This is an introduction to the video we watched at the Sustainable Living on a Budget class I attended on June 18. When it first came on, I found it’s presentation a bit cutsey, but by the time the 20 minute segment was over I was both charmed and intrigued. In the days following the class, I found myself thinking a lot about the topic.
You can watch the whole thing in bits on YouTube or go to The Story of Stuff and download the whole thing. (It’s 50 MB, though.)
rating: 4 of 5 stars
My love affair with Kenzie and Gennaro is in full bloom. After recovering from the fallout in “Darkness Take My Hand,” Patrick and Angie are lured into a missing person’s case. Not surprisingly, the case isn’t all it seems to be when it it begins.
Sunday Parkways happened only once this year. For this Sunday only, a loop of 6 miles in North Portland was closed to automobile traffic. People could walk, bike, roller blade, or somersault their way through the loop. There were bands and performances and food vendors. It was very fun.
I rode the loop soon after it opened at 8 a.m. It was a slow start, but that meant I could ride fairly quickly. They day was gray, cold and a bit rainy and there weren’t many people out. This didn’t stop these two fundraisers.
Here Batman and the Fairy Princess pour lemonade for me. Who could resist?
After completing the loop, I headed downtown for a meeting. When I came back, the sun had come out and many, many people had made their way to the loop. It was a bit crowded. Thus, slower for me.
Coming off the Failing Street Overpass.
Crossing Interstate. It was cool because people on the Parkways had the right of way.
Matt got up late and decided to go jogging. I suggested that he could run the loop. He did, in the last hour it was open. He was thrilled that he could go faster than the bicyclists on the overpasses, because they had to walk their bikes and he could run. When he got back, we compared favorite bumper stickers. His was this:
Mine was, “Inside every old person their is a young person wondering what the hell happened.”
Events like these are yet another reason I’m glad I live in Portland.
Sara once again received the largess of letters this month, but what can I say? She writes me. I write back.
11 June. Thank you notes. 3 students and 4 student teachers.
12 June. Sara.
13 June. Sara.
**Letter back: Sara
14 June. Kelly, postcard.
**Letter back: Sara, Diane (LEX), Gerry (LEX)
15 June. Sara.
16 June. Sara.
17 June. Sara.
18 June. No one.
19 June. LEX Melody
20 June. No one.
Darkness, Take My Hand by Dennis Lehane
rating: 4 of 5 stars
Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro are back in this novel. I am fast falling in with these two characters. They take a case of a professor who is concerned her son is being stalked. While they initially find nothing, they are drawn into a serial killer’s web and chaos and confusion ensues. This was signficantly more bloody than “A Drink Before the War.”
5 ways I am a traitor to my generation: (born in 1974)
5 ways I am the epitome of my generation:
“…and I love these earrings, that nobody loves but me.” Debbie Hunt in Singles.
Debbie Hunt had her earrings, I had my chair. This ugly brown chair was incredibly comfortable. It was a fabulous place to curl up and read a book and when I put some sort of throw over it, you could barely even tell it was that industrial-never-ever-will-rip 1970s fabric.
I got this chair when I lived at 40 Hobart Lane in Amherst, Mass and carried it with me when I moved to South Boston, Somerville, and all the way across the country to Portland where it lived happily in three separate places. But now I seem to have entered the adult life stage of “matching furniture” and it was time for the chair to go.
No one on Craig’s List wanted to pay for it. The Community Warehouse didn’t want it. No one on Craig’s List wanted it for free, either. Last Saturday, I paid someone $15.00 to cart away my beloved chair. I think he was after the money more than the chair.
Some of you may know that I am going to Hungary and Romania for two weeks in June and July with the church youth group I lead. I leave next Thursday and as the countdown goes on, I get more and more excited about the trip. This time (I went in 2005) we will be staying with host families in both Hungary and Romania. Today I received the following email:
Hey, Patricia!
I’m Barnabas,your host in Hungary. We are glad that you will come here! How are you? Do you know that we have one afternoon and a whole day to do something together. (my family and you) So we must think of a program you are interested in. What kind of program(s) do you want to have? Shopping day? Visiting monuments or builings? Tour in the woods? Seeing ruins? Museums? Or movie theatre which I do not suggest? Seeing the worst parts of Budapest(getto)? Seeing the richest parts of Budapest? Looking around in the parks? Visiting my dad’s hospital? Or whatever you want. So tell us what do you want to do in your freetime and we will help organising it.
Bye, Barnabas
Okay! Sounds like a good trip in the making.
I was particularly interested in these classes because Monique Dupre, the woman who teaches them, never goes grocery shopping. The article also reported that she spends $65.00 per week on groceries for a family of four. In the workshop she clarified that $65.00 is her base budget, which includes, grains, vegetables, fruits, meat and dairy. She will spend a bit more than that on stinky cheeses because she really enjoys them.
The introductory workshop met all of my expectations and was well worth the $35.00 I spent. One of the first comments she made in the workshop was to not judge. Once you start to judge, you draw a box around that person which puts a box around you and you aren’t able to think outside of any of those boxes. “Oh Monique can do that because she lives on a farm and grows her own food.” (She doesn’t.) “I could never do that because my husband/kids/job won’t support that.” These are not helpful thoughts. She also reminded us to make one change at a time, establish that change, and then move on to the next change.
She then discusses—and I didn’t write down the exact term she used—the “chaos contests” that we like to engage in as Americans. “This weekend, I had so much to do. I did all the laundry, then we went to a soccer game, then I had to this, then there was this, then that, etc.” It’s very popular in the United States right now to be overly busy. I would say this is a true fact in my life and, though I have been working to spend my weekends calmly and restfully, I haven’t really achieved that state yet.
Also not fashionable in the United States right now: organization. I am well aware of this because I am a fairly organized person. I am kind of hard-wired that way, but the Flylady (www.flylady.net) took care of the rest. I often find other people drawing a box around me when they see me cart my lunch to work every day. “I could never do that.” they say. And with that attitude they probably never will. I don’t much like the box drawn around me though.
She then talked about the concept of enough. Yet another thing not popular in our country. When do you have enough stuff? Enough work? Enough activities? Enough things to do with your day? Enough money? Think about it. There is seemingly always something in the way of where you want to be, but what can you do right now to have enough?
After those introductory remarks, she then launched in to how she lives sustainably on a budget, walked us through some of her routines (something near and dear to Flylady’s heart) and then talked about saving money and getting off the consumption bandwagon in every room in the house. I’ve got some great ideas about meal planning and attitudes towards my house as well as an idea of how some household products I buy now will be replaced with more sustainable things as they are used up. The thing that I have a big block around is learning to live without my Rubbermaid containers. They are a big part of my success in cooking so much at home. But I don’t have to start that right now. It can come in its own time.
A Drink Before the War by Dennis Lehane
rating: 4 of 5 stars
Here is the beginning of the Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro story that I jumped into mid-stream when I read Gone, Baby, Gone. I really like both of these characters. They are good guys, but the life of a private investigator includes so many gray areas it is interesting to watch them wrestle with the moral choices. Kind of like some of Veronica Mars’ quandaries.
Kenzie and Gennaro are hired by a powerful state senator to recover some “important documents” and that document recovery touches off a gang war during a hot Boston summer. As per every Dennis Lehane novel I’ve read, I stayed up late finishing it. The social justice issues, particularly child welfare, that are so evident in other Lehane novels I’ve read, were not as prominent in this one, but that didn’t detract from the story. As someone who does not read mystery novels very often, I can say that Dennis Lehane’s books tend to be enjoyable outside of the mystery waiting to be solved.
