Recycling those gas-guzzlers

With that in mind, The Chronicle editorial staff has compiled a list of things you can do with your oversized, gas-guzzling truck or second (or third) family car.

Since travel costs have risen, you're probably going to spend more time at home. Why not gussy up your backyard with that sun-roofed monster by parking it in a corner of the yard, filling it with earth and plants, and have a life-size terrarium? Take out all the glassware and let the hulk be overgrown by flora. It's also a nice way to start erasing the carbon footprint that beast has already left behind.

How about pulling the engine out, buying a couple of horses and operating a luxury caleche along Lakeshore Road on warm summer evenings? Can't you just feel the wind in your hair right now? It's environmentally friendly and will help spur the local tourist economy as well.

Take the tires off, mount the 4x4 on springs and, voila, you've got your very own low-rent amusement park at home. For added attractions, you can get a few neighbours together and hold impromptu spring-alongs in the street. Bring out a barbecue, turn on the CD player and you've got an instant street festival.

Strip unneeded parts and cut down on your exercise-equipment expenses all at the same time. The massive shiny rims can be used by track and field athletes to train for discus events, while weightlifters can use older Cadillac bumpers to perfect their clean-and-jerk methods. Football, rugby players and wrestlers can pop those babies in neutral and push them up a hill to perfect centre-of-gravity power usage.

Instead of driving four hours to the mountains to camp, use the backyard. And, just to make it even more interesting, swap yards with the neighbours for a night!

In all seriousness, however, the cost of fuel is changing the way we live, and West Islanders are no exception. There are ways around the high cost of gas. Walking, bicycles, in-line skates and even motor scooters are all appealing ways to get around the West Island in the summer months. It also gives West Islanders a chance to rediscover some of their smaller neighbourhood shops, or the charms of Dorval, Pointe Claire, Beaurepaire and Ste. Anne's villages, the Pierrefonds and Ste. Genevieve waterfront areas, the Cap St. Jacques, Bois de Liesse and l'Anse a l'Orme regional nature parks, or maybe just take in a movie at the Colisee Kirkland movie theatre to beat the heat.

There's a huge, diverse world just waiting to be discovered at West Islanders' fingertips, and this is just the right time to get to know it.

Send us your thoughts on vacation plans being disrupted, transportations costs' rising impacts on family budgets, and other plans for the summer. Maybe you've got a great alternative to burning through disposable income in order to get around. We'll publish your answers. Send them to editor@transcontinental.ca.

Chronicle, Albert Kramberger