New Year, New Question

Wow, I guess I wasn’t kidding about being a mama bear because I’ve seriously been in hibernation mode over the last few weeks!  We had a very merry (and bikey!) Christmas and enjoyed a full two-week vacation together.  Santa made Vivi her very own little fixie-styled balance bike and mama got a new bike, too!  Yay – can’t wait to get some pictures up once Red Rider is back from her check-up.

I spent a great deal of time over the break thinking about this challenge.  Though we are only two months in, it’s becoming fairly obvious that we’ve already answered the question we set out to ask: can a family of four in Orlando live on only 4,000 car miles.  Based on our experiences thus far, I think I can pretty confidently say: absolutely.  I think we are a good example of a typical family in the sense that our lives are busy and require a great deal of getting around: we both work full-time, we are active volunteers, kids at two schools, extracurricular activities, etc.  In spite of all this, we’ve been surprised how often we can bike and are discovering new bike possibilities nearly every week.

Mama Bear on a Mission

The more I try to get around Orlando by bicycle, the less simple riding a bike becomes.  I’ve enjoyed a great deal of freedom riding my bike–you have to love anything that makes you go “wheeeeeeee!” down a hill on a regular basis.  However, riding has also brought about a great deal of awareness.  It seems that so much, down to how and where you ride, becomes political.

Our Set-up Part I: The Radish

I’m always extremely curious about other people’s bike set-ups; I like to see what works for other people, particularly stuff tested out by other biking families.  When Jesse and I first considered diving into the world of kids-on-bikes, I went into an internet-searching frenzy.  Unfortunately, we don’t have any bike shops that carry cargo bikes and there’s no Consumer Reports for cargo biking.  Along this mode of thinking, I thought I’d post about our bikes.  First up is the Radish!

Peace, Love, Hope, and High School Students

‘Tis the season to be jolly and pretty much nothing makes me happier right now than my hubby’s amazing high school students.  My husband has been teaching at the same school for several years now and, since both my daughters have been enrolled in the on-campus daycare program, I’ve grown to have pretty high expectations for the students.  However, what I’m seeing lately blows my mind.

Month One Update

I’m happy to report that I have survived the first month of this challenge–yay!  Unfortunately, I still have a lot of room for improvement.  We put a total of 449 miles on the car in the first month; if we keep driving at this rate, we’ll be looking at 5,388 for the year–well above even the 25% goal.

After all, tomorrow is another day!

Alright–I’m going to mix things up a bit.  In a new twist on the Friday the 13th norm, I’m actually going to STOP freaking out.  I’ve spent most of this week kvetching and I’m ready to move on now (I’m sure this is wonderful news to my hubby).

I went out for a nice walk with Viv today and was sort of processing a SWOT analysis in my head.  Yes, my brain does strange things when under stress.  Since it would clearly be a bit too much geekery to actually write out a SWOT, I’ll just list some of my thoughts:

I love you Orlando, but we need to talk…

Orlando, I heard the news and I think we need to have a talk.  I love you, but this just isn’t going to cut it.  You’ve got to prove to me you’re willing to make a change!  I thought we had come so far together–and now there are kids involved!  Who stood by your side when people said that you’re nothing but a second-rate, wannabe metropolis?  This is the best you can do?

It was bad enough discovering that you are actually a set of triplets pretending to be one city or finding out that your unhealthy habits had left your arterial roads nearly permanently clogged.  But this…it’s enough to seriously test my commitment to you.

Wait, what am I saying?  No–this is for better or for worse.  I’m not like those other girls that said they loved you, thought they could fix you, but left as soon as the going got tough.  This love is for real!  I’m gonna’ keep riding your streets, Orlando–because I believe in you!  I know you can be better than this!   It’s okay–a lot of cities at your age do the whole “fast cars” thing, but you need to settle down now and start focusing on your family. I know you’re trying.  You’ve worked really hard on the trails and Baldwin Park was a big step for you!  But now is the time to step it up–let the world see what I see.