To Live Local

From Seeds to Cezanne

2009-04-06T21:09:00.000-07:00

Last night my husband came in from tennis and said he’d convinced our neighbor, his doubles partner, to plant a vegetable garden on the side of the house. All I could think is: wow. My husband has gone along with most of my green efforts, especially when they include saving money, like changing to CFS light bulbs, using cloth napkins and wipes and shutting off the lights with a vengeance. But it isn’t his crusade.

In fact while we both want to grow some veggies, he’s acting out of fun while I see it as a political act, ever the poli sci major, I guess. So when I heard he’d been urging our neighbor to join us in a victory garden, I knew we were on to something.

I immediately envisioned conversations over the backyard wall, the sharing of extra basil, the sharing of extra zucchini, the sharing of a beer and a barbecue. The whole 50s thing.

Maybe this is what it’s all about. Baking bread, eating a meal with family and friends, growing something - from agriculture to cities to culture. From seeds to Cezanne.

The Economist ran an article recently, What’s Cooking, about the first of five reports from the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science where they look at the evolutionary role of cookery.

You are what you eat, or so the saying goes. But Richard Wrangham, of Harvard University, believes that this is true in a more profound sense than the one implied by the old proverb. It is not just you who are what you eat, but the entire human species. And with Homo sapiens, what makes the species unique in Dr Wrangham’s opinion is that its food is so often cooked.

Cooking is a human universal. No society is without it. No one other than a few faddists tries to survive on raw food alone. And the consumption of a cooked meal in the evening, usually in the company of family and friends, is normal in every known society. Moreover, without cooking, the human brain (which consumes 20-25% of the body’s energy) could not keep running. Dr Wrangham thus believes that cooking and humanity are coeval.

In fact, as he outlined to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), in Chicago, he thinks that cooking and other forms of preparing food are humanity’s “killer app”: the evolutionary change that underpins all of the other—and subsequent—changes that have made people such unusual animals.

So stay tuned. We’ve been tearing up our yard, planting seeds inside and laying out the plan. Our neighbor already has a plum tree. How about a bushel of plums for a basket of tomatoes? And don’t forget the beer and the hot dogs. It’s going to be a long hot summer.

April In Paris

2009-04-04T09:02:00.000-07:00

I am relearning my French, digging through the morass of my oldish brain for vocab learned long ago and having the best time. Can you say pure joy? Much safer than a hormone pill, less sweaty than 30 minutes at my kickboxing studio and way more sexy. Can you say Sarkhozy and Carla? I’m online listening to a jazz radio station from Belgium and watching French talking heads deliver the news. The Middle East situation is ever so much more amusant in French.

What I do for love, this pure hobby moment has no money in it, that’s for sure. Living in SoCal I’d be much better off learning Spanish from scratch than picking up wherever I left off after 9 years of French. In fact I debated for years what to do when the kids were older and I supposedly had more time. I have no time but who cares.

So what if I could actually use Hispanic rather than mes études français in my day job as publicist to the non-stars, and therefore at least get a write-off. Who cares if no one around me speaks French, except my 17 year old daughter, et seulement un peu, but who wants to speak French avec votre mere ou avec ta teenage fille? The Internet has brought all things français to my door and it’s a wonderful world we live in.

I’ve found blogs, podcasts and websites, et aussi des livres d’enfants pas trop cher from the library book sale to help get me up to speed, which could take who knows how long but who cares. My Corsican French teacher from 7th grade who played the flugelhorn, had recorded an album and gave us so much homework by winter break the parents were protesting? Or my German French teacher from 10th and 11th grade who zapped us with quizzes as punishment when we couldn’t answer her early morning grillings? Or perhaps the 12th grade American French teacher who explained her flying lessons to us completment en français and never spoke a word of English all that year. Talk about your stress headaches. Will I ever have time for that kind of immersion again?

So I make do but with as much flair as possible. With my morning café au lait I read women stylists/photographers blogs, sometimes even in French, while I sit in my jeans, struggling with my own digital efforts to eke quaintness out of photos of big box stores and strip malls. C’est dommage mais we have no pâtisseries ici.

The BBC is my new best friend because it allows me to lire, écouter et parler in incremental lessons. And j’adore all those intense French men with the narrow glasses, spiky hair and well tied scarves posed in existential angst leaning over balconies with a Galois hanging from their sensuous lips. Bien sûr I’m married but I’m a woman d’un certain âge so I can turn to fantasy when necessary.

I found a lovely photographer-watercolorist who blogs about pastries, chocolates, elegant shops and Parisians with well-tied scarves around their neck. Paris Breakfasts. It’s like a tour bus ride without the fumes.

And then there’s the French Corner, this super everything about French blog with all sorts of links. I love links. It’s where I found the Belgium jazz. I think. I need to remember to bookmark immediately or else I’m lost in the forest without a baguette-crumb trail to lead me back.

And then, on a blog from an excellent writer, La Belette Rouge, who wishes she lived and wrote in Paris, don’t we all, I found a book, Tune Up Your French, to help me learn street French and the right body language which will help me sound like the real thing. Even as I write this post I’m practicing moving my shoulders in a je ne sais quoi kind of way. I can feel my accent improving with each shrug.

After an hour of parlez-vous’ing myself into a total flow moment I have to control myself from wishing the bank tellers ‘bon jour’. I feel so connected to the world, so cosmopolitan as I run errands with a long scarf draped artfully around my neck. Okay, so I’m living in an uber-suburb. Can you say let’s pretend?

So what is the photo of a torn, well loved petit larrouse at the top of the post you ask? That’s my French dictionary from elementary school. I needed a new one, très triste, because this poor bébé crumbles a little more every time je le bouge. See below. No patina. I need to take it to a café and spill a little coffee on it to break it in.

Now, excusez-moi while I conjugate a few verbs before I run errands and throw smoldering glances at my favorite bank teller. À bientôt.

Buy Local

2009-03-29T07:28:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago banners went up on one of the main streets, not main as in 'filled with shops and a joy to browse through' but main as in 'long and boring and filled with houses and empty sidewalks California suburban wasteland' main. They announced that we should buy local.

Did that mean run to the local branch of Costco, Barnes & Noble and Staples or the mom and pop beauty supply, chocolatier, alterations lady or the library Saturday book sale?

Or does it mean go to the Yard Sale! as the flyer stuck under my car's windshield wiper demanded? Someone had plastered every car in the lot with a waving piece of white paper. I dare you to pull it off and throw it in the back seat - not on the ground, shame on you for littering - without glancing at it to see what someone is selling you.

And whoever was hosting this visit to their driveway was offering up an entire house. We're talking power tools, appliances, office furniture, paintings. I looked for evidence that it was an estate sale or maybe 'we're moving because we can't stand the traffic jams on the 101 in the middle of the night'.

No, this was a yuppie dumping their stuff. My first thought was - The Economy.

Check out this list:

Appliances - stainless steel small fridge, side-by-side refrigerator with ice and water dispenser, toaster oven (stainless steel), coffee maker (black/stainless steel) bread maker (white), waffle maker (stainless steel), panini sandwich grill (silver), electric juicer (white), 10 cup rice cooker (black/stainless steel)

But wait, there's more!

Circular saw, power drill, tile saw, table saw, RotoZip saw, power sander, jig saw and don't forget the electric group: lawn mover, weed whacker, hedge trimmer, chain saw.

There's even more but you get the picture. When you get rid of the gimmicky appliances - rice maker? I use a pot and a cover - it can only mean you need the cash. That you would have had if you hadn't spent the money in the first place. Perhaps you lost your job or your house is in foreclosure and you need to vacate immediately. This is California we're talking about. Big numbers in unemployment and foreclosures.

These people are selling off both a ceramic hair curler AND a ceramic hair flat iron. If you have curly hair you want it straight. If you have straight hair, you long for the curls. We are a nation of never satisfied people. We are consumers.

Call me a looky-lu but I have to swing by and see who this is.

Tikkun Olam Fridays – Repairing the World One Step at a Time

2009-03-20T10:51:00.000-07:00

Another Friday, another post on tikkun olam – to repair the world. Remember, you don’t have to finish the job, but it is your responsibility to start.

What action did you take this week, big or little, to make a difference?

Here’s an update on my post about the MN Adamov Fund that helps talented blind people in Russia and was started by a couple out of a spare bedroom in Boston.

Why did the Sussmans start this journey? Because Svetlana wanted to honor her father who she was very close to. He'd recently died and on the way back from the funeral on the plane she came up with a way to do that. The Fund supplies canes, computers and other objects to people in Russia, a country and culture that doesn't seem to help their citizens in quite the same way that we make an effort to do here.

The update: the Bay State Council of the Blind has just named Svetlana and Harris Sussman to receive the Outstanding Service Award of the year, for people who make a difference in the lives of blind people. The award will be given at the annual convention on March 28, 2009 at the Marriott in Natick, Massachusetts.

Catch Svetlana and Harris on YouTube talking about their work with the MN Adamov Memorial Fund. See how reaching out and helping takes no special skill or knowledge, necessarily, just a whole lot of effort and heart.

Nourishing Wednesdays

2009-03-18T11:18:00.000-07:00

Last week A Mighty Appetite with Kim O’Donnel, the Washington Post food blog, ran a challenge to only eat from whatever was already in the pantry – Eating Down the Fridge. Instead of running to the store for last minute entrees, the goal was to eat from what was already in the house. I happened upon the post as I always do, by some trail through the food, simplicity, sustainability, We’re-in-the-Dark-Ages-II blogs that I read every morning along with HuffPost and LAObserved. It seemed like a fun idea so I jumped in mid-week.

We have a collection of condiments, my husband and younger daughter are the king and queen of condiments. They never met a jar of honey horseradish stone ground caper-packed mustard that didn’t have their name on it. If there’s a pretzel to dip in it, so much the better.

I, on the other hand, crave flours, grains, vinegars and oils. I never met a ground up piece of bark I didn’t want to try. And how many ways can you preserve milk? Condensed, evaporated, dry, coconut?

Then our oldest daughter has two friends who work at the local tea shop and have gifted us with little bags. On her trip to Edinburgh, she brought back Scottish Breakfast, to go with our English and Irish. The fact that I seem to have collected over a dozen teapots (I’m a coffee hound; how did this happen?) probably has probably been influential in why we can whip out an array of Teas from Across the Continents at our dinner parties.

The gastronomic challenge of not schlepping to the local market seemed like a plan. How much sunk money did I have in the freezer? And how old was the mystery meat hidden in the back corner?

So Friday night I made chili with pinto and kidney beans, threw in a can of green chilis and a pound of medium firm tofu. Tossed in one of the dozen cans of most-have diced tomatoes from Costco and crumbled in at least six spices, some of which were impulse purchases from intriguing ethnic market that caught my eye that I’m trying to use down. Then there was the salad with on-the-way-to-wilt iceberg, Chinese cabbage, spinach with a package of frozen corn and carrots all tossed with a choice of at least 4 salad dressings. For dessert, a fruit salad with cans of pineapples, Mandarin oranges, a mix of apples and a handful of frozen blueberries and strawberries.

Saturday morning the urge and time to bake melded. I know that whole wheat flour doesn’t last as long as white. The expiration date on the container was a distant memory. The quart of buttermilk needed to be mixed into something. I pulled out the Moosewood Cookbook, also something that has sat on the shelf for, well, decades. Ah, a quick bread. I threw in a handful of wheatberries (Note to self: next time cook them a little first for better ease of chewing). Brunch and tea snack. Delish.

Saturday dinner was meatloaf. Ground meat, grated carrots and celery. Bread crumbs made from frozen rye bread heavy with caraway seeds that I toasted and pulverized in my 25 year-old taped-up Cuisinart. And more herbs and spices.

Sunday morning I decided to make granola bars for school lunches. Oatmeal, wheat flour, wheat germ, dried cherries, 2 almost empty jars of eucalyptus and avocado honey, sesame seeds, almonds, eggs, and the requisite ground spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves.

Look out. She’s on a roll. Next up? That box of cake flour. Does anyone know the shelf life for cupcake sprinkles?

Happy Birthday to Me!

2009-03-16T08:29:00.000-07:00

Today is my birthday and that’s as good a reason as Jan 1st to review how far I’ve come on my sustainable, living local journey.

One thing I’ve learned is that I’m not going to save the world, nor am I going to be perfect in my attempts to live as greenly as possible. I may not join any local green groups. They seem to be all twentysomethings and single and I’m not. My synagogue green team may fizzle, at least for the moment.

Since starting my blog last summer and reading and bookmarking way too many other blogs about the subject, I realized that there are some things I’m just not going to do. Oh well.

I will wear make-up, I won’t stop using shampoo and gel. So far I plan on continuing to dye my hair and those products aren’t the least toxic, I’m sure, and the greener stuff is too expensive. And don’t even bring up the concept of a Diva Cup. The dishwasher and refrigerator stay. Ditto the nasty cleaning solutions, at least for this year. I will never bike anywhere; my balance sucks.

But here’s what I have done:

used cloth napkins
used face towels instead of paper towels for clean-ups
shut off lights
kept the AC and heater off as much as possible
washed clothes with cold water in an energy efficient washer/dryer
rack dried several loads a week
used less soap when I washed clothes
used recycled tissues and toilet paper
used recycled paper towels, but only to wipe off vegetables and fruits
showered in the downstairs bathroom because the water heats up way faster than the upstairs bath
recycled voraciously meaning I pull misplaced cardboard boxes and toilet paper rolls from wastebaskets
printed less from the computer
screwed in CFS lights throughout most of the house
took re-useable bags to the market including hemp produce bags
worked from home – both me and my husband
planted a garden (this weekend we went beyond a few pots and the side yard and dug up the backyard, more on that in future posts)
cooked from scratch (new efforts to do it as much as possible means less packaging, less chemicals, less money spent - my personal political statement)
baked bread, cakes, muffins
baked challah every week, almost
cooked fearlessly knowing it’s only food and everything is an experiment
lived more fearlessly, life is an experiment and there’s no constants, only variables
bypassed non-local food when possible which is easy enough in CA
shopped at non-chain stores or at least engaged sales clerks from chain stores in conversation (it’s not their fault they work for The Man)
supported green political measures, helped elect Obama with calls and driving to Nevada to knock on doors
attended local and county-wide meetings on issues
attended city meetings to hear the issues, so what if it’s boring at least someone cares
read my hometown city newsletter website
composted every single onion, carrot and potato peel. I will personally build more topsoil on my little nano acre of California countryside
flushed less, since I live in California, where it never rains, nor pours anymore either
monitored our errands so driving is efficient
carpooled to lectures and theaters
rented movies or used the library stacks
bought books from library sales or borrowed from within the county system
supported bloggers who help get the word out by commenting on their posts
kickboxed at my local, non-chain gym
used re-useable water bottle
took my drive-time coffee in a re-useable mug
shopped from my closet and accessorize from my stash
made some charity donations
put in some volunteer time
read about other cultures
read something besides the LA Times and the NY Times, like the Financial Times, to get another perspective
shot photos of other cultures, buildings, anything
signed up on Facebook, yawn, at least that’s my thought
learned more techie stuff, but there’s always more, more, more
smiled at people, looked them in the eye, listened when they talk
reconnected with lost relatives and friends
and said please
thank you
I’m sorry – lots more

… and that was just ten months. Not that I want to brag – not that I ever do - but that looks pretty damn good when you number it. I’ve boiled my goals down to community and creativity. Oh and earning money too, but that’s only my day job. To which I must now return. But only a half day, as it is my b’day.

Building Community One Conversation At A Time

2009-03-03T22:11:00.000-08:00

What a great communal, supportive day I had today! It just goes to show ya that even in the wide open spaces of SoCal suburbs, a person can say hello, give a little verbal hug and make somebody’s day.

After schlepping all the way to the OC for a business meeting, leaving at 6:30 a.m., and then schlepping back, in my least favorite mode of transport – the LA freeway system, it was all I could do to straighten my desk and check my emails. After putting in a few hours in my sleep-deprived state, I decided to pack it in and run some errands.

I went to the dry cleaners to drop off our visiting oldest daughter’s raincoat which had been dragged through the snows and rains of Boston and Germany for 3 years. It looked like what I imagine a raincoat would look like if it actually saw duty as stormy weather wear. Remember, we are having a Big D drought in my neck of the woods. The shop owner gave me a big welcoming smile, asked where I’d been and typed my name into the computer without me reminding her.

Then I went to the tiny Middle Eastern market next to the dry cleaners. I hadn’t been in there since they opened last year. The owner explained to me, in halting English, how to cook the farina I bought. Then another sales person offered me some of the tea they were about to brew but I had to leave for the bank before it closed. When I asked about whether he sold homemade hummus, the shop owner said next time, just give him a few minutes and he would make some special for me. You can bet when I come back for the raincoat, I’ll drop in for some hummus and pita.

At the bank, formerly known as WaMu, (they should have known that the goofy name was going to lead them down the road to disintegration), all the tellers and bankers have been trained to smile and greet everyone, several times over. They’ve really ramped up the friendliness. But I love it. If you can’t give me more than .01% interest, at least look me in the eye and say hello like you remember me.

One of the teller supervisors asked me how my day had been. I told her I’d done a new business pitch with a group via a Webinar for the first time and she said, “That must have been nerve wracking.” Wow, she was right, it was. How empathetic. It actually made me feel good. And I waved to everyone on my way out and they waved back.

Then, after guiltily hitting the office for awhile, I went off to kickboxing at my local, small karate studio that I’ve been going to for almost 3 years except for the last 3 months when I just ran out of steam. What do you mean that's an excuse?! So I went back to it last week and I know my body will start thanking me eventually. But the happy part is when I walked in last Thursday, people came up to me, virtually slapping me on the back, calling me by name, welcoming me back. The place where everyone not only knows your name, they know your body mass index but they don’t care. They encourage you to kick harder anyway. I love it!

So what does all this Day in the Life of a Formerly More In Shape Publicist mean? It’s not like I don’t talk with my friends or colleagues all day long. It’s the quality of today’s interactions that tells me that focused conversations among folks as they go about their day can build community. That if I can get to know the tellers at my bank in the middle of a Great Recession, for goodness sakes, well, there’s hope that we can build something more, one pleasant conversation at a time.

Channeling My Inner Churchill

2009-02-23T07:48:00.000-08:00

What is it about the British? What is it with our ongoing fascination, or at least mine?

Some of my favorite quotes are from dear old Winnie – Never, never, never give up. Or what about, If you are going through hell, keep going. That has helped me through the last three years of sandwich generation purgatory with my elderly parents.

And knowing that Churchill governed his nation through a war while suffering bouts of depression?! No wonder he’s my patron saint. No drama Obama? Nah, how about a cigar and a jigger of Scotch?

Now that we get to not only sound like our parents but relive their lives – aka The Greater Depression – we need a soundtrack and a mantra to get us through. Not that we don’t have our own great photos of bread lines and “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” to fall back on. But it all sounds so much more civilized through the prism of the Queen’s English and a cuppa. Stiff upper lip and all that.

Your courage, your cheerfulness, your resolution will bring us victory – World War II poster – do read the article on the BBC site. Or like my English friend says, “You Americans whine too much.” Oh. I thought I was sharing. You mean I really am neurotic.

Perhaps it’s the gray, rainy weather we’re having in SoCal and that I get to use the blue EU umbrella my daughter gave me and that I schlepped home from Germany on the plane (No room for my restless legs but plenty for an umbrella during the greatest drought in a century) that brings out the English in me.

Or maybe it’s the Beatles album, yes, vinyl album, that the other daughter bought at a swap meet yesterday. “The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl.” I pointed to one of the two tickets on the cover and said, “I went to that concert,” where upon she immediately called her fellow swap meeter and said, minus a hello, “My mom went to that concert.” Who said your children won’t ever think you’re cool? Hah!

Or the tons of English lit I’ve consumed since “Le Morte d’Arthur” by Sir Thomas Malory in 9th grade followed by Daphne du Maurier’s “Rebecca” and her gothic copycats and reams more historical fiction from Roman Britain all the way through to Bridget Jones. Anyone for a little Emma Thompson?

In any case, I need something to calm my nerves because I’ll never be able to retire, take another vacation, turn on the AC or the heater (yes, we do use a heater in SoCal) or sell the house and move to the walkable city of my dreams, but I will indeed end up eating dog food just before I starve to death while trying to make dresses, à la Scarlet in Gone With the Wind, from the floral café curtains in the kitchen.

I’ll be found hunched over the computer, emailing an editor equally as gray and decrepit as me, begging her to schedule a 15 minute interview with my very unique, very topical client who will be the very kernel of a fantastically useful and informative story that will generate oodles of praise from grateful readers.

I’ve stocked up on tins of tuna fish. Sounds ever so much more manageable than a can of beans.

Tikkun Olam Fridays – Repairing the World One Step at a Time

2009-02-20T09:51:00.000-08:00

Another Friday, another post on tikkun olam – to repair the world. Remember, you don’t have to finish the job, but it is your responsibility to start.

What action did you take this week, big or little, to make a difference?

Sometimes we need to be reminded why we ever thought it was important to work on improving the world. We’ve forgotten why we care and need help remembering the reasons we got into this Save A Piece of the World business in the first place.

That’s why I like reading blogs like Have Fun Do Good – A Blog for People Who Want to Make the World a Better Place and Have Fun! Britt Bravo does a solid job covering the nonprofit/social activism arena, interviewing people who have made a difference in the world, writing about change organizations and teaching her readers how to use social media for repairing the world.

You can see why I enjoy catching her posts. Yesterday’s, Interviews with 38 Social Changemakers: 3rd Anniversary of the Big Vision Podcast, is a good example of why reading her ideas helps me clarify what I’m doing. I’m encouraged by what others are doing whether it’s working to change our distribution food system, increase literacy, solve health issues, attack poverty, redesign cities, create recycling programs, well you get the idea.

In fact, you never know where you’re going to get a good idea or meet someone offline who’s doing good just because and can be that catalyst that we all need to stay in the game.

In November 2007 I took a trip to Boston to visit our oldest daughter in college and stayed at a B&B in Somerville. The lovely couple, who offered up extra bedrooms to visiting professors on speaking tours and parents attending college graduations, had started a personal nonprofit from the ground up. Personal in that it was inspired by the woman’s father, a Russian physics professor who became blind in childhood from measles but continued to live a full, successful and rewarding life.

Svetlana and Harris Sussman started the M.N. Adamov Fund, in memory of her father, to help talented visually impaired Russians get access to canes, computers and other kinds of support. They speak around the country, travel to Russia, specifically to St. Petersburg where Prof. Adamov lived, to deliver what people have donated and generally get the word out that blind people in Russia need help.

The Adamov Fund is a nonprofit organization registered in Massachusetts. Here’s their December email report, updating friends and supporters about their efforts for 2008. Also check their website, www.mnadamovfund.org to see what can happen from a spare bedroom.

Dear Friends,

In 2008, we continued to help talented blind people in Russia through the MN Adamov Memorial Fund, which we started in 2005 in the name of Svetlana's father. We are still the only project in the US dedicated to doing this. We help people on an individual basis through personal contacts.

In various ways we were able to assist over 150 blind people in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Essentuki, Volokolamsk, Novosibirsk, Sergiev Posad. We did not go to Russia this year. We plan to go to St. Petersburg at the end of January 2009 and look forward to meeting with many old and new friends.

Thanks to donations to the Fund, we provided folding white canes to 50 more people this year, digital voice recorders to several dozen students, magnifiers to visually impaired people, some used laptop computers, toys to a teacher of blind children, educational materials to a group of expressive therapy teachers, a talking Braille watch, copies of a guide to English Braille.

We were able to find a number of people going to Russia who agreed to be couriers for us--a woman from New Jersey, a tourist from Cambridge, four business travelers from Boston, a professor from Dartmouth, several students from local colleges. We always need more couriers to take things in their suitcases.

We arranged for 6 undergraduate students from Duke University to spend two months volunteering with a rehabilitation center for the blind in St. Petersburg over the summer.

We were invited to speak at the national conference of the Russian American Medical Association in Boston in October.

We spoke at the regional meeting of Young Professionals for International Cooperation in Boston in October.

We were on an IDEAS competition team at MIT that won an award for a Braille Pencil concept in April. We were advisors to an MIT class project that designed a Braille labeler in December.

We attended the Unite for Sight conference at Yale in April.

An article about the Adamov Fund was published in the newsletter of the US-Russia Chamber of Commerce of New England.

We maintained and updated the web site http://mnadamovfund.org

We stay in touch with people in Russia through email, Skype chat, phone calls. We monitor the situation in Russia and learn about things we can help with.

We are ending the year with a few hundred dollars in the Fund's account. We need financial support to continue. We have requests for many more canes--they cost us $30 each--and for more digital voice recorders which cost $40 each.

For various reasons we decided not to apply for tax-exempt 501(c)(3) status from the IRS. We will continue to operate as a nonprofit corporation registered in Massachusetts.

Donations to the Fund are tax-deductible through the continued assistance of the Carroll Center for the Blind in Newton, Mass.

Thank you for your support.

Svetlana Adamova Sussman
ssussman@mit.edu
617-253-8959

Harris Sussman
617-629-0048
harris@sussman.org

Happy Monday!

2009-02-16T08:55:00.001-08:00

Today I’m taking the day off. No clients, no community organizing, no straightening the house, bill paying, elderly mother managing. And no nagging the youngest about web searching for our college tour come spring. I’m gonna play.

You heard me right. I’m doing nothing but fun stuff today. Some writing, some blog straightening, some photo organizing – doing the creativity resolution. Then I’ll grab a cup of coffee with a friend – another one of my new year’s resolutions that – don’t hate me because I’m perfect – I’m keeping!

Which means I’m having a guilt-free day. Let’s see, when was the last time that happened? Age 6?

And why is this okay? Because I read it in the paper! “Buying Happiness”, LA Times, today. Seems that experiences will make you happier than material things. Duh. So what should you do with the change in your pocket? Have fun.

I’ve got a loop of photos running as a screensaver from our recent Freiburg trip to visit our oldest on her junior year abroad. This was money well spent. I’ll repeat that, because I’m cheap, haven’t traveled much and the daughter of Depression-era parents who had no credit record to buy their house in 1964 because they paid cash for everything. (They did get the house but, as I recall, they had to sign-up for a credit card to do it.)

This vacation was exceptionally wonderful because we stayed in one place and WALKED EVERYWHERE and spent lots and lots of time just being with our kids. Sometimes that meant crawling up in a ball covered by my pea coat in the kid’s messy dorm room as I napped, my husband made chicken after figuring out the Celsius conversion and the kids watched Sponge Bob in German on the telly.

The only souvenirs I have are the empty mulled wine cups from the Christmas Market and a striped pashmina (9 Euros, not bad) that goes with everything and warm feelings every time I catch a photo of a castle or a streetcar or the kids mugging in front of a snow-filled backdrop.

Of course this not-new-news came from a study that said experiences tend to make people feel more alive. Their suggestion? Buy experiences. Mine? Buy them cheap – coffee and window shopping at the new Nordstrom’s. Or take the opportunity when it arises, if you can, and spend it with family you love.

Happy Monday!

In the Middle of Nowhere

2009-02-12T20:47:00.000-08:00

How do you build community when you live in a bedroom community in the middle of the exburbs? Urbanist Joel Kotkin says, in The City: A Global History, that all cities need the same elements to function: political, economic and spiritual. Security, commerce and a soul. There is a universality to the urban experience whether it’s New York or Beijing. And a sterile sameness to the suburbs that were supposed to save us whether it’s in Las Vegas or the Conejo Valley where I live. So how do you build community?

I live in the middle of nowhere. It’s very pretty, filled with open spaces, undeveloped mountains and good school systems.

And that’s it. No markets, drug stores, gas stations, book stores, movies. Nada.

Now those of you who know Oak Park or live here may say that’s not true. Why just 2 miles up Kanan Road we have markets and fancy hair salons and coffee shops. And just 2 miles down Kanan we have more markets and drug stores and shoe repair shops and alteration ladies.

But they’re not technically in Oak Park and you can’t really walk to them on a regular basis. And you can’t take a street car or bus. To the Costco or the Michael’s or the Staples. And you wouldn’t want to. How could you shop? My God! We’ve built ourselves into a corner with nothing but big box stores and miles of roads and houses.

We do have an Episcopalian church and a Chabad house. And you can go to the dentist, both adult and kids, and a pediatrician. Those I can actually walk to. How medically useful.

And I suppose the Starbucks strip mall technically is in Oak Park. But the movies are about 3 miles away. Wait, I just remembered we have a library we could walk to. It’s small but we’ll count it. Only not in the summer when it’s 100 degrees and it’s uphill all the way.

But the Macy’s, Barnes & Nobles, and Bed, Bath & Beyond, well I don’t think you can take a bus from anywhere near my house to get to them. Theatres, a university, a shoe store? Who am I kidding? Why do I torture myself?

I’ve just been to two local transportation meetings for Ventura County and talked with a lovely woman from the City of Thousand Oaks. I now know our problem - we don’t have density. And we’re an affluent area that skews young. The immediate needs seem to be the elderly and the low income folks.

I have no qualms with helping them out. Their needs are real. I would be happy to pay extra sales tax to build a transportation system that helps all of us. We are one county that doesn’t have that. Shame on us.

I hear that San Luis Obispo has good bus service and I know that Ventura, the city, is rebuilding its downtown and seems to have more transportation and walkability. They are compact. I should check them out just to see if Southern/Central California can even envision something besides a car.

Today I tried to hook up the City of Thousand Oaks Youth & Aging Services lady with the Oak Park online newsletter editor, both well meaning people who obviously love their towns. The TO lady was born here and the Oak Park guy does the newsletter and website for free.

I thought the newsletter could help publicize two upcoming meetings on soliciting information about what people want regarding housing, transportation and other services. While the morning meeting is expecting a nice turnout, the evening meeting only had one RSVP even with all the PR they’d done. They needed to get the word out. I believe Kanan Road runs through Agoura Hills, Oak Park, Westlake Village and maybe even Thousand Oaks. Our suburbs bleed into each other. Remember, I can’t get a quart of milk in my town. You’d think transportation would be high on everyone’s needs list after last spring’s $4.75/gallon gas prices.

So did the newsletter editor help publicize the city lady’s meeting? No. Only Oak Park events in the newsletter. As if we were all separate villages surrounded by forests and meadows instead of the sprawl we actually are. As if we weren’t all in this together. But then Agoura Hills didn’t ask my input about the new freeway overpass that impacted the surrounding communities for miles around. I understand the newsletter's limits, but I should have known.

Pending business meetings or family emergencies I will go to that transportation meeting. I will drive to this meeting. Maybe some of the same people will be there from the other two meetings. I’ll smile and say hello. I’ll put my secret plan into action. I’ll build my community one hi at a time.

They want Boomers’ input. I can tell them my dream. Maybe they share it. I can get to know fellow citizens who want to make the system work and talk about LA and the Valley and the Conejo – all sections of Southern California where I’ve lived for over 40 years and would stay if we had buses on the streets instead of coyotes. We’ll commiserate about the drought that was only dented by last week’s rain and the record string of 80 degree days in January and the state budget that finally passed before my teacher friends got IOUs as paychecks.

I don’t want bikes. That’s a bandaid and besides, I have bad balance with a helmet on. I want buses. I want to walk to the market. I want a city with a soul and a streetcar.

Nourishing Wednesdays – Building Community From the Ground Up

2009-02-11T20:09:00.001-08:00

Old MacDonald had a farm …

Sunday’s New York Times Business section had this headline “Farm Life, Subsidized By a Job Elsewhere”. This is a piece of good news. The Agriculture Department’s just released Census of Agriculture, which comes out every five years, said that the number of farms increased by 4 percent from 2002 to 2007. Most of the new farms were small and part-time farmers. Since the last one, female farmers grew nearly 30 percent. Read the article here.

Last week’s the Jewish Journal, Feb 6-12 issue, included “Farming the Land, Torah in Hand”, about Jewish farmers – young North American Jews who are learning to farm and do it Jewishly. They’re part of a larger and growing group of environmental and food activists who come out of new Jewish farm-education initiatives. Hazon, an advocacy organization that promotes sustainable environmental practices and sponsors an annual Jewish food conference, is one such organization. They’ve got a great blog, The Jew & the Carrot, which I recommend for recipes and discussions of food issues.

Today’s Boston Globe talked about joining a CSA, community supported agriculture, to help support those growing number of small farms. You buy a stake in a farm and share the risk, and the bounty, with the farmer.

This long term suburban girl wants to know where this fascination with farms is coming from. Perhaps I was an eggplant in another life.

Nourishing Wednesdays – Building Community From the Ground Up

2009-01-28T16:27:00.000-08:00

Could I become a vegetarian?

Last fall when I was reading Farm Sanctuary by Gene Bauer and Prop 2, the humane treatment for animals bill, was on the California ballot, I wondered if I could become a vegetarian. I was really disturbed by what our food system had come to. But did I care enough about animals to take that final step?

Then I read a blog post by Rabbi Julian Sinclair from the Jewish Climate Initiative about being present at the kosher slaughtering of a turkey at the Hazon Food Conference in December. Hazon is all about knowing where your food, whether from animals or plants, comes from. Facing the truth.

Gulp. I have no qualms about hacking a homegrown tomato with a serrated-edged knife, but did I really want to test my green commitment in this extreme manner?

I care about the CO₂levels from meat production. We’ve just come off the longest January heat wave in SoCal since 1983. The weather folks keep promising us rain. My president has asked for my service, my continued political involvement. Could simply ending my meat eating be my statement?

Could I become a vegetarian?

Probably not. I like my meat moments too much to make the switch. Yet, the challenge continues to call out to me. Why? The truth? Well, my cholesterol is a tad high.

Yeah, it all comes down to money and pain. Like all the newly frugal, it’s not till it hits you in your own face that you change your evil ways.

So I’ve pulled out all my cookbooks checking for the recipes, stocked up on grains like bulgur, buckwheat groats and millet in bulk. I’m researching reusable bags for grains and nuts and surfed the Web to make sure I know how to combine my foods so my vitamin levels are AOK. And I found this nifty little Vegetarian Starter Kit, from Vegetarian Times.

But I’m not a convert yet!

The plan is more veggies, more grains, more nuts, and just smaller meat portions and more meatless meals. I know I can do this because this is our family food pattern anyway, only I guess the protein portions must have been on the too big side for my aging Boomer Body.

Plus I want to try something that Mark Bittman, the New York Times food columnist came up with: eat breakfast and lunch as a vegan and dinner the regular way. Or as he calls it, ‘Vegan till 6’. Check out his new book, Food Matters or a video from his book tour.

And supposedly I’ll lose weight too. Save money, the planet and my waistline? Okay, I’m in.

To Travel Global is to Live Their Local

2009-01-18T09:33:00.000-08:00

I’ve been too busy traveling, working, re-learning French and just generally living - okay, we’ll cut the euphemistic BS - procrastinating - to blog. Why write when you can walk the streets of Freiburg, Germany, one of the most sustainable cities in Europe? Yes, in December I was a citizen of the world.

With a daughter studying abroad for a year, we thought: who cares about the economy, our carbon footprint and the ever shrinking retirement fund? Better to grab every opportunity to see the world before my bunions and creaking knees make walking impossible.

So the family spent the entire winter break in Freiburg with side trips to the Alsace region in France and Basel, Switzerland. Just writing that sentence makes me shiver – with excitement though it was butt-ass cold for this SoCal resident. (Note to self: spring for the long underwear next time!)

Our lovely daughter was the tour guide, translator and cultural instructor and even my husband’s ‘kitchen German’ kept us from getting lost and well fed. What an immersion in a culture. While Freiburg looked like a small, walkable, charming contemporary city - which I would immediately move to because the street cars were amazing, with people that looked just like me - every time anyone opened their mouth, German came out! And I had 9 years of French and 2 of German and it still shocks me to hear people speaking something other than English without thinking: will the bell ring before the homework assignment.

Now let me ramble on about the transportation. They have it. And I as I walked out of the train station after our trip south from the Frankfort airport, I fell in love. Where can I find this city in the states and how quickly after the younger daughter graduates can we sell the house and move? The streetcars were amazing. Is there a statute of limitations for the jerks who pulled out the Red Cars in Los Angeles in the 50s? What have we been doing for the last 30 years transportation-wise? Bupkis! That’s Yiddish for nada, rien, nicht anything!

So I got my dream trip of staying in one place, eating at the same cafes, walking the same streets until I got the feel of the place. I can’t say I knew how to get around after 2 weeks. It annoyed my family (Note to Other Mothers of Girls: Everything you do annoys them.) that I never learned those winding, charming European streets. I did remember each little area, just could never link up the neighborhoods. So I had to be led home to our bed & breakfast hotel each time. (Note to Self: get excellent city map and cram a few phrases into crumbling brain before arriving.)

So before I sign off, what was the best part of the trip, you’re asking. The Christmas Market was fun with its chestnuts and spiced wine. The Munster in the center of the city was inspiring, the snow was cold and the light, even on a sunny day, was so much less than California’s standard glare. The fireworks on the Schlossberg (large hill overlooking the city) and throughout the city on New Year’s Eve, that went on for hours as the church bells rang, were loud, amazing and legal. The shop owner my daughter knew from passing his store everyday on her way to school chatted with us about his twin brother and then gave us a free candle as a thank you after we bought several pashminas. The two-hour breakfasts sharing sausage, cheese, croissants and pots of coffee as a family were precious.

The older Alsatian couple with the vineyard where we spent hours hearing about the Americans being “only 3 kilometers away and sharing chewing gum with us” at the end of The War and taking pictures of each other as we wished each other a good year were better than an excerpt from a history book. The three-mile mad dash back from the castle ruins on the hill in Heidelberg to the train station in under an hour was heart stopping. The books I read, Five Germanys I Have Known by Fritz Stern and The European Dream by Jeremy Rifkin while surrounded by, well, Germans, was enlightening.

But the best moments were connecting with others. I needed to. You see, I went to Germany as an American after eight years of everyone hating us – and as a Jew – to finally visit the country that has impacted my life/our life – from my dad’s stories about hearing of FDR’s death while riding on a train filled with fellow soldiers through Czechoslovakia to my father-in-law’s escape from Austria to Israel on a boat through the Dardanelles during Kristalnacht.

I touched the buildings – 60% of Freiburg was destroyed during the war. I wondered: if energy never disappears, are there molecules from World War II still floating around me? I looked at elderly gray- haired women and wondered, I admit, were they Nazis? When the train conductor checked our tickets, scenes from old black and white movies ran through my head. Papers? Where are your papers?

So did I come up with an answer on where to place Germany in my thoughts? Certainly I have new images to add to the old. But no, I have no complete answers to the German Question. And when I told my friends we were going to Germany or my mother told the people in the assisted living home that her daughter was going to Germany, well, everyone looked askance. Why, was the question in their eyes.

We went to visit the new generation who’s reaching out, my daughter and the other kids in the university program. I came away asking if we can’t forgive or forget and we’re still making war movies, what happens to the generations since. I don’t have an answer but since returning home I have asked the question of others. So far it’s not encouraging. Except from the next generations.

Yeah, it was about more than the great beer and pastries …

Nourishing Wednesdays – Building Community From the Ground Up

2008-11-19T09:14:00.000-08:00

Photo Credit: New York Times Teresa Fasolino

Wednesday is the day that newspapers traditionally run their food sections. Me too. I share what I learn about food, farming, cooking, gardening and community. Because people brought together over a shared meal can solve anything.

Next week is that most quintessential of American holidays, Thanksgiving. While you plan your own meal with family and friends, running around to stores, farmers markets, making stock for gravy and dough for apple, pumpkin or pecan pie, I’ve rounded up some articles for when you feel like putting your feet up, grabbing a hot beverage and taking a break before the hordes descend on the house and the holiday season officially begins. Gobble, gobble to you and yours.

Food banks struggles to meet growing requests for help

Bay Area food banks and charity groups are being overwhelmed by huge jumps in requests for help this year — at the same time that donations have dropped off dramatically, including a 50 percent drop in corporate donations to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties.

"That made up a quarter of our operating budget, so we're very worried about that," said Lynn Crocker, spokeswoman for the agency that helps 176,000 people a month in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, a big slice of the fabled Silicon Valley best known for technology and quick wealth. "If things don't get better, we'll have to reduce the amount of food we give to clients, maybe a half dozen eggs instead of a dozen, a half gallon of milk instead of a gallon."

Other food banks have the same problems — and fears. They're seeing more first-timers than ever before, getting larger requests for help from people they've assisted for years and fewer donors able or willing to help as much as they have in the past.

"We're serving 4,000 more families this year than last," said Christine Woodard, spokeswoman for Second Harvest Foodbank of Santa Cruz and San Benito Counties.

Consumers Union & Eat Well Guide® Launch Thanksgiving Local & Organic Food Challenge: Buy & Prepare One Local/Organic Dish for Thanksgiving and Share a Recipe

Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports, and Eat Well Guide®, North America’s premier free online directory for finding local, sustainable food, have partnered to launch the Thanksgiving Local and Organic Food Challenge. The Thanksgiving Challenge aims to inspire Americans to learn more about local, sustainable or organic food by using Eat Well Guide’s comprehensive online tool for finding local ingredients for at least one dish they will prepare as part of their holiday meal.

“For Americans, Thanksgiving is the year’s peak travel weekend, but there’s no reason the food for our feasts has to travel thousands of miles as well,” said Eat Well Guide Director Destin Joy Layne. “With the holidays around the corner, and fuel-inflated food costs soaring, this is the perfect time to use our interactive Eat Well Guide to find locally produced turkey, fruit, vegetables, baked goods, dairy, meat and more, wherever you live.”

Preserving a Poultry Project

If you have heard about heritage turkeys, the old-fashioned birds with names like Bronze and Bourbon Red, then you know about the work at the Good Shepherd Turkey Ranch in Lindsborg, Kan.

The owner of the ranch, Frank Reese, is one of only a handful of people dedicated to preserving the genetic lines of poultry that meet the American Poultry Association’s Standard of Perfection.

Together with Brian Anselmo, a young man from Kansas City, Mo., Mr. Reese developed plans for the Standard-Bred Poultry Institute, which would provide training to farmers who want to preserve the genetic pool of heritage breeds of turkeys, chickens and other birds.

Group Documents Cruelty to Turkeys

In what is becoming an annual Thanksgiving rite, an animal rights group on Tuesday released undercover videotapes taken at the nation’s premier poultry-breeding operation, showing turkeys being stomped to death and punched by workers.

The group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, known as PETA, is asking for prosecution of workers at the Aviagen Turkeys plant in Lewisburg, W.Va., in a complaint filed with the local sheriff’s office under state laws regarding cruelty to animals.

Cranberry Orange Cornmeal Cake

A little something different to do with cranberries. I’ve made it twice so far and it disappears. And if you want to learn more about cranberries, along with blueberries and Concord grapes that are fruits native to North America, here’s an article from last week’s New York Times – The Zing Starts Here.

R U OK?

2008-11-18T08:50:00.000-08:00

Saw the fires -- R U OK -- you can come to our house if you need a place -- dogs are welcome too!

That’s the email I received on Saturday from a colleague. It wasn’t until we’d exchanged a string of emails yesterday that I realized how close she was to the Diamond Bar fires shortly after she offered up her place.

I’m in Ventura County; she’s in the OC. But as I looked up at a gray sky all weekend and smelled the air, when it comes to Santa Ana winds and the fire season, we’re all in it together.

I’m tired of the Southern California fire season. I’ve lived here for decades and I know that global warming isn’t a joke. Saturday was November 15th for goodness sakes!

I don’t need to watch You Tube clips from VIP global warming seminars with factoid-fanatic experts droning over their PowerPoint slides showing 30 years worth of rising temps. I can feel it on my arms and legs still clothed in short-sleeved tee-shirts and cropped cotton pants, sans a sweater even at night.

Last weekend the temperature was in the 90’s. Friday I thought I was going to scream with humidity in the single digits. Not only has driving become impossible, don’t get me started on that, but the weather has pushed me round the bend.

Today I heard a weather person report with joy that it’s going to get cooler. Today will be 90 degrees. Cool and 90 do not belong in the same sentence.

Here’s an article from Huffington Post by a fellow Californian that shares my sentiments. If you like your posts filled with factoids rather than crazed rants, check it out.

Tikkun Olam Fridays – Repairing the World One Step at a Time

2008-11-07T18:55:00.001-08:00

Another Friday, another post on tikkun olam – to repair the world. Remember, you don’t have to finish the job, but it is your responsibility to start.

What action did you take this week, big or little, to make a difference?

I voted, like millions of other Americans. The turnout was huge, the civic involvement was great. I shed tears of joy. Now what? I looked around and said ‘where can I focus my energies?’ What did I want to see happen, other than world peace, a thriving economy and the end of global warming?

I was not on any short list for President Elect Obama’s cabinet, so I surfed the Internet and checked out the HaveFunDoGood post for Nov 5th. It discussed How You Can Make An Impact, laying out some steps to channel the activist urges that I must be sharing with many of my fellow Americans.

Blogger Britt Bravo said “To figure out how you can make an impact, try this exercise based on a similar one from Carol Lloyd's book Creating a Life Worth Living” describing how to find what interests you and how to break it down into bite size/doable pieces.

What issues are important to you, what are your skills, find the areas you’re most interested in, list 3 bite size, doable steps that could be accomplished in 30 minutes-2 hours, mark your calendar for when you’ll complete them, do it, pick 3 more. Repeat with same idea or another. Find a group to report in to.

Sounds like a plan. And this weekend I’ll try it.

In the meantime I wanted instant gratification. I like food and California is not only an aggie state, I have real farms near me. Only their produce is not as close as I would like. But it could be within walking distance if the farmers market that’s been scheduled to go in about 1 ½ miles from home even happens.

So I wrote a letter to my local weekly newspaper, The Acorn, about how I’m in favor of having a farmers market in our neighborhood. Supposedly all the ducks were in line. Is it bureaucratic red tape? More on that later. But if the letter gets published, I’ll let you know. I missed the deadline for this week’s issue and it was filled with election recaps anyway.

After the letter, I called a government office. Oak Park is unincorporated and the County of Ventura Board of Supervisors looks out for us. So I called our Supervisor’s office and spoke with a staffer. I asked about the hold-up on getting this market going. She was pleasant and said the delay wasn’t from their end. The owners of the mall, where the market will be located, have to send in certain forms for a minor modification to the permit.

Hmmm was my response to myself. I sniffed the air. Fish. After 8 years of Bush, all I could think was that somebody was sitting on something for some reason.

The staffer emailed some material to me right away so I guess you can say we’ve started a dialogue. I’ve calendared the next Oak Park Municipal Advisory Council meeting for later this month where I plan to ask how we can make this market, the closest thing Oak Park can get to a public square, happen.

And I just made a call to the company that puts on these farmers markets. Of course, the person in charge wasn’t in – duh, it was 4:45pm on Friday afternoon - but I did catch someone who said call back on Monday. And mentioning the market didn't scare her off. A good sign.

Well, my community organizing has begun.

Nourishing Wednesdays – Building Community From the Ground Up

2008-11-05T17:53:00.001-08:00

When I started really cooking and not just defrosting, it was easier to drag myself out of bed on Wednesdays. That was the day when the food section came tucked into the Los Angeles Times. Imagine how I felt when we started getting the New York Times with its sophisticated discussion of all things culinary. When I took to surfing the Internet, I found a cornucopia of food sections from around the country where I could learn about regional cuisines.

My interest in the best way to measure flour, whip up a batch of pesto and create my own curry blend has since expanded to issues like soil depletion, fresh water, heritage seeds, family farms and the humane treatment of animals. (California’s Prop 2 passed! See my Nov 3rd post.)

So it’s appropriate that I launch Nourishing Wednesdays. I hope to share what I learn about food, farming, cooking, gardening and community. Because people brought together over a shared meal can solve anything.

Today I want to tell you about a little neighborhood store tucked in an unassuming strip mall. My daughter and her high school pals discovered Tifa Chocolate during their weekend quests to celebrate the newfound freedom that the automobile can still provide.

I’m not a big chocolate fan. (mon dieu!) So it barely registered on my brain until I needed to get a present for a friend’s birthday party. I figured it was the perfect excuse to check out the shop.

Tifa is family owned and operated and Denise happily jumped out from behind the counter to explain chocolate facts to me. We discussed the soil where the beans are grown, and its effect on flavor. She plied me with samples and questions about the birthday girl, the better to divine the perfect chocolate. My friend was deemed a dark chocolate connoisseur and a package was created. I hadn’t had such great service since I discovered a wonderful bra lady at Macy’s. Exceptional chocolate and a good fitting bra. Is there anything else in life?

Denise spent a lot of time with me and I left promising to come back the next week for another birthday gift. It seems I have many chocoholic friends.

And of course I did return; it wasn’t an idle comment. I’d found a local merchant, one of my community building goals. When I told Denise I liked to cook and enjoyed learning about the ingredients I used, she shared a salad recipe that used nibs and offered to send me home with some next time.

So what about the samples, you’re asking. Well, the caramel milk chocolate with salt was very good, all the flavors were balanced. Then there was a white chocolate that was much better than the supermarket wax chips in a bag. And one with a hint of floral, another with citrus and I can’t leave out the pepper infused one that would go great with a Syrah … well come on, I didn’t say I hated chocolate.

But the point isn’t the candy, at least not for me and my thighs. Here was a storeowner who knew her merchandise and what it took to sell to someone from the neighborhood. This wasn’t a national chain with cashiers who knew nothing and cared less. I’d played crazed mama bear and whipped out a photo of my daughter, and Denise had remembered her and her buddies. Try doing that with a big box clerk.

I’ll be back. Tifa serves hot chocolate and has two little tables and chairs where you can enjoy your sipping and check out the world map that shows where chocolate is grown. Perfect for pre/post movie evenings.

And by coincidence today’s New York Times Dining & Wine section has an article on this magical bean, “When chocolate is a way of life”. It’s about a family and village in Ecuador and how they’ve become real entrepreneurs, making and marketing their own chocolate. I guess I’m fated to learn more about cacao beans. I sense more tastings in my future.

Yes We Could

2008-11-05T08:36:00.000-08:00

I have some friends who don’t share my political beliefs and some who do. We’ve been emailing articles back and forth during this divisive campaign season. I’m sure the rest of you have been going through the same experience. While I’m not ready to pretend the last eight years never existed (how can I? we’ll be living with the damage forever.) But as the Thanksgiving season approaches, I want to reach across the table with an image of a barn. It’s time to join hands and rebuild. Here is the email I sent round today.

We did it. OMG. Our oldest called twice from Germany, on the land line! There were lectures at some university building all day Tue/Wed AM about the American political system. She said McDonald's was giving out free hamburgers. Virtually no one was for McCain. She phoned just as Wolf Blitzer was calling PA. They were watching CNN too and cheering as the states were called for Obama. We were watching CNN and talking to her at the same time. Is that too cool for school? Her second call was after 8pm our time so it was 6am their time and she was heading back home, all screamed out.

I don't know what makes me happier, having an African-American president, first lady and first family, or getting rid of the Republicans and installing the Democrats once again. I have hope that we can move forward to rebuild and repair our country - the economy, the health care system, the environment and our image in the world. I pray that we can reverse the harm that Reaganism has done to this country.

True, I wanted Hillary, partly because I thought she was the right person for the job, partly because she was a woman and I wanted to see that in my lifetime and truth be told, partly because she was a boomer and I'm not ready to pass the torch. But if this is what it takes to make change happen, so be it. We need a new New Deal. Besides, now she can go off and channel Eleanor to her heart's content and become the new Teddy Kennedy in the Senate.

We stayed home to watch the returns so we could be with our youngest. She cried during Obama's speech and told us she was so inspired. When I made calls and drove to Nevada I remembered why I was doing this. It's not easy making cold calls. But as I cradled my cell phone and hesitated over punching the buttons, I pictured my two girls and the future I wanted for them.

About six years ago I was driving down Kanan and Thousand Oaks Blvd. with them in the car and the Simon & Garfunkel song about going off to look for America came on. I started to cry. They asked me why and I said I wanted my country back. Now, after years of fear about how much worse it could get, I can be proud of my country again.

With love and respect and to a future where we all work together once again.

The Birth of a Community Activist

2008-11-04T15:12:00.000-08:00

This morning I made calls at an Obama house call center just like I’ve done the past few days. All ages, colors, ethnic groups, people I’ve never seen before sitting on living rooms couches, patio chairs, kitchen benches hunched over their cell phones and scripts. It was such a moving, spirited feeling to be surrounded by others committed to the same efforts as me. The conversations swirling around me spurred me on. All of us calling because we knew this was the moment to take our country back.

I learned that our district has made the most calls in California and that California has made the most in the nation for Obama. I am so proud of my state. We are not a bunch of nuts that have rolled to the coast. We are proud Americans working for what we believe in, a country that will return to the principles of democracy and opportunity that I was taught in school.

My daughter is in college in Germany for her junior year. She sent an email saying the university is putting on lectures today and tomorrow about the American political system. Virtually everyone she meets is for Obama. The whole world is watching.

I’ve been glued to the TV as I work as best as I can on a day like no other. I write an email pitch as I click back and forth from CNN to MSNBC. At the last minute I remember to join a client conference call. I mute the set and watch during the call, checking Huffington Post as I take notes. We’ll start hearing some results soon because it's now after 6pm in the East and Wolf Blitzer says some polls in Indiana have closed. At MSNBC, 30 Rockefeller Plaza is partying like it’s the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Can two years of kitchen table politics really be ending?

The long lines and energy for this election makes me hope that we will all work to undo the damage of the last 8 years, really since 1980, and repair our economy, our healthcare system, and our environment. No matter what happens I know that the seeds of community activism have been sown. For me and for others I’ve spoken with at meetings and driving to Nevada, there’s no going back.

My high school daughter told me she was proud of my efforts. I'm proud of me for walking the walk, not just talking the talk. I decided we should stay home with her to watch all the returns instead of going to a neighborhood election party. And we’ll Skype her sister at midnight to celebrate.

We are the change, the infrastructure, the community we have been waiting for. I just can't believe it. Where are the tissues?

California Proposition 2

2008-11-03T10:28:00.000-08:00

STANDARDS FOR CONFINING FARM ANIMALS. INITIATIVE STATUTE.

Requires that calves raised for veal, egg-laying hens and pregnant pigs be confined only in ways that allow these animals to lie down, stand up, fully extend their limbs and turn around freely.

Exceptions made for transportation, rodeos, fairs, 4-H programs, lawful slaughter, research and veterinary purposes.

Provides misdemeanor penalties, including a fine not to exceed $1,000 and/or imprisonment in jail for up to 180 days.

Last Sunday the New York Times Magazine ran an article about Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States, “The Barnyard Strategist by Maggie Jones. As the article says, he’s been “campaigning to unite vegans and meat-eaters in support of California’s Proposition 2, the country’s most sweeping ballot initiative on animal welfare.”

By coincidence, I just finished reading Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds about Animals and Food by Gene Bauer, about how he started an animal rescue for farmed animals and the whole back story about industrial animal agriculture.

Now, I’m not not interested in how we get the chicken I make soup with; but I can’t call myself an activist - yet. I thought I knew what I was getting into when I started it. Wrong. I’ll review the book in another post. Right now I just want to say that it made me think about a question which I’ll pose here:

What do you do when you learn about an injustice? Can you turn away or are you called upon to do something?

Reading about the way agribusiness treats animals and the disease that’s introduced to the food system makes me want to consider becoming a vegetarian. Just consider at this point, not make a complete about face.

I like meat. Should I just eat a little bit? Should it be organic from animals living like they’re supposed to, not in factories? That will cost more so should I give it up altogether? Does it matter at my age that I’ve got unnecessary hormones in my body? My girls are 20 and almost 17. What did I do to them and what should I tell them to do as they move out on their own? And what about my husband? He’s all for composting, cloth napkins and beans but can he give up smoking brisket in his R2D2-shaped smoker?

And once again, what can one person do about The System, no matter which industry we’re trying to change?

So as my brain wandered around, I realized there was one first step I could take. We’re trying to get a farmers market into our unincorporated city. There’s the usual red tape that’s frustrating the process. I wrote a letter to our local newspaper supporting the market and sent a copy to our county supervisor.

Small step for sure. For now, I know I’ll cut back on the size of the meat portions, make a few more veggie meals, check prices on milk and meat, read up on it, and of course vote for Prop 2.

Dear Editor:
As a 15 year resident of Oak Park, I believe that a farmers market would be a good thing for the city. Whatever we can do to strengthen the ties between people and build a viable local community, we should consider.

I’ve visited other cities like Seattle with its Pike Market Place and Vancouver with its Granville Island and the value in a public square is immeasurable. Sure, those centers are permanent and include numerous shops and galleries along with the farmers market. But if you’ve ever sipped a coffee and watched the human parade go by at an outdoor café, you know what I mean by the joy of spending a few hours at a real public gathering place.

It’s not like we don’t have ongoing examples nearby with the Calabasas and Thousand Oaks Farmers Markets. What a lovely way to spend the morning walking among the vegetable displays, lingering over the olive oil samples and schmoozing with the farmers. When you ask a merchant what to do with some strange looking beets, you’re likely to get a friendly, impromptu recipe from the customer standing next to you.

I know we have to be careful about parking, noise and all the other worries that the permit people have to deal with. But why not consider the spirit, rather than the letter of the law.

As we move into that most quintessential of American holidays, Thanksgiving, it’s time to think about the public good. Let’s save our family farms and our communities and put up a farmers market in Oak Park. If we’re ever going to pull this country back together, we have to start somewhere and over a ripe tomato is as good a place as any.

Listen to the rhythm of the falling rain

2008-11-02T11:36:00.000-08:00

See what I woke up to. Is this beautiful weather or what? My husband couldn’t play tennis this morning. Why? One word - wet!

Yesterday, November 1st, like clockwork, the weather changed. I turned on my windshield wipers. I took care driving on street surfaces mixed with oil, dirt and just a dollop or two of water. The recipe for skids.

For those of you who live in four seasons and think I’m nuts, SoCal has finally moved, like the clock, into another zone and some of us who long for cable knits rather than cut-offs are praising the gods. My sunscreen tube sacrifice must have paid off.

My eyes have been bathed in cool moisture and gray clouds. My sun-parched soul is refreshed. Ye, though I walk through the valley of the sun later in the day, my brain knows I can wear my long sleeved shirts once again.

What will I do when the election is over?

2008-10-30T18:05:00.000-07:00

Liz O. Baylen Los Angeles Times

Where will my obsessions turn next? How about next summer’s heat level and electricity rates in California?

A true neurotic will always find something to worry about. Never fear. As we wait to see who will be president and if it will ever rain again, I wonder how I’ll deal with a return of this summer’s no AC policy. Who cares if we saved tons of money and shrunk our carbon footprint? My personal thermostat is ruined forever.

I was hanging on by my sweaty fingernails (yes, mine were sweating, that’s how bad it was) until those first few leaves of pale gold and cranberry. Heck, it’s almost November. I think I heard a Christmas commercial last night. Where’s my humidity? Can’t I have a cloud or two? Have we gone from semi-arid to full blown desert?

Alright, I’ll step back from the computer. The rant is done for now. I can’t stand the heat, that’s all, okay?

I’ve lived in Southern California for lots of decades. I’ve seen the summer snaking its way beyond the autumnal equinox. But it turns out I was not imagining that October has been way too crispy. Seems like we had some kind of record going on. Just sign me up for the climate change ‘canary in the mine’.

According to a recent article by Hector Becerra in the Los Angeles Times, “Sultry October shaping up as our lost summer”, this October has been the second-hottest one since 1877. The average downtown LA temperature was 84.3 degrees. Which means at least 10 degrees more where I am. We’ve had 8 months of no rain and one of the driest falls. I was right. Overheated but right.

But that still leaves those future summer months of no AC usage lurking. And if they don’t go away soon, they’ll be back before I’ve had a chance to complain about freezing as I run from the movie theatre to the car in my cotton sweater.

I need to sneak away to Seattle to detox from too much sun. Better yet, is there a rain drenched fellow canary who wants to house swap?

Read Up On It

2008-10-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

My answer for everything is – read up on it! Hey, I was one of those kids who curled up on the couch with the World Book encyclopedia for fun, not a homework assignment. So it’s natural that my way into the green world is through the written word. The issues are many and each is complex. As I find a blog, website or a retro hold-in-your-hand book that offers information, understanding and community, I’ll share my finds with you.

I’ve just finished a memoir entitled “Epitaph for a Peach, Four Seasons on My Family Farm” by David Mas Masumoto and winner of the 1995 Julian Child Cookbook Award in the literary food writing category.

That’s right. It’s not a recent book and he’s written numerous other books before and since. Check out his website. But I am in a frugal/eco mode, as I get up-to-speed, reading what’s available on the library shelf or through the library system when I can. Plus I would consider this a classic-in-the-making, or as the LA Times said, “Masumoto uses his farm as Thoreau did his Walden Pond.”

The author, a Japanese-American, has returned to his family’s farm in the San Joaquin Valley, the Central Valley as we also call it, in California. So for me, reading the book is different than someone in say, Minnesota. I can picture the fields and the surrounding mountains. I can feel the oven-like heat and low humidity on my skin as I read. And I can bone up on my California history as well.

Masumoto, an organic peach and grape farmer, wants to continue growing Sun Crest peaches, a variety that tastes like the essence of peach but doesn’t travel well, which of course is the essence of produce marketing. Should he give up on the peach and bulldoze the trees down? Or should he give it a go for one more year?

This primer on a year of growing the quintessential summer fruit is also the story of Japanese-American family farming in California in the 20th century. Masumoto explains the importance of tradition, of families working the land and chores together, of communities where kids grow up on the farm, leave for college returning only like a visitor before the final move to the big city. Some never come back, while some, like Masumoto, return because these few acres are where home and the meaning of life truly is.

How do you prune a fruit tree so it will live a full productive life, how do you manage a crew that knows more about harvesting than you, if all farming is wrestling with nature, how can you win without ultimately damaging the land. These are a few questions Masumoto, the poet-farmer, attempts to answer. I say ‘attempts’ because for this farmer, everything is about the journey, not the arrival.

I call the book an ‘ode to an orchard’ because it’s not a how-to, rather it’s a why. Why salvage old machinery parts rather than purchasing shiny new ones, why plant cover crops, why walk the farm day after day to get feedback from the land itself. Why breaking even may be enough if the farm and its way of life can be saved.

I’m a suburban girl who loves big cities and can’t wait to leave the exburbs for a walkable, mass transit life. What am I doing reading a book about a Japanese-American peach farmer? I guess the reason I can recommend this book, especially if you want to get up to learn about saving family farms and community building, is because it’s the story of someone who cares about quality over quantity, people over product, authenticity over the consumer-driven life. How much more real can you get than the food you put in your mouth and the soil it comes from.

Or maybe I’m just bone deep tired of multi-tasking amid a mountain of electronic gizmos, skimming websites and calling my emails, even from work colleagues, a community. In any case, “Epitaph for a Peach” is how one man tries to live an attentive life.

Now I’m off to the library website to see which of his other books they have so I can curl up with them.

News Flash - Report from the Trenches

2008-10-26T13:48:00.000-07:00

My uncle and aunt live in South Florida. You know, Sarah Silverman Country, the Big Schlep, bubbie and zayda land. They called to tell me they got the Obama bumper stickers I picked up for them in Nevada. Not that they couldn't get some in Florida. I just wanted to make sure I did my part for getting the word out to the altercockers (look it up on Wikipedia!)

So the news from the front is that the early voting lines are so long that my family couldn't get into the library just to pick up a few books. That's what my uncle told me. So where was my aunt? At Obama headquarters picking up a few buttons. And the stickers? Well my uncle is putting his on his scooter! Is that too cool?! He's going to whiz around the senior citizen complex, to the bank, to the market, canvassing for Obama.

2008 won't be a replay of 2000 if my family hasn't anything to say about it!

Tikkun Olam Fridays – Repairing the World One Step at a Time

2008-10-24T17:13:00.000-07:00

Another Friday, another post on tikkun olam – to repair the world. Remember, you don’t have to finish the job, but it is your responsibility to start.

What action did you take this week, big or little, to make a difference?

I met Barbara Grover, an award-winning photographer, several months ago through a friend. She was looking for a college intern to help with her upcoming art exhibit. I suggested one of my daughter’s friends who was going to school at Santa Monica City College, working to ultimately get into UCLA’s Film School. The young woman had the resume and the work ethic. The gallery was in Santa Monica. Better than e-Harmony, I’d made a match.

In talking with Barbara I was fascinated by the political nature of the exhibit, photographs from her 7 weeks spent in a Darfur refugee camp. I’m ashamed to say I had only a passing knowledge of this crisis. But I casually offered some help with the publicity.

A few days later, Barbara called me back and even though I was juggling paying clients, I knew this was something I had to do. And if you live near Los Angeles, it’s something you ought to see.

‘Refuge(e) – Moments with the Darfuri of Iridimi’, is Barbara’s second solo photography exhibition at the Sherry Frumkin Gallery. While previous exhibits about Darfur exposed the genocidal killings in this western part of Sudan, Refuge(e) takes a unique approach. It creates an unforgettable picture of those who live the conflict every day, serving as a wake up call to Americans to not forget the Darfuri who survived.

The show consists of three parts. Refuge(e) is a collection of 25 medium to large-scale color photographs. The photographs show what the Darfuri refugees are doing to reclaim hope and dignity in the confines of an isolated, drought-ridden refugee camp. A six-minute documentary short, The Women of Iridimi – the Story of the Jewish World Watch Solar Cooker Project, tells the story of how solar cooking has transformed the lives of refugee women and girls. Reality Check is a multi-media piece including stories told by several refugees in their own words, focusing on daily realities and juxtaposing our world with theirs.

“I believe art can change the life of the viewer and the life of the people that the art is about,” Barbara told me. “In 2007 I received special permission from the United Nations to spend an unprecedented seven weeks in the Iridimi Refugee Camp. Most people spend, at most, a day or two at a camp like this. What I captured was daily life, the struggle of people fighting to retain their humanity in the midst of a political conflict that the world has pretty much ignored.”

Every person visiting the gallery will be able to design 'Postcards to the President' to send to the next American president. To further create a call to action, Barbara has partnered with Facing History and Ourselves and Jewish World Watch to bring middle school, high school and college classes to the gallery.

“Almost every refugee I met asked me one thing: please tell your President and the American people to bring peace to Darfur,” Barbara said. “They believed in their hearts that we had the power to do that. I am hoping that this exhibit not only helps people to understand this crisis, but also moves them to believe, as the refugees did, in the power of activism.”

So if you live in the general Los Angeles area, you can catch Refuge(e) – Moments with the Darfuri of Iridimi’ at the Sherry Frumkin Gallery, located at 3026 Airport Avenue in the Santa Monica Airport. Regular gallery hours are 12 – 6 pm, Wednesday through Saturday. Admission is free. The exhibit is running now through Jan 11, 2009. In keeping with the show’s theme of political action, proceeds from the sale of the photographs will be donated to Jewish World Watch, benefiting the Solar Cooker Project and other Darfur refugee relief programs. Click here for more information about the Sherry Frumkin Gallery and a sample of photographs from Refuge(e).

Barbara Grover has traveled to over 40 countries, many facing conflict and poverty, to create photographic works that effect social and political change. To learn more about her work you can visit her website.

To Live Local – First Hand Experience

2008-10-21T08:19:00.000-07:00

If you’ve been wondering where I’ve been, it’s been a busy week or so, what with fires and political activity. Yes, I was sort of near those fires that you may have heard about in Los Angeles last week. Our little valley was more ‘in the path’ of the Simi Valley fire via canyons and wind patterns than directly affected. But once you get those embers flying and if the Santa Ana winds kick up, the potential for spreading is enormous. And it goes quickly.

I spent time on the computer trying to figure out exactly where we are in the county and where the Santa Susanna Mountains are, trying rather unsuccessfully to place myself in a geographic sense. I still don’t know if I’m east county or west county.

Note to self: Must get county map to go with the world, California and regional wine tasting maps I’ve got plastered on the office walls.

So last Monday I was glued to the television as I worked. Thank goodness for local news. They were finally serving a purpose other than being trash news wires. Then when our community website folks sent out an e-blast about a fire alert and suggested we pack up important stuff just in case, ever the good little girl, I spent the evening running around grabbing boxes of files that I had previously organized for just such an exhilarating occasion.

And let me rave about our little newsletter staff. Kuddos to Harvey for the e-alert, underlining the importance of community and looking out for each other. And I clicked on the fire department website every little bit as they suggested to check for updates. (a shameless plug from this former poli sci major for why government was invented and just one example of why we pay taxes)

So that was certainly a fun way to spend my time, and of course, what one takes out of the house, one must put back. Thankfully I’ve learned from past near evacuations that the only things you truly need are the papers, the pets and the kids. If you haven’t organized those photos, too late now.

Then the really meaningful part of my week came at the end – The Drive To Nevada For Obama! Yes, this past weekend I jumped in a van with 5 other local political fanatics and schlepped to Las Vegas to walk precincts for That One. What an inspiring, albeit hot and dry, couple of days I had.

Folks from all age and ethnic groups came from everywhere in California to help get out the vote. Nevada has early voting for 2 weeks before the election where people can find a polling place parked in a supermarket or school and do their civic duty.

This was summer camp for grown-ups. I met and talked with people during breakfast at our motel, able to pick them out because we all had our Obama buttons on. And can you imagine the political conversations we had driving there and back? It was a wonderful opportunity to get to know new people in my community and work together for a common cause.

I would be remise if I didn’t mention the Tent City Blocks we saw in North Las Vegas. It’s my understanding that Nevada has the highest foreclosure rate of all the states. Well, I saw evidence of that, or at least the ‘recession we aren’t in yet but really are’. Imagine people camped out, one right after the other, like sleeping on Colorado Blvd the night before the Rose Parade staking out a good view. Now visualize men, women and children in mini tents or just curled up on the sidewalks in sleeping bags.

But who needs a New New Deal and social safety nets and a civic will to pull together? If you can’t make it on your own, the heck with you. Where did I hear that? Oh yes, the last 8 years. No, make that since Reagan and the rise of the GOP Nation.

This weekend I did a little something to take my country back and strengthen the community muscle. What did you do while I was gone?

APLS October Carnival - Education

2008-10-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

The APLS (Affluent Persons Living Sustainably) Carnival for October is about education. How do you educate yourself about sustainable living? How do you pass that knowledge on to others? Do you educate your family members and friends? Are you a member of environmental organizations? Do you do volunteer work? After reading my entry, why not check out the others at the APLS site. We’re a great basket of thoughtful people.

Education is my middle name. My mother must have given birth to me in a library. And I bet I came out hugging a book.

My answer for everything is – read up on it! So it’s natural that my way into the green world is through the written word. Almost everything I’m reading right now is about the many facets of sustainability.

My daily morning websurfing gives me the opportunity to research who the authentic leaders are. What’s global warming, what’s the big deal about weather and CO, what grows in my zone. My information base grows exponentially. What are the issues, the key words, and then what do I think about it all.

But woman does not grow by words alone. Eventually it’s time to move into the action stage – cloth napkins, composting, shutting off the lights/AC, growing herbs and veggies, baking bread. I started a blog and then pulled out the family digital camera, which I had been deliberately avoiding, and learned how to use it so I could put photos into the blog.

Then I start looking for others who are on the same path. We joined a synagogue that has a strong social action element. So when I heard that they were ramping up their green team, well, I couldn’t call the office fast enough to connect with the rabbi in charge of the committee. We met and schmoozed about community building. Now the green team is set to gear up next month after the summer recess. What will we do? I don’t know but I’m so excited anticipating that first meeting. I welcome finding a group because there’s strength and hope in numbers. Plus it’s more fun.

With my eyes open, I notice things like classes and speakers. This girl loves a good lecture. So next week I’m going to hear Ed Begley, Jr. speak about Energy Efficiency for the New Millennium, an event I read about in our local weekly newspaper. Last weekend I took a 2-day class on permaculture that I found while browsing the website of a county-wide sustainability organization.

I don’t go out of my way to educate my family. Pronouncements usually don’t work. So I guess I use role modeling and talking about what I’ve learned at the dinner table. It does work. My younger (16 yr old) daughter wants to join me at a Habitat for Humanity event. Does that not set your parental heart aflutter?

Right after Hurricane Katrina, my older daughter, a high school senior at the time, organized her friends in a collection drive of much needed emergency items. Maybe her efforts came from watching me write checks to the Red Cross whenever there was an earthquake absolutely anywhere in the world. (We live in earthquake country. I shudder whenever I read about fellow earthquake survivors and need to send help.)

To nudge my husband in a more eco direction, I set up a big plastic container for the kitchen recycling. I sewed up cloth napkins and put them out in a basket on the counter. I brought home documentaries like King Corn and made him watch them for our weekly movie night. Well, that one might have been a tad pushy. But he did enjoy it a lot.

I don’t try to convert friends. I just schlep my monster stainless steel water bottle around. When you slam one of those suckers on the table it gets attention and discussions seem to come up naturally.

For me, education is how I interact with the world. Learning is why we’re here. Nothing makes me feel happier or richer than coming home from the library with a stack of books. Free, legal and nonfattening. Such a deal.

Tikkun Olam Fridays – Repairing the World One Step at a Time

2008-10-10T19:43:00.000-07:00

Another Friday, another post on tikkun olam – to repair the world. Remember, you don’t have to finish the job, but it is your responsibility to start.

What action did you take this week, big or little, to make a difference?

I spent several days over the last two weeks in religious services for the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. These holidays mark the beginning of the Jewish New Year and the Day of Atonement.

I sat or stood, for hours at a time, sometimes praying, most times going off on my own. I wondered where the year went and how I could make both the coming year and me a better one. In short, how I could make a difference.

Like in all religious services, I imagine, we were a captive audience for rousing sermons by a chorus of passionate clergy. And if you’re a perpetual student like me, you relish those opportunities, when the sermon givers are good, to engage deeply in challenging intellectual ideas.

This season virtually all the rabbis talked about community. How our country, and the world, is going through a difficult, frightening time. How we have to remember that we have a home in our faith community and that with a little effort and involvement we can find friends and a place in the group. How we need to reach out to each other in ‘real time’ interaction and to understand that there’s no FaceBook or LinkedIn or MySpace that can take the place of real people.

Or as one rabbi put it, “There’s no such thing as casual community in Judaism.” Stick in your city’s name, your religion/spiritual choice, your country, your world. Same thing.

So here’s my offering for the week: an article from the food section of the New York Times, ‘Uniting Around Food to Save an Ailing Town’ by Marian Burros. It’s the story of a Vermont town where “young artisans and agricultural entrepreneurs are expanding aggressively, reaching out to investors and working together to create a collective strength never before seen in this seedbed of Yankee individualism.” The last sentence in the article states “So many things are possible with collaboration.”

Now go read the complete article and imagine a whole country pulling together like that and you’ll see where I want to put my efforts in this new year of 5769 (2008-2009). Or to paraphrase one of the rabbis yesterday as the late afternoon sun lit up the stained glass windows behind the pulpit – we need a new generation of community builders.

Amen.

Tikkun Olam Fridays – Repairing the World One Step at a Time

2008-10-03T13:07:00.000-07:00

Another Friday, another post on tikkun olam – to repair the world. Remember, you don’t have to finish the job, but it is your responsibility to start.

What action did you take this week, big or little, to make a difference?

A month ago we started composting. I love it. We recycled some wood to build a container, placed a spare plastic shoe box above the kitchen sink to hold the carrot peelings, stale bagels and constant supply of coffee grounds and raked up a huge mass of brown leaves from the yard. Brown and green, I know the drill. Then we watered the whole mess down, good and soppy like a rung out towel. We keep the pitch fork nearby, so we can turn the mound and cover the food. I’m hospitable and enjoy inviting in a few friends for a bite, but I don’t want any creeping night crawlers, like coyotes, to be tempted by our leftovers.

For anyone who loves order and efficiency, these ‘nothing goes to waste’ activities will bring a smile to your face. It focuses me on how much food gets wasted so I think before I buy. Knowing that I’m building compost that will improve our little patch of soil is so fulfilling. Soil is basic; it’s our food’s lifeblood. That we’re letting it blow away or poisoning it is crazy.

Oh, and that compost bin in the photo. Not mine, too bad. I found it outside a restaurant on Granville Island, Vancouver. It’s my visual aid for encouragement.

Read Up On It

2008-10-02T15:35:00.000-07:00

When I don't know something about a subject, my first action is to turn to a book. So I've been filling my brain with as much green, sustainability, community building, political action information as I can. I've written a review of a wonderful book by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. "A Crime Against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking our Democracy". Here's a taste...

With President Bush deep into what I, as the mother of teenagers, call ‘senioritus’, you might ask why you should read “Crimes Against Nature” now, a book about what Bush and his oil buddies did. Even I asked myself that question, other than that the book was free (at the library) and small (my patience for tomes not what it once was).

But it’s clear to me that I need a foundation to my growing political action. I need to understand about endangered species, the effects of strip mining in West Virginia, and the nuclear power plant meltdown just miles from my parents’ home in the West San Fernando Valley and the cancer it caused so many neighbors, including my parents and sister. How did the Republican administrations hack away at our freedoms through the rape and pillage of our resources?

Kennedy’s New York Times best seller meticulously lays down the case for how corporate cronyism got put into place so that government, ‘the problem’ to Reagan era Republicans, could be drowned in the bathtub. Read it and learn exactly how corporate types from the oil, gas, coal and nuclear industries were appointed as regulators to protect their own from ‘We the People.’ Rollbacks out of view from the public, manipulating and suppressing scientific data, intimidating enforcement officials and masking it in Orwellian doublespeak – it’s all here in well written detail. Kennedy has a highly readable style and while you may not be able to retain each reference, the overall effect is compelling.

For the rest of the review, visit Be A Bookworm a site that's will leave you drooling and moaning about 'so many books, too little time.'

News Flash – Is Nevada Leaning Blue? Tip It Over!

2008-10-01T08:07:00.000-07:00

Democrats are on a roll in Nevada. Yesterday’s LA Times article explains the hopeful trend with maps, pie charts and issues.

Nevada now has more registered Democrats than Republicans – 76,000 more. In 2004 when the state was red, Bush won the state by 21,500 votes. And Nevada has sided with the winner in all but two presidential elections over the last century.

So … you do the extrapolating. We have a chance!!! But every vote will count so this is not the time to sit on your tushes. This is the moment of meaning you’ve been waiting for.

California Democrats, join the carpool caravan to Nevada and our sister districts. Here’s the direct link to our home page on the Obama site. I’m going October 17th. I’ll be the short one with curly brown hair, glasses and a sense of humor. You’ll want to walk with me.

So are you coming along? Or do you know anyone who’ll be going to Nevada? Let me know and I’ll post something; I’ll include your blog.

Off the couch, away from the computer, out of your comfort zone.

Drench Your Apples In Honey

2008-09-30T08:07:00.001-07:00

This is what the rabbi ended his sermon with last night for the first service of the High Holiday season, for Rosh Hashana. I actually listened all the way through and didn't just wake up at the end! If you don't know the custom, it's dipping apples into honey for a sweet new year. Sounds good to me. L'Shana Tova, Happy New Year to everyone!

Tikkun Olam Fridays - Repairing the World One Step at a Time

2008-09-26T20:38:00.000-07:00

Another Friday, another post on tikkun olam – to repair the world. Remember, you don’t have to finish the job, but it is your responsibility to start.

What action did you take this week, big or little, to make a difference?

Last Saturday a few of us Obama supporters in Ventura County made phone calls to our sister district in Nevada, working to get out the vote. Let me tell you, it was scary, even though I make phone calls all week to editors and reporters I don't know and who would rather not hear from another publicist.

Some of these folks could be angry Republicans. How would they react when they heard I was with the Obama campaign? You know how you react when a telemarketer calls. I had been building up good karma all week, being nice to whoever bothered me, even if they called during dinner.

The campaign was organized. We had our script, our list, our talking points. The host had laid out some nice noshies. We took our cell phones to different rooms, even outside on the front step. I would have called from the bathroom except for the sound bouncing off the tiles.

All went well. I spoke to 2 supporters, one undecided who was anxious to hear the debates and a few Republicans who got off the phone quickly. No one was rude and besides, I realized that I was representing the candidate. I was going to show them that Democrats were polite no matter what.

The six of us made 200 calls. Most of the people weren't home or the numbers were wrong. But our job wasn't just to connect and gauge support. We were culling the bad numbers so teams calling down the road wouldn't be wasting their time.

One of the coordinators gave us some visual help. He said remember why you're doing this. Well, I kept a picture of my kids, 19 and 16, in my mind. It was just a little tool but it worked. And I kept saying to myself, every vote counts, every vote counts. Which meant that each call, each effort I made to dial one more time, counted. I liked the sense of efficiency and accomplishment.

And I liked how we were working with folks from the neighborhood. A few of us had kids in the same grade in school or had worked on the high school's performing arts booster group together. But we didn't really know each other very well.

So the afternoon wasn't spent just reaching out to Nevada or working on a national campaign. We were building community. All those collected emails will come in handy.

Because no matter the outcome on November 4th, on November 5th the fight will continue. Taking back the country, and turning it around, one vote at a time.

Today Let’s Go Positive

2008-09-25T10:09:00.000-07:00

Newsflash: ‘Green’ industrial park planned for lot

Los Angeles officials are planning a green industrial park and incubator. They want to generate jobs and ‘turn a tattered pocket of Los Angeles into a hotbed of environmentally sustainable companies,’ according to an article by Marla Dickerson in yesterday’s LA Times.

“We are rolling out the green carpet…for visionary clean-tech companies and sustainable green manufacturers that will call Los Angeles home,” Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Tuesday.

Check out the article. And remember, today we’re all going to try to be just a little bit positive, moi included. No cynicism allowed.

The Economy is Fundamentally Sound

2008-09-24T11:50:00.001-07:00

Local furniture store, national brand, that opened about 1 year ago along a road that's been designated as a 'home furnishings' destination. About five miles or so from the Countrywide national headquarters.

I don't have to read the papers, online or off, to know which way the wind blows. I just take a little drive around the neighborhood.

But if you need more convincing, check out the front page of today's LA Times, just above the fold - Long, dark tunnel seen for California's economy.

Tikkun Olam Fridays – Repairing the World One Step at a Time

2008-09-19T21:24:00.001-07:00

Last weekend I committed to cloth napkins. Actually I’ve been working on this transition for a month or so. I cut up some leftover fabric - the school project, the quilt that never happened, the teenager's project that never happened, those sorts of things - and started hand sewing the hems because I can never get my sewing machine tension to work right. (aka I have no patience to find out what the current glitch is.)

I’d sit and watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report and pin up the hems and stitch a few napkins. I had a basket of nearly 30 little rectangles and squares to plow through, so it’s taken some time.

But I was troubled. It wasn't the thumb pricks that were a problem. I couldn’t get over that it was going to be okay to use a pretty piece of cloth for my breakfast cereal. And everyday no less. It just seemed actually more wasteful than reaching for the paper napkins. Wasn’t cloth for company?

Then last week I went out to Bed, Bath and Beyond with my handy car stash of coupons, determined to find the least expensive napkins they had, no matter what color. Well, they couldn’t be ugly, weird polka dots. Come on. I’m channeling my Sustainable Martha. I still love my kitchen.

So I go immediately to the sale shelves and lo and behold, before my very eyes, are stacks of napkins. Now my favorite color has always been green - olive, lime, hunter - even in my previous wasteful life. And there, unbelievably, were sage green damask napkins. 21 of them.

I scooped them up. Not only were they on some kind of ridiculous sale. But I had a $5 off coupon. Go me! The checker threw in the 21st one for free, because of a packaging mistake, and the price came to about 60¢ each. For that price, I could add a touch of elegance to my life and be frugally chic.

My husband complimented me several times on my purchase. (an added bonus and also a correct move on his part).

So now we have breakfast/lunch/office coffee mug mini napkins and lovely family/company dinner napkins.

And I broke them in with a spaghetti tomato sauce dinner with nary a qualm.

Great Depression II

2008-09-18T09:19:00.001-07:00

I just came back from back-to-school night for our daughter who’s a high school junior. She’s taking, among other subjects, AP English and AP History – the American versions of both.

She doesn’t know how lucky she is. To be reading about our great country during the difficult times we’re going through. Of course, she’s only 16 and she isn’t aware of the problems.

I thought if I told her about the financial market debacle this week I could guilt her into cleaning up her room and getting more organized for what should be a most difficult year but I was being selfish and stopped myself before I dumped the problems of the adults on the shoulders of a 16 year old.

But I did want to sit in on her classes for sure, especially if this time around I could bring to it the knowledge and discipline of an adult. Instead, I went to the Internet to find Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s speech about the four freedoms and then I started surfing. I found his first inaugural address from March 4, 1933, the one about fear and read it all the way through. I was guessing that it would be as encouraging a message for our times as it was for my parents and grandparents going through the Great Depression. Damned if I wasn’t right.

Check out this site for the speech. Read through all of it. It will lift your spirits. After a week of financial disaster and head banging BS from the Republican candidates, I needed to know that if we got out of one hell of a pickle, we could once again. You will be amazed at how similar our times are to those of the First Great Depression.

Surely FDR’s America, listening around a radio, was no smarter than our America now. Yet Mr. Bush is seemingly AWOL once again. A bad case of senioritis I would say. And McCain/Palin, well, I’m beyond insulted at how stupid they must think I am. Once we had real leaders. I pray that one day we will again. Obama can inspire, but can he lead, can he pull together his own brain trust for the tough days ahead?

When economists throw around phrases like “worst financial disaster since the Great Depression” I can only assume that they know the full impact of what they are saying. I can only hope that they aren’t just reaching for another sound bite, that they actually stayed awake during their American history and English classes. Because I did and those words have resonated in my head all week.

My daughter has to read John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath this year. Perhaps I should offer to be her study buddy.

Shut Up and Drive

2008-09-18T09:19:00.000-07:00

Have you signed up yet? Why not? The road map to change starts with us. Find a Travel for Change Weekend in your home state. Go door to door in a sister district. The 24th Congressional District of the Great State of California is going to Nevada. Obama Biden 08

Good Reads from Today's New York Times

2008-09-14T08:55:00.000-07:00

Mr. and Mrs. Local are celebrating 21 years of wedded bliss and kitchen table politics by wine tasting in the breathtaking Santa Ynez Valley in Santa Barbara County.

Before we trek up the coast, I needed to pound the keyboard with some scary but important articles in Sunday's New York Times Opinion section.

Check out Frank Rich, "The Palin-Whatshisname Ticket". The question is no longer is Sarah Palin qualified to be vice president and a heartbeat away from the presidency. It's what kind of president would she be.

Then another fave of mine and a greenie, Thomas Friedman, "Making America Stupid" asking how can we elect a president who pushes 19th century technology when we need 21st century innovation.

And for some laughs, because we sure need them, Maureen Dowd, "Bering Straight Talk". She suggests that Palin has the 'power of positive unthinking' like W and the 'same flimsy but tenacious adeptness at saying nothing.'

Now we're off in search of Rhone varietals along Foxen Canyon. Would you like us to bring you back a bottle of Syrah? Only if you sign up for Obama phonebanking.

Tikkun Olam Fridays – Repairing the World One Step at a Time

2008-09-12T12:31:00.000-07:00

Another Friday, another post on tikkun olam – to repair the world. Remember, you don’t have to finish the job, but it is your responsibility to start.

What action did you take this week, big or little, to make a difference?

As Hurricane Ike moves towards the Texas coast, Americans have been ordered to evacuate. While working and watching my little TV, I caught a piece of a news segment with the Texas Red Cross.

The Red Cross is running out of funds. How ‘bout we send them some? They’re actually borrowing money so they can still provide food, care and shelter.

As someone who's lived through numerous earthquakes and watched flames highlight the night sky on the mountains near my house, I know that what goes around, comes around.

Come on Americans! Time to rally!!! Check out the news release below...

American Red Cross Launches National Fundraising Campaign

Goal to Raise Initial $100 Million for Disaster Relief Fund

WASHINGTON, Wednesday, September 10, 2008 — As Hurricane Ike continues its path towards the United States, threatening families along the Gulf Coast with potentially damaging winds and torrential rain, the American Red Cross is launching a national fundraising campaign to raise an initial $100 million to fill a Disaster Relief Fund depleted after an active year of disasters.

The Disaster Relief Fund allows the Red Cross to provide emergency assistance to help victims of disasters meet their immediate needs for food, shelter, counseling and other critical services.

The Red Cross responds to 70,000 disasters each year – the majority of them “silent” disasters never making the news. After tragedy strikes, the Red Cross relies on this fund to mobilize volunteers and resources to help communities throughout the United States.

“The Red Cross is always there when disaster strikes, but this year has been an active disaster year and the cost of providing relief has rapidly outpaced contributions,” said Gail McGovern, American Red Cross President and CEO. “We sheltered more people during the first nights of Hurricane Gustav than the first days of Katrina. While the media has packed up and moved on, we are still there helping a large number of people.”

“The American people have always responded generously to support their neighbors during their time of need, and I urge all Americans to join together and make a contribution to the Disaster Relief Fund today. No matter how small, every donation can change a life.”

The Red Cross is taking many steps to reduce its disaster response costs including consolidating warehouse space, using technology to further automate its casework process and placing a greater emphasis on deploying local volunteers and leveraging community partner resources.

Since January 2008, Red Cross volunteers have responded to thousands of house fires and more than 60 large-scale disasters —including a record number of tornadoes, the worst flooding in the Midwest in 15 years, an early wildfire season and an active hurricane season that is not over yet.

Expenses for Hurricane Gustav alone are estimated in the $40M - $70M dollar range for the Red Cross and the organization has only raised a fraction of what is needed to support affected families.

As the Red Cross continues helping individuals and families battered by the 2008 storms and hurricanes: Dolly, Edouard, Fay, Gustav and Hanna, it is also actively preparing to respond to Hurricane Ike by mobilizing trained volunteers and pre-positioning disaster supplies.

In the interim, the Red Cross is borrowing money to cover the costs of the hurricanes of 2008. Despite this, the Red Cross has not cut any of its services to disaster victims and does not expect to do so.

While the organization is initially striving to raise $100 million to help those in need, the Red Cross is in the midst of both hurricane and wildfire season and does not know what the future will bring.

You can help the victims of thousands of disasters across the country each year, disasters like the Hurricanes of 2008, by making a financial gift to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. You can log-on to http://www.redcross.org/ or call 1-800-RED-CROSS (1-800-733-2767) or 1-800-257-7575 (Spanish) to make a donation. You can also use your cell phone to donate $5 to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund by text messaging the keyword “GIVE” to “2HELP” (24357). You can send multiple donations depending on your carrier. Contributions will appear on monthly bills or be debited from a prepaid account balance. All applicable text rates apply.

Mea Hot So Mea Culpa

2008-09-11T08:12:00.000-07:00

I couldn’t take it anymore. It was 100°, more or less, on Saturday. We were out most of the day but it was unbearable upstairs when we returned. I knew my daughter wouldn’t be able to handle it. And I really, really wanted her to put her clothes away – in drawers and not draped over the banister, the teenage slumpy chair, her desk, the floor of her room.

And my elderly mom, who visits us every Sunday from the assisted living facility, would be over the top. She’s complained all summer. Was it safe to let her suffer so? Really, wasn’t there some biblical injunction to honor her with weather under 85°?

Last week, everyday by 3 o’clock I wanted to slam down the laptop and give up. Even driving around in the car with the air conditioning cranked up didn’t crank up my spirits.

I prayed for fall, or the Southern California equivalent. I fantasized about treating myself to some new jewel-toned cable knit sweaters in cranberry, hunter green and plum. Corduroy slacks, long sleeved Gap tee-shirts and black blazers to wrap myself in when the thermometer plunged to 50° were my pornographic fantasies.

So friends, I’m sorry. On Sunday, we turned the air conditioning on. All day. Down to somewhere in the low 70’s. I let my husband decide the number. He could take the wrap.

It was like manna from heaven. My skin was cool. My neck was dry. I was energized, not enervated. I’d suffered all summer, banking my brownie points for this one luxurious moment.

This week the mercury has dropped. The evil AC is off. But that 100° weekend was just a wakeup call. I know our monster heat waves will rear their oven-like heads several times more before Thanksgiving. I think we should name them after chili peppers and measure the heat factor in Scoville units like a jalapeño’s burn ability.

I carried my stainless steel water bottle with me everywhere this summer, filled with clanking ice cubes, clutched against my grateful face. I counted sweat drops. I suffered. Oh how I suffered.

But for one reverent moment the perspiration dried from the nape of my neck and I knew the blessed relief of the whirring fan.

Next Sunday the Ice Man cometh again and I will welcome him in. Green guilt be damned.

Gobble Gobble Whine Whine

2008-09-09T14:30:00.000-07:00

The September assignment for the Carnival hosted by the APLS bloggers (Affluent Persons Living Sustainably) is to write about affluence and what that means to me.

As I started to plan my post, I realized I didn’t know which way to go on this one. Guilt, arrogance, denial, indifference? It was clear that even thinking about the subject pushed a lot of buttons.

Then I took that global money test that’s cropping up on frugal blogs including the APLS site. Whoa. Talk about perspective. I certainly had nothing to complain about. I would be affluent with just a smidgen of what I currently have.

So I kept asking myself the question. What does affluence mean to me?

Then – a small epiphany. Thanksgiving Day without the Macy’s Parade as the answer rolled out in my mind.

I have enough money and …

The kids are healthy. My husband and I have jobs. The cars are paid for. The roof has no leaks. The monthly mortgage invoices don’t scare us. The fridge is full. The toilet works. The water is clean. Our country is free, no matter how much we complain. Through most of our history we have had no fighting on our soil. We have wonder drugs and health care technology that cured my mom, dad and sister of cancer. I value my dentist and my eye doctor. I have a college degree and a library card. I have clothes and a machine to wash them in.

Wow. I am truly blessed. And I say that without a drop of smugness. Because to those to whom much is given, much is expected. To me affluence means I have the time, money and moral obligation to give back.

To volunteer in the community – the arts, hunger, literacy, politics, religious community – wherever the need and one’s skills and interest match up. To do otherwise would be selfish in the deepest sense of the word.

Grateful, thankful, humbled and most of all - responsible is what affluence means to me.

Endangered Species Act - Time for Action

2008-09-08T14:12:00.000-07:00

I received this email from a thoughtful friend. We only have a week. Click through and then send it around.

Photo by Michael Nichols

National Geographic Website

Endangered Species Act Under Assault: Send Comments to Secretary Kempthorne

To My Friends,

I need your help to prevent Bush from fatally crippling our nation's most successful wildlife law and we only have ONE week left to do it.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced devastating changes to the Endangered Species Act, signaling the end of protection for thousands of imperiled species.

The new regulations would:- Exempt thousands of federal activities from review under the Endangered Species Act:

- Eliminate checks and balances of independent oversight

-Limit which effects can be considered harmful

- Prevent consideration of a project's contribution to global warming

- Set an inadequate 60-day deadline for wildlife experts to evaluate a project in the instances when they are invited to participate -- or else the project gets an automatic green light

- Enable large-scale projects to go unreviewed by dividing them into hundreds of small projects

Send a message to Kempthorne and members of Congress that these changes are unacceptable.

Thanks,

Your friend

Visit: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2167/t/5243/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=25351

Tikkun Olam Friday - Repairing the World One Step at a Time

2008-09-05T00:00:00.000-07:00

Another Friday, another post on tikkun olam – to repair the world. Remember, you don’t have to finish the job, but it is your responsibility to start.

The Flag of a Proud Democrat

After two weeks of political conventions, I must ask you to think about who best can repair our nation. Without change at home, I fear we won’t be able to repair the world.

In July my husband and I visited Vancouver and went wine tasting. At one winery we somehow got into a discussion of politics with the hostess. (Somehow? It’s all we talk about.) We assured her we hadn’t voted for Bush. The mess wasn’t our fault. Her compassionately spoken reply: I feel for you.

Just four words reminding me that Canada is a separate country, not America Adjacent, and that the US has problems to solve. Alone.

So this week, before I ask what you did to repair the world, let me ask if you watched the Republican National Convention. Did you like what you saw? Then stop reading now.

But if your heart soared last week as Barack Obama showed us who we can be once again only to break as you watched in horror at the world portrayed by McCain, let me suggest what you can do between now and November.

Donate to Obama's campaign and talk up the issues like energy, health care, the economy, the environment, education, the physical infrastructure and the food supply.

Then help get out the vote. And vote yourself as if your children’s and grandchildren’s lives depended on it. We cannot have another 4 years of the last 8 years.

APLS are growing in California

2008-09-04T17:14:00.001-07:00

APLS are Affluent Persons Living Sustainably. Each of us care about the earth in our own way, define our path and blog about the journey. Check out the main APLS blog, get the full 411 and sample the individual bloggers. We come from all over the country, perhaps even the world.

We're all in the Bushel Basket together but we’ve coordinated ourselves into some regional baskets as well. So far we've got Colorado, the Great Lakes, the Lower Mid-West and me in California. If you want to organize your region, jump in. The plan is to learn, share and build eco-conscious communities. Some of us may even meet up if the distances aren't too far.

August was our first Carnival, a chance to write and share on a specific topic. Last month was sustainability. September is affluence. The deadline for submission is Sept 10th and on Sept 15th all the posts will go up and we can read some thoughtful, personal commentary. Visit the blog for details.

So check us out. The email for the main APLS blog is aplscarnival (at) gmail (dot) com. Golden State APLS can contact me at bobbiwords (at) aol (dot) com.

We’re crunchy and committed. Join the APLS Bushel Basket.

Friday Night Jazz at LACMA

2008-09-01T14:45:00.000-07:00

Summer nights in the city, filled with music and art …

While I wish I lived closer to more cultural opportunities, sometimes driving is worth the effort. This past Friday was one of those times. My husband and I drove to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) for one of their Friday Night Jazz sessions.

We had to drop our daughter off at a friend’s house and didn’t want this relatively new driver to brave the LA freeways during rush hour traffic on a Labor Day weekend. So we did it instead. No complaints from me. Here was a chance to use our LACMA membership for some art viewing and the opportunity to hear free jazz.

I used to be a jazz fan but moving further out into the ‘burbs 15 years ago meant fewer concerts and losing some radio reception. KKJZ, 88.1 FM, (KJAZZ) from Cal State University, Long Beach, was one of those lost connections. Online listening didn't grab me, and I just drifted away. So I haven't stayed current with contemporary artists. Friday I found a new one to add to my faves.

Outside in front of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum, we were in for a real treat. Bill Cantos, singer/songwriter/pianist was playing. We listened for much of the 2 hour concert. Even my classical leaning husband enjoyed the show and remarked on the uniqueness of Bill's voice, lyrics and ability to connect with the audience. I've never been good at head counts, but I'd estimate at 750 jazz aficionados groovin' to the beat.

Here’s a link for Bill on MySpace. Enjoy yourselves…I bought a CD and I’m reliving this end-of-summer evening under the palm trees. Good bye summer, hello autumn.

Tikkun Olam Fridays – Repairing the world one step at a time

2008-08-29T10:56:00.000-07:00

Another Friday, another post on tikkun olam – to repair the world. Remember, you don’t have to finish the job, but it is your responsibility to start.

What action did you take this week, big or little, to make a difference?

Today I made a donation to MANNA, the food bank in the Conejo Valley. To be honest, I’d already written a politically themed post. But driving back from kickboxing, the MANNA truck was in front of me. And last Friday when I took the dog to the groomers, the MANNA truck was in front of me.

Mind you, in 15 years of living in the Conejo Valley, I’ve never seen their trucks. Do you think someone was trying to tell me what today’s post should be about?

MANNA was started in 1971 when many families were affected by layoffs in the aerospace industry. The organization gets help from clubs, churches, temples and businesses along with both public and private schools. My kids’ elementary school ran a donation drive while they attended. With the economy the way it is, I’m sure they need help keeping their pantry filled.

According to the website:
MANNA provides food on a short-term basis to families and individuals who are having difficulty in getting enough food to survive and are unable to get immediate help from other sources.

MANNA asks everyone to fill out a short application form and, based on the information provided, MANNA will refer them to the appropriate agency. Generally, each applicant will receive a week’s supply of food immediately.

MANNA expects each applicant to follow up on the referral. If the agency cannot provide immediate assistance, the applicant will be sent back to MANNA by the social worker and MANNA will help them again.

To receive help, learn how to volunteer or organize a drive for your school, organization or business, you can contact them at (805) 497-4959.

Or visit them at:
MANNA of Conejo Valley
3020 Crescent Way
Thousand Oaks, CA 91360

And the political post? Did you think I’d waste it? Look for that over the weekend!

Yes We Can!

2008-08-23T20:57:00.000-07:00

Get out the vote. Talk to everyone you know. This race will be close, very close. Do you want 4 more years of McBush? Our country, our world can't afford it. Let's have something to celebrate come November. Get out the vote!

Tikkun Olam Fridays - repairing the world one small step at a time

2008-08-22T13:14:00.000-07:00

Stanley Park, Vancouver, Canada

Every Friday I’m going to post on the concept of tikkun olam. It means ‘to repair the world’. The nice thing about tikkun olam is what Rabbi Tarfon, a sage of the first century AD says: you don’t have to finish the job, but it is your responsibility to start.

What did you do this week to repair the world? What one little thing, or big thing, did you do to make a difference?

This is what I’d like to share …

I like to pick up freebies. I LOVE handouts. Free newspapers in cities I’m visiting, local magazines – green or otherwise, articles at conferences. Sure it’s a lot of paper – and I’m really drowning in paper at the moment – but I just love to read short pieces. (As a kid, I read the World Book Encyclopedia for fun – what an info geek!)

So when I found that someone had started a green magazine for the Conejo Valley/Ventura County area, I was really excited. Green Home and Family Magazine. This was one freebie I grabbed and saved.

After a few issues, I realized that while I could pick it up at the libraries around town, it was an organization I wanted to get behind. The writing was solid, and it was getting the word out to the region and covering events.

So this week I signed up for a subscription. Small thing, for sure, but no one but me would have known I was reading it every month, free of charge, and not giving anything back. Like listening to your local NPR station and never subscribing. (Mea culpa there.)

The sands of summer are falling away – savor them this weekend with family and friends.

California as Still Life

2008-08-20T19:04:00.000-07:00

If anything defines California, it’s our beautiful and varied landscape, from the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the Pacific Ocean to the desert around Palm Springs, just begging for a dab of paint to capture it. If you’d like to experience the state through an artist’s eyes and tour one of our premier garden museums, visit Descanso Gardens , starting this weekend, to catch the opening of the latest show at the Carriage House Art Gallery.

This month the gallery features the work of five local artists, with an emphasis on artwork that reflects the natural beauty of California. Oil painters include Alyce Cox, Karen Winters, Laura Wambsgans and Jeanne Tannhauser. Ceramicists are Dave Gilbaugh and Don Siminski.

Subject matter ranges from the Central Coast wine country, Southern California seascapes, Santa Monica Mountain scenes, desert wildflowers, still life paintings and floral portraits.

Full disclosure: Karen Winters was my roomie in college. (Go Bruins!) It’s her painting at the top. She’s a Descanso regular and is a California plein air painter in the tradition of the early 20th century impressionists who sought to visually preserve the fragile beauty of the state. Visit her website for more paintings and check out her blog where she posts a daily painting and blogs about paint and horticulture.

The show will run August 23 through September 18 with an artists’ reception on Sunday, August 31, 1-4pm. Exhibit hours are 10am -3:30pm.

According to their website, “Descanso Gardens is an urban retreat of year-round natural beauty, internationally renowned botanical collections and spectacular seasonal horticultural displays. Descanso founder E. Manchester Boddy, preserved these 150 acres of gardens, woodlands and chaparral for future generations to experience the natural heritage and beauty of Southern California. Today Descanso Gardens is a museum of living collections, accredited by the American Association of Museums.”

Descanso Gardens is located at 1418 Descanso Drive in La Canada Flintridge, near the interchange of the 2 and 210 freeways. The Gardens are open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily. Parking is free. Admission fees are $8 for adults; $6 for seniors and students; $3 for children 5 to 12, and free for members and children 5 and younger. The Carriage House Art Gallery is next to the Boddy House. Visiting the Carriage House Art Gallery is free with Gardens’ admission. For more information, call (818) 949-4200.

In the Shadow of the Gehry Mind

2008-08-19T19:52:00.000-07:00

Sunday I packed up the car and headed down the highway looking for a green adventure - the first annual Sustainable LA – a festival “celebrating and exploring urban environmentalism”. The day capped the 2008 Downtown Film Festival that ran August 13-17.

Get a load of the first thing I saw as I walked up the hill from the parking lot ...

The contrast of greenness ...

against the city skyscrapers, especially the organic silver swirls of the Walt Disney Concert Hall by Frank Gehry, blew me away. We’ll need the imagination and vision of many men and women like this award winning architect to save the planet.

Now a sampling of the booths ...

The TreePeople

For over 30 years, TreePeople’s mission has been “ to inspire the people of Los Angeles to take personal responsibility for the urban forest – educating, training and supporting them as they plan and care for trees and improve the neighborhoods in which they live, learn, work and play.”

South Central Farmers’ Cooperative

The SCFC Farm is a CSA, (Community Supported Agriculture) and is Certified Organic by the California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) and as well as USDA Certified Organic. SCFC is ‘committed to engaging and empowering community members around attaining food sovereignty and access to high quality organic produce.”

Biking

Cyclists Inciting Change thru Live Exchange (C.I.C.L.E.) is a nonprofit organization based in Los Angeles working to promote the bicycle as a viable, healthy, and sustainable transportation choice. C.I.C.L.E. envisions streets that safely accommodate all road users - people on bike, on foot, by wheelchair, by bus and/or by train. If you forgot or never learned how to ride, they’ll teach you, especially how to ride in traffic.

The University of California Cooperative Extension, LA County

Got questions about all things agricultural? Check out this site for information on farming, gardening/horticulture, natural resources, 4-H Youth Development and Nutrition, Family & Consumer Science. I spent some time talking to them about composting and they had some great handouts.

The 14 Gallon Challenge

The LA Dept of Water & Power (LADWP) is asking Angelenos to voluntarily reduce their personal water use by 10% (14 gals a day). That means: Shutting off the water when washing dishes (2.5 gals per min) Turning the faucet off while brushing your teeth (2 gals per min). Taking shorter showers (2.5 gals per min) Check the Green LA home page for ideas about solar energy, recycling and water.

Counting Down to Zero Waste

The city of Los Angeles Dept of Public Works, Bureau of Sanitation is developing a 20 year strategy for reducing waste throughout LA, moving the city to zero waste by the year 2030.

We sat in the shade, under a tent, for the panels ...

The panels included one on urban parks in LA, electric cars and green collar jobs. I attended the Buy Local, Eat Slow discussion featuring Russ Parsons, food columnist for the LA Times, Jules Dervaes, founder of Path to Freedom, Gypsy Gifford Executive Chef of Café Pinot, Lisa Lucas, VP, LA chapter Slow Food Nation, and Amelia Saltsman, host/producer of “Fresh from the Farmer’s Market.” (photo above: Russ, Amelia, Jules)

The Slow Food movement is based on principles of quality, taste, environmental sustainability and social justice – good, clean and fair. I was struck by the confidence each panelist conveyed. The movement has gone beyond the fringe and grown in size and strength. Some of their suggestions: start small, ask questions, grow something – our backyards are under-utilized. Shop smart. Fight for biodiversity in seeds – the big companies like Monsanto are taking over the copyrights on seeds.

In a darkened theater, the documentaries ...

During the afternoon, green documentaries were screening at MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) on trash, farming, bikes, the LA River and oil:

Trashed (2007, USA, 20 min, Director: Derek Boonstra)

South Central Farm: Oasis in a Concrete Desert (2005, USA, 24 min, Director: Sheila Laffey)

The Bike Lane (2007, USA, 65 min, Director: Sean Crowell)

The Los Angeles River (2007, USA, 28 min, Director: David Hartwell, Sarah Lorenzen)

Fields of Fuel (2008, USA, 90 min, Director: Josh Tickell)

At night, Flow (2008, USA, 93 min, Director: Irena Salina) ended the Film Festival. It’s about our most important natural resource – water – and the future we all face, rich nation or poor, with our water supplies stretched to the limits.

I was happy to be outside, but next year I hope to catch a flick or two.

I drove to my valley and its open spaces and mountains, leaving the chrome and concrete behind me, marveling at the physical diversity of the place I call home.

News Flash: Husband Wants Tomato Plants, Film at 11

2008-08-18T08:33:00.000-07:00

While I was wandering the stalls at the Sustainable LA event downtown yesterday next to Disney Concert Hall, Mr. Local was picking up Local 2 from 8 weeks at camp. Since he'd also gone to that camp, whenever he retrieves her, we have to hang out so he can relive his youth and recount the same stories each summer. Really, it's quite darling.

This year he brought along Local 1, who's home from her college internship, and Local Poodle and wandered into the camp's vegetable garden. They all tasted some tomatoes, well, not the dog.

So we congregate back home later in the day, along with a 16-year-old girl's mound of laundry, don't ask, I'm drowning. And what does Mr. Local want to know? Would I mind if he grew some tomato plants? Then, later in the evening, he asked 'what was that you said about composting?'

Inside I was going: yes, yes, yes! But outside I just answered sweetly, "Oh honey, why don't I show you some of the handouts I brought back from the festival."

YES!

PS: Speaking of Sustainable LA, I have lots to tell throughout the week. It drew a core, manageable crowd and the booths and panel discussions were informative. I didn't stay for 'Flow', a major screening, or watch the short documentaries but I'm sure they were good too. And the contrast of sustainability, downtown LA, the Music Center and the Disney Concert Hall by Frank Gehry made for a visual treat. And yes, I did wear The Ugly Hat. A visual treat? Not so much.

Tikkun Olam Fridays

2008-08-15T10:34:00.000-07:00

Every Friday I’m going to post on the concept of tikkun olam. It means ‘to repair the world’. While it’s the one Jewish teaching that most resonates with me, I believe it’s the catalyst behind the race to save humankind from global warming and all the catastrophes that entails. It’s a path that all religions and people of concern can share and practice.

The nice thing about tikkun olam is what Rabbi Tarfon, a sage of the first century AD says: you don’t have to finish the job, but it is your responsibility to start.

No whining that you can’t devote hours of time and money changing every light bulb in the house this weekend. Change one light bulb the next time one goes out. The first step is always the hardest.

So each Friday I’m going to ask “What did you do this week to repair the world?” What one little thing, or big thing, did you do to make a difference?

Did you:

Start to compost?
Make a donation to a cause?
Turn down or up the heat or AC?
Smile at a neighbor?
Read your local weekly, not big city daily, newspaper?
Read up on an ecological issue – but borrow the book from a library?
Write a letter to a Congressperson?
Decide not to buy something and save the money instead?

You get the picture. Each step can lead to another and another. We’ll grow in strength and move toward the positive. Together.

So here goes …

Mr. Local and I are joining a synagogue, Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, CA. Yesterday I went in to meet the rabbi in charge of The Green Team, which I’m going to join. Of course. We spent an hour (whoa, thank you Rabbi Farkas for your generous time) getting to know each other and riffing on all things green.

The meeting was supposed to be about what the synagogue’s plans were and how I might help out. What I left with was something more.

To paraphrase him, hopefully correctly, he said that going for the goals of recycling or traveling as a group to New Orleans to rebuild houses is great. But if we’re not getting to know and depend on each other along the way, if we’re just individuals lowering our own carbon footprint, than we haven’t built community. And that ultimately for him, and I agree, should be our goal.

A little bit of Torah/bible study/Koran/contemplation as I went out the door into the uncharacteristically humid California afternoon.

So pull out your tool kits (or borrow your neighbor’s), roll up your sleeves and let’s … start.

"Sustainable LA" at Downtown LA Film Festival Sunday, Aug 17

2008-08-14T09:38:00.000-07:00

For any Angelenos, the 2008 LA Downtown Film Festival concludes with Sustainable LA, a green festival on Sunday, August 17th from 12 noon to 10 pm. Pending family crisis or earthquake, your Intrepid Reporter will be there. If you live relatively nearby, check it out.

Offered up for your eco-enjoyment will be free screenings of green documentaires at MOCA, panel discussions about urban parks, the electric car, Slow Food and green collar jobs. Plus a Farmers' Market. The day will end with a screening of "Flow" from this year's Sundance Film Festsival.

Thanks to my eco-buddy, Tanya, at All Green Things, for giving me the heads up. You can visit her at the event or at her site.

Now if I can just figure out how to get photos into this blog (newbie here) and navigate the parking. Gas up, bring a cooler and reusable water bottle, slather on the sunscreen. Wear the stupid hat and get laughed at by the family (not a hat person). Wear comfortable shoes. Stash the cash for purchasing nibbles from farmers and artisanal types. (confessing ahead of time, Crunchy Chicken) Print out a map. Bring along reusable bags. Charge up the phone and the camera. Throw in paper and pen to take Intrepid Reporter notes. Pray that I can navigate the parking.

And I'm going alone. Imagine if the kids were little and potty training and this became a family outgoing. No, I won't go there.
draft

How Much More Damage Can He Do?

2008-08-12T07:49:00.000-07:00

Will the Frat Boy never leave? And how much worse can he make things before he finally goes?

That’s what Mr. Local and I talk about constantly around the kitchen table. Bush and his buddies have done so much to ruin the country I love that I’m almost paralyzed by rage.

Almost but not quite …

Now he’s taking on the Endangered Species Act. Here are some highlights, rather lowlights, of the bill from the CNN article:

Bush wants federal agencies to decide for themselves if projects harm wildlife
Changes would "seriously weaken" habitat protections, says conservationist
New rules end reviews that developers say increase many project cost
Similar bill passed in the House in 2005 but died in the Senate

More points from the story:

New regulations, which don't require the approval of Congress, would reduce the mandatory, independent reviews government scientists have been performing for 35 years, according to a draft first obtained by The Associated Press.
The director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, H. Dale Hall said, "We will not do anything that leaves the public out of this process."

No requirement for Congressional approval versus we won’t leave the public out of the process.

What?!? Did I read that right?

Perhaps these people need to sit through the entire DVD series of “John Adams” to remind them about what we were fighting for back in 1776.

For the full call to arms, check out today’s post from GreenBeanDreams about how to rise up and take action.

For those of you in California, a piece of good news is that Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California, is chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, and has called the proposed changes illegal. So please, fellow Californians, let her know your thoughts.

Just because Bush is touring the world, on our money, to wave good-bye, doesn’t mean his minions back home aren’t wreaking havoc with our children’s world.

Follow the Leafy Green Road

2008-08-11T08:06:00.000-07:00

Here's my post for the APLS blog Carnival. APLS are 'affluent people living sustainably.' Everyone's thoughts should be posted by August 15th. If you're an APLS or even think you could be or wonder if you're a Macintosh, Gala or Jonagold, then check us out.

The inaugural topic was:

What does sustainability mean to you?

I started down the Leafy Green Road by having Depression-era parents. Don’t buy what you don’t need, pay cash, eat at home, sew your own clothes and use the library. I guess that’s the underpinning of my sustainable values.

Then I went off to UCLA and got a degree in political science and promptly put it in my back pocket. I worked instead in retailing, moved on to the entertainment industry, a little bit of journalism and ultimately into public relations, which I think of as a combo of everything.

Along the way I grafted some religious/spiritual branches onto myself. I learned about Tikkun Olam, a Jewish value for repairing the world. You start and don’t worry about getting it done. This relieved me of my tendency for perfectionism. Just do it. Plus most synagogues have some kind of social action/political action committee. Whoa, finally a way to use my college degree for something more than a plaque on the wall of my office. I think we’re onto something.

Then I had kids. I made the oldest watch the 1992 Democratic convention with me. I pointed out the states on a placemat decorated with a USA map during the roll call vote. Well, I did that for a few minutes. I was enjoying myself, but the 3 year old wasn’t impressed.

Having kids made me concerned about our future because they were going to live in more of it than me. Then softball and piano lessons and Hebrew School schlepping got in the way. Some years my ‘save the world’ efforts didn’t get any further than mailing a check to the Red Cross anytime there was an earthquake somewhere in the world. I live in SoCal; I know from earthquakes. I was stockpiling good karma.

Then the kids got older and learned to drive themselves to the mall. One was headed to college soon and I knew there’d be very few family dinners left to share on a regular basis. And I was tired of eating mediocre food - mine - so I took cooking classes. And began reading about Slow Food and sustainable agriculture.

I was amazed that our food supply sucked. I’d experienced terrible peaches years ago but figured we were just shipping the good stuff out of state. Then I ate some really bad packaged mystery rice meals and realized something was wrong with this picture. That was the last straw, well, the entire Bush administration was the ongoing last straw but woman cannot live by anger alone.

Now one kid’s in college and the other is in 11th grade and I have more time for me. I’ve pulled that poli sci degree out of my back pocket. I’ve also cut down on paper towels, planted a small container garden, bake bread, visit farmers’ markets, turn off the lights, sweat a lot (almost no AC this summer but The Big Heat Looms, I’m sure), hang the clothes outside to dry when not pressed for clean underwear, recycle the junk mail and all office paper and read, read, read as much as I can about The Issues. Composting is in the future but I need to get other systems in place first – i.e. – husband on board.

So how do I feel on my journey? Well, green is actually my favorite color. But more than that, I feel integrated at last. My economic, political, social and social spiritual values are valued again. I’m living the talk as I walk the walk on the Leafy Green Road. Where am I headed? Not sure but it should be a heck of a journey. Pack a lunch and join me.

To Live Local - The Green Report

2008-08-10T20:46:00.000-07:00

Once a week I’ll be posting articles about ecological issues, new technologies, new green companies and interesting eco- happenings from the Golden State. I’ll offer up both news I’m proud of and activities that might make me wish my fellow Californians had cared a little more about the air, earth and water that we all share.

Here’s today's edition:

Pasadena is very into walkability, an issue near and dear to my feet. Old Town Pasadena has blocks of shops, condos, cafés – you don’t feel like you’re in LA at all. It’s almost Twilight Zone scary to walk from H&M to Forever 21 to lunch with my kids. Today LA Times ran an article about the city’s first “walkabout” in March, an event to compile ideas on making Pasadena safer for pedestrians. Check out “The goal: A foot-friendly city” written by Rong-Gong Lin II.

The New York Times Magazine has an article about water purification – indirect potable reuse – aka toilet to tap. “The Orange County Groundwater Replenishment System is the largest of its type in the world,” writes Elizabeth Royte, author of “Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It”. It's a great article that explains the process. Go OC!

My town has a community garden that is so successful, only 3 spots remain open to rent. Higher food prices are forcing many of us to pick up spade and rake. See the article in The Acorn, our weekly newspaper. “Oak Park garden an offshoot of escalating food prices” by Sophia Fischer. The entire garden is organic. It was an empty lot when we moved there and now I love to watch people climb the stairs to work on their patch of earth.

What's the Green News from your community?

Let Them Eat Rock Soup

2008-08-08T07:42:00.000-07:00

No gentle humor this morning, folks. Outrage is how we’re ending the week.

Here’s the headline, top of fold, in today’s Wall Street Journal:

“Food Giants Race to Pass Rising Costs To Shoppers”

Like this is an Olympic sport?!? And Big Aggie is sponsoring a team?

You’ll have to pay to get this article online because that’s just the way Mr. Murdoch is. So let me give you a couple of paragraphs from Scott Kilman’s informative, albeit scary, article.

… “Companies throughout the food chain are changing the way they do business in response to soaring grain costs, and consumers are likely to bear the brunt in the form of rising food prices.

Farmers are making the broadest cuts to their livestock herds in decades, meaning meat at the supermarket will likely cost more in coming years. Middlemen are trying to shorten the duration of supply contracts to 90 days from one year so they can pass on higher costs more quickly. And food brands are shrinking the contents of their packages, from ice-cream cartons to beverage containers.

“Everyone’s adjusting,” Brenda C. Barnes, chief executive of Sara Lee Corp., said Thursday after the company reported a $695 million loss for the quarter ended June 28. That included an $850 million after-tax charge, mostly for writing down the value of bakery businesses hit by soaring wheat costs.”…

ADJUSTING?!?! Is that what we’re calling it now? Should I rush out to buy a cheesecake to help out?

Casaubon’s Book asks what we’re going to do for a living in post-peak oil. To date she's had 93 comments discussing getting down to basic jobs in a depressed economy.

Pity the poor money managers. With no money, what will they manage?

Crunchy Chicken posted on The Economist’s debate on whether rising food prices are good or bad, followed by a thoughtful group of comments.

I say, if rising prices for everything wakes up anyone who could even think of voting for McCain, then the oncoming tsunami of pain will have served its purpose.

We are crumbling, people, and we can’t stand another 4 years of McBush.

It's Not Easy Being Green

2008-08-06T21:41:00.000-07:00

With every article I read about farmers’ markets, I yearn for the weekend when we finally get ours in Oak Park. Seems the company that will run the market passed the parking hurdle, having turned in the study requested by the County. (Hello, if we had buses and small neighborhoods, we wouldn’t have to worry about the cars!) Our market will be either on Saturday or Sunday, from 9 am to 1pm. Either day I’m thrilled.

Human nature being what it is, when you get a group of people together, you get arguments and grumblings and people gaming the system. The article in today’s New York Times ‘Dining In’ section talks about the difficulties of policing the producer-only rules at farmers’ markets.

According to Michael Hurwitz, director of Greenmarket, “those who are violating our rules are cheating, and it should be personal integrity that catches it, rather than an inspection. Do I wish we had 20 more inspectors? No. I wish we had no cheating in the system.”

Stacy Miller, executive secretary of the Farmers Market Coalition, a national nonprofit created in response to requests for more information, resources and representation about the industry, said there is no consensus on producer-only rules.

So what will the Oak Park Farmers’ Market be? According to the proposal before the Municipal Advisory Council, the Community Certified Farmers’ Market will be “An open-air pedestrian based market that offers a variety of fresh and eco friendly produce, fruits, baked/specialty foods and musical entertainment for the local residents...The State of California Agricultural Commissioner will certify that the farmers will sell food produced directly by the farmers themselves. "

Whatever the rules are, what I want is the market. Not simply because I need to know the provenance of my plums or the name of the farmer’s daughter or to eat pesticide-free peaches. I want what a friend said she craves – social – an adjective-turned-noun. And not just anonymous chatting while you bag a few onions, but a deeper relationship with everything and everyone that will cut through the alienation, homogenization and sterility of what our lives have become in the guise of progress.

So Ms. Farmer, you can tell me the history of your heirloom tomatoes. I’ll listen. But I’d rather you feed me. Because I’m hungry.

A 'Dear Al' Letter

2008-08-03T13:01:00.000-07:00

I have a confession to make … I can’t make it through Al Gore’s books.

There, I said it and shortly I will hit publish and it will be out in the world forever. Please don’t take my first born … unless you’re willing to pay for her next 2 years of college.

Lord knows I tried. I read the reviews of “The Assault on Reason”and bought the book in hard copy even. A third of the way through was all I could handle.

Once burned, I borrowed “Earth in the Balance”, from our community library just up the street (will that absolve me?). I succeeded in getting halfway through, even enjoying the parts about how weather effects history and how the French Revolution could have been helped along because of bad harvests.

But then I began to just skim it in the hopes of finding kernels of knowledge from our High Priest. Finally last night I had to put it aside with an apology as I placed it on the nightstand. (I actually said I’m sorry to his face on the back of the book.)

Al, you are my idol when it comes to how to recover from a life crisis. Your strength in not becoming a bitter recluse after the Shame of 2000 (theirs, not yours), your Phoenix-like rise from the ashes to pursue the even more worthy goal of saving the planet, to win an Oscar and then the Nobel Peace Prize … well, when I get down about my life, I just channel my Inner Al because baby, you are one hot role model.

But Al darling, everybody needs an editor, even God (i.e. all commentaries since Sinai).

So while I will support WE (love those commercials), continue to get a tingle when I listen to your speeches on YouTube, and think “An Inconvenient Truth” was amazing as a film as well as for its content, going forward on my journey I will look to you to supply the vision and the leadership only.

For a good read, I’ll reach for Bill McKibben, Michael Pollan, Barbara Kingslover or Thomas Friedman’s upcoming “Hot, Flat and Crowded”.

Please forgive me for I have sinned. Click.

News Flash: check out today’s LA Times Steve Lopez column on the Orange County Fair and Kimberly Barnes, 4-H Club member, president of her chapter of the Future Farmers of America and award winning goat farmer from Tehachapi, CA. She’s off to Iowa State University to become a veterinarian.

You Ought To Be In Pictures

2008-08-02T14:48:00.000-07:00

Last weekend my husband, aka Mr. Local, and I saw King Corn, inspired by Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma. One copy was sitting on the ‘just released’ shelves at Blockbuster, and I snatched it up.

I had missed the chance to see it earlier this year when The California Endowment, a nonprofit whose mission includes promoting improvements in the health status of all Californians, featured it in one of its evenings on food policy.

While a picture is a thousand words, a moving picture ups the ante exponentially.

The film was not only informative about the role of corn in our lives, but just a darn good flick. It’s a sweet story of two friends returning to the shared Mid-Western roots of their great-grandfathers’ generation, roots they didn’t know they had in common when they met in college in Boston.

What’s more, they spurred Mr. Local to action. He’s been willing to follow my lead with our incremental steps To Live Local. What’s not to like if Mrs. Local is saving money with fewer rolls of paper towels and pesto made from the basil in her container garden? But this movie opened up his eyes without me having to harangue him at the kitchen counter, something that doesn’t work much anyway.

So when he came back from a trip to the market, he rushed in with a find that he was bursting to share, much like a little boy bringing home some bugs to show Mom.

Look at this he said and thrust a bottle of Bull’s-Eye Barbecue Sauce in my face. No high fructose corn syrup written right on the label. The man was proud.

He had walked the condiment aisle checking labels. This brand was the only one he could find without Demon Corn in it. I went online to check out the Kraft Foods website. I was surprised, though not really, to find that they didn’t brag about being healthier but just offered up an advertise-y new product kind of pitch instead. Had I actually expected them to fess up to polluting our bodies?

Later this week he stormed into my office once again, this time brandishing a bottle of cranberry juice from Costco. Look, no corn syrup. We’re back to cane sugar, he proclaimed. The man was on a roll.

Then came today’s news flash from the front page of the LA Times on the growing consumer demand for products without high fructose corn syrup. Vote with your wallet, folks. It’s the only effective protest that Big Corporate will respond to.

So now that I found the documentary aisle, small though it may be, I’m eager to hunt down more. And it seems I’m not alone. Michelle over at Green Bean Dreams has solicited comments about Sustainable Cinema and will be posting a list soon.

Hopefully in time for next weekend’s Movie-Sans-Microwavable-Popcorn-Night.

A Weekend of Tikkun Olam

2008-07-27T19:56:00.000-07:00

Tikkun Olam is a Jewish saying and means ‘to repair the world’. But can one person really make a difference? According to Rabbi Tarfon, a sage of the first century AD, “it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but neither are you free to desist from it.” Maybe we can’t stop global warming, but we do have to make a start. And I have.

For me, baking bread is a political act to take back control over what my family eats. So I prepared for Shabbat by baking a challah, running back and forth from the kitchen to my home office, as the bread rose.

Each week during the summer I’ve made the egg bread, and each week I’ve switched recipes because sometimes the darn thing doesn’t rise enough, even with well proofed yeast.

This Friday night’s version rose (hooray) and had good taste but could have been less dry. Next week I’ll read King Arthur Flour’s baking tips to figure out the moisture problem.

The electric bill came on Friday too, for joy for joy. I tore it open like a college acceptance envelope before the advent of email. We’ve been sweating for weeks as part of what seems to be a national, grassroots crusade to turn off the AC. Was it all going to be worth it? Had I let go of the grid even a few fingers full?

And the envelope please…yes, the news was good! We’d cut our daily kilowatts by 2/3 from last year and nearly ¾ from the year before.

Now, just a little transparency. In 2006, there were 6 people living in my house over the summer months. For family reasons, my parents had joined the 4 of us. Last year it was more like 3½ persons, since the oldest was working many hours, as a good college sophomore should do, helping her poor suffering parents with the tuition bill just a wee bit.

This summer we’re practicing empty nesters: one kid in Boston, the other at camp. Come mid-August, we’ll have a Perfect Heat Wave – both kids back, ready to see if hot air really does rise to the second floor bedrooms. Those savings will go right back to SoCal Edison, I’m sure. But we’ll be watching our kWh’s again come September.

Last week I discovered a new recycling option. The Agoura Hills Library recycles used batteries. We had 3 cups full of AAs and AAAs that I’d been saving for just such a find. I packed them in the car to be deposited along the way on my (new) weekly trip to the Farmers’ Market in Old Town Calabasas, a 20 mile round trip. Our Oak Park Farmers’ Market will be opened once the powers that be agree about parking. I hope that’s soon. A three mile round trip will save time and gas.

I’m still learning my way around the produce stalls, having only gone the last three weekends. Should I buy right away or check out everyone’s prices? Will the fruit from each tomato vendor taste differently? I can’t say I’m having the level of ‘Bill McKibben-Deep Economy-build community' conversations yet, but I am learning more about how food from the ground is supposed to look.

And today I happened upon a video of a Pat Murphy lecture that made me feel hopeful about the future. Pat is the executive director of Community Solutions and the author of Plan C-Community Survival Strategies for Peak Oil and Climate Change.

He doesn’t think all the technological changes we’re hoping will save us will actually work. He believes we’ll have to change how we live and who we are.

Of course that means we all have to get on the bus to make it work and that will take leadership and vision to convince everyone to get onboard. But it means that every individual's effort has meaning.

Yes I can ... repair the world one recycled battery, loaf of bread and red, yellow or orange tomato at a time. And I’ve already started.

My Kingdom for a Cup of Agua

2008-07-20T16:39:00.001-07:00

In the late 70’s a friend of mine, a NYC ex-pat, used to laugh at how our local news shows would lead with the weather every time it rained, like it was the end of the world as we knew it. People could be starving in Bangladesh but perky weather people were always screaming: We Have Weather! News at 11!

She didn’t understand how we could be so obsessed with water. You crazy Angelenos, petrified by a few drops of moisture. What would you do if it snowed, she’d gloat. And you huddle in your homes with a bad case of Driver’s Ed Amnesia, like this didn’t happen every year, the same slip sliding away on Pacific Coast Highway. She thought this tempest-in-an-umbrella was just a hoot.

I think of her whenever it rains and her gentle ribbing of our amusing cultural ticks. But I like her a lot so I’ve had to invent new ways to remember her. These days, I’d forget my own name if I had to count on the snowmelt in the Sierra Nevadas as a tickler file.

Which brings me to today’s Los Angeles Times Opinion section and an article that might be scarier than the Jack Nicholson nose-slicing scene from "Chinatown". According to Cary Lowe, a land-use lawyer and urban planning consultant, California’s continuing water crisis may mean the end of the state as we know it. Is growth over for the Golden State?

Earlier this year the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California reduced deliveries to agricultural customers by 30%. Those farmers are a big part of our economy, not to mention that they’re growing much of the food we all need to survive.

The agency has set up a contingency plan for similar cutbacks for urban consumers and rate hikes of up to 20%. No AC, no water, what next?

Fewer places to live, that’s what. Six years ago a law went into effect that requires water agencies to document enough long-term water supplies to support large developments. No H2O, no housing, no vacancies. Forget a border between the US and Mexico. We may have to build a border between California and the rest of the Union.

You see, it’s not raining very much anymore. We’ve gone virtually all season, November through March, year after year, with nada, rien, nothing. Last year I recall just one evening of a typical rainstorm. I don’t know what scared me more, the sound of the constant rain that doesn’t stop for hours on end, or that I had forgotten what a downpour sounded like. It doesn’t rain in California, and it doesn’t pour anymore, Lord, either.

So read the whole drought-ridden tale yourself and laugh at us California-crazies if you must. Only do it from your own living room, not on the Twentieth Century Limited to the Coast.

Gray Hair Versus Dead Baby Penguins

2008-07-18T17:59:00.000-07:00

This afternoon my hairdresser, in the middle of coiffing me, asked if I’d be willing to pony up more greenbacks for environmentally friendly hair dye. Would I be willing to save not only the earth but my scalp too, for nearly twice as much money as I’m currently paying for a cut and color?

Well, this is not an easy question to answer.

I know that I can’t possible be doing good things to my skin with the hair dye I’ve been applying for the last 2 decades. Just spending 3 hours in the salon gives me a headache. For the sake of a few gray hairs and really mousey, blah hair, I’m destroying my scalp, my lungs and the few decent brain cells I have left.

I snip out the gray hairs after every color job anyway. Jeez, they’re so resilient that the dye doesn’t take. So which is it – mousey versus money versus Russian roulette with Golden Locks #4?

I told her to keep me posted. Maybe sign up everyone in the salon and do a Wall-Mart volume number to bring the price down and get back to me.

True, it’s exciting to think that everywhere you turn, people are talking about saving the earth from their own little corner of the world. But I want to save money too. If anyone ever told me I’d get brain cancer from this goop, I’d just resign myself to Minnie Mousehood. For now, my next appointment is in 12 weeks.

Which makes me want to revisit the L’Oreal tagline - do I not think I’m worth it? Like I said, not an easy question to answer.

My Name is Bobbi and I’m a Paperholic

2008-07-17T10:58:00.000-07:00

I must have been a papyrus maker in another life. The smell, the touch, the feel – I must have paper in my life. Books, yellow lined pads on thick cardboard, stationery with my logo on it – and paper towels.

I know I’m not alone. So many of you have confessed to the siren call of the countertop roll-holder. But I knew that the guilt every time I tore off a sheet was not assuaged by using one of those tear off only as much as you need versions. And until I start wiping, how the heck do I know how much I’ll need?

So last month’s start of my new green life included figuring out ways to cut back on paper towels. I can’t stand messy counters and I didn’t want to use sponges and spread bacteria around. Then I realized we had lots of rags in the garage. I decided to use those.

Three weeks in my husband noticed. He said he was concerned about using cleaning/dog mess rags on the counter, no matter how much I washed them. But he didn’t say stop, bless his heart. Instead he came up with a solution/negotiated marital compromise. He suggested finding some cheap hand towels that were a color besides white so we could tell them apart and he’d be onboard with cutting back on paper towels. Later in the day he actually picked up a stack for me at Costco’s. I’m sure they were made in some country I can’t spell but we can’t fix everything at once.

As for drying my hands or wiping them off as I cook, we’ve instituted another eco-frugal solution. We’re using the small towels I bought for the bathrooms to fold over the bath towels I also hang there. (I was Miss Martha in another life too.) Now I’m all for less elegance in the loo, less paper in the trash. The colors even work for the kitchen. And the already in place kitchen towels have been relegated to dish drying only.

I can’t give up Mr. Brawny altogether just yet, so I guess a small package of recyclables is better than nothing. I mean, what do I dry my peaches off with? How will I clean the gunk off the tops of tomato sauce cans before I open them? What will I use to absorb the oil from the latkes I make from scratch every couple of Hanukkahs?

I can see that this will be a bigger commitment than using public transportation, should we ever get enough of it out here in my lifetime.

But we are definitely on a roll.

Napkins to Wipe My Brow

2008-07-16T22:45:00.000-07:00

I’m sitting at the computer with sweat dripping off of me. It’s 10 pm and the downstairs thermostat says 80°. I can see that the little degree symbol and I will become close buddies this summer. Whoever said that air conditioning was a crime against humanity has not had to chat up newspaper editors in a home office with the door kept shut because the dog barks at phantoms and the window is only partially open to minimize the sound from the neighbor’s gardener’s mower.

I’m hoping the money we save on AC electricity will put the kids through college. Or this water weight loss will show up on the scale tomorrow. I checked my face in the mirror and I swear the wrinkles have smoothed out after years of near-desert living. I’m glowing like an Irish lass. Or else I’m reliving my childhood in New Rochelle, a suburb of New York City, when we only had a window fan and I tossed and turned on the bed searching for a cool section of sheet. Actually I think I’ll go for the weight loss.

As I sink into a puddle on the floor, let me quickly share today’s eco moment - my morning rummage through the fabric box in search of scraps big enough to make cloth napkins. I’ve been wondering if the family would tolerate a shift away from paper. I’m a heavy, mindless user. I grab clumps of them at a time to wipe up coffee spills.

My husband isn't too keen on the recycled brand I bought last time. Then I remembered the fabric scrap box. I also remembered how last year, in a fit of purge, I gave away yards of material and old curtains. But we won’t go there.

I found some swatches large enough to be cut into, let’s be kind and call them ‘breakfast napkins’. Small but I counted 30. This weekend I’ll crank up the old Singer and edge them to ward off complaints about tackiness. I’ll sneak them into a basket on the counter and see if anyone notices. Dinner napkins and anything for company will have to be bigger and made out of something besides leftover kiddie fabric. But we’re taking baby steps.

Now I must stick my head in the freezer before I haul myself upstairs, where more hot air is waiting to enfold me, to check the temperature of the sheets.

The Journey One Month In

2008-07-14T21:47:00.000-07:00

It’s been one month since sticker shock overcame me while gassing up my little Honda. I’ve since recovered and launched this blog on local living to catalogue my journey. The next few posts will be an update on the changes I’ve made so far.

First, this new path fits me like a glove.

I like the idea of frugal living. I’ve never been one to live at the top of my paycheck. The Anti-Material Girl. Now from my blog reading, I see that it’s becoming cool. The In Crowd at last!

I like living in my house. Maybe it’s the years of running around with the kids, the hours on the freeway back and forth to work or the grind that LA traffic has become nearly round the clock, but I no longer like driving. Closer is better. My house is nest-able.

I already know how to cook, sew, manage a household. I wasn’t raised with the McDonald’s Convenience Syndrome and the thought of making my own cheese or butter is intriguing.

I work from home so I don’t have to drive much anyway and the kids are beyond the schlepping to softball and piano lesson stage.

My most favorite activity in the world is to curl up with a book. I’ve yet to actually curl up with my laptop but with the Internet, the world comes to me. And with a wide open topic like living local, I have lots of room to roam.

So I don’t feel deprived one bit. In fact, I feel the stirrings of a liberated consumer casting aside the chains of media manipulation.

Now for the changes:

Electricity – I’ve become fanatic about shutting off lights whenever I leave a room. Unfortunately our humble abode is so dark I have to have lights on all day in whatever room I’m in. No 'Good Morning, Sunshine' for me in this house. But we’ve cut way down on AC usage. In my mind I’m conserving now for when we hit those weeks of 95° and above that will start pounding us in August. Sweat has become a virtue.

Recycling - We’ve had recycling in Los Angeles for nearly 20 years. So the habit of separating out glass, newspaper, metal and plastic has become well entrenched. But turning over every conceivable plastic container to check for that little rounded triangle symbol has become an obsession. I’m finding new things to recycle like junk mail, office paper, toilet rolls, cereal boxes and yogurt containers. I scrutinize every plastic bag. The plastic bag for potting soil for cactuses was recyclable but the bag for the organic super soil mix wasn’t. Go figure.

Water – A few years ago we needed a new washer and dryer. We bought a non-Maytag, breaking a longstanding family tradition. We purchased Fisher & Paykel energy saver machines. The washer senses how much water it needs so I can do smaller loads without wasting water. I was washing the shrinkables in cold water for years anyway. Now I run practically everything that way. Plus it spins the water out of them like nobody’s business so the clothes spend less time in the dryer. And during the summer I’ll be rack drying most of our clothes in that warm California sun.

More in the next post about my gas diary, the paper towel challenge and smiling at shopkeepers.

We’ll Always Have Poli Sci 101

2008-07-02T10:24:00.000-07:00

I’ve never been one for local politics. I majored in political science at UCLA when Kissinger was Secretary of State. It was one of his books that got me hooked on international relations. Since then, I’ve become more interested in national politics, especially the last 8 years. But local somehow just didn’t have the same panache.

Oak Park is unincorporated. I’d always thought of us as kind of like flour than hasn’t been mixed well into the batter. But it refers to government, not baking. It means we’re not part of any municipality. We’re governed by Ventura County.

We do have a Municipal Advisory Council. Residents elect five members who serve as representatives of the community, advising Supervisor Linda Parks, our go-to person, who is elected to the County Board of Supervisors from District 2.

For years I saw signs announcing MAC meetings. Last week I went to my first one because I needed to start at the very beginning. Since we don’t have a home owners association in our development, MAC was my political center.

What went on in these get-togethers? Was it like a CSPAN broadcast from the House of Representatives with the Gentle Man from Florida handing off his speaking time to the Gentle Lady from California?

What could go wrong in our idyllic little corner of the world? I had no requests that needed to be brought before the king’s representative. What could they do for me? I sat there wondering why I’d come and if I’d admit to myself to being just a teeny bit bored.

Then I saw that people cared and there were issues at the beginning of the political food chain:

Water, its quality, where it came from, who owned it, gray water recycling

Building cell phone towers in the middle of housing developments and the effects of radio waves

Land use and how to protect against development of our open spaces when the law that controls it expires. (Who knew it could expire?)

Reports on ambulance response times

Oversized vehicles parking all night

Landscaping

Sanitation

Adequately reviewing the parking for a Farmers Market set to open in the area

And that was just one meeting. The chair ran a tight ship, courteous, listening to and acknowledging everyone’s comments. He was civil, which according to the Random House Webster’s Dictionary means:

Of citizens

Of the ordinary life of citizens

Civilized

Polite

Like we’re all in this together so maybe we should just get along.

Two seats on the MAC will be up for election in November. In the past, I’d either checked off a random name I might have recognized or skipped the local section completely. Now that I know what MAC means, I’ll not only be watching the races at the national level, but reading what The Acorn and the Ventura County Star, our local weekly and daily newspapers respectively, have to say about the candidates.

So Henry, don’t take it personally. I haven’t really given up on geopolitics. The effects of American international relations, or lack thereof, are with me every time I get in the car. It’s just that your political theories are destroying my world. But we’ll always have Westwood.

Do My Green Eyes Count?

2008-06-27T19:33:00.000-07:00

I’ve always relied on my green eyes. If I ran out of the house on St. Patrick’s Day dressed in brown tweed, I just batted my lashes at the critic and got off scot-free. Will my baby greens give me eco-cred now?

If I can’t take carbon credits for body parts, what about working from home before they called it telecommuting or building virtual teams? My husband has worked out of the house for almost 20 years and I’ve been off the road - 12,000 miles per year are peanuts in LALA Land - while the kids were growing up.

Even after going back to work full time, I’ve been hitting the keys from the spare bedroom for the last 6 years. The way I figure it, what were simply choices we made to have a more stress-free life, build two businesses and watch our kids grow up should be applicable in the ‘how green is your valley’ game that I know is just down the road.

Now I’ve read that line drying is an eco-chic option. Again I’m ahead of the curve but pedaling in obscurity. I had been rack drying one, sometimes two loads of laundry a week ever since the girls wore clothes that I dare not shrink on pain of being pronounced an awful mother. Add in my shrinkables and I’d been saving money and electricity, not to mention untold tons of carbon dioxide, for at least 10 years.

I did it because you don’t want to shrink clothes that barely zip or cover your teenaged daughters' belly buttons and that you spent hours of schlepping the malls to find. And with my fluctuating poundage, the last thing I wanted was to downsize my wardrobe.

Then one winter my schedule was slowed down by too many clothes crammed onto too few racks taking way too many days to dry. I had to try the lowest temperature setting on the dryer or end up with mold. Ever the risk taker, I hit ‘start’ and prayed for the best. It worked. No early morning complaints.

But no Russian roulette with everyone’s jeans or my own clothes. There was still that threat of Bad Mommyness and the ongoing shifts in body parameters. But for much of the family’s wardrobe, I went back to the dryer.

I must admit the convenience was a timesaver. I remember my mom hanging clothes on a line that ran down the yard between our apartment building and the one next to us. I don’t recall when we got the dryer but she has reminisced about what it meant in the fifties to be able to purchase this major electrical appliance.

Now I’m going to have to rethink the level of sacrifice I’m willing to make. Am I ready to give up an invention that was one of the steps to liberation for a previous generation?

Read this article about Alexander Lee, the clothesline advocate, and log onto his site at www.laundrylist.org to see why I’m willing to dust off the racks in the garage again.

Getting Kicked Off The Grid

2008-06-25T20:46:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday the electricity went out. How fitting that on the day I wanted to launch a blog about sustainable local living, the electrical power in the whole neighborhood shut down. According to the LA Times, Saturday was 104°. We peaked at about 113° earlier in the week. Ah, a cooling trend had begun.

It wasn’t the first time a blackout had happened. When we moved in, we lost power around Week 2. The neighbors said it happens; get used to it. Welcome to the Third World, our Golden Ghetto, I thought.

We continued to suffer from blackouts every few years. Once an elementary school play was cancelled and the audience of sweating parents and grandparents was sent home. No power meant no AC in a multi-purpose room filled with little kids singing Broadway show tunes. The show definitely couldn’t go on.

Since this is the summer of the stay-cation, to amuse myself I pulled out the camera and started shooting photos of the backyard. Bark stripping off the trees, dew on the leaves, well, really sprinkler water. We don’t do dew. We live in a desert, something I was sure to be reminded of shortly if the AC didn’t come on soon.

Yet it was amazingly pleasant. Our world famous sun wouldn’t hit us full force until later. Since I planned on spending lots of time in the yard, barbecuing with friends, maybe even planting a container vegetable garden, it was time to make the place livable again. I swept up the leaves and removed pots of dead plants.

In between the heavy lifting, I stopped to listen to the birds. It was just me, the birdies, the lizards, the rabbits, a little white butterfly and some flies. I’m sure there were snakes too; it’s rattlesnake season. A few years ago a small dog was bitten in the parking lot of the community center and died. I’d seen reptiles slithering around when I walked by the condos and the high school baseball diamond.

Then as I swept the patio, I noticed strange animal poop. It wasn’t from our Wonder Poodle. He goes on the yard. And it was too big to come out of the bunnies. We do have coyotes. Was this an example of nature up close and personal?

The neighbor’s cat was killed by a coyote few years ago when the poor thing slipped out unnoticed. The next morning they found what was left of it by the mailbox.

The meat in the freezer was defrosting, I couldn’t check my emails without running down the battery and now I was surrounded by unfriendly, non-domesticated mammals.

Then I heard the click of the house gearing up again. Not bad. The power went off around 7am and was back on by 9:40am. Just 2 ½ hours of living off the grid. More like getting kicked off it. Then at 10:30am it died again but struggled back on five minutes later. The hum remained permanent. At last I could get back to real life.

It’s going to be another long, hot, dry summer. The only good thing will be the ability to rack-dry loads of wash quickly in the backyard and put the saved money towards cranking up the air conditioner. In between the blackouts.

Learning to Walk Again

2008-06-24T18:03:00.000-07:00

If a livable city includes walk-ability, I decided the first steps of my challenge to live local would be to accomplish an errand by walking. We have a library just a few blocks away, a treat for a bookworm in Uber-Suburbia. After the shock of the previous day’s fill-up, I figured this would be a good outing to launch my efforts.

It’s not like I didn’t know this hometown library existed. I’d signed up for a card when we moved to the neighborhood 15 years ago. But back then the library was part of the high school, very few hours of service and only a small inventory. I’d taken my reading cravings elsewhere. When the city built a new library, I continued to think of it as second rate. Was that still true? Could I change a 15 year habit? Would my card still be active?

My husband had been using this library recently, so I headed out at 11am, greased up with sunscreen, with a book to return and a water bottle in my sack.

Fifteen minutes up, way up hill I trudged because our city is built on a large incline. Just me and the cars to share the scenery of our foothills and planned open space.

Once there, I caught my breath (2 years of cardio kickboxing three times a week obviously wasn’t conditioning enough) bought 3 books from the daily book sale (giving back to the community on Day 1) checked out a book and movie (the card still worked) and ordered up 2 books from another Ventura County library (the first time my borrowing had ventured beyond the LA County system). Heading back at noon in 80° heat, 40% humidity, it was downhill, fortunately.

We are close to Oxnard, home of the strawberry and a farmer has parked an SUV filled with fruit on a side street every season for the past 3 or 4 years. I buy strawberries several afternoons a week, doing what I can to help local farmers. This year they added cherries. I bought some and walked home with care, making sure not to tip the box. A real errand, 3 in fact: a movie, some books for the week and cherries, food for the family. All accomplished by walking.

Then the following week ushered in summer with a bang - over 110° weather. While I definitely will patronize the library again, it will have to be during a string of errands via my Honda. Being neither a mad dog nor an Englishman, I will have to think of different ways to incorporate walking into my life during our long California summer.

The Gas Tank Made Me Do It

2008-06-22T19:15:00.000-07:00

On Friday, June 13th I went to fill up my Honda Accord and the price was $4.75 a gallon for regular. I live in a distant suburb of Greater Los Angeles. Actually it’s a pinkie toe into Ventura County, the Conejo Valley. I have to drive 2 miles for a carton of milk. When my parents moved us to LA 45 years ago, gas was about 25¢ a gallon. Clearly I have to change how I live because in the ensuing years LA hasn’t gotten any smaller. If anything, we’ve sprawled out even more.

To Live Local will be about how I find and build community closer to home. The lure of living in SoCal has always been that you’re only a few hours from anywhere by car – the beach, the mountains, the desert, the entertainment centers. If you wanted an authentic ethnic dinner at a restaurant an hour’s drive away, you just jumped in the car without thinking.

Nowadays more of us are thinking twice before embarking on long drives for a casual night on the town. If necessity is the mother of invention, we’re all going to have to get pregnant and give birth to an answer to the energy problem pretty quickly before the economy goes even further into the gas tank. Not that I’m panicking yet, but LA by foot is a scary thought.

So this blog will be my journey to learn and care about the place I’ve called home for all these years, to finally become ‘native to my place’. But ‘my place’ can be the home office I work in for 8 hours a day or the world that I live in 24/7. So depending on what I’m hoping to learn or accomplish, I’ll define place as the neighborhood, the city, the valley, the county, Southern California, the Golden State, the US of A or the earth.

What are some of the things I hope to learn or incorporate into my new local life?

o Can I eat locally, recycle consistently, cut back on electricity and water usage, plant a garden and build a compost pile?

o Can I read locally, listen locally and attend local theatre performances, music concerts and art museums?

o Can I attend a local city council meeting and find out what the issues are?

o Can I get beyond big box stores and explore ethnic markets and neighborhood merchants?

o Can I find green businesses to frequent?

o Can I find a farmers market?

If I can’t forgo shopping at chains, how can I personalize them and build a neighborhood for myself when said ‘hood has to stretch for at least 20 miles in all directions if I want to get most of my needs and those of my family met.

According to the charter for the Congress for the New Urbanism, a neighborhood should be a ¼ mile from center to edge and it should take 5 min to walk there. Each neighborhood should have stores, houses of worship, homes, workplaces, schools and recreational areas. And they should be able to walk to a transit stop.

Looks like this California Girl has a long journey ahead of her. But first, can someone please define ‘transit stop’?