Several people we talked to about moving to NY mentioned the ridiculous state taxes. So we expected the worst...

But I really can't say I have too many complaints. I love it that states like NY don't tax necessities like food (which is taxed in IL). And when I consider that I can visit several state parks within a reasonable drive from Buffalo and enjoy hiking, swimming, sunning, disc golfing and camping. Well, I'm almost happy to put my money in the collective pot that makes the state park system tick.

I had a great day yesterday at Beaver Island State Park sunning on the beach, cooling off in the water (and seeing (e:) PMT) and it triggered my thought that I'm really grateful for the NY State Park System. I wonder how many people visit the state park and don't realize that it's our tax dollars at work.

Now, the politicians and how they manage the money, that's another story...

I ran into Mayor Byron Brown and some political aide at the video store. It was a little awkward. He went a little too out of his way to hold the door open for me and was super polite, but in a disconnected way.

They wandered a bit around the front of the store looking at videos in this odd way that clearly indicated they weren't really interested in videos, but needed to pretend they were and then left as I finished checking out.

I laughed and told the clerk it was the most awkward scene I had ever witnessed and the clerk told me he comes every Friday night to CAMPAIGN!

If he was trying to look like the average joe browsing the video store in his fancy suit with a political aide - FAIL

If he was trying to engage people in his campaign by wandering around and not actually talking to anyone - BIG FAIL

And if he was actually trying to rent a video - REALLY BIG FAIL

Really, when I go to the video store, I want to rent a video, not run into Mayor Brown - no matter how nice and polite he is.

When I read (e:Libertad)'s posts on plastic,





I meant to comment about my own frustrations in a similar area. With the kids came a whole lot of plastic and other cheap disposable items that just drive me nuts.

Any toy present from family/friends had a lot of plastic packaging and a lot of unnecessary packaging material period. We got a lovely firetruck set from my in-laws and I was astounded at the amount of plastic wrapping and cardboard packaging. When I first looked at the package, I thought it would be little more involved than opening a box and taking the truck out. But then I began to unwrap small parts covered in plastic, undo plastic ties, and pull apart cardboard packing. We also bought a few things for the kids when they first came and I was overwhelmed at the amount of packaging, plastic and otherwise, and I would have never guessed it was all in there from just looking at the box.

Foster son visits a fast food restaurant once a week as part of his special needs community based program (which is a WHOLE other issue) and gets a cheap plastic toy that he brings home and basically ignores.

Foster son and daughter both get cheap plastic things from their family during visits that are easily destroyed and some entirely ignored - leaving our house scattered with cheap plastic toys, that I can't just pitch because you need to be sensitive to the children in light of these gifts coming from their parents.

And apparently registering your child for PreK/K involves going from booth to booth and collecting paper coloring books and small plastic toys that, again, will be destroyed or ignored.

(e:drew) and I can make choices that eliminate bringing cheap plastic stuff into our house to an extent, but it's harder to control what happens outside of the house at school or with their family. And I do admit that I most definitely struggle with minimizing the "disposable" items and trying to reuse instead of buy new. With us both working and occupied with the kids when not working, trying to push forward with reuse, reduce, recycle gets difficult at time because it does take time and effort. But that leads into a whole other discussion down the road about lifestyle changes for (e:drew) and me.

A woman stopped by our house a few nights ago. She was scoping out the neighborhood in advance offering to install alarm systems for free in exchange for posting a company sign in the yard. An alarm system company from Canada moving into the Buffalo area.

At this point, I was ready to tell her to go away, but she was a good saleswoman and knew how to keep the spiel going so we couldn't end the conversation without being really rude. And I have to admit, Ii was curious where she was going to go next....

And she thoroughly satisfied my curiousity as the friendly tone turned into fear mongering. She painted images for us of burglars coming in through our windows and moving all of our possessions back out of them all without a peep from our neighbors...or the fire that was certain to come in an old house like ours with an outdated electrical system... and have we ever seen Backdraft? Because that's the type of fire that is quietly smoldering away inside our house. And well, she has her own testimony. Heat sensors saved her children from exploding in a fire. Well, no, not really exploding, but nonetheless saved them from being burned to a crisp.

We said goodbye and walked away and I said loudly to Drew, She's a fear mongerer, I hope no one in the neighborhood takes her up on this offer ... hopefully loud enough for her to hear. I get tired of explaining to people (mostly co-workers) that living in Buffalo doesn't mean we're constant victims of crime. And I'd hate to see these signs in people's yards reinforcing this concept that Buffalo is a scary place requiring extreme levels of security to live safely in one's home.

So, who's going to help me take down security signs in the middle of the night when they go up in the neighborhood?

"Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe."
Proverbs 29:25

A bad surprise on this past Wednesday was when I was driving down Amherst. I looked to the left and then forward and then slammed into the truck in front of me.

The nice surprise was that the neighbors in the area were so friendly and trying so hard to help I practically had to beat them off with a stick. Actually, replace "beat them off with a stick" with "assure them repeatedly that we were going to be alright".

I gratefully accepted all the bottles of water, but declined car rides and invitations into their homes. I knew the husband was coming very shortly to pick up the kids and the tow truck was coming very shortly to tow the car and I wanted to be waiting outside and be ready for as soon as they came.

I think I'm going to take a few seconds to write thank you notes this weekend and drop them off in their mailboxes.