Dutch Cargo Bike or a Bakfiets

This is completely cool. I have been bugging my husband to design this and it already exists! How wonderful and desperately needed. Imagine if Chinese and Indian people turned to this instead of cars with their increased wealth...What if soccer moms here in the states switched over to this instead of mini vans? What if we got our exercise as we lived our lives instead of setting aside time to do some special work out?

"...but, it's much cheaper than a car, and it doesn't drink any petrol."

Sounds of Silence

I don't feel like talking today. But, I don't feel like being silent either.

Let's listen to Simon and Garfunkel sing about silence...



Youtube is addictive. I no sooner looked at The Sound of Silence then I started thinking about The Graduate which made me think of this:



What an evil businessman--don't do it Ben! Don't go into plastics--go run after Elaine instead and pound on the glass and yell from the balcony, "Elaine!! Elaine!!" and block the church door with the cross and run out with Elaine and catch the bus...and then what will you do? You're still a little lost, but still, DON'T GO INTO PLASTICS!!

Canoe Trip

The other day we went to a nature reserve and went canoeing.

My husband got the car ready with the canoe on top. It's not easy strapping a canoe to a little two door car, but it can be done.

Here's our car with our cool canoe and our cool bumperstickers.

Here's our car with our cool bumperstickers and our cool canoe and our cool kids...my daughter is going to the dentist soon--really.
(The above photo brings a question to mind for me--Those of you with older kids who have been through this, at what age do kids stop making silly faces for the camera? Just wondering.)

My son and I went out paddling across the lake first. My son got out at an island and explored and I stayed in the canoe and held onto a log near the shore and waited for him to come back. We heard a loud bird call, and my son looked until he found the bird. Then it was my daughter and husband's turn.

While my daughter and husband went out paddling, my son and I enjoyed sitting in the shade on the shore and soaking up the nature. Then he climbed a tree because he can not sit still long when he is out in the fresh air.

He looked up the bird in the bird field guide--we think what he he had seen was a grey jay.

He found the shell of an interesting insect, I looked at it and then an earwig crawled out of it unexpectedly and I shrieked hysterically. Smooth...

My son threw a rock into the water to make ripples that he photographed.

He looked up a tree and took a picture.

My daughter and husband got back with a rock that looks a little like the shape of Illinois.

My daughter heard a bird overhead and looked for it.


Then it was my son and husband's turn to go out.

While my son and husband were out taking their turn paddling around, my daughter and I went under the docks at the cement boat launches and pretended we were trolls. First, she visited my side.

She dipped her feet in the cool water.

She then went over to her own bridge and said menacing things to me--she was the Queen of Trolls and I was only allowed my own bridge by her good graces. Thank goodness I was on her good side.

My daughter went down the dock to meet the paddlers when they got back, just before it started to rain and we had to go.

It was a beautiful day.

You Know What Stinks?!

You know what stinks?! I'll tell you--when you go to the excessively commercial 4th of July parade in your town and you enjoy seeing Dan Seals walk by and getting a sticker from him, and you watch your kids get hard candy tossed to them from Picket Fence Realty and you watch the Jesse White Tumblers quickly set up and do flips off of a small trampoline right there in the middle of the street, and so you are preoccupied and you don't see someone steal your overly aerodynamic bike helmet that you don't like any way, but still no one should take your stuff!

Hmph!!

How was your 4th?