tool(s), talk on transit, and if you haven’t heard from me…
First, the tools:
1) I love my electric blanket. If you know me at all in person, you know that my hands and feet are always COLD. I received my first electric blanket when I was 10. My mother understood the problem totally. When she was little she slept under 5+ blankets and it felt heavy and she’d wake up almost tired from holding them up all night. We were very conservative with the thermostat when I was growing up. The blanket was a wonderful gift. I didn’t need it throughout uni or when I lived in my studio as they were generally “typical” NYC apartments where in the winter you kept the windows wide open and contemplated putting the AC back in. E’s flat is much more regulatable. Which means I’d been sleeping with several blankets. And two pairs of socks. (Even this winter!). When we returned from vacation in december we went out and finally bought me an electric blanket. I am sleeping so much better these days. :) My mother asked why I didn’t get one of those new mattress warmers.. Well, I like my way better. What I’ll do is crank it up on high right before I’m to get in bed (sometimes I’ll sneak the PJ’s in there too) and SIT ON IT. That will warm up my feet and hamstrings and will also warm up the mattress. Then I’ll turn it down to low and crawl in and curl up in it and read for a while. When I go to sleep I’ll shut it off. I need to figure out what to do over shabbos. I’m thinking a timer. This blanket has made such a difference in my sleep over the past two weeks I’ve slept with it.
2) Turn signals and use of lights at “dusk”/”twilight”. This falls in the both tools/transit category. People. Please use them. I know you can see fine to drive, but others might need some help seeing you. Also, please please please use turn signals especially if you are not turning at an intersection (such as into a driveway). I almost was hit at 5pm on my walk home because a guy was coming towards a driveway without his lights on or his turn signal (i was walking towards him) and neither of us really saw each other. Ok, I’ll take some blame because I was walking and knitting and not totally watching, but I do have awesome peripheral vision (ok, not that awesome b/c my glasses don’t cover) but my eyes are good enough to see if you have your turn signal on or not. He didn’t. We won’t talk at all about traffic at the corner of Ocean Parkway and Avenue J. For those of you who know that intersection I need not say more. For those of you that don’t? Think of all the traffic violations you can think of. They happen all day long there.
3) Alisha has a great post on something she found at Treppenwitz (another great read, I’m sorry I didn’t go hunting for the link). It is brilliant! It ties in with somethings I don’t really talk about here because they are a bit soapbox-y.. Maybe some day I will. Just know that I’m a big fan of public transit and I love trains of all kinds. I wish I could wiggle my nose and E’s Mazda 3 would be a hybrid. I love parks and am a large fan of trees and green grass. Hey, donate to this wonderful organization. ((disclaimer: I manage their donor mailing list. They pay me a little bit of money for this service.)) Or please, go donate here ((Edited post to add. Oy, I had brain freeze on that one. They don’t pay me. I only donate to them.)).
4) I know I’ve been posting here somewhat regularly. Don’t ask me how my unread email or rss feeds look however. (Or the stack of paper mail that might fall over.) Please? If it’s super urgent just try me at all known email addresses. With luck I’ll see it before it jumps below the “fold” of the page. :) If I owe you a reply, or a card, or a gift, I’m uhm.. working on it. I’ve put in a ton of hours doing projects I didn’t think I’d be doing these past few weeks. It’s all good. I don’t think it’s poor time management, just not enough time to do it all. I’ve still made dinner almost every night and done laundry weekly. Shabbos dinner might not be what most people consider an “appropriate” meal, but for us, it’s more meaningful that we’re together with nothing work-related breathing down our necks waiting for us to finish shoving the meal down our throats. Plus my husband happens to LOVE canned whole new potato.