the asshole in the suv

This is a story that doesn't show us at our best, but I just can't get over it!!

Yesterday the fan in our car broke, it was fine if we were chugging right along but if we had to make frequent stops then the engine would heat up.

We were heading 1.5 hours north on the interstate, we had to get to a function and didn't foresee any issues with the fan as there were minimal stops involved. On the interstate there was an accident and cars were bumper-to-bumper. We started out being 1 mile away from the nearest exit, 1/2 mile later the needle started showing us that the engine was getting hot. Ugh! We were pretty tense.

We were at a standstill, we didn't know what to do. We could either pull into the breakdown lane and sit there, or we could pull into the breakdown lane and zip up 1/2 mile to the exit so that the fan could cool the car down. We chose the latter.

This is not something we would ever normally do! Ever! But it was an emergency situation, we put the hazards on and started to book it, until we got stopped by this SUV who was half in the lane, half in our way. We were like 'What's this person doing?' We tried yelling that we were overheating and that we needed to get by, but that didn't work. Behind us in the breakdown lane came a state utilty vehicle and my heart was in my throat because I didn't know what we were going to do until it just hopped on the terrain and zipped right past us. As it did, the SUV got out of the way and we were like "YES!" until it got right back in front of us again. We didn't get it. What was this person doing??? We started to think that they were playing Deputy of the Road not letting us pass while our car was seriously heating up! Stress!

Not long after that a college kid in a late model sedan pulled entirely around us onto the bank and then zipped back onto the pavement and up to the exit. We could see the SUV driver flash a ticked off "See-ya!" wave so then we KNEW that this person was just trying to keep us back, to "maintain order and fairness" in the traffic. But the fact is, this person just assumed we were trying to cut and it makes me so mad!!!!! We had a legitimate emergency situation, what if I was having a baby or a heart attack or something or an injured toddler. !!!!!!! So after seeing the non-4wd car pull entirely around us my DH got the confidence to pull around the SUV so we could get our car into safety.

I guess the moral of the story is to make sure your engine fan works properly, but the second moral is BUTT OUT!!! IT'S NOT YOUR PERSONAL INTERSTATE AND YOU DON'T ALWAYS KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON IN THE CAR WITH ITS HAZARD LIGHTS ON. Ughhh....I'm still so mad!

Tomorrow = Family Road Trip! Peep!

Both Hubby and I dislike driving, we don't trust other drivers or other cars or earth's animals or poor counties' roads or God's acts, et ceteralious, so going 1.5 hours north for a fair is a fairly big deal for us. Tomorrow we are driving from Portland to Unity for The Common Ground Fair.

The Common Ground Fair is held annually on the 3rd weekend after Labor Day and is pretty hippy-dippy (they ask attendees to leave the disposable diapers at home) and those looking for deep-fried CRAP are s.o.l. This fair food is all fresh and organic, you have to walk about a mile through the woods to reach the fairgrounds from the parking field, and Smokey's Greater Shows is NOT invited...a point of distinction as Wally and I trust traveling fair rides almost as much as we trust New Hampshire drivers (sorry NH drivers...but we never know what you're gonna do! Live free, die, or just run the other way!!) There are presentations on sustainable living and tables of crafts and expos dedicated to alternative medicine, alternative energy, and alternative alternatives in general.

But I think my favorite activity is visiting the animals, particularly the baby chickies. It was on the ride home from one year's trip to the CGF that I cornered my staunch "Never Gonna Have Kids" hubby into changing his mind. Until then it was a bit of an ISSUE and I wasn't at all sure of any outcome...I was intimidated by the whole situation, it was very difficult for me to address, my best friend had just become pregnant with her first and it was time for me to air my increasing feelings about becoming a family. I ended up using the fair's baby chickies as a euphemism to avoid uttering the grief-potent "impregnate me." I was putting my heart on the line, so imagine its glee when he side-glanced at me, flexed his jaw back and forth, held up an index finger and pumped his arm to the beat of each word of "JUST ONE." Within moments his jaw relaxed into a smile and series of chirps and "peep, peep, peeps!" came out. By the following year's fair I was pregnant, our family has become the most important aspect of our lives and to this day we smile when we come across stuffed or real chicks and we refer to Jimmy as our Peep Peep Peep! And it didn't hurt that the Poster/Newspaper Cover Art for that year's fair matched our theme.

Yet as wonderful our little Peep is, he can get a little antsy after too many waking moments in the car so I bought this mega-active Melissa and Doug Latches Board:



And this Thomas Crayon Roll from Etsy.com:



I think these along with juice, animal crackers, and a decent nap should do the trick.

And last but not least, this year's trip will be charmed with something new--Wally will be PERFORMING with David Mallett/The Mallett Brothers Band at the fairground's Amphitheater. It will be the first time Jimmy sees his daddy playing on stage in front of an audience, we are so excited!!!

Clothtroversy

Wow, one tiny post about circumcision made this blog show up on a lot more google searches. Lemme try some more controversial issues!

Did you know:

Not one disposable diaper has ever decomposed. I'm 36, and I wore disposable diapers. They're still here.

Human fecal matter goes with these diapers. The packaging directs users to flush the waste into the toilet, but a large majority of disposable users do not do this. So toxic waste POOP is left to float around our environment forever, not to mention extra damage from manufacturing and distribution as they are one-time-use products.

We are a proud cloth diapering family. We started using FuzziBunz diapers when Jimmy was 4 months old and have never looked back. They may not be super cheap, but they WORK and don't leak or blowout like the disposables did. Cleaning costs do add a dent to our water bill, but the luxury of knowing all our diapers are inside out house, that we never have to buy more, sitting back sipping a cup of coffee while they're in the dryer or hanging on the line instead of running frantically to the store to buy more disposables, is priceless. You can't imagine the excitement when we realized we could convert receiving blankets into cloth wipes. Even more sanity saved!

We were also very wigged out when after removing some disposable diapers from our very young son, there would be these weird GEL bits hanging out on his boy bits. Uhhhh....not cool! These turned out to be similar absorbent polymers found in some commercial soil with recommendations against use for vegetables. If it's a chemical not fit for human consumption, I don't think I need it getting too cozy with my son's reproductive organs. You are welcome, future daughter in law.

Chemicals in disposable diapers have also been linked to asthma.

Some well meaning people have told me that they've done the research and that with cleaning chemicals and the fossil fueling of running washing machines, that the environmental impact was pretty much even.

There was one "trusty" agency reporting this matter, but the report was found to be flawed. Trust me, if I didn't have a washer/dryer 2 feet from my changing table I probably wouldn't pipe so pompously about cloth diapering, but it blows my mind that people would be willing to accept that the environmental impact between the two would be equal. What have they been sniffing, disposables?