Carfree buccaneers
I know I complain and brag about our carfree status more than anybody wants to hear. Feel free to skip this post!
Because the kids are out of daycare (and therefore do not need to be transported to and from downtown) and I am out of the school for the summer (and thus have no reduced-price bus pass), we've been riding the bus a lot less. This means a lot of walking.
Yesterday I had the kids on my own from 8 AM until 9 PM. We left at 8:10, and walked to the pool for Dutch's swim lesson. Our current transportation system is to take the stroller and the wrap, usually switching Skipper back and forth between the two. (She sometimes gets pretty pissed off when she's awake and alert in the wrap, since it interferes with her current favorite activity, Vigorous Kicking of the Legs.) On the way home, I nursed Skipper while standing up on a corner in a quiet residential neighborhood, while Dutch sat on the curb and quietly told herself a story. We passed our usual landmarks - the Library, then the Home of the Scary Yapping Chihuahuas, aka The Bad Dogs, who on Tuesday terrorized Dutch pretty badly. Then the House With the Plum Trees (today the residents, Don and Holly, were harvesting their plums when we passed by, and they gave us a big bag). Then the House with the Chicken Figurines in the Garden. Then The Gelato Place. Then The Post Office. Then The Grocery Store. Then Dairy Queen. Then the Bar Across the Street Where People Park Their Electric Wheelchairs Outside The Door and Things Get Very Loud at Two AM. Then home!
We stayed home for a while, and left again in the mid-afternoon. We went to the farmers market and bought lots of beautiful produce and a delicious berry crepe. Then we proceeded to the library, to pick up some books I had on hold, use the bathroom, and look at magazines. Then we went to the park and joined a whole bunch of other people who were there for a performance by Captain Bogg and Salty.* This is a local phenomenon- a bunch of guys who assume pirate personas and play music for kids. They are very popular - everybody there seemed to be dressed as pirates, know all the songs, AND know the Captain Bogg and Salty secret handshake, which is to make a hook with your index finger and wave it in the air. Dutch had a really great time. We bought a CD. We ate our picnic dinner (cheese-and-pickle sandwiches, cherry tomatoes, carrots, and brownies). We watched a short movie at the park, and walked home in the dark. Dutch, who had begged to stay for the movie and sworn she wouldn't whine at all, didn't whine at all.
It was a very nice day. The weather was fantastic, and the kids were pretty nice. We did fun stuff, and we were outside for more than ten hours of the day.
Here are some of the challenging effects of car-free-ness on our day. We toted all of our stuff - diapers, meals, produce, blanket, extra clothes, library books, etc. - everywhere we went. We couldn't bring an elaborate picnic dinner or spiffy waterproof blanket to the park, like everyone else, because we didn't have room. We had to allocate much more time to everything we did than car-full people do. (It's a safe bet that everyone else who left the park at the same time as we did go to their homes at least 15 minutes before we got to ours.) All the nursing and diaper-changing had to happen in public. We had to plan our bathroom trips carefully. We had to plan EVERYTHING. I researched our summer activities thoughtfully, looking for events that were easy for us to get to - yesterday's fun was a lucky combination of attractive, free, and conveniently located.
The good effects? We walked five miles.** We enjoyed experiencing, at a human speed, all the interesting sights and smells and sounds along the way. (The frog symphony at night!) We appreciated the novelty of walking home in the dark, and seeing our usual daytime environment transformed. We were unable to overschedule ourselves, because everything takes so long. Dutch and I had some nice conversation*** that we couldn't have had if we weren't walking together so much. We're getting to know our neighborhood really well, in a nice, slow, repetitive, organic way. There's lots of good to be gotten out of it. We can't cram as much into our lives as we could if we had a car, but we can eke more out of what we CAN fit.
*It turns out Dutch is woefully underexposed to live music, and her mind was practically exploding over the fact that they actually played, RIGHT IN FRONT OF US, the VERY SAME songs that we had heard on the CD we checked out of the library and listened to nine billion times on a road trip a year ago.
**Fortunately, Dutch accepts walks as a matter of normal daily living, and is unfazed by the prospect of a one-mile trip to the library or a 2.5-mile round trip for swim lessons.
***and some make-my-brain-trickle-out-my-ears conversation - here's a sample:
Dutch: Mom, is that other movie playing now?
Me: Yes.
D: What is happening in the movie?
M: I don't know. I've never seen it. I don't know the story.
D: Is it just the same as what happens in the book?
M: I don't know if there is a book related to that movie.
D: Mom, if there is a book, have you read it?
Because the kids are out of daycare (and therefore do not need to be transported to and from downtown) and I am out of the school for the summer (and thus have no reduced-price bus pass), we've been riding the bus a lot less. This means a lot of walking.
Yesterday I had the kids on my own from 8 AM until 9 PM. We left at 8:10, and walked to the pool for Dutch's swim lesson. Our current transportation system is to take the stroller and the wrap, usually switching Skipper back and forth between the two. (She sometimes gets pretty pissed off when she's awake and alert in the wrap, since it interferes with her current favorite activity, Vigorous Kicking of the Legs.) On the way home, I nursed Skipper while standing up on a corner in a quiet residential neighborhood, while Dutch sat on the curb and quietly told herself a story. We passed our usual landmarks - the Library, then the Home of the Scary Yapping Chihuahuas, aka The Bad Dogs, who on Tuesday terrorized Dutch pretty badly. Then the House With the Plum Trees (today the residents, Don and Holly, were harvesting their plums when we passed by, and they gave us a big bag). Then the House with the Chicken Figurines in the Garden. Then The Gelato Place. Then The Post Office. Then The Grocery Store. Then Dairy Queen. Then the Bar Across the Street Where People Park Their Electric Wheelchairs Outside The Door and Things Get Very Loud at Two AM. Then home!
We stayed home for a while, and left again in the mid-afternoon. We went to the farmers market and bought lots of beautiful produce and a delicious berry crepe. Then we proceeded to the library, to pick up some books I had on hold, use the bathroom, and look at magazines. Then we went to the park and joined a whole bunch of other people who were there for a performance by Captain Bogg and Salty.* This is a local phenomenon- a bunch of guys who assume pirate personas and play music for kids. They are very popular - everybody there seemed to be dressed as pirates, know all the songs, AND know the Captain Bogg and Salty secret handshake, which is to make a hook with your index finger and wave it in the air. Dutch had a really great time. We bought a CD. We ate our picnic dinner (cheese-and-pickle sandwiches, cherry tomatoes, carrots, and brownies). We watched a short movie at the park, and walked home in the dark. Dutch, who had begged to stay for the movie and sworn she wouldn't whine at all, didn't whine at all.
It was a very nice day. The weather was fantastic, and the kids were pretty nice. We did fun stuff, and we were outside for more than ten hours of the day.
Here are some of the challenging effects of car-free-ness on our day. We toted all of our stuff - diapers, meals, produce, blanket, extra clothes, library books, etc. - everywhere we went. We couldn't bring an elaborate picnic dinner or spiffy waterproof blanket to the park, like everyone else, because we didn't have room. We had to allocate much more time to everything we did than car-full people do. (It's a safe bet that everyone else who left the park at the same time as we did go to their homes at least 15 minutes before we got to ours.) All the nursing and diaper-changing had to happen in public. We had to plan our bathroom trips carefully. We had to plan EVERYTHING. I researched our summer activities thoughtfully, looking for events that were easy for us to get to - yesterday's fun was a lucky combination of attractive, free, and conveniently located.
The good effects? We walked five miles.** We enjoyed experiencing, at a human speed, all the interesting sights and smells and sounds along the way. (The frog symphony at night!) We appreciated the novelty of walking home in the dark, and seeing our usual daytime environment transformed. We were unable to overschedule ourselves, because everything takes so long. Dutch and I had some nice conversation*** that we couldn't have had if we weren't walking together so much. We're getting to know our neighborhood really well, in a nice, slow, repetitive, organic way. There's lots of good to be gotten out of it. We can't cram as much into our lives as we could if we had a car, but we can eke more out of what we CAN fit.
*It turns out Dutch is woefully underexposed to live music, and her mind was practically exploding over the fact that they actually played, RIGHT IN FRONT OF US, the VERY SAME songs that we had heard on the CD we checked out of the library and listened to nine billion times on a road trip a year ago.
**Fortunately, Dutch accepts walks as a matter of normal daily living, and is unfazed by the prospect of a one-mile trip to the library or a 2.5-mile round trip for swim lessons.
***and some make-my-brain-trickle-out-my-ears conversation - here's a sample:
Dutch: Mom, is that other movie playing now?
Me: Yes.
D: What is happening in the movie?
M: I don't know. I've never seen it. I don't know the story.
D: Is it just the same as what happens in the book?
M: I don't know if there is a book related to that movie.
D: Mom, if there is a book, have you read it?
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