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Doing my part for Public Transit

February 16, 2008 in Entertainment, Environment, Pittsburghian with 3 Comments

So, today the kiddo and I ventured out for the first time on our own…using the city bus. I know what you are thinking — you’ve lived in the ‘burgh for almost three years now and you haven’t used the bus without your hubby! I haven’t even used it by myself! I prefer to walk — only the Children’s Museum isn’t exactly within our walking radius.

Now, I am not in any way against using the bus, too ‘good’ to use the bus or anything else other than simply lazy, a shut in (most days) and terrified of doing that sort of thing with an independent four year old. Not to mention, that it was cold, there’s icy slush on the sidewalks and Elijah is rather impatient when it comes to just standing around waiting for ‘our bus’ when 15 others have passed us by.

Needless to say, our adventure was fine. We walked a block and got on the 16B, which took us all the way within about 2.5 blocks of the museum and then we walked over there and had a good afternoon. When it came time to leave, I had forgotten when the bus was going to be by…I tried to convince Elijah that it was time to leave, so that we wouldn’t be standing there in the cold for 20 or 30 minutes waiting. Ha! I think we rounded the corner as the bus was pulling away. So, we waited and waited and I was totally convinced myself, that the bus wasn’t coming. But almost 30 minutes on the dot, there she was.

Apparently, there had been an accident on North Avenue and it had delayed the bus. The moral of this story is that it’s not hard at all to bus with a free range child, just make sure to explain the situation well and dress appropriately. Snacks are optional, but might make the wait friendlier for yourself and other people around you :)

Do I plan on doing this regularly? Why, yes and I am so glad you asked. No more crazy car juggling with the hubby or awkwardly asking friends from the East End to pick us up when they are coming to the NorthSide to do something. Yay! Why don’t more of you guys use the bus? Now, we shall try this again, but not on a Saturday, because I forgot that’s the day that all the unwashed masses take their children to the museum. We might also broaden our busing radius and make a trip to the East End to visit those friends who so nonchalantly offer to pick us up for fun days.

 

Subject: HELP BRADDOCK

February 8, 2008 in Environment, Pittsburghian, Politics with 0 Comments

From: Jeb Feldma
Date: February 7, 2008 7:45:44 PM EST
Subject: Help Braddock

hello all:

deep cuts to public transportation. a $500 million underground tunnel to stadiums. a $7 billion dollar, four-lane, toll road through poor, african-american neighborhoods. tragically, this is what passes for transportation policy in allegheny county.

if you have not done so already, i am respectfully requesting a few moments of your time to help our community and the region by voting against the mon-fayette expressway in the recent poll on www.postgazette.com.

please help braddock and the numerous other communities that have already been severely harmed (or would be obliterated) by this wasteful, highly destructive, and interminable 40-year discussion.

Post Gazette Poll: Do you want a private-public partnership to pay half of the $3.6 billion cost of completing the Mon-Fayette Expressway?

respectfully,

mayor john fetterman
Braddock

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Obviously, you know that I have voted against this atrocity. Please, we need to help Braddock, PA stay on the map. We also need to be putting more effort into saving this forgotten city. It is currently the only close place even remotely resembling an ‘autonomous zone‘ — we need more of those. If you don’t know much about Braddock, then today is YOUR lucky day!

Braddock Pennsylvania – Braddocc (mayor fetterman’s site)
Braddock, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania (wikipedia)
A Call to Arms (pittsburgh city paper)
Braddocc (myspace)

 

It’s the End of the World…and I Feel Fine

February 6, 2008 in Environment, Religiosophy with 1 Comment

Is anyone else sick of the weather? I am. When it’s Winter, I expect Winter weather: cold, wind, snow, sleet, ice, etc.). Well, I will be getting back to that kind of weather over the next week, but the last two days here in the ‘burgh have been well, Spring like. Some of the trees have buds, I’ve heard baby birds (and seen them) and we were able to have the windows open for almost two entire days. Mind you this is occurring now, in February. We also had a four day stretch of this at the end of January, when I observed the same phenomenons.

Yes, I know you are going to mention ‘Climate Change’ and ‘Global Warming’. But, as the Republicans have informed us, those things don’t really exist. I mean, I believe they do. Do I think we have caused them, no, but I do think we have added to their severity and probably rushed things along. The only thing that I know for sure is that Mother Nature is tired of us. Though ‘we’ think that we have found ways to conquer her, she is still as feral as the inner thoughts of house cats. I’ve seen footage and photographs from Prypiat and Chernobyl. I know that less than 20 years after we are gone, Mother Nature will prevail and envelope and hide most if not all signs of us.

I want seasons, seasons that are consistent. Living in Pittsburgh, has allowed to me to experience four definite seasons, but even they are on rocky ground. I am not looking forward to only experiencing very extreme Summers and Winters with no in-betweens. Does anyone else feel the same?

So, it’s going to happen. Something. And on a global level. I am determined to keep that something at bay as long as I possibly can. I just wish that more and more people would see that our only two steps are to make the lifestyle changes necessary to become renewable energy independent (as individual persons & communities, not a national system, because we have seen how tragically our national systems breakdown) , thus lessening our pollutive contributions to the problem. The second step is to prepare to rebuild after the something. Yes, I mean what I say. Think Hurricane Katrina, but on a global scale and to the nth degree. You can see what I mean about preparing to rebuild.

Obviously, there are other steps to take, but those seem to me to be the most important ones. We have to kill Monsanto and other monopolizing entities or at least cripple them enough that their buying off and paying off powers don’t render us completely helpless. We need to convince people that ethanol fuel is only a kludge in the system and not really a solution. We have to stop sending our children to public school, so that they aren’t dumbed down and can grow up as free thinking individuals. We need to bring the community back together and find our tribes, so that we have resources for our children and elderly and for those who take care of our children and elderly. We need to stop hunting down and killing off our wise ones, our elder patriarchs and matriarchs, our sages and healers, our midwives and shamans. There is a lot to be done, but those two main steps alone could save us…sadly though, not all of us.

Any thoughts?

 

Boycotting: Monsanto a.k.a. The Devil

February 3, 2008 in Environment, Health, Politics with 4 Comments

Now, me boycotting something is not new and neither is boycotting Monsanto (which is almost impossible unless you totally drop out, never buy another thing and eat only from your yard). However, when I see something that warrants being mentioned I have to pass it on. I never know when just the right article might make the light go on for someone else.

Censorship, Monsanto & The Media: Boycott Monsanto Products

Exposed: The Great GM Crops Myth 

 

See Mum, No Shoes!

February 3, 2008 in Environment, Health, Life, Religiosophy with 9 Comments

Something that I have been wanting to mention for along time is the act of removing one’s shoes before entering a home.

We have a ‘no shoes’ house. We haven’t always had one. For me, for as long back as I can remember, I have never liked to wear shoes. I prefer to go barefoot and like to wear flip flops as much as humanly possible outside of the home. When my husband and I still lived in Oklahoma City, we took our shoes off wherever we ended up sitting down in the house upon entering…this meant we also had to ‘go searching for shoes’ when it came time to go somewhere. I don’t think the idea of removing our shoes at the door ever crossed our minds.

When we moved to Pittsburgh, we bought a house that had all hardwood and tile floors. It made since to remove our shoes at the door to a) not track in anymore dirt than necessary b) create some kind of consistent ritual to respect our home c) know where the hell our shoes were when we needed them! It makes sense to me. This house had an entrance hall that was approximately 17 feet long and 4.5 feet wide. We lined the left wall (left side on entering) with hooks for coats, scarves and keys. Below the hooks just past the swing of the door was a plug in electric radiant heater with a shoe tray in front of it where we put our shoes that were wet. Next to this, was an upholstered bench with space under it for shoes and a short and skinny bookshelf at the end of it for more shoes (mainly Elijah’s). There was a mirror above the bookshelf and on the floor next to it was a bin for hats and mittens and such when it was Winter time. This worked out for us and made life much easier.

As a side note…it is not that non-carpeted flooring gets dirtier, it’s just that you actually can see and feel (if barefoot) the dirt that is on the floor — carpeting is a godsend for those who do not like to vacuum/sweep!

We have now moved to another house in Pittsburgh and it has carpet — carpet that we have not yet removed (we are adamantly against carpet for cleanliness and health reasons). We were blessed with this house having a ‘double vestibule‘ complete with a closet and radiant heater. We now hang up our coats in the closet, hang our keys on hooks, put our shoes in the bottom of the closet or on a tray in front of the radiator, place mittens, gloves, hats and scarves in bins on the shelf in the closet. We do all this before we even open the second door in to the house! Having the second door also eliminates the draft from the front door and probably cuts down on our heating cost significantly.

How do we deal with visitors? Well, it’s quite obvious to someone that the vestibule is a place of stopping to ‘de-robe’ one’s self. We took down the sliding doors to the closet, so you can plainly see that we hang up coats here and put our shoes on the closet floor. The few people who have come over or stayed with us since we moved, haven’t had a problem ‘de-robing’ in our vestibule. Most of our friends do it at their houses anyways. I haven’t had to ask anyone to do it yet…

Berkeley Parents Network: Taking Shoes Off in the House

Ask TreeHugger: Leave Your Shoes at the Door

This following link I include hesitantly, because of the content behind the scenes (read: Fundamentalist Christians are behind this) — however the blog as it stands is fantastic…I apologize to 99% of my readers for the sidebar content of the blog. With all of this pre-link disclaimer BS (just a note, so that some of your don’t think I have lost my ever loving mind) out of the way, here is the link: Shoes Off at the Door, Please

 
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