I used to hate winters in Boston, because I couldn't handle the cold. In my twenties, I was very, very thin. (You know those people who can eat anything and never gain an ounce? That was me back then. Alas, now that I'm over 40 and post childbirth, that's no longer true). Because I had so little body fat, cold temperatures took a toll on my body.
A store's motto, however, changed my perspective. I had a boyfriend who planned a hiking trip with some other guys in New Hampshire's White Mountains in November. He visited a ski shop to buy outerwear for the hike, and told me that the store had a motto proudly displayed on its walls: "There's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing." Hearing that made me consider that maybe the problem was that I wasn't dressing warmly enough for the cold. I began to wear more layers and found it made a difference. For the first time, I could appreciate, or at least not loathe, Boston's winters. (Of course, gaining weight once I hit my 30s helped, too).
I also made a decision to be grateful for the weather, whatever it happened to be. That attitude served me well during my years in Boston, but I had forgotten it here in Washington. I found myself once more loathing a season, but in this case, it was Western Washington's nine-month rainy season from September through May.
But now... most of our relatives and old friends are living in parts of the U.S. that are sweltering. And meanwhile, I've heard a few locals here in Washington complain about the cool summer. I can't join them.
I will not complain. I know what I could be experiencing, and by that measure, this summer in Tacoma has been beautiful. Yes, it's cooler than usual, but the sun peeks out for several hours most days (sometimes even the entire day!), and by afternoon it often hits a balmy 70 degrees. I drive from work with the sun on my face and have a good hour or so to watch my daughter ride her bike outdoors after I get home. I can drive with the windows rolled up so I can hear the radio or a CD, without needing to turn on the car's AC. We not only don't need AC in our home, we've only needed to use a fan a couple times this summer -- saving both energy and money.
Yes, I most certainly can't complain. Instead, I am grateful for the summer we're having, and I pray for all those suffering across our nation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FYI: Crunchy Chicken offers a great list of tips for keeping cool this summer.
For more on what's happening this summer across the U.S., this Weather Channel post shares some sobering information.
Showing posts with label Boston. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Boston. Show all posts
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Cars, the Year from Hell, and My Delight
Crazy title, but bear with me, it's all related!
My dad died when I was 16, and as a result, my mom freaked out about the thought of her kids driving. Thus, I got my driver's license just before leaving for college, primarily to have a form of identification.
I lived the next 16 years car-free in the Boston area (easy to do, their public transportation system is very good) until I married a man in 2001 who owned a car. Even then, I continued to take public transportation to and from work and only used the car for road trips and shopping.
And then came the Year from Hell. In one year (actually, about 15 months), my husband had emergency open heart surgery, my father-in-law died, I found myself unexpectedly pregnant with a high-risk pregnancy*, one of my sisters-in-law had a stroke, another had a kidney transplant, two relatives died of cancer, and a young niece, distraught about all that was happening in our family, was hospitalized for cutting.
Buying a car: On top of all this, my husband totaled our car that year, and given that he was still recovering from surgery and not working and I was working sporadically depending on the state of my pregnancy, we had no money to replace it. (The insurance payout was eaten by other bills). That year Boston had one of the worst winters on record, and I found myself frequently trudging though several feet of snow to get to work, while pregnant, incontinent, and suffering from hyperemesis (extreme morning sickness).**
When I gave birth to our daughter***, my husband was working again but I had been on bed rest for four months, so we were still broke. And now with a baby, we desperately needed a car. We bought two clunkers off Craig's List for about $700 each, both of which lasted about 3 months, while we tried to save for a newer car. We eventually purchased a 3-year-old used Subaru, which, because we had excellent credit at the time, we were able to finance over 5.5 years.
Preserving the car: That Subaru is now 9 years old and has 155,000 miles on it. Among other things, it moved us cross-country, was hubby's on-the-road vehicle when he was in traveling sales, and now carries me on my 45-minutes-each-way commute to and from work. (We now have a second used vehicle that hubby drives). We'll make our final payment on the Subaru this summer.
When my car was out of commission this past winter, it cost $1,800 to repair it. At that time I made a decision: I want this car to last at least another three to five years after we own it free and clear.
I recently read an article about a man who owns a 1992 car with 2.5 million miles on it. His secret? Good maintenance. He spends about $1,000 a year to maintain it. The article recommends reading your owner's manual and following its maintenance instructions to the letter.
So that's what I'm doing. I'm reading the manual as well as books such as AAA's Driving Survival guide, I bought a tire pressure gauge to help me keep the tires inflated, and I'm trying to learn all the maintenance tips I never before worried about because I left auto maintenance to hubby.
This is very much a "green" thing to do. Maintaining a vehicle is a greener choice (in many cases) than replacing it, and it improves gas mileage. So here's to becoming an expert on my car!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* I got pregnant the first time my husband's cardiologist gave us the go-ahead to try sex. We had only planned to fool around. Ah, well...
** Since my husband couldn't work at that time, I had no choice but to keep working, no matter how sick I was or how difficult it was to trudge through snow.
*** As you may have guessed, my daughter's birth was My Delight. My mom said she prayed during my pregnancy, "Let this be a good baby, since they've gone through so much!" Her prayers were answered. My daughter was born healthy, she latched on immediately and never had any problems breastfeeding, she was rarely sick, and she was one of the happiest babies I've ever known. We drove with her as a one-month old to New Jersey to see my sister-in-law right after her kidney transplant. The hospital allowed us to bring the baby in for one minute only. The miracle of being alive and seeing her newborn niece lifted my sister-in-law's spirit to the heavens!
My dad died when I was 16, and as a result, my mom freaked out about the thought of her kids driving. Thus, I got my driver's license just before leaving for college, primarily to have a form of identification.
I lived the next 16 years car-free in the Boston area (easy to do, their public transportation system is very good) until I married a man in 2001 who owned a car. Even then, I continued to take public transportation to and from work and only used the car for road trips and shopping.
And then came the Year from Hell. In one year (actually, about 15 months), my husband had emergency open heart surgery, my father-in-law died, I found myself unexpectedly pregnant with a high-risk pregnancy*, one of my sisters-in-law had a stroke, another had a kidney transplant, two relatives died of cancer, and a young niece, distraught about all that was happening in our family, was hospitalized for cutting.
Buying a car: On top of all this, my husband totaled our car that year, and given that he was still recovering from surgery and not working and I was working sporadically depending on the state of my pregnancy, we had no money to replace it. (The insurance payout was eaten by other bills). That year Boston had one of the worst winters on record, and I found myself frequently trudging though several feet of snow to get to work, while pregnant, incontinent, and suffering from hyperemesis (extreme morning sickness).**
When I gave birth to our daughter***, my husband was working again but I had been on bed rest for four months, so we were still broke. And now with a baby, we desperately needed a car. We bought two clunkers off Craig's List for about $700 each, both of which lasted about 3 months, while we tried to save for a newer car. We eventually purchased a 3-year-old used Subaru, which, because we had excellent credit at the time, we were able to finance over 5.5 years.
Preserving the car: That Subaru is now 9 years old and has 155,000 miles on it. Among other things, it moved us cross-country, was hubby's on-the-road vehicle when he was in traveling sales, and now carries me on my 45-minutes-each-way commute to and from work. (We now have a second used vehicle that hubby drives). We'll make our final payment on the Subaru this summer.
When my car was out of commission this past winter, it cost $1,800 to repair it. At that time I made a decision: I want this car to last at least another three to five years after we own it free and clear.
I recently read an article about a man who owns a 1992 car with 2.5 million miles on it. His secret? Good maintenance. He spends about $1,000 a year to maintain it. The article recommends reading your owner's manual and following its maintenance instructions to the letter.
So that's what I'm doing. I'm reading the manual as well as books such as AAA's Driving Survival guide, I bought a tire pressure gauge to help me keep the tires inflated, and I'm trying to learn all the maintenance tips I never before worried about because I left auto maintenance to hubby.
This is very much a "green" thing to do. Maintaining a vehicle is a greener choice (in many cases) than replacing it, and it improves gas mileage. So here's to becoming an expert on my car!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* I got pregnant the first time my husband's cardiologist gave us the go-ahead to try sex. We had only planned to fool around. Ah, well...
** Since my husband couldn't work at that time, I had no choice but to keep working, no matter how sick I was or how difficult it was to trudge through snow.
*** As you may have guessed, my daughter's birth was My Delight. My mom said she prayed during my pregnancy, "Let this be a good baby, since they've gone through so much!" Her prayers were answered. My daughter was born healthy, she latched on immediately and never had any problems breastfeeding, she was rarely sick, and she was one of the happiest babies I've ever known. We drove with her as a one-month old to New Jersey to see my sister-in-law right after her kidney transplant. The hospital allowed us to bring the baby in for one minute only. The miracle of being alive and seeing her newborn niece lifted my sister-in-law's spirit to the heavens!
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Advantages of our move from house to apartment
We moved two weeks ago from the home of military relatives for whom we had housesat for three years while they were overseas. And I am so glad!
Our new apartment has almost everything I was hoping for in greener urban living:
1) Smaller space. Our new apartment has less than one-third of the square footage of our previous home, but unbelievably, more storage--the most I've ever had in an apartment! It will be so much easier to keep this place warm or cool, as the weather dictates, without using as much energy.
2) More walkability. I had hoped to keep my daughter in the same school system, but live somewhere closer to public transportation and other amenities. We had moved from a neighborhood in Boston with a Walk Score of 85 (very walkable) to a house outside of Tacoma with a Walk Score of 7 (where almost all errands require a car), and I found our car-dependency very frustrating.
We lucked out. We not only found a place in the same school district, but it's also one block from public transportation and two blocks from our local town center. Yesterday, my daughter and I walked to the town center to do our grocery shopping, using a large collapsable canvas shopping bag on wheels that I picked up at a yard sale for $1. It was awesome to be able to do something without driving for a change! Our new neighborhood has a Walk Score of 58.
3) Places to play and garden. One of our relatives' selling points in housesitting was that they had a yard for our daughter to play in, whereas in Boston, we needed to walk to a park. That wasn't the case--they have a beautiful, heavily landscaped yard that was totally inappropriate for a young child to play in. And there were no parks within walking distance. (That will soon change, thanks to a Pepsi Refresh grant my town won to build a new playground).
However, their yard did provide us with the benefit of space to garden, and we had a fun two years of growing our own vegetables and herbs.
One of the downsides of moving to an apartment is that we won't have the space to garden anymore. However, I am growing a few plants on our balacony, and I recently learned that some folks are trying to start a community garden in a park that is three blocks from our new home.
But for my daughter, the move is a real blessing. Not only are there two parks within walking distance of our home, our apartment building is one of several that encircles a huge grassy courtyard where tons of kids play. My very social, very active daughter is loving it. As an unexpected bonus, we found out that my daughter's best friend from school lives in one of the other buildings!
Our new apartment has almost everything I was hoping for in greener urban living:
1) Smaller space. Our new apartment has less than one-third of the square footage of our previous home, but unbelievably, more storage--the most I've ever had in an apartment! It will be so much easier to keep this place warm or cool, as the weather dictates, without using as much energy.
2) More walkability. I had hoped to keep my daughter in the same school system, but live somewhere closer to public transportation and other amenities. We had moved from a neighborhood in Boston with a Walk Score of 85 (very walkable) to a house outside of Tacoma with a Walk Score of 7 (where almost all errands require a car), and I found our car-dependency very frustrating.
We lucked out. We not only found a place in the same school district, but it's also one block from public transportation and two blocks from our local town center. Yesterday, my daughter and I walked to the town center to do our grocery shopping, using a large collapsable canvas shopping bag on wheels that I picked up at a yard sale for $1. It was awesome to be able to do something without driving for a change! Our new neighborhood has a Walk Score of 58.
3) Places to play and garden. One of our relatives' selling points in housesitting was that they had a yard for our daughter to play in, whereas in Boston, we needed to walk to a park. That wasn't the case--they have a beautiful, heavily landscaped yard that was totally inappropriate for a young child to play in. And there were no parks within walking distance. (That will soon change, thanks to a Pepsi Refresh grant my town won to build a new playground).
However, their yard did provide us with the benefit of space to garden, and we had a fun two years of growing our own vegetables and herbs.
One of the downsides of moving to an apartment is that we won't have the space to garden anymore. However, I am growing a few plants on our balacony, and I recently learned that some folks are trying to start a community garden in a park that is three blocks from our new home.
But for my daughter, the move is a real blessing. Not only are there two parks within walking distance of our home, our apartment building is one of several that encircles a huge grassy courtyard where tons of kids play. My very social, very active daughter is loving it. As an unexpected bonus, we found out that my daughter's best friend from school lives in one of the other buildings!
Sunday, December 12, 2010
A love-hate relationship with public transportation
Loving it in Boston: For most of my adult life, I didn't have a car. Living in Boston, I didn't need one. Public transportation was inexpensive, plentiful and frequent, while crazy drivers, lack of parking and exhorbitantly high auto insurance rates made having a car in Boston a big pain.
When I needed a vehicle for travel, I rented one; to do grocery shopping, I usually hailed a gypsy cab. (Gypsy cabs were cars driven by retired men who picked up people in their own vehicles and charged less than regular cabs. Most folks in Boston ignored the illegality of the practice: merchants knew that they increased business, and regular cab companies knew they generally made shorter trips then the regular cabs wanted to make, and often into neighborhoods the regular cabs didn't want to frequent. The police, I think, didn't want to crack down on old men who were just trying to make a little more income).
I finally bought a car after getting married, but even then, I continued to use public transportation (or walking) to get around most of the time. I especially loved taking public transportation to and from work, because it always provided me a relaxed chance to read, think, write, or even sleep.
Liking it in Tacoma: One of my struggles in moving to Tacoma was that the public transportation system isn't as extensive or efficient. Still, during my first year, I found a job that allowed me to take public transportation to work, which I could catch a few blocks from my home.
In my second year, that changed: due to the economy, Pierce Transit had to reduce service. After that, the nearest bus stop was a 40-minute walk from my home, and the nearest stop to my job was a 15-minute walk away. Hubby would drop me at the bus stop, and I'd walk the final leg.
Hating it in Seatac: A few months ago, I got a new job in Seatac, a city between Tacoma and Seattle where the SeaTac (for Seattle-Tacoma) Airport is located. I started driving to work, which takes about 45 minutes. However, my conscience about using so much gas bothered me, and on a few occasions when I attended conferences in Seattle and took the bus instead of driving, I remembered how enjoyable taking public transportation could be.
Well, I got my chance to take public transpotation to work. My car broke down a few weeks ago, and it's taking some time to save the money needed for the repairs. Here's what I've had to do:
-- Hubby drives me to the nearest bus stop. Time: 10 minutes.
-- I take two buses to get to downtown Tacoma. Time: 40 minutes.
-- I tranfer to a bus to the SeaTac airport. Time: 45 minutes when the traffic is flowing; as much as 1-1/4 hour when it's not.
-- A coworker picks me up from the airport and drives us to work. Time: 5 minutes.
That's an hour and 40 minute commute each way, if the traffic is good.
Note the last step. If I were to take public transportation regularly, I couldn't always depend on a coworker. So I looked into what it would take for me to get from the airport to my job. I tried all the configurations possible on Sound Transit's trip planner: fastest way, fewest transfers, least walking.
The answer was the same each time: one train ride, followed by two buses, taking one hour. For what is, by car, a 5 minute drive. And if there are any delays? Forget it!
This would add two hours to my already 3-1/2 hour commute. Walking is not an option: the journey from the airport would probably take me about 30-40 minutes, and involves some steep hills. I have a bad knee, and after a few days, I'd barely be able to walk at all.
I also looked into van pools, of which there are several that go from Tacoma to Seatac. But most of those are TSA employees who work staggered shifts at the airport, so they depart Tacoma at times such as 6 am, 11 am, and 2 pm. Nothing is available for someone who works a 9-5 job.
So what does this mean? Well, it means I need to get my car fixed! Public transportation just isn't an option: I can't impose on my coworkers forever, and a daily 5+ hour commute would mean I'd never get to see my daughter. Not to mention, I sometimes have out-of-office meetings during the day that I need a car to get to.
I have heard the arguments against expanding public transportation. Jeff Jacoby, a columnist with the Boston Globe, made them regularly, arguing that Americans love their cars and hate public transportation. I agree with the first claim, not the second. I don't think most Americans would give up cars altogether, but I think many people hate the rush hour drive to and from work. If public transportation is efficient and convenient, I think many people would choose that option. But as my example shows, for many people it's either not available, or so unwieldy it might as well not be.*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* And please note that moving closer to one's job, or taking a job closer to one's home, is not always possible either.
When I needed a vehicle for travel, I rented one; to do grocery shopping, I usually hailed a gypsy cab. (Gypsy cabs were cars driven by retired men who picked up people in their own vehicles and charged less than regular cabs. Most folks in Boston ignored the illegality of the practice: merchants knew that they increased business, and regular cab companies knew they generally made shorter trips then the regular cabs wanted to make, and often into neighborhoods the regular cabs didn't want to frequent. The police, I think, didn't want to crack down on old men who were just trying to make a little more income).
I finally bought a car after getting married, but even then, I continued to use public transportation (or walking) to get around most of the time. I especially loved taking public transportation to and from work, because it always provided me a relaxed chance to read, think, write, or even sleep.
Liking it in Tacoma: One of my struggles in moving to Tacoma was that the public transportation system isn't as extensive or efficient. Still, during my first year, I found a job that allowed me to take public transportation to work, which I could catch a few blocks from my home.
In my second year, that changed: due to the economy, Pierce Transit had to reduce service. After that, the nearest bus stop was a 40-minute walk from my home, and the nearest stop to my job was a 15-minute walk away. Hubby would drop me at the bus stop, and I'd walk the final leg.
Hating it in Seatac: A few months ago, I got a new job in Seatac, a city between Tacoma and Seattle where the SeaTac (for Seattle-Tacoma) Airport is located. I started driving to work, which takes about 45 minutes. However, my conscience about using so much gas bothered me, and on a few occasions when I attended conferences in Seattle and took the bus instead of driving, I remembered how enjoyable taking public transportation could be.
Well, I got my chance to take public transpotation to work. My car broke down a few weeks ago, and it's taking some time to save the money needed for the repairs. Here's what I've had to do:
-- Hubby drives me to the nearest bus stop. Time: 10 minutes.
-- I take two buses to get to downtown Tacoma. Time: 40 minutes.
-- I tranfer to a bus to the SeaTac airport. Time: 45 minutes when the traffic is flowing; as much as 1-1/4 hour when it's not.
-- A coworker picks me up from the airport and drives us to work. Time: 5 minutes.
That's an hour and 40 minute commute each way, if the traffic is good.
Note the last step. If I were to take public transportation regularly, I couldn't always depend on a coworker. So I looked into what it would take for me to get from the airport to my job. I tried all the configurations possible on Sound Transit's trip planner: fastest way, fewest transfers, least walking.
The answer was the same each time: one train ride, followed by two buses, taking one hour. For what is, by car, a 5 minute drive. And if there are any delays? Forget it!
This would add two hours to my already 3-1/2 hour commute. Walking is not an option: the journey from the airport would probably take me about 30-40 minutes, and involves some steep hills. I have a bad knee, and after a few days, I'd barely be able to walk at all.
I also looked into van pools, of which there are several that go from Tacoma to Seatac. But most of those are TSA employees who work staggered shifts at the airport, so they depart Tacoma at times such as 6 am, 11 am, and 2 pm. Nothing is available for someone who works a 9-5 job.
So what does this mean? Well, it means I need to get my car fixed! Public transportation just isn't an option: I can't impose on my coworkers forever, and a daily 5+ hour commute would mean I'd never get to see my daughter. Not to mention, I sometimes have out-of-office meetings during the day that I need a car to get to.
I have heard the arguments against expanding public transportation. Jeff Jacoby, a columnist with the Boston Globe, made them regularly, arguing that Americans love their cars and hate public transportation. I agree with the first claim, not the second. I don't think most Americans would give up cars altogether, but I think many people hate the rush hour drive to and from work. If public transportation is efficient and convenient, I think many people would choose that option. But as my example shows, for many people it's either not available, or so unwieldy it might as well not be.*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* And please note that moving closer to one's job, or taking a job closer to one's home, is not always possible either.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
A few updates
Heart & Soil didn't get the grant... not surprising, since the funder really wanted to support programs that improve distribution channels for delivering fresh food to inner-city neighborhoods (such as trucking operations). However, we agreed that it was good to have a proposal written that we could build upon for the future.
Hubby and I attended a meeting last week sponsored by the Tacoma-Pierce Public Health Department. One of the priorities they have identified is community gardening, and so several interesting people were around the table. I look forward to working with them.
And in a truly strange occurrence, my brother back in Boston ran out of gas and was given a ride by a kind stranger. The man who picked him up turned out to be the coordinator of a community organization that started a youth-led community garden, and he's looking for help with grant writing. He wants me to call. This will be fun--I may be able to continue to helping folks back in Boston while doing more here in Tacoma.
Hubby and I attended a meeting last week sponsored by the Tacoma-Pierce Public Health Department. One of the priorities they have identified is community gardening, and so several interesting people were around the table. I look forward to working with them.
And in a truly strange occurrence, my brother back in Boston ran out of gas and was given a ride by a kind stranger. The man who picked him up turned out to be the coordinator of a community organization that started a youth-led community garden, and he's looking for help with grant writing. He wants me to call. This will be fun--I may be able to continue to helping folks back in Boston while doing more here in Tacoma.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
The importance of community
This is the first of many quotes I will be sharing from No Impact Man:
From p. 130:
I can relate. Part of my malaise at living in Tacoma is due to not feeling like I am a part of the community, the way I did in Boston. And part of that is due to the difficulty of getting around, of being close to neighbors and community programs, something that I was much more easily able to do in walkable and public transportation friendly Boston. Beavan devotes some time to writing about how so many of our towns and cities and neighborhoods are not structured in ways that facilitate community. The immediate result is that in many places, you have to drive just about anywhere, which of course has a negative environmental impact. But a secondary consequence is that due to this lack of community, we try to fill our lives with more stuff, rather than being filled by the difference we are making in the world.
From p. 130:
I sometimes wonder if our lack of social connection and community is at the root of our environmental problems. I wonder, at least in my case, if that lack has meant that I don't feel responsible or accountable to anything beyond myself. Without real community, where is the visceral sense of connection to something larger, to something to which I owe my care? Maybe one reason I felt like I couldn't make a difference when the project started was because I wasn't firmly connected to anything to which I could make a difference.
I can relate. Part of my malaise at living in Tacoma is due to not feeling like I am a part of the community, the way I did in Boston. And part of that is due to the difficulty of getting around, of being close to neighbors and community programs, something that I was much more easily able to do in walkable and public transportation friendly Boston. Beavan devotes some time to writing about how so many of our towns and cities and neighborhoods are not structured in ways that facilitate community. The immediate result is that in many places, you have to drive just about anywhere, which of course has a negative environmental impact. But a secondary consequence is that due to this lack of community, we try to fill our lives with more stuff, rather than being filled by the difference we are making in the world.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Prayer for Haiti
This is close to my heart, not only because of the devastation, but because my husband and I have so many Haitian friends. Boston has a huge Haitian population (and has had a Haitian presence since at least the early 19th century, according to an archaeologist friend who researched it). Two stories have been on my mind:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A friend I'll call Celeste came to the U.S. as a child. Her parents divorced when she was young, and, Parent Trap-style, her father took her and immigrated to the U.S., while her sister remained with their mother in Haiti. (Unlike the Parent Trap, however, the sisters were always aware of the arrangement). In the late '90s, when she was in her twenties, she returned to Haiti to visit for the first time, accompanied by her American roommate who I'll call Karen.
What awaited them was a shock. From the time she was able to work, Celeste sent money to her mom and sister and she knew in her head that they were poor, but she didn't realize the extent of it. IIRC, she and Karen found her mother and sister living in a shack without electricity or running water; water had to be pumped from a well. I can only imagine what that must have been like for Celeste; here she was, educated, working a good job and living in a nice apartment, while her sister lived in squalor, and she knew it was merely chance that she had been the one her father brought to the U.S.
In addition to her mother and sister in this small home, two teenage cousins had lived there as well since the death of their parents, as well as another young man and his family. The young man had been a neighbor of Celeste's mom and sister as a child, and they'd taken him in after his parents died. Now he was a grown man, with a wife and small child of his own.
He was also the only one in the household with a job, given the high unemployment rate in Haiti. He could have chosen to take care of only his small family, but he gladly supported the entire household, because he was so grateful to Celeste's mother for taking him in when he had no one.
Celeste and Karen brought two suitcases each to Haiti, one carrying their own clothes and personal items, and the other carrying clothing and toiletries they had purchased for Celeste's family. When they presented their gifts, Celeste's mom promptly gave everything away to others in the neighborhood. Seeing this so moved them that when they departed, Celeste and Karen left behind almost everything they'd brought with them, returning to the U.S. with only the clothes on their backs, their pocketbooks and their passports.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another friend, who I'll call Martine, used to ask me to pray often that her son could come from Haiti. Martine immigrated to the U.S. as a young adult, and her "son" was actually the son of her closest childhood friend. Martine had agreed to adopt the boy and bring him to the U.S. in order to give him a better life. It took many years to work out the adoption and immigration process. I think the boy was about eight when they started, and he was fourteen when he finally arrived in the U.S. a few years ago.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As I think about the loss of life and devastation, I can't help but wonder what has happened to Celeste's mother and sister, her cousins, and the young man and his family who lived with them. Or to the mother of Martine's son. And for them and many other friends of ours back in Boston, what has become of their friends and family members who remained in Haiti? My heart and prayers go out to them all.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A friend I'll call Celeste came to the U.S. as a child. Her parents divorced when she was young, and, Parent Trap-style, her father took her and immigrated to the U.S., while her sister remained with their mother in Haiti. (Unlike the Parent Trap, however, the sisters were always aware of the arrangement). In the late '90s, when she was in her twenties, she returned to Haiti to visit for the first time, accompanied by her American roommate who I'll call Karen.
What awaited them was a shock. From the time she was able to work, Celeste sent money to her mom and sister and she knew in her head that they were poor, but she didn't realize the extent of it. IIRC, she and Karen found her mother and sister living in a shack without electricity or running water; water had to be pumped from a well. I can only imagine what that must have been like for Celeste; here she was, educated, working a good job and living in a nice apartment, while her sister lived in squalor, and she knew it was merely chance that she had been the one her father brought to the U.S.
In addition to her mother and sister in this small home, two teenage cousins had lived there as well since the death of their parents, as well as another young man and his family. The young man had been a neighbor of Celeste's mom and sister as a child, and they'd taken him in after his parents died. Now he was a grown man, with a wife and small child of his own.
He was also the only one in the household with a job, given the high unemployment rate in Haiti. He could have chosen to take care of only his small family, but he gladly supported the entire household, because he was so grateful to Celeste's mother for taking him in when he had no one.
Celeste and Karen brought two suitcases each to Haiti, one carrying their own clothes and personal items, and the other carrying clothing and toiletries they had purchased for Celeste's family. When they presented their gifts, Celeste's mom promptly gave everything away to others in the neighborhood. Seeing this so moved them that when they departed, Celeste and Karen left behind almost everything they'd brought with them, returning to the U.S. with only the clothes on their backs, their pocketbooks and their passports.
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Another friend, who I'll call Martine, used to ask me to pray often that her son could come from Haiti. Martine immigrated to the U.S. as a young adult, and her "son" was actually the son of her closest childhood friend. Martine had agreed to adopt the boy and bring him to the U.S. in order to give him a better life. It took many years to work out the adoption and immigration process. I think the boy was about eight when they started, and he was fourteen when he finally arrived in the U.S. a few years ago.
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As I think about the loss of life and devastation, I can't help but wonder what has happened to Celeste's mother and sister, her cousins, and the young man and his family who lived with them. Or to the mother of Martine's son. And for them and many other friends of ours back in Boston, what has become of their friends and family members who remained in Haiti? My heart and prayers go out to them all.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Living in Tacoma
In the early chapters of No Impact Man, Beavan talks about how, despite one of his goals being to try to find greater happiness by living more sustainably, he found himself making other people miserable. His wife, for one, who was struggling to walk 1.5 hours a day to and from work. (Like me, the thought of biking in the city freaked her out). Like his mother and sister, when he told them he couldn't travel to visit for Thanksgiving, given his no-carbon creation rule. Like himself, on occasion, when he started resenting the things he couldn't have because they would create trash or emissions or something. So in the early stages of his experiment, he had to do a lot of soul-searching about the point of the project.
Reflecting on my own happiness, I think I'm just coming to terms with how difficult it has been to move out here, and how much I miss Boston. The weather depresses me. While I don't miss the cold and snow of Boston winters, I loved three out of four seasons there. Here, I only love one of the four seasons: summer. The rest of the year is cold, wet and dreary. Boston had its dreary days, but not weeks on end. I've also learned that rates of multiples sclerosis and cancer are higher here than elsewhere in the U.S., and one suspected cause is Vitamin D deficiency caused by lack of sunliight.
I also really hate living where we're living. As I've mentioned, we are living in the home of relatives who are overseas for three years with the U.S. Army. The house is beautiful and has a gorgeous view of Puget Sound, but I miss being able to walk outside my house and hop on a bus or train to wherever I want to go. Or being able to walk to the store or the park. I hate having to be so car-dependent.
The lack of sidewalks and streetlights, not atypical of suburbia, also drive me crazy. Recently, I was driving my daughter to daycare at about 7:15 in the morning, and it was still pitch-black out. Suddenly I saw a kid walking in front of me. His clothing was dark, he was in the street (no sidewalks) and no streetlights meant nothing illuminated him. I'm sure he was walking to school. Beavan points out in NIM that U.S. auto manufacturers made concerted efforts to fight against public transportation and encourage sprawl in order to increase sales. So what are we left with? Communities where you can't walk anywhere, or if you do, you're at risk like the kid walking to school in the street, in the dark.
My other big challenge is that I don't make friends easily. My husband never met a stranger, and my daughter thankfully has her father's gregariousness, so it's been easier for them. (Although my daughter does frequently ask when we're moving back home, mostly because she misses her cousins).
In the meantime, we are making friends with some other "orphans" (folks like us who are transplants to the Northwest, with no other family around), and having a yard has helped me garden. Having stores around like Value Village and Super Supplements have helped my sustainable journey, since I can buy so much second-hand and can purchase the ingredients for my skin and hair products inexpensively. So there are some good points. But I have a way to go in finding happiness and contentment out here.
Reflecting on my own happiness, I think I'm just coming to terms with how difficult it has been to move out here, and how much I miss Boston. The weather depresses me. While I don't miss the cold and snow of Boston winters, I loved three out of four seasons there. Here, I only love one of the four seasons: summer. The rest of the year is cold, wet and dreary. Boston had its dreary days, but not weeks on end. I've also learned that rates of multiples sclerosis and cancer are higher here than elsewhere in the U.S., and one suspected cause is Vitamin D deficiency caused by lack of sunliight.
I also really hate living where we're living. As I've mentioned, we are living in the home of relatives who are overseas for three years with the U.S. Army. The house is beautiful and has a gorgeous view of Puget Sound, but I miss being able to walk outside my house and hop on a bus or train to wherever I want to go. Or being able to walk to the store or the park. I hate having to be so car-dependent.
The lack of sidewalks and streetlights, not atypical of suburbia, also drive me crazy. Recently, I was driving my daughter to daycare at about 7:15 in the morning, and it was still pitch-black out. Suddenly I saw a kid walking in front of me. His clothing was dark, he was in the street (no sidewalks) and no streetlights meant nothing illuminated him. I'm sure he was walking to school. Beavan points out in NIM that U.S. auto manufacturers made concerted efforts to fight against public transportation and encourage sprawl in order to increase sales. So what are we left with? Communities where you can't walk anywhere, or if you do, you're at risk like the kid walking to school in the street, in the dark.
My other big challenge is that I don't make friends easily. My husband never met a stranger, and my daughter thankfully has her father's gregariousness, so it's been easier for them. (Although my daughter does frequently ask when we're moving back home, mostly because she misses her cousins).
In the meantime, we are making friends with some other "orphans" (folks like us who are transplants to the Northwest, with no other family around), and having a yard has helped me garden. Having stores around like Value Village and Super Supplements have helped my sustainable journey, since I can buy so much second-hand and can purchase the ingredients for my skin and hair products inexpensively. So there are some good points. But I have a way to go in finding happiness and contentment out here.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Wind power in Boston
Crunchy Chicken had a blog post today about wind turbines, asking her readers to weigh in on whether they thought they were awesome, or if they had the concerns that are often expressed about them (an eyesore, too loud, a danger to birds).
One reader wrote that they would never work in the city--too much turbulence and noise. So I had to respond, because when I lived in Boston, I lived a few blocks away from a wind turbine. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 103 in Dorchster installed a wind turbine in 2005. Walking by it on numerous occasions, my opinion was that it was neither loud nor an eyesore. Just the opposite: it was one of the most attractive objects on the city skyscape (see photos above).
From what I remember, the wind turbine was a source of pride throughout the city. People thought it was cool, both visually and because of what it was accomplishing. I remember hearing at a public meeting that it was supplying a significant amount (maybe 50%?) of the energy needs for the IBEW building.
Curious to know what the current opinion of the wind turbine is in Boston, I googled it, and found this article. It describes how the city of Boston is now planning to install wind turbines on top of city hall and at several schools, and is creating wind energy zoning regulations for private property. Sounds like Boston definitely wants to be at the forefront of wind energy use in urban areas!
Sunday, April 19, 2009
A few things I miss about Boston...
One of the vendors at the Go Green Expo yesterday grew up around Cape Cod, so we discussed some of the foods that we miss about "back home": Portuguese linguisa, Brazilian cuisine (all of it), and apple cider donuts. It's surprising that the last one isn't available here, given the prevalence of apple orchards. Apple cider donuts are staples of the fall apple season in New England, and they are seriously the best tasting donuts you will ever eat! However, when I attended the fall harvest fest this year at the apple orchard down the street, complete with fresh pressed cider and baked apple goods, they stared at me blankly when I asked about apple cider donuts and told me they'd never heard of them. If there's something that would be great to transplant to this area, cider donuts would be it!
Update: Here is an article in the Washington Post, attempting to decribe the indescribably good apple cider donuts, complete with recipe.
Update: Here is an article in the Washington Post, attempting to decribe the indescribably good apple cider donuts, complete with recipe.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
My Boston inspirations
I want to give credit to the organizations in Boston that have inspired some of our vision for Hilltop Farms. The first is "Food in the Neighborhood," led by the Bowdoin Street Health Center, which was where my family received our health care. We were part of the start-up of that group, which aims to bring information and access to good nutrition and healthy, affordable food to the community.
The second is The Food Project, a youth leadership and sustainable agriculture program that, in addition to being one of the "Food in the Neighborhood" partners, engages youth in urban and rural sustainable agriculture, provides food to the homeless, and offers an affordable, twice-weekly farmer's market in the neighborhood where we used to live. A lot of their curriculum materials are available online for free downloads, so I am reading through them to help with the Hilltop Farms planning.
The second is The Food Project, a youth leadership and sustainable agriculture program that, in addition to being one of the "Food in the Neighborhood" partners, engages youth in urban and rural sustainable agriculture, provides food to the homeless, and offers an affordable, twice-weekly farmer's market in the neighborhood where we used to live. A lot of their curriculum materials are available online for free downloads, so I am reading through them to help with the Hilltop Farms planning.
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