First Night Out

We had our first babysitters the other night.  It was me Ma and Pa, which is somewhat ironic, since they've not been very much of a presence in the girls' lives, so far (except for Mom being around for the hospital stay...thank goodness for that, with all the complications).  It went off without a hitch, but we were truly exhausted by the time we returned from our short engagement.  They stayed asleep the entire time we were gone.  Perfect.

As for Jody's question about cloth versus paper diapers, I'm still unsure on this point.  There are good reasons to go with cloth, but with twins that were "releasing" nearly 8-10 times a day, each, there was no chance in hell.  If one looks at the life cycle cost of the two options, it is probably a little softer on the planet to go with cloth.  Although a British environment agency study suggested that there is no significant difference in the footprint of the different options.  Importantly, there is controversy about the methodology from that study.  

We're going to try switching to cloth, now that the girls are "disposing" of much less (at least on easy days...we'll probably still resort to paper on busy/errand days).  In a CBC article, I came across one of the best arguments I've seen for or against cloth.  It mentioned the transmission of vaccine organisms and other things that might turn up in the babies' waste.  Of course, if our wastewater treatment was cutting-edge, this stuff would get eliminated when the diapers were laundered, but just what makes it through to our tap?  The answer is, of course, all kinds of things of unknown toxicity.  On the other hand, if the diapers get put in a landfill, bad things can still leach into aquifers, assuming landfill liners are less than perfect (they are).  

We've got efficient appliances, but one also has to have the time to get the laundry done (I just put back up our dryer line in the yard, which adds more stress to that time budget, but makes me much happier than drying everything in the machine).  Saving the rain in barrels is only one way of making up for the strain we create by consuming paper (or cloth) diapers.  Having a baby or two is, inherently, consumptive, but there is such a thing as mitigating for that consumption (luckily, we live in a less-consumptive way than most parents we know, and we will only get better at this with time). 

Speaking of consumption, I was struck by a comment I noticed in the documentary film "The Future of Food."  It was from the Director of Corporate Communications at Monsanto.  He was quoted in the NY Times as having said, ''Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food.  Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the F.D.A.'s job.''  What a refreshing moment of honesty, eh?  Watch the movie and see what you think.  It is available on Netflix online.  Also check out the Frontline "Poisoned Waters" online, if you need some motivation for filtering your city water and saving the rain that falls upon your roof for watering your plants.  

Almost finished the Greenpeace book (very movie-like...no surprise Watson went on to do the "Whale Wars" show), and I'm thinking of reading "Nickel and Dimed," next. On the other hand, I've been digesting so much negative news through Mother Jones and other media, lately, that I may have to go with another Terkel tome (And They All Sang was good stuff...good, but not great).  It's got me thinking about another media hiatus, since common sense is enough to keep me living as sustainably as possible.  I really don't need any more guilt about that sort of stuff, and it really does start sounding a little dogmatic and authoritarian, sometimes.  As well, I'm not in a position to do much for others, right now, aside from continuing to live reasonably as an example to those that do not (though, I do not do so for them...still debating whether there is such a thing as pure altruism). 

I picked up a Clifford Brown/Max Roach disc that is one of the best jazz albums I've ever heard (and I've heard many).  It's called "Study in Brown."  The same applies to the Charlie Parker 2-disc set from Rhino.  Check them out.  I also picked up some Pteradactyl, Bamboos, Big Sleep, Hoodoo Gurus, and the first Replacements (it's amazing how far the last two strayed from the really cool stuff they did, initially).  The Pteradactyl is a reference from Dirt Rag, and it reminds me of Arab on Radar mixed with Three Mile Pilot (very good stuff).

The plants are all doing great.  I added three blueberry shrubs to our mish-mash of trees and veggies that we're accumulating.  I'm hoping to find some plums or apples that will do well on the coast, but I'm not too hopeful.  I'm "building" out from the corner of the backyard and, so far, have a red buckeye, american elm, redbud, fig, some sweetgrass, and blueberries in place.  The idea is to, eventually, transition the yard into a "working" forest (or useful, if you please).  While I probably won't be crushing up the buckeye to stupefy fish (a historical use), it will provide nectar for hummingbirds and a few other organisms (useful in all ways, not just ways that benefit us).  Germination continues, so lots of work in the near future.

Finally, I ordered the Jamis Eclipse.  The owner of the shop has offered to cover the paint job I bought for the Raleigh, since it belonged to his brother, and he'd like to keep it.  I'm converting bike money into bike money.  This got me over the remaining worry about pulling money out of our family funds.  As well, after last nights ride, I ate it hard in the grocery down the street from the shop.  I was coming around the corner with 2 6-packs in my hands, and the super slick heel of my old Adidas shoe provided exactly zero traction to steer me through the challenge of 90 degrees.  It sounded like an explosion, my knee feels like crap, and many shoppers were treated to quite the entertaining site, I am sure.  I think I'm gonna' have to get rid of those shoes, finally (they're probably 20 years old, by now, and the soles are getting glued back to the shoes in the garage, as I write).  

I watched the Frontline called "Sick Around the World."  It was a brief treatment of health coverage in some other countries (who knew Taiwan had universal coverage?).  It was upsetting, of course, since we've had nothing but bad experiences since the girls were born (Andree's been on the phone for what must be hours, over the past 6 months).  I just don't understand how people can be satisfied with a service that delivers so little for what is paid.  On that note, however, it occurred to me the other day how odd it is that our discussion is so narrow.  What about home and car insurance?  We hear so little about these things, but they are just as much of a pain in the ass.  As an example, the company that insured our former home would not insure our new one.  We live less than a mile from where we used to live, and we are no closer to salt marsh than we were.  If anything, we're now a few more feet above sea level.  Of course, we got our former policy before Katrina and, weirdly, the guy on the phone representing our former company mentioned that we should try again 5 months from when we were calling (as Andree pointed out, AFTER hurricane season!).  

I don't know if the problem is the profit motive behind insurance companies or that we are so practiced at deflecting personal responsibility.  We seem convinced that, even though we know profit is the purpose, somebody else will take care of things if we build our house in a hazardous place, or crash our car because we were texting something banal, or get cancer because we smoked a pack of cigarettes every day for years.  One thing is for sure.  It will be a rough transition to a better system, since it requires a sort of forced altruism that I'm afraid many in this country will vehemently resist (you can't make people love others).  Down the road, perhaps everybody will realize the personal benefits of a healthy population (one can support this for purely selfish reasons...maybe that is what is missing from the arguments for a universal coverage system).  

This reminds me of the "Authority of the Resource" argument, however, which encourages an appreciation of the inherent value in the natural world.  We shouldn't have to convince people that a plant is valuable to them as food or medicine, for example.  It should be enough that the plant is part of a larger system that makes up the regional (indeed, the planetary) organism; humans or no.  That is a subject for another time, though. 

Thanks to all for the comments.  Keep those coming and I'll provide more entries.  It really helps to know that you all are reading this stuff.  I hope at least some of it makes you think or laugh a little.  Oh, and check out the Charleston Bicycle Company website for my completed animation.  It will rotate into the video bar if you just wait, or you can click on it to see it on demand. 

http://charlestonbicyclecompany.com/

Photos:  Cannibal baby, Spiranthes sp. orchid from the back yard, and the three most beautiful females in the world.