SIMPLIFIED DISPATCHES FROM THE ROAD: Day 4 & 5

Day 4 (Grinnell, IA to Elkhart, IN)
Nice to awake to a fairly easy day of driving-and break it up in the middle with lunch in Chicago with my sister. The “I” states are smooth sailing-hit cruise control and sail on through to Ohio… well stopping for tolls of course. Wish I was able to order my automated toll transponder in time for this trip, they save so much time when you're on the road and plus it helps take your mind off how much it actually costs you in tolls when you're not forking over the money at every toll booth. (FYI cost of tolls from California to Illinois? $0. Cost of tolls from Illinois to Maine? $52.05. Maybe California wouldn't be in such debt if we started charging the people who drove more. Just sayin'.)

Day 5 (Elkhart, IN to Erie, PA)

Had a later start this morning (okay maybe 7:30 a.m. isn't that late but it took awhile for my cell phone to figure out what time zone we were in). Today's a day where I am reminded why I do these trips every year: it's not about the destination, it's about the journey. It's not about how many miles I can make in a day, but it's about this moment: this 8:04am on a Thursday morning with the sun trying to push it's way into the sky. It's about getting off the interstate for a few miles and riding the back roads of Michigan and taking time to breathe for a bit. Even better is ending the day visiting with a good friend… unfortunately that visit has to take place in the smoky bars of Pennsylvania (well it doesn't *HAVE* to, but tradition dictates). One forgets how poorly one's body processes cigarette smoke when one hasn't been around it in months and months.

SIMPLIFIED DISPATCHES FROM THE ROAD: Day 3

An early morning back on the road after a frustrating day 2 (even more frustrating when I find out after the fact that a good friend lives in an area I drove through yesterday, grrr.) Strangely enough, the sketchier the hotel room I stay in, the better night of sleep I usually get. Or maybe by day 3 I'm just so exhausted I'll sleep though anything. Trying to get out of the northeast Denver area continues to be frustrating because even at 6:30 a.m. the streets are packed and drivers are aggressive. But perseverance pays off and soon I'm back to being one of the only cars on the interstate, traveling through what Kerouac calls “the middle of coyote nowhere”.

Speaking of which, I popped the audio book of On the Road into the iPod and got to listen to Matt Dillon read to me for 2 straight days about the Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarity. Not a bad way to pass the empty miles. Nebraska is amusing in that you will drive over 400 miles of interstate and not see one vanity license plate… until you get to Omaha, and then it seems everyone has one.

SIMPLIFIED DISPATCHES FROM THE ROAD: Day 2

Up and ready to face the day-southern Utah to deal with and then lots and lots of Colorado. The first few hours of the day I barely pass anyone on the roads. I went over a half hour at one stretch not seeing a single other car on the same side of the interstate-what a drastic change from Los Angeles. More cars speed past me with their bike racks making me miss mine even more. I can see it sitting there in pieces in my kitchen. So sad.

Colorado has a tendency to make me lose my mind-the altitude probably has something to do with it, but this trip especially, I just found very frustrating. Hills are not my car's best friend and long slow inclines to 11,000 feet are a sort of torture. I made the mistake of pulling over to a chain up area to take this photo, and trying to get back up to speed (let's say… 30 mph) well, it would have been faster to get out and push the car up and over the Vail Pass. But Colorado at least is gorgeous to look at while you're losing your mind. I'm slightly sad this trip because this route reminds me of the last trip through Colorado in the days before I had a wifi card, where I was stopping at every small town library to use their internet to send emails back to work. I must have stopped 5 or 6 times in towns like beautiful quaint Georgetown (tiny little storefront library which was closed when I got there), Glenwood Springs (where a neighbor had named their wifi with a dirty version of the library's name) Fruita (where I sat on a children's chair trying to work before they closed). It was actually a fun challenge getting off the interstate and then trying to instinctually find the local library… I would give myself 5 minutes of driving around to find the sign that pointed me in the right direction until I'd cave in and ask directions. Just another way technology continues to speed our lives up.

SIMPLIFIED DISPATCHES FROM THE ROAD: Day 1

So this weekend I set off for another cross country jaunt, nothing too novel or pioneering, as this would be my 26th cross country trip in 14 years and I had a 6 day time limit to make it from LA to Maine. Packing the car up I was concerned that all the “stuff” I was bringing with me was going to add serious weight to my car and cause my gas mileage to plummet. I had this vision of my car looking like the Clampett’s as they putt-putted into California. I looked at the bags and bags of stuff, trying to figure out what I could do without for 3 months. I mean, I was trying to advocated simplicity… one woman should not need this much stuff. Sadly, the first thing to go was my bike. As much as I hated to leave it behind, I know where I’m going it’s going to be COLD. And I know that riding my bike while making me temporarily warm, leaves me freezing for the rest of the day. So while my bike doesn’t weigh that much (under 20 lbs) it did free up the room so that I could now see out the rear view mirror. I played the camping game: what do you really really need? And we were off! Me, adventure kitty, and my traveling companion The Los Angeles Roaming Gnome. We hit the 15N (for the 3rd time this year) and the wind kicked up in Devore—we watched as new fires kicked up in the mountains and I was truly happy to be moving away from that destruction. That wind however pushed us all the way to our destination: Beaver, UT, 500 miles at over 57 mpg. Satellite TV was knocked out by the wind when we got there, which we were slightly bummed about (Gnome and I enjoy watching The Amazing Race…) but it was nice to just sit and be peaceful for a night. Tomorrow, we head to Colorado and hopefully Nebraska.

Special note about Beaver, UT: not only the childhood home of Butch Cassidy, (I looked for the cabin but my keen eyes could not spot anything at the location I got off the interwebs) and it also claims to have the Best Tasting Water in America. Not bad I have to say and it’s a good place to fill up the canteens for the long drive tomorrow. No more plastic bottles!!

Simple Pleasures: The National Parks

Yes, it’s true, I’m a big old National Parks dork. I read all of Nevada Barr’s Ranger Anna Pidgeon mystery novels. I’ve got the handy-dandy little passport book that I can have stamped at every park I visit. I’m kinda proud of this fact, which probably makes me an even bigger dork. So imagine my glee for the premiere of Ken Burns’ 6 part documentary series: The National Parks: America’s Best Idea on PBS this week (all episodes are also available online as well). Oh how excited a NPS dork like myself is. Say what you want about Burns’ style (that it never changes, that he only seems to interview old white male writers for their opinions, that he’s a narcissist for having his name attached to the title of all his documentaries), he does spin a damn good narrative. And there’s something about his technique of taking photographs that are well over a century old and making them more beautiful than anything the most current and most expensive equipment could take.

No More White Pages…Evah!

I can’t remember the last time I used the white pages… but it was certainly not in this millennium. Yet, twice a year, I still wake up one morning to find a big stack of phone books on my doorstep. For what? Is there really anything in print that you cannot find online these days? Banthephonebook.org is out to stop the needlessly wasteful production of phone books. The stats are simple: 5 million trees cut down each year to make the white pages, $17 million spent on recycling services. A simple solution is the opt-in program, where consumers can personally request the white pages if they want one, while everyone else is spared delivery. Sign the petition at Banthephonebook.org.

Junk Mail

It’s that time of year again, when my direct mail “Do Not Contact” notifications run out. (and yes, I am the type of person who keeps track of when I submit DNC notices. You shouldn’t be surprised by now.) For 11 months of the year, I am blissfully free of those unwanted flyers and newsprint ads for things I could never need (Carpet cleaning? Botox? Clairvoyancy services?). So off I head to www.clippermagazine.com and to do my yearly update. (interestingly enough, in the last year they have added a Facebook fan page, a Twitter page and a “Clipper Blog”) No offense to my good friends at the Postal Service (and yes, I do solemnly swear I care deeply about saving your jobs), but the amount of direct mail in this country that goes directly into the trash would probably reforest the 170,000 acres of wildfire-ravaged Angeles National Forest.
For your reduction in junk mail: visit
Clipper Magazine:
Direct Mail Association’s Page: (Good site that covers a whole lot of unsolicited mail that you may be getting. You can select what type of mail you want to get (or not get) magazine offers, credit card offers, etc.)
Valassis

So in an effort to practice what I preach, it’s time to start using the book to keep myself accountable. This week, it’s #6 on the Budgeting List (p. 68)…”Waking Up” and realizing what your bills really mean. Case in point, I noticed that my health insurance premiums had DOUBLED in the past year, (and not just because I’m hitting that milestone birthday this year that’s kicking me out of one bracket and into another), so a quick (okay 4 quick… if 20 minutes each is quick) call to the home office and we come to learn that I can knock my premiums back down to previous levels just by removing the “maternity” clause. Things they won’t tell you (should I have to ask if prostate exams are covered too?) It all comes back to know exactly what you’re paying for or else you’re probably paying for something you don’t need.

Celebrate Good Times (jazz hands) Come On!

We’re off and running now! Finally wrapped up the big show and now it’s time to celebrate the rest of life. First up, the ‘West Coast Book Party’—October 3rd. Hopefully lots of old friends will be in attendance, so that I can say ‘so long for awhile’ before heading out on the road again for a 3 month cross country trip and visit to the east coast (and hopefully the East Coast Book Party!) One of the most exciting realizations of the past week is how (finally) I have accomplished something so empowering before my milestone birthday this weekend. It’s kind of a great feeling.

At last: The Simplicity Connection goes live!

Huzzah! After much ado, we are finally in print! Wasn’t quite expecting that it would take 9 years of blood, sweat and tears, but looking back I wouldn’t change how it was done at all. Self-publishing has allowed me to keep control of my creation (and doing my own book layout taught me a new skill that I could probably turn into a small sideline business). It’s a great feeling to finally see something you’ve worked so hard on come to fruition. And as the big show winds up it’s run, I hope to be better about updating and organizing my thoughts. Lots of time off on the horizon, so watch this space!

As I continue to spend my days “letting go”, today I finally decided it was time to give up the ghost that the apartment handyman was going to stop by and fix the broken sprinkler heads. A quick trip to Lowe’s (okay, 2 quick trips… I need to learn how to measure things before I head out of the house) and I was able to replace the broken and the missing sprinkler heads all by myself. I was also even able to adjust them properly so that they’re not shooting at the sidewalk or into the apartment windows. Sometimes simplicity is just getting off your butt and getting the job done on your own. My only regret that I was letting the broken sprinklers waste so much water for so long…but now I know, that when the World’s Worst Gardeners steal/destroy these new sprinkler heads, that it takes only $3, 5 minutes and a wrench to fix the problem.

Letting it Go

On the same theme of getting super-simplified this weekend I’ve also come up with a brilliant idea this week, one that I like to call “LET IT GO”. I’m not even going to go into the details of why I came up with it, or what I am using it for, because both of those go against what “LET IT GO” is all about. So now, anytime I find myself thinking about something that is making me mad, I just stop, say “LET IT GO” and try to move on. It doesn’t always work very well, but then I just say “LET IT GO” again and continue along my way. So far it’s going okay, but I know the real test will be once I get back to work full time. It’s just another way of reminding myself that life is too short to be wasting time stressing over things that in the grand scheme, just do not matter at all.

Hot Fun in the Summertime... without the burn

As someone who loves to spend as much time as possible outdoors, (especially during those sunny hours) I know how important having a good sunscreen can be. After having adverse reactions to commercial brands in the past (getting laid up with fatigue for an entire day after one application) I decided to check out the natural options offered by Whole Foods as well as the “healthy” baby options offered by responsible companies. My two choices Aveeno Baby Continuous Protection Sunblock Lotion (SPF 55) and Kiss My Face Face Factor Paraben Free (SPF 30) seemed to rectify the exhaustion factor, but I am now learning from a recently published list by The Environmental Working Group of their dangers. The new report rates 660 different sunscreens on a scale of 0-10 (0 the best, 10 the worst) and my two choices received a 5 and a 4 respectively. In fact only 2 sunscreens they tested received the perfect score of 0. Less than 20 received a 1. Even scarier are the new realizations that the chemicals in many sunscreens are destroying water quality. So what to do to still enjoy the sun and get your daily dose of Vitamin D, but keep yourself safe from overexposure? Big hat, avoid the midday hours, and pick a safe sunscreen to reapply every several hours

Just another simplified weekend.

Oh boy, are we getting our ducks in a row this weekend. I am actually finally at a place in my life where I am so organized that I can actually accomplish everything that needs to get done before it needs to get done. Granted my list of to-do’s are pretty low priority to begin with, but that’s the perk of being super-simplified… not only do you get things accomplished more easily, but you begin to realize that most of our tasks are actually low priority. So the compost has been taken out, the cat’s nails have been trimmed, the smoothie’s been blended, work emails have been responded to, computer files have been organized. What else to do on a stiflingly-hot 93º July day? Ah yes, be still.

Link of the Day: "There I Fixed It!"

I’m a personal fan of jury-rigging (or jerry-rigging or MacGyvering as it is often known as and There I Fixed It is the site for exhibiting only the most ridiculous repair jobs that actually… well kinda work. The yellow bungee cord I had holding my bumper on for 5 years has nothing on these creative handy men and women. Just a sampling of some of the most creative: Here we have the real reason I think the El Camino was made for:








Followed by what to do if you lose a head light:







And last but not least—in fact this one is actually pretty aesthetically pleasing, and I can see Restoration Hardware mass-producing these for next season:





All of these ideas are great because not only do they keep a product that might otherwise be thrown away still working, but they use materials on hand to make the fix. The ultimate in recycling!

Simplicity Project of the Day: Make Your Own Candles, the Easy Way

As anyone who knows me can attest, I am chemically sensitive to pretty much everything, but nothing so much as when I come within 20 yards of a scented candle. (and those of you with more than 50 of said scented candles in your abode, prepare to be mocked heartily by me, from your front porch.) It probably stems from the fact that scented candles were one of the initial triggers to my chemical sensitivity problems, way back in the salad days of 1993, having to work the register at Deluca’s on Charles Street in Boston next to a candle display that I’m pretty sure no one ever patronized (then again it is rumored that Deluca’s had some, let’s say “connections”, so I don’t think it really mattered what did or did not get sold). But, long story short (too late) I enjoy candles as much as the next gal, but it’s pretty limited in terms of eco-friendly, non-toxic, non-petroleum based and inexpensive options. So I developed my own solution by recycling the old aluminum tea light cups from a batch of Ikea paraffin candles, prying out the wick holders, cutting new wicks (and rethreading) from hemp twine, and then ordering a pound of beeswax pellets to fill the cups up. Sure, you can buy a big block of beeswax for slightly cheaper, but melting it down or chopping it up gets messy and time consuming. This way, you can make the candles as you go and even reuse the same cups if need be.

It’s been a good week for ‘playing things by ear’, another favorite benefit of having a simplified life. Granted I’m quasi-unemployed this week, but having a simplified life makes being quasi-unemployed a lot less stressful. So when I hear a friend is in town for only 24 hours, it’s not an effort to hop in the car and grab a quick lunch down by the beach. And if I needed to kill some time, I can always do my daily exercise by taking a walk on the sand. (I also delight that I actually travel with a few bathing suits in my gym bag and sunscreen in my purse, so that I could have spent the whole day out there, if it had not been so windy) Always traveling with a book makes waiting in line or having my oil changed not so much of an inconvenience any more. And preparing myself for having to spend the day at jury duty with enough projects to keep me entertained for a good 8 hours means it’s a nice surprise that I can hang out at the Central Library (one of my favorite places) when I’m released early.

A bummer of a day yesterday: the world’s worst gardeners, as my apartment handyman quotes his wife: “They mow, blow and go,” in our case, they mow over sprinkler heads, blow what they’ve trimmed around and then go before picking it up… all in under ten minutes, start to finish. The ultimate landscaping abuse came as I awoke to find my beloved lavender bush severed in two—why on earth they would cut the green fertile top off, leaving the branches below that are clearly past their prime. I’m disheartened by the incident because I raised that lavender from small plant—in 6 years, it’s grown to 10 times its original size, more importantly, I transplanted it to outside my bedroom window where not only did its size create a barrier between errant sprinklings from the sprinklers (when of course that sprinkler head was functioning) but created shade from the sun, a screen from anyone who might want to look in my window and best of all peaceful fragrant relaxing lavender scent. It’s too soon to tell whether it is all going to grow back but if anyone can tell me how to say: “Trim this again and I’ll have you fired” in Spanish, that’d be a help.

So I’ve been neglecting my blog updating lately, but not without good reason, I’ve either been working or I’ve been doing little projects around the apartment to help make life a little more simplified. Nothing too involved, and yes, I am that person who is crazy enough to seam rip open the bottom of a shower curtain liner to soak the plastic strip inside in hydrogen peroxide to bleach out the red tide disease growing in there rather than go out and buy a whole new one. There, so I saved $6. Who’s the crazy one now? But that’s the gist of most of the little projects: taking some silly problem (like red algae) and trying to come up with a solution using what I have on hand to fix it. Would it have been easier to throw a new shower curtain liner in the cart next time I went to Target? Possibly. (Remembering to actually do so might not be so easy…) But the feeling that I know how to fix this problem makes me feel kinda good too. Waiting for a friend to finally remember to bring me a step ladder could take another 6 months, while dragging the coffee table out to the stoop to stand on accomplishes the same thing in seconds. Ditto with getting the building handyman to come by to cover up the greasy ceiling vent over my stove… the piece of aluminum foil I attached may make Martha Stewart roll her eyes, but at least I don’t have fan belt oil dripping in my pasta water anymore. I’ve put too much stuff off on my ‘to-do’ list because I’m waiting for the right tool to magically appear or the moment when I can justify the expense for the quick fix. I’m learning now that with a little patience and a few moments thinking about the problem creatively, I can do it myself for a fraction of the cost.

Homesteading continues...

Well after my first attempt at sweater making, I got more confident and decided I could probably do better than my first attempt (so much so that I've already unraveled that first sweater and I'm using the yarn for another project!) The 2nd attempt I took the lessons I learned from the first version (the yarn I originally chose seemed too thin and I would be more likely to wear a big warm fluffy sweater instead) so First Sweater version 2.o is just such: in my favorite color: grass green, it's a big foofy good for a cool fall day (or an overcast June Gloom Friday as the case may be.) Best part of this project is that I'm really learning to adapt to the design issues I come up against. For example, knitting the sleeves as the pattern called, I ended up with armpits down to my midsection. After unraveling and re-knitting with slight changes to the pattern (4 times!) I finally came up with a solution that seemed to work and makes my project much more likely to be worn outside of the house (in fact I've already gotten my first complement! :)