projected high not quite 60°, I gave up and turned the heat on this morning. It’s not unbearably cold inside, but there is definitely a lingering chill that was making it harder to type. And yes, I’m already wearing long sleaves and heavier socks. I try to go as long as I can before turning on the heat (even though the oil is included in our rent), and I’m pretty sure I’ll turn it off and on again a few more times before it stays on the for the season, but for now, I’m enjoying the warm air wafting from the radiator near my desk.