Category: life

Beep beep! It’s Micro Mini Car Day!

I decided not to go to away to the conference this week after all.¹

A sweet bonus of not being away this weekend is that I’ll get to go to something fun that I would have otherwise been sad to miss: Micro Mini Car Day at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum. Car shows are not generally my thing, or at least not what I would think of as being historically my thing, and I don’t necessarily consider myself a car buff.

There are, however, a couple of noteworthy exceptions: British cars, and really small cars.² Last year, we went to and enjoyed British Car Day³, a lawn event at the same museum, and when we saw the upcoming listing for Micro Mini Car Day, I was well and truly intrigued.

I have to say the event was even cooler than I’d anticipated. In addition to the Minis and MGs and Smarts and such that I’d anticipated, I got to see all kinds of little cars that I’d never even known existed. I’ve been meaning to share some of the photos from the even for ages, and here I am finally getting around to it. Buckle up!⁴

Seeing as they were my first car crush, I was happy to see some classic Austin Minis. I have long said that I wanted to pinch their little cheeks.

In front of the very impressive museum building is a pair of Isettas, a car that was totally new to me.

The Isetta was also known, not too shockingly, as the “bubble car.” Fond as I am of the Austin Mini, I may want to pinch the cheeks of the Isetta even more. I mean, just look at it!

One of the most striking quirks about the Isetta is that the driver enters through a single front door. (Observe that the little 2-seater above has no side door.) The front door opens sideways on hinges, much like a refrigerator door. By the way, the car was originally made by a company that also made refrigerators. Coincidence?

Below is a picture with one of the “larger” Isetta models with the door open. (In the foreground is one of my own smaller models, who answers to the name of “Phoebe.”)

An especially cool feature of this event is that many of the car owners offer rides to attendees. (You can see people and cars lined up in the background in the photo, below.) I got to go for a ride in this Austin Mini, which was my first time actually inside a classic Mini.

I also went back in line a second time, and scored a ride in this cherry Nash Metropolitain, whose enthusiastic owner was dressed in colors to match her paint.

This year, I’m hoping to have a chance to go for a ride or 2 again–maybe even in an Isetta!

Even if I don’t manage to catch any rides, I’m looking forward to a fun day outside in a beautiful park. There is lots of room to run around, and Phoebe happily did so. (Theo, on the other hand, could barely yet stand.)⁵

And in case you want to see more photos of tiny cars, I’ve put a bunch more in the slideshow below. (If you want to slow down or stop the slideshow, put your cursor over the slideshow to have the controls appear.)

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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¹ Much as I wanted to attend the conference itself, I couldn’t bring myself to commit to the travel involved. I’m still recovering from two biggish trips in the last couple of months, and it seemed unusually hard on John and the kiddos to abandon them so soon after my return. What finally helped me stop the waffling, or to tip the waffle into the “stay home” side of things, was taking into account both the expense and the fossil fuel gluttony of such a trip. (After all, I am trying to cut down.)

² You might remember the photos I posted from last year’s British Car Day.

³ And yes, I really love the really small British cars. Really.

⁴ Or otherwise brace yourselves, as many of the vintage cars probably didn’t have seatbelts.

⁵ You may recognize the setting as the same as in my photo I called Theo’s World. That’s because I took that one the same day.

light show

On Saturday night, we went to see a fireworks display at a nearby town. It was a perfect night to be outside, with clear skies and a warm breeze to keep the bugs (mostly) at bay. Kids were running around having fun playing with various light toys, and I had fun playing with slow shutter speeds.

Phoebe was very excited to be out past her bedtime. She ran around and danced to the music coming from the big tent set up for the occasion. She loved the fireworks.

Theo was much more mellow, and slightly intimidated by the scene, happy to sit on the sleeping bag we’d spread out and eat snacks. About an hour after we’d settled into our spot on the field, he was ready to go home. But then the fireworks started, and he went from bored and mildly intimidated to downright frightened. He clung to me, shaking.

I confess that, while I felt bad that he was scared, I enjoyed getting the snuggling time with him. He’s at a stage (please let it be a stage!) where he won’t necessarily give me a hug, even once a day. Part way through the fireworks show (which wasn’t terribly long, it being a fairly small town), John and I traded off so that he snuggled and comforted Theo while I took a few more pictures. By the end of the show, Theo had calmed down quite a bit, and was cheerful again. He even agreed that we’d had fun.

trying to cut down (Petroleum Junkie, part 2)

10%.

That’s the goal I’ve set for myself for reducing my personal usage of petroleum products and other fossil fuel gluttony in the next few months. 10%.

Living where I live, working where I work, I can’t stop driving. We can’t completely change our home heating needs. It’s unlikely that we’ll be able to cut out plastics entirely without major lifestyle changes.

But I’m determined that I won’t keep going as I have been. I’ve worked with vague goals and good intentions for a long time, but I’m not getting all that much closer to breaking my addiction. I need a specific goal, with a concrete number. Like 10%.

I’ll start with things that I can easily monitor: home electricity use, heating oil, and gasoline. I’ll check our bills for the past year for comparison. For gas for the cars, I’ll have to make a rough estimate of consumption, as I haven’t saved all of our receipts. (I intend to keep better track now.) For other things, like plastic use, I’m still planning to make changes, but I may be less able to estimate a number.

Seeing as I probably won’t get reach the 10% goal immediately, I’ll set a deadline. Let’s say by the end of 6 months. Oh, hell. Let’s say 3 months for electricity and gasoline use. By the end of September. For heating oil the real test will be the winter. For each month, I’ll have to evaluate more-or-less based on the month of the previous year.

Below I’ve broken down my plans into short-range and longer-range ones, and I’ll tell you a bit about what we do now.

The starting point
I don’t know our actual usage is yet. We are a family of 4, living in an 8-room house with drafty 20-year-old windows and an oil furnace for heat and hot water. We use lots of electric appliances and electronics, do lots of laundry¹. We have 2 window air conditioners that we use in the summer, and living in New England, we use heat several months of the year. We drive a fair amount: we live 9 miles from public transportation, 3 to 8 miles from stores and services, 20 and 45 miles from our workplaces. Most of our friends live far from us, and our families are even further. We buy food and beverages in plastic packaging, and the kids have lots of plastic toys.

Efforts we already make/have made:

  • We drive small cars. (mileage in the 26-30 mpg range)
  • We often work from home
  • We use the window air-conditioners fairly sparingly (we don’t have central air)
  • We replaced most of our lightbulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs
  • When we had to replace our furnace, we chose a more fuel efficient one
  • Our washing machine, dryer and dishwasher are energy efficient models
  • We use reusable bags for groceries, and increasingly, other shopping
  • I consider packaging when shopping, and favor goods with less plastic.
  • We reuse the plastic bags and containers we do get as much as possible.
  • I try to buy local produce
  • I get much of the kids’ clothing second-hand
  • we recycle plastics
  • We do other kinds of recycling, composting, reusing, and reducing that probably add up

Short term plans:

  • Check last 12 months for electricity, fuel oil, and gasoline usage
  • monitor current usage
  • make better use of informational resources like the ones from my electric company
  • buy more local goods: goal of 50% of produce for summer/fall
  • Select electric company provider which uses renewable energy sources
  • adjust our usage of…
    electricity

    • Check to see what is plugged in or turned on that needn’t be
    • Turn off lights/don’t turn them on
    • Get better nightlight for bathroom and/or hallway (we leave a light on for Phoebe at night)
    • Line dry more clothes (goal of 1 load in 4)
    • Change temperature of fridge
    • better monitor use of air conditioners

    heating oil:

    • Use only cold water for laundry under ordinary circumstances
    • Time my showers, and reduce time and/or temperature
    • turn down the heat in the winter, especially at night and when we leave the house
    • be less lazy about weatherizing our windows, doors and other draft sources

    gasoline

    • Take train for at least some commutes (at least 1 in 4)
    • avoid using the air conditioner in my car
    • better combine trips for recreation and shopping/errands
    • have occasional family train trips rather than driving for recreaction/visits

Mid-range plans:

  • get programmable thermostats
  • Replace windows or get storm windows
  • consider getting ceiling fans installed
  • Evaluate purchasing habits

Long-term plans:

  • Move closer to public transportation (as well as closer to work & friends)
  • Investigate alternative heating and cooling methods, such as geothermal and solar
  • Get a more fuel efficient car: hybrid or electric (I’m determined that the next car we buy will be one–I’m liking the Leaf)
  • Grow some of my own food

Other green choices I can make along the way:

  • Buy gas from companies ranked higher for social responsibility. (The ranking page has been updated, by the way. Sunoco is still highest ranked, and Hess is next. BP is now near the bottom. Near the bottom mind you–there are still companies that rank lower!)
  • Take the stairs more at work and in public buildings (I need more exercise anyhow!)
  • Invest in green technology
  • Paint my house green.²

I know that these things aren’t enough³, and I don’t plan to limit my efforts to my personal use. I plan to take actions in the public sphere as well: by speaking out in support green energy initiatives, through grassroots organizations and voting. I will support stricter regulations in the oil industry. I intend to participate in bringing about greater energy conservation and awareness in corporate and industrial environments.

This has been a follow-up to my post Petroleum Junkie⁴. If you made it this far, you might also be interested in several recent posts at Momcrats: Where do we go from here?, Baby, You Can Drive My Car., Where Do I Go From Here? A List of Proactive Steps and Planes, Trains Automobiles & BP Boycott: All a Red Herring.

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¹ Loads of it, even.
² Just kidding.
³ You may have noticed that I haven’t set any goals as far as reducing my air travel. I noticed that, too. I just can’t go there right now. But I promise not to buy a private jet.
⁴ Sorry this post is so long. I’m very wordy. I’m trying to cut down.

don’t it make my blue eyes red

I’m back home now, in case you were wondering. I had a wonderful visit out in California with my mother, sister, brother-in-law and two adorable nephews. It was great to spend time with all of them, and to be around to help out when an extra pair of hands was needed. My mother’s art show went very well, too.

I got to spend some good bonding time with my nephews. I’m totally smitten with both of them. Diego was pretty wary of me at first (who wants company around when feeling icky?), but we had some quality time together, and by the end of my stay, he even let me get a few snuggles in. My younger nephew, Mateo, is too cute for words. He’s about 17 months old (which is 5 months younger than Theo), and a very happy little guy. I can’t wait for the 4 cousins to get together again–the last time was when Mateo was just 7 weeks old.

I have found myself frequently wishing that Massachusetts and California could somehow be neighbors. Whose idea was it to put all those big states¹ in between?

I took the red-eye back home on Thursday night, arriving Friday morning. I don’t know why I ever expect to get anything like a reasonable amount of sleep on those flights. The flight from West to East Coast is barely over 5 hours, and it’s not like you can actually easily sleep the whole 5 hours. (Well, not without fairly extreme measures.) I think I managed at most 2 hours. My flight arrived around 7:00, and I’m quite sure my eyes were nice and red. After getting some breakfast at the airport to kill a bit of time (despite my stomach’s insistance that 4 am was no time for breakfast), I took an airport bus out to near John’s office where he was able to meet me. (I’d taken the train in to work and the airport on my way out, but the train schedule didn’t mesh well with John’s work schedule for Friday for him to pick me up at the train station.) I then spent several hours hanging out zombie-like in John’s office, and even curled up in a ball on his office floor getting a couple more hours of sleep.

It was also wonderful to be reunited with Phoebe and Theo, of course, later that afternoon. John dropped me off at home, and then picked them up from their daycare and preschool to bring home to me. I got tackled in the best sort of way.

The last few days have been a blur as I’ve struggled to re-adjust to this time zone.

And now I’m heading into another work crunch time. There’s another conference coming up in just over 2 weeks, and my research group has a poster in it. I haven’t committed to going to the conference myself, and so I don’t have to go. However, it’s a conference I’d really like to go to, as it looks like a fantastic program. The trouble is, it’s in Albuquerque, which is awkward to reach from Boston. (There are no non-stops, and the schedules are tricky. There might be another red-eye involved.³) Plus it would mean leaving John alone with the kids again–for the third time in three months. Ack! Is that considered spouse abuse? Right now, I’m feeling just too tired to take on another big trip, but perhaps in the next few days I’ll feel differently.

In any case, I have a lot of work to do for the poster for the conference, and other work-related projects involving staring at my computer. Eye strain, here I come!⁴

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¹ Big red states.²

² Red like my sad weepy eyes.

³ Here I am, talking about all this flying around the country, and you probably are wondering about my stated goals of trying to cut down on my petroleum habit. Yes, I realize that I have a problem. But I’m also still working on my plans to address the problem, and the post wherein I will bore you with those details.

⁴ I figured I should keep up the red-eyed theme.

East Bay Open Studios (or, What I’ll be Doing This Weekend)

This weekend is the second weekend of East Bay Open Studios, an event during which artists around the East Bay (as in, the region across the bay from San Francisco) open up their studios (or other exhibit spaces) to visitors. It’s a great chance to see a wide range of artists–over 400 artists participate.

My mother, whose fabulous mixed media artwork you see below, is exhibiting some of her recent work along with several other local artists in Oakland, CA. I’ll be keeping her company during the show. I’m really happy that I get to be in town for this show, as I tend to miss out on such things due to living 3000 miles away…


One of 49 images from my mother’s collection of 6”x6” pieces entitled Butterflies at Iguassu.

More information on the show can be found here.

bear with me


A festive bear, as colored by Phoebe. (Age 4 and 1/4.)


A lovely picture Phoebe made for me this morning. Please note the 2 squirrels in the picture. One of them is climbing the tree, the other one doesn’t know there’s a tree. (So I’m told.)

Tonight I’m getting ready to go out to California for a week-long visit with my family. I’ve been hoping to get out there soon, and I was able to make it happen. (Have I mentioned lately how wonderful John is? He will be solo parenting while I am gone. The week will go fast for me, I’m sure it won’t go so fast for him.)

I’m really happy that I’ll be getting to spend some time with my mother, sister, brother-in-law, and 2 adorable nephews. I’m also happy that I was able to work the timing out so that I can attend my mother’s art show this weekend. (I’ve been meaning to post about that–maybe I’ll have a chance to in the next couple of days. In case I don’t, she’s participating in East Bay Open Studios.)

I’ll be taking the train in to work tomorrow morning for a meeting, then going to the airport for an evening flight. What I should be doing now is packing, and not sitting here at my laptop yammering. Then there’s that whole sleep business. I should probably be doing some of that, too.

removing the elephant

In case you haven’t followed the news about my nephew Diego on my sister’s blog, I’m very happy to report that the surgery went well. The surgeons were able to remove the tumor, which, by the way, was the size of a football. In the belly of a 3-year-old. And a not particularly large 3-year-old at that.

Thank you for all of your positive thoughts and prayers. The support really meant a lot to me and to my sister. While the scariest part is hopefully behind us now, the recovery process and treatment will continue to be hard. So, your ongoing support will also be gratefully accepted.

I feel that an enormous weight has been lifted now. It’s like that elephant that was standing on the anvil squishing my brain has stepped off. The weight of the anvil feels much more manageable now. I’m not sure the elephant’s entirely left the room, but his presence is less heavy now.

I know it seems rather self-absorbed to reflect on how this has affected me, compared to what my sister and brother-in-law and mother (who is also out in California) have gone through. But what’s a personal blog for if not self-absorption?

The last few weeks have been exhausting, even for me. I’ve been startled by how physically the worry has affected me. I have come to understand intimately the expression “worry oneself sick.” I had low levels of nausea virtually non-stop from the day Diego was first admitted to the hospital. My appetite was suppressed, yet I found myself eating anyhow. I have eaten far more chocolate the last few weeks than is quite good for me. I know this just contributed to feeling run-down. (Eating sugar has that effect on me.)

Remarkably, the timing of all of this worry exactly corresponded to our transition to new sleep arrangements. That Friday that my nephew went into the hospital was the day that I had determined would be the day we’d move Theo into Phoebe’s room. I found myself wanting a baby to snuggle with that night, but all the plans were in place. I’ve mentioned that the transition has gone well, overall. What I hadn’t mentioned was that in spite of no longer having my sleep disrupted by Theo, I haven’t felt particularly more well-rested.

And of course I know that all of my worry pales in comparison to that experienced by my sister, my brother-in-law, and my mother, who have experienced their worry and concern for Diego in a much more immediate and visceral way.

It’s been tough to be so far away from my family with all of this going on. The country feels entirely too large, and I find myself resentful of the distance between the coasts.

Image compiled from public domain images found at wpclipart.

what’s been weighing on my mind

Just over 3 weeks ago, my 3-year-old nephew, my sister’s older son, was diagnosed with cancer. He’s got a very large tumor on his kidney. The “good” news is that it was determined to be a very treatable kind, a Wilms tumor, with a very high rate of survival (90%). While we are very optimistic, things continue to be uncertain from day-to-day. (And sometimes even from hour to hour. I have learned today that my nephew will go in for surgery this afternoon.)

My sister started a blog to share updates, and she has given me permission to share the link. She has been very eloquently describing the emotional roller-coaster that has been this past few weeks.

We would greatly appreciate your positive thoughts, emotional support and/or prayers. All denominations and belief systems gladly accepted.

off the top of my head

Hi! Remember me? Wow, it’s been ages since we last talked. It seems like years. Has it really been only a couple weeks? What have you been up to? Yeah? Man, I had no idea they could do that. With gouda even? Seriously, I’m constantly amazed by the power of cheese. I was thinking about you earlier today when I was going about my business. No, not that business. Sheesh. No, I think I was driving or ironing toilet paper or staring at my toes, or whatever it is that I do most of the time. It was getting close to lunch time, and I had this intense craving for ramen noodles. Which naturally led to me thinking about brains. And then zombies. Then mummies. And then dust bunnies. And then Welsh rabbit. So naturally I couldn’t help but remember that time when you got caught with the…ha ha ha, yeah. We totally don’t need to go there. Oh, you already went there. Again? Did they recognize you without your…Oh. Sorry about that. Didn’t mean to bring up such a sore subject. Right, right. I understand. Beach balls and ninjas. Say no more. Well, I’d better go. I have a lot of stuff I need to do. There’s a whole pile of lentils that I need to alphabetize. Good talkin’ with ya.

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So, um, yeah. It’s been a while. Things have been crazy. Here’s a few things that I could write lots more about, except I should probably sleep instead:

    • We finally moved Theo into Phoebe’s room a couple of weeks ago. It’s been going really well.

    • I’m heading to Chicago next week for a conference. Solo.

    • I have a lot of stuff to do before I leave.

    • My poison ivy is still healing, over 4 full weeks after initial exposure.

    • Phoebe started preschool this week, and Theo started going to daycare 5 days a week. (Phoebe will be at the preschool 3 days, and at the old daycare with Theo two days.) This new schedule will give me 2 more days a week to do my work. Or alphabetize lentils.

    • I’m not really getting into Twitter. My romance with Facebook is flagging. I’m considering breaking up with both and taking up smoke signals.

    • I’d really hoped to resume last year’s “merry merry month of metablogging” this May. But seeing as I have so much going on, I probably won’t manage.

    • There are other weightier things on my brain that I can’t get into here. Imagine, if you will, my cartoon brain with a large cartoon anvil on top. Now put a cartoon elephant on top.

    • Finally, here’s a picture of Theo as a little baby with an octopus on his head. Actually, I don’t really have a lot to say about this.

Oh, and one more final last thing. Can you identify this movie quote?

When you can balance a tack hammer on your head, you will head off your foes with a balanced attack.