Ping! I think I heard a pin drop!

But anyway...welcome to the last day of February! I had the day off today and I got a VERY good start on Chapter Three, I'm happy to say. And again...as with the other two chapters, I have added something new that wasn't here in any previous writes of the story. The new thing is...a closer look at the Billowy Wood. I've decided to make the Billowy Wood kinda a cross between a classic faerie tale type of realm with dragons and elves and all that good stuff and a place with many of the modern conveniences. I decided to let them have electricity and television and computers and the like. The only difference between their world and ours, though, was that I made sure to say that their electricity came from a clean source...water...with a little bit of elven magic thrown in for good measure.

Thus, our magical friends have become somewhat techno-savvy...with the exception of one thing. I made it so there were no cars in the Billowy Wood. Why you ask? Well...because cars are major polluters for one...they also cause a ton of needless deaths and injuries each year...and in order to have cars, you need roads and in order to have roads, you need to plow up some nature and knock down some trees, which, ultimately, throws the whole Eco-system out of whack.

Thus, our wise friends, the faeries, have cast a spell on the whole of the wood that makes all traces of oil and gasoline disappear from the wood forever. The Wood has got to maintain some of its magic, for crying out loud!

As my friends will tell you, I don't have a car and I don't drive anymore. I don't have a DUI or anything. I have been a licenced driver with a car for most of my life. As a matter of fact, I love to drive, but I gave it up. Why? Because it's not the responsible thing for me to do. I can get along just fine without a car and so I do. Cars kill. Cars pollute. Cars destroy. Heck...if it weren't for cars and the oil it takes to drive them, this country wouldn't be in this mess of a war that it's in in Iraq.

My friends will also tell you that I do accept rides from them on occassion to get to places out of town or outside of walking distance, but I try to keep this at a minimum and am going to try to keep it at more of a minimum in the future. I don't begrudge anyone the priviledge of holding a license or driving, but I do wish they'd do it more responsibily. You don't have to drive eevrywhere you go, do you? And yet a lot of people do. I think cars would be great and very useful inventions if everybody and their brother didn't think it was their God-given right to own one. That's the trouble with this country. So many public transportation systems are going under beacuse evrybody thinks they're too good for the bus or walking.

And I really get tired of being treated like a second class citizen because I choose to walk. It's true and it's extremely screwed up! Somehow people who don't drive don't rate any respect. Shoot...even two of my friends were goading me about getting my license for the umpteenth time the other day. They just don't get it. I wish they would respect the fact that I CHOOSE not to drive. If this sounds bitchy and they don't want to drive me anywhere anymore...FINE! So be it! Okay...I am being a bitch and I am ranting, but, by golly...this time it's making me feel better!

Seriously, guys...respect my opinions, please...I do respect yours. At this point in time, I choose not to drive. Just don't bug me about it anymore. I feel, that as a witch and a member of a "nature" religion, I should do something that's good for the environment. So this is it...this is my niche...

Okay...I'm off my bitch box...take your best shot!