Author Archives: Melissa | Growing Green Nutrition

Dress code

Since I am fortunate enough to have a shower at work, I have no problem biking to work in the summer.  Sweat?  No big deal, I have a shower and clean clothes waiting on the other end. 

Biking other places in the heat and humidity is a harder sell.  If I get sweaty, I stay sweaty, and I have to wear clothes that work for biking.  Generally, I just deal with it and look forward to cooler weather.

As a result, I rarely look nice at all of these summer events, which usually doesn’t bother me, but sometimes it does.  Yes, that woman over there is wearing a cute dress and heels, and I’m wearing shorts and a tank top, but guess what?  I bet she didn’t RIDE HER BIKE HERE.

Now reading

Everything I Want to do is Illegal: War Stories from the Local Food Front by Joel Salatin (courtesy of my local public library)

I’m not very far into it yet, but it is already quite enlightening and reinforces our decision to support local farmers.

Exempt

We are trying to sell my car, and I had really hoped to do so before July to avoid renewing my registration and jumping through hoops.  This city/state has A LOT of hoops to jump through in order to renew a vehicle registration.  Personal property tax receipts.  Personal property tax waiver (if you did not own personal property in the last two years).  Safety inspection.  Emissions inspection.  Proof of insurance.

We’ve been trying to sell the car, since, oh, March, and despite a few nibbles, it was obvious that I would still own the car at the end of the month. So I started jumping through hoops.

In the process, I found some fine print that said that cars driven less than 12,000 miles in 2 years (with acceptable documentation of said mileage), could qualify for a waiver of exemption from the emissions inspection.  In theory, I support emissions inspections — a tool to detect problem vehicles and make repairs to reduce pollution — great, right?  Sure, except for the fact that all cars made in 1996 and before are exempt.  In other words, all of the OLDEST vehicles, the ones, MOST LIKELY to have emissions problems, do not have to be inspected.  While my car, my nice little 2003 Corolla, has to be tested every two years.  Until now.

In the last two years (and one month), I put just over 8,000 miles on my car.  I applied for and received my emissions test exemption.  I saved $24 (the price of the inspection) and gained the satisfaction of skipping their flawed inspection process.  So while I’m not too happy about having the car, at least the registration renewal process, the jumping through the hoops, was fairly painless this time around.  Whew!

Shapoopie!

I live in a city that likes its free outdoor entertainment in the summer — musical theatre, concerts, festivals, movies in the park — you name it, we’ve got it, for the low price of zero dollars!  Taking advantage of all of the offerings, especially on weeknights, is somewhat challenging.

Our average night looks something like this: bike home from work, rush to prepare dinner, eat dinner, leave dishes all over the kitchen, get snacks together for event, bike to event.  I arrive a little frazzled and a lot sweaty.

Last night, we made it easier by dining out at a restaurant near work before the show and then heading straight to the park for “The Music Man.”  It was lovely, no rushing, no frazzling, and to top it all off it was below 80 degrees (Here! In July!), so the sweaty was kept to a minimum.

By the time the show was over (WAY past my bedtime), it was even cooler.  I had a few tunes from the show stuck in my head, one being “Seventy-six Trombones,” and the other, “Shapoopie.”  I biked home alternately humming the former and singing the latter.  It was a great night for a bike ride.

“Shapoopie, shapoopie, the girl is hard to get.  Shapoopie, shapoopie, but you can win her yet.”

Before we fell asleep, I asked my husband if I was his shapoopie.  He laughed and said the correct lyric was “shaboobie.”  This morning, I settled the matter with the help of the internet, and I was on the right track with the p’s.  Shipoopi!

Into the woods

Saturday morning we hit the highway for some mushroom hunting and a camping trip.  While driving down the interstate (fortunately a short drive), I saw a billboard for a Dodge Ram that said, “It swallowed a luxury car.”  Really?  Actually, it looks like it swallowed five luxury cars, a strip mall, and a football team.  And it has the gas mileage to prove it.

We enjoyed shrooming and camping in unseasonably cool weather.  We looked up at the sky on Saturday night and were wowed by all of the stars.  Breathtaking.  It is amazing what you can see without the light pollution from a city.

Nature is not all fun and games and beautiful sights.  At one point, I glanced down at my [brand new] hiking boot to see what looked like a patch of dirt, except it seemed like a strange place for a patch of dirt, and it was moving.  In addition to regular ticks, I encountered seed ticks for the first time in my life.  Seed ticks are very tiny, and if you have one on you, it probably has lots of friends, just look closer.  Fortunately, my husband was carrying a roll of tape.  I removed the offending boot, and after about 15 minutes of standing on one foot, applying tape to the boot, my leg, and my pants, most of them were gone.  Except for the ones that I continued to find into Sunday.  Ah, nature.

Unless you get really lucky, mushroom hunting requires the hunter to leave the nice, clear hiking paths and venture into the unknown.  The unknown contains scary things, like ticks, and poison ivy.  At several points, I was very sure that we were tromping through large patches of poison ivy, and I pointed it out to the group, only to be told that the plant in question was not poison ivy.  Fifty feet later, I would alert the group again.  My mom would have been proud.  My husband was annoyed.  Somehow, we escaped yet again without poison ivy.