It was an idea second in grandiosity only to my brainstorm to paint the living room while I was on maternity leave with my first child.
I've been noodling over the idea of giving up my car for a week for quite a while. While I'm not particularly big into living green - if I hear the term "carbon footprint" one more time, I might gag - I am shocked, embarrassed and deeply concerned about America's propensity to mindlessly waste natural resources - particularly under the hoods of our motor vehicles.
Cars are, after all, a convenience, not a necessity. I like my air-conditioned van as well as the next soccer mom, but I also try to remember that it's nothing more than a convenient form of transportation.
And that I got along just fine without a car for most of my young adulthood. All the time I was going to school, I walked, rode my bike or took a bus. Granted, it was often a matter of economics: When I lived in Milwaukee, I hoofed it 45 minutes each way just to save the $1 bus fare. But I got my daily exercise and really enjoyed walking through the different neighborhoods.
Now with gas prices through the roof, this would be the perfect time to park the minivan in the driveway and return to footpower. This would be the perfect opportunity to show my daughter Elizabeth that we could be self-reliant - just like Laura Ingalls Wilder in her beloved "Little House" books.
But I couldn't approach this helter skelter. There were a number of factors I had to consider in order to make this little adventure work.
First, I had to consider the children. It would have been too difficult, I reckoned, to do it while school was in session. It would take far too long to walk Elizabeth to elementary school, take Sally to preschool on the other side of town and come back across town to deposit Christi in daycare and then another mile or so to get to work.
Summer would be much better, I figured. Elizabeth would be in summer school, but the babysitter's house isn't too far out of the way. But wait, no, that wouldn't work either. We would have to leave the house at the crack of dawn to get Elizabeth to school on time, and then I still would have to hoof it to work.
Drat - that pesky job! While I could do most of my work over the phone, I would have to leave the office at some point during the week, and I figured the Times probably didn't want to pay me to stroll around town to interviews. And I work a lot of evenings. Did I really want to be walking home at midnight?
What if it was hot and humid? I wouldn't want to walk for hours and hours in pantyhose, so I would have to bring a change of clothes for work. Which meant I would have to find my backpack, and I really didn't have time to drop everything to look for it.
So I started to modify my goal. What if I went without my car for a weekend instead of a week? That would still prove I could do it, right?
It wouldn't be that hard - I would just have to make sure that I had plenty of milk and groceries and diapers in the house - there would be no quick runs to Wal-Mart.
If it was nice, we would walk to the park or maybe the pool. We could surely do that, I thought. Just put Christi in the stroller and off we go.
Except Sally might struggle to keep up. Her almost-4-year-old legs are stout, but they might get tuckered out.
I could ride my bike. Of course - all we needed to do was get a bike trailer for two kids, which we've been meaning to do so we can enjoy family bike rides. We would just get that hitched up and problem solved. Elizabeth loves to ride her bike and would have no problem keeping up. Heck, we could tool all over town with a bike trailer.
Solution found, I was fully intending to try my motorless experiment just as soon as a good time presented itself.
Then Monday, on my way to work, the van broke down. A simple mechanical breakdown and my life went into a tailspin. My husband drives a pickup truck - there would be no way I could fit all those kids - and car seats - in the cab, so I was stuck. Literally.
It was the perfect time for my experiment.
The logistics, now very real, were staggering. My bike has a flat tire and I never did get that bike trailer. How would I possibly manage? What would I do with Sally and Christie? Wasn't there rain predicted?
And just who, for crying out loud, would be nuts enough to walk all over town with three kids in tow trying to get everyone to school and daycare and work?
So I stayed home Tuesday. Because of being scheduled to work the Fourth of July holiday, I had a day of vacation coming anyway. I stuck Elizabeth in a cab to go to summer school and contemplated how I could rearrange my schedule to accommodate being car-less for the day. I could make a few calls from home and go into the office later at night when the truck, I mean my husband, got home.
Problem solved.
But just as soon as I can - I swear - I am going to get that bike trailer and leave the van in the driveway.
And paint the living room.
- Mary Jane Grenzow is
features editor of The Times. She can be reached at
mgrenzow@themonroetimes.com.
I've been noodling over the idea of giving up my car for a week for quite a while. While I'm not particularly big into living green - if I hear the term "carbon footprint" one more time, I might gag - I am shocked, embarrassed and deeply concerned about America's propensity to mindlessly waste natural resources - particularly under the hoods of our motor vehicles.
Cars are, after all, a convenience, not a necessity. I like my air-conditioned van as well as the next soccer mom, but I also try to remember that it's nothing more than a convenient form of transportation.
And that I got along just fine without a car for most of my young adulthood. All the time I was going to school, I walked, rode my bike or took a bus. Granted, it was often a matter of economics: When I lived in Milwaukee, I hoofed it 45 minutes each way just to save the $1 bus fare. But I got my daily exercise and really enjoyed walking through the different neighborhoods.
Now with gas prices through the roof, this would be the perfect time to park the minivan in the driveway and return to footpower. This would be the perfect opportunity to show my daughter Elizabeth that we could be self-reliant - just like Laura Ingalls Wilder in her beloved "Little House" books.
But I couldn't approach this helter skelter. There were a number of factors I had to consider in order to make this little adventure work.
First, I had to consider the children. It would have been too difficult, I reckoned, to do it while school was in session. It would take far too long to walk Elizabeth to elementary school, take Sally to preschool on the other side of town and come back across town to deposit Christi in daycare and then another mile or so to get to work.
Summer would be much better, I figured. Elizabeth would be in summer school, but the babysitter's house isn't too far out of the way. But wait, no, that wouldn't work either. We would have to leave the house at the crack of dawn to get Elizabeth to school on time, and then I still would have to hoof it to work.
Drat - that pesky job! While I could do most of my work over the phone, I would have to leave the office at some point during the week, and I figured the Times probably didn't want to pay me to stroll around town to interviews. And I work a lot of evenings. Did I really want to be walking home at midnight?
What if it was hot and humid? I wouldn't want to walk for hours and hours in pantyhose, so I would have to bring a change of clothes for work. Which meant I would have to find my backpack, and I really didn't have time to drop everything to look for it.
So I started to modify my goal. What if I went without my car for a weekend instead of a week? That would still prove I could do it, right?
It wouldn't be that hard - I would just have to make sure that I had plenty of milk and groceries and diapers in the house - there would be no quick runs to Wal-Mart.
If it was nice, we would walk to the park or maybe the pool. We could surely do that, I thought. Just put Christi in the stroller and off we go.
Except Sally might struggle to keep up. Her almost-4-year-old legs are stout, but they might get tuckered out.
I could ride my bike. Of course - all we needed to do was get a bike trailer for two kids, which we've been meaning to do so we can enjoy family bike rides. We would just get that hitched up and problem solved. Elizabeth loves to ride her bike and would have no problem keeping up. Heck, we could tool all over town with a bike trailer.
Solution found, I was fully intending to try my motorless experiment just as soon as a good time presented itself.
Then Monday, on my way to work, the van broke down. A simple mechanical breakdown and my life went into a tailspin. My husband drives a pickup truck - there would be no way I could fit all those kids - and car seats - in the cab, so I was stuck. Literally.
It was the perfect time for my experiment.
The logistics, now very real, were staggering. My bike has a flat tire and I never did get that bike trailer. How would I possibly manage? What would I do with Sally and Christie? Wasn't there rain predicted?
And just who, for crying out loud, would be nuts enough to walk all over town with three kids in tow trying to get everyone to school and daycare and work?
So I stayed home Tuesday. Because of being scheduled to work the Fourth of July holiday, I had a day of vacation coming anyway. I stuck Elizabeth in a cab to go to summer school and contemplated how I could rearrange my schedule to accommodate being car-less for the day. I could make a few calls from home and go into the office later at night when the truck, I mean my husband, got home.
Problem solved.
But just as soon as I can - I swear - I am going to get that bike trailer and leave the van in the driveway.
And paint the living room.
- Mary Jane Grenzow is
features editor of The Times. She can be reached at
mgrenzow@themonroetimes.com.
