Wearing my politics on my trunk

I covered the back of my first vehicle in bumper stickers. Things like "War doesn't decide who's right, just who's left" and "Wage Peace" and a rainbow flag.

I was more restrained with my second vehicle and switched to static cling window decals. The first two were a rainbow triangle and the mascot from my undergraduate institution. When I went to my second PhD program, I added one from that institution, less from pride than from a desire to make people aware that even though I had an out-of-state license plate, my car belonged there.

Our current vehicle, a basic family car, has remained sticker- and decal-less. Not because of any particular conscious decision, it's just happened that way.

Until last week.

We've moved a step down the ladder in terms of commitment--it's a magnet, easy to reposition or take off as whim dictates.

I imagine that even the Canadians have noticed that politics are already heated in the US. It's over a year before the 2008 presidential election, and yet both sides have already had multiple debates. I had thought that being in another country would provide a good buffer--that was certainly the case for the midterm elections last year. Perhaps our impending move has changed that a little, but I think I'd have had a hard time pretending I didn't care regardless of where I expected to be next year.

Which brings me back to the magnet I slapped on the back of our car, purposely, just before heading to the family reunion. It says "John Edwards 2008."

I could go into a long explanation of why both Trillian and I, independently, came to the conclusion that he is the best choice of the Democratic candidates* and why he's the first political candidate we've ever given money to directly. Most likely I will lay it all out there fairly soon.

*Do I even need to say that none of the Republican candidates are even a choice for me?

(And tangentially related, politics didn't come up much at the family reunion. Very liberal on that side of the family, but even discussing which Democratic candidate one supports can cause emotions to run a little high--and that is something the family avoids. Of course, what I generally heard when anyone saw the Edwards magnet was that they were excited about Obama... even if they agreed more with Edwards' policies.)

Global Warming Thursday: These boots were made for walking

I obviously knew that yesterday was Wednesday--I used the day of the week in my title. But for whatever reason, something didn't click, and I forgot to write a "Global Warming Wednesday" post, despite the fact that I have several ideas lined up.

I have discovered a fun and interesting time-suck tool that is available online. I came across it a couple weeks ago, but was reminded of it again in the past couple days. (Bad academic that I am, I can't find either of the original references and am hanging my head in shame that I can't give appropriate credit.)

When you have some time, head on over to walkscore.com. Type in an address and it will give you that location's walkability score. Using Google Directory information, it determines how many grocery stores, restaurants, schools, etc are in walking distance. By means of some behind-the-scenes algorithm, it assigns the address a score. The creators of the site give general guidelines for interpreting the score:

• 90 - 100 = Walkers' Paradise: Most errands can be accomplished on foot and many people get by without owning a car.
• 70 - 90 = Very Walkable: It's possible to get by without owning a car.
• 50 - 70 = Some Walkable Locations: Some stores and amenities are within walking distance, but many everyday trips still require a bike, public transportation, or car.
• 25 - 50 = Not Walkable: Only a few destinations are within easy walking range. For most errands, driving or public transportation is a must.
• 0 - 25 = Driving Only: Virtually no neighborhood destinations within walking range. You can walk from your house to your car!

There are, of course, limitations, but these are acknowledged upfront and you can keep them in mind when looking at the map that's created around your address. One definite limitation for me is that the site sets 1 mile as a walkable distance, and I know that we have frequently set as "everyday walkable" places that are over a mile away. It also measures "as the crow flies," so it doesn't account for twists and turns.

The green part of all of this should be pretty obvious: the more walkable a neighborhood, the more one can rely on walking rather than cars or even public transportation, the less pollution created. Add in health benefits and an increased sense of one's community--it's wonderful.

Now for the fun part. I have been plugging in all sorts of addresses and seeing how they stack up.

• My mom's house (and the house where I grew up): 54. A number of these places are new from when I was a child. But I would still place it as borderline "very walkable." We could walk to school through junior high and had a couple grocery stores and several restaurants within a few blocks. Work for both of my parents was outside of the mile limit, but both of them walked on occasion, sometimes created the family schedule with walking in mind. We were a one-car family my entire childhood and it was usually not a problem.
• The first house Trillian and I rented: 63. Funny thing, we drove a lot more than I did living at my parents' house. The immediate neighborhood was nice at our little house and we would walk our dog, but the stores around us were very downscale and not necessarily safe at night. So I would rate this neighborhood lower on walkability.
• An apartment I had while in my first PhD program: 75. Not in a city that's very pedestrian-friendly. I actually had people yell "Get a car" at me when I would cross the street (with the light, even). But I did walk a lot, other than when I had to go to class--no public transit to get there.
• Our house in the States: 63. Same score as the first house we rented--and we walked all the time. I notice that that Whole Foods we shopped at almost daily doesn't show up, even though another store right next door to it does. With public transportation to get to work, we really could manage walking everywhere else.
• My school in the States: 78. Not a surprise. It's in the middle of a major city. Trillian and I once thought about getting a condo in the city and getting rid of our car. Of course, finding anything bigger than a small one-bedroom in our price range and in a good area would have been a shock. There's also the fact that we've realized we're not really city people.
• Our current place: 73. I would probably place it even higher. We really could manage without a car and have gone weeks at a time without using it. Our favorite grocery stores are not walkable, but we're able to do a lot of day-to-day shopping close to home and make one trip every week or two to the bigger ones.
• My current favorite house in Springfield: 45. Kind of what I expected, probably higher than I expected. It's a small town with concentrated retail and twisting roads. The school district we like best is not the closest to this area. The roads are very twisty, due primarily to topography. So this is a trade off. On the other hand, there are a bunch of trails running all over the town and I've read and heard that it's an active community. So I'm hopeful we'll jump right in and figure out those trails so we can walk and bike all over the place.

Now have at it. See how your neighborhoods, past and present, stack up.

Random thoughts on a Wednesday

Things that are floating around in my head...

I'm finding it a bit clunky to constantly refer to "the city where my in-laws live" and "the town where we hope to live" or "the town close to my in-laws' city." And so it's time for a few more pseudonyms. For these, I borrow from the Simpsons.

• Springfield. OK, the town we're moving to does not have an international airport or two universities, some of the items that magically pop up whenever they're needed for a plot detail. Our town is quite small in comparison, but it will serve as the location of our family's zany adventures (which will all be resolved in 22 minutes, right?).
  
• Capital City. It's not as far away as the 220 miles Capital City is from Springfield, but my in-laws' city is definitely the larger city to our smaller hometown-to-be. It's where we'll head for nights of culture and nice restaurants. And free babysitting.

I've started combing through the MLS and seriously coveting some houses. We kind of want to hold off on closing until November or December so that we're not paying on two places for more than a month, but we're contemplating making an offer during our next visit to the area with the hope that sellers will be willing to wait a little for a sure thing (since we're already pre-approved for a mortgage). And I'm trying not to get too giddy right now since there was an article about the housing market in Springfield and the fact that sellers are dropping their asking prices since nothing's moving right now. I have seen proof of this in a seemingly-gorgeous house that dropped by $35,000 yesterday--into the top of our range. (I'm trying to remain even-headed on this one though, given the great disappointment that was the last house we fell in love with online.)


Scooter was being trouble at bathtime tonight. I finally gave him the option of just not taking a bath (I reserve this offer for a couple times a week, not on consecutive nights). He jumped at the chance, but then didn't want to let me brush his hair. "Do you have to be so much trouble?" I asked. "Yes," came his even response. Pause. Then, "I'm just like Uncle W." Not sure where that came from, but I bet my mother-in-law would agree.


Scooter also started a new block of OT today. Trillian took him and chatted with the woman who did our original intake phone call. In the course of the conversation, the woman mentioned that they had just had an opening in a small playgroup for next week. Et voila, Scooter has a special activity for next week.


Today was the last day of new material for the class I'm teaching. We're reviewing tomorrow, so I still need to prepare some of the topics students have specifically asked me to cover. But I'm almost done with an entire summer of teaching. It's been a long summer, but I have to appreciate my students and how dedicated they have been. Consistently. They're the reason I've had the energy to keep going all week, every week, a major reason I didn't just take a few days off during my miscarriage. So while it will be a relief to have my schedule free up (can we say "Reading for comps?"), I will miss them.


On that sappy note, time to plan out tomorrow's class.

Multiplication and conversation

Trillian has been posting to our family blog, informing friends and family members about recent developments with Scooter. She has been matter-of-fact about the potential for an autism diagnosis and the actions we're taking to help him (regardless of what the final pronouncement is).

At the family reunion, it became clear that many people have been reading our family blog. And that those who don't have heard from those who do. Thus, Trillian and I both had numerous conversations on the topic. A fairly representative conversation:

WM (well-meaning family member): Has anything more happened with Scooter?
OP (optimistic parent): Not yet. We're scheduled for the evaluation this fall.
WM: He seems just fine. What are they worried about?
OP: Well, his speech is behind where we'd expect. And he definitely has sensory processing issues. Some of that's being addressed in occupational therapy. The sensory piece may also affect his language development since it's become clear to us that he has trouble with aural overload and filtering out important noises.
WM: That doesn't seem too bad.
OP: There are also concerns about his social interactions. He's drawn to the loud and aggressive boys, but ends up being a target when he hangs out with them. His teachers at daycare are wonderful and have been redirecting him to better suited playmates, but he's still working on things like communicating his feelings to them.
WM: But do you really need to label him?
OP: We're pretty sure he'll need some support for at least the first couple years of school to ensure he has success. And that's part of why we're moving to [town near in-laws]. (and that would turn into a whole other conversation)
WM: Well, he seems fine to me.

Most conversations were some variation on this theme, with continuous assertions from the family member that Scooter seems like a healthy little four-year-old. I didn't disagree and would agree that he was active and smart and sweet and creative and everything I could want in a child. I would even concede that I suspect that Scooter's biggest issue is the sensory piece and that if we can help him with that the other problems will be much easier to deal with.

As I mentioned before, this is the mathematician side of the family. I suspect that some of their unease with the topic and insistence that everything is just fine comes from a certain recognition of themselves in Scooter and our descriptions of his problems. I recognize in their reaction my initial response to the suggestion of autism. And so I tried to be factual and straightforward, demonstrating confidence and comfort in our plan of action. This seemed to work with most people so that I didn't have to push my point or have the same conversation multiple times with the same person. But it's a large family and they generally prefer talking one-on-one. Anyway you do the math, it's a large number!

A bump in the road

We went through the hotel room twice, checking for any little thing that might have been forgotten. Heaven forbid that we forget any little toy Scooter had received in a kid's meal over the weekend. Went over the room with a fine-toothed comb.

Or so we thought.

I went to grab my teaching notebook, the one with my plans for this week and a stack of recently graded quizzes. Not in my backpack.

I have been able to confirm that it was found in the hotel room. For which I am very thankful since I had it folded so it would probably just look like a pile of white paper. And it will be sent to me very soon.

But that still leaves me with a week's worth of planning to redo and a without a stack of quizzes I had intended to return tomorrow in preparation for the final exam next week. Nothing I can do about the latter, but the former is pre-empting any additional posting.

A post before my head hits the pillow

It's not like I was without internet service. But the weekend conspired to keep me from posting. There was the traveling very late into the night. And then the free internet that didn't always work. And the sharing a hotel room with a four-year-old, so we all go to sleep at the same time. And the hours spent away from the hotel, spending time with the family.

We went to the family reunion.

I told one sister about the second miscarriage in hushed whispers off to the side of the yard. Nobody else asked about more kids and I didn't volunteer the information.

Trillian and I both spent quite a lot of time explaining where Scooter is in the autism evaluation process, what his particular red flags are, and why we're planning the move back to the States. These conversations deserve their own post--this is the mathematician side of my family and I found it quite ironic to have them repeatedly and passionately exclaim that they saw absolutely nothing at all wrong with Scooter.

The most distressing aspect of the weekend for Trillian and me, however, is the fact that we seemed to have entered an espresso-free zone. Every place that said it had coffee had exactly that. It's not even a snobbery thing, but rather a concession to the fact that both of us tolerate espresso far better; when either of us drinks a single cup of drip-brewed coffee, she runs the risk of the jitters. We managed to find a Starbucks at a mall that wasn't too far from the festivities, but it was definitely out of the way and not open this morning before we headed back home.

Much to write, much to read. But first, much sleep to be slept!

Global Warming Wednesday: Strength in numbers

Before BlogHer, the wonderful women over at Mommy Blogs Toronto put out a call to Canadian bloggers to nominate an issue for BlogHers Act Canada, a complement to BlogHers Act. They polled their readers (and as many others as they could reach by word of mouth) to determine what issue should be the focus of cooperative action for the next year. The winning topic: the Environment.

Now I have to admit that I'd been fairly quiet in the original call to action. I did not pick a specific issue or write a post when the initial call went out, mostly because I couldn't quite decide how I fit into the "Canada" part of this. I'm in Canada, but not actually Canadian, and Trillian and I now have a timeline for leaving Canada, so I won't be here for the full year of action.

Nonetheless, I participated in the survey that was created after a number of women had written impassioned and persuasive posts on a range of issues. All of them seemed (and still seem) important and urgent. But, yes, I did go with 'Environment' as my top choice.

I am already encouraged by the MBT approach to this issue. The first post-announcement piece talks about the need for focus, for defining the goals of those who want to help out, something that's quite necessary if this will be more than a lot of exhortation and platitudes without much action. Sandra gives some suggestions/asks for feedback:

We all need to hear your thoughts on what that actionable direction should be...

Is it getting Canada to commit to Kyoto?
Is it seeing legislation passed to eliminate plastic shopping bags?
Is it pesticides?
Is it educating children about living green?
Is it protecting our vast natural resources?
Is it pollution?
Is it packaging?
Is it over consumption?
Is it eating locally?
Is it green power?
Is it any one of the thousands of other possible areas that need our attention?

My initial answer is "Yes."

OK, that's not very helpful. And I don't feel like it's my position to push for any particular direction since the most I'll be able to do once I'm settled back in the US is throw my voice into the mix from afar.

But if I were going to weigh in a little (and I obviously am), I think that it might make sense to take a two-pronged approach. It's obvious to me that climate change is not something we can leave entirely in the hands of the government and that we need individuals to take the initiative with the hopes that governments will follow suit.

With this in mind, the first piece is getting people to make a personal committment to making changes towards more sustainable living. This won't be any one action across the board, but requires people to do an audit of their lives and figure out what they can realistically accomplish. Perhaps that means presenting, every week or two, one small change that people can make that would have a positive impact on the environment. Participants could then pick which ones they would be willing to work on. Not exactly original (cough, cough, kind of what I'm doing with this series, an idea I didn't exactly dream up on my own either), but a way for people to make a difference in their lives.

The second piece is picking a larger issue, one which should be addressed by the government, and putting together a grass-roots campaign to get the legislature or enforcement or basic consideration that is currently missing. And since this is BlogHers Act Canada, this one could definitely be geared to Canadian specifics. I'm drawn to "protecting our [i.e., Canadian] vast natural resources" for this, but that's just my gut and I don't have an exact goal in mind.

I encourage all of my Canadian readers to head over to the above links. Weigh in, get involved. And to my stateside readers, go ahead and weigh in too. Or at least follow along and see if anything comes up that's applicable in the US. Which, given that we're all on the same planet, will probably be a decent amount. Even when I head back south, I'll definitely be reading along. And occasionally throwing my voice into the mix from afar.