Low Impact reflections

Well, Day two down and I have a few reflections to share with you.
As I said before, I had begun to ride to work a couple of days before the LIW began. Friday I took it to a new level. I needed to run some errands after work, stop by a junk yard to check on something I thought I saw while driving by and stop at the local farmers supply store to pick up some hardware to finish my composter with this weekend. Anyway, I decided that since I'm trying to conserve gas, and I could make these places be on the way home if I took a little bit longer path home so I did. I guess it turned my 5.5 mile trip home into more like 8 miles, but a lot of it was down hill and I felt great doing it. I've begun to notice a lot of different things while riding around. For instance, I see the same guy every morning standing at the bus stop out on main street; now he waves to me and I to him. Yesterday while taking the long way home, I crossed over one of our irrigation canals and watched 6 or 7 barely hatched ducklings cruising along behind momma, something that I would have blown by during my daily driving. I feel a little more connected to my community this way I guess. I see people, even the ones in cars because I make eye contact with them when they are getting ready to turn. I catch the smell of the farmers harvesting early hay, and share a wave with other bikers as we pass.
As for some of my other goals; I think I've done pretty well so far on most things. I brought a small hand towel to work to use rather than using the paper towels, but both times I went to the bathroom I forgot it so I had to walk back with wet hands and dry them back in my office. I didn't cave and cheat though. On a side note, for the last couple of weeks I have been using a separate bag at work for all of the paper towels that I use there. I bring them home periodically to throw in my compost pile since I don't really have any "browns" to add but am "green" rich. I have been doing the same with p. towels from home as well. This works great by the way, and I can't believe how much longer it takes to fill a trash bag without p. towels. I have also been collecting our used coffee filters in an old coffee can at work and toted them home on Fri. to add to the pile.
My family and I went out for a movie that we had had planned for a couple of weeks, (Can't pass up free tickets to Pirates of the Carribean) and I passed on lunch when everyone else grabbed a quik bite after the movie. I was hungry, don't be mistaken. But one of my goals was no restaurants, so I passed.
I've had some other things that I've noticed so far, but I think I'll let them develop a little more before I share them.
I hope everyone's having a good experience with this so far.
P~