Happy Green Beings

The 30 day pass is handy, and encourages me to keep a car parked when I go to work. I keep experimenting with places to get on or off the bus. My latest route cuts my commute down to an hour from the original route I was taking. The funny thing is, I don’t think that the route is that much farther to ride. But the crux issue for us, like most families, is getting kids to their evening extracurricular activities. That’s why most families keep a second car. With kids scheduled tight around dinner time, it has been difficult to keep at least one car parked at all times.

I’ve been thinking about how to get beyond the 2 bikes per bus limit. First, I’m going to try to get our tag-along trailer approved as a carry on. If that doesn’t work, I plan to lock our old tag along bike attachment near the bus stop serving a frequent destination. When we dismount from the bus with an extra child along, we could unlock it and attach it to one of our bikes, and haul him along. That means one young child could ride to the first bus stop and lock up his bike there, and then still be able to ride to our destinations served by that bus stop.

The one thing I need is for a couple of the Valley Transit bus routes to be extended to the other side of our interstate highway so that I can safely get my kids to the soccer/baseball parks when they play and practice a couple of times per week. It just isn’t safe for them to ride their bikes on the high traffic roads that cross that barrier.

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Since I began going to work without a car again, I’ve been able to do it with a bike and the bus system in comfort and without any major concerns. I even made a couple of bus commuting rookie mistakes without any significant loss of time thanks to a friendly bus driver’s advice. Planning for the commute took time, and going completely car-light will undoubtedly require a changed mindset, but using public transit is now far simpler in Wisconsin’s Fox River Valley.

Valley Transit has joined the ranks of Google Maps Transit. You go on Google Maps, put in your starting and destination address just like you do for a car trip, and select public transit from the drop-down menu. You can get directions, a map, and an itinerary including transfers and fare prices for many transit systems around the world. How awesome is that for planning a vacation and skipping the car rental? (Click the link above to see a demonstration of how it works.) What is great for a bike commuter is that it makes it easy to try out various bus stops. Honestly, the rack and ride option speeds things up substantially if you explore boarding options and are willing to ride a bit farther. If I take the first option offered by Google Maps from my home to my workplace, nearly door to door service is over 2 hours by bus alone. By riding to points farther from my home and workplace, I have that same trip down to less than an hour each way.

I had spent a lot of time second guessing myself and learning the bus schedule. But once they completed the process of joining Google Maps, trips on Valley Transit have become quick and easy to plan. I hope that ridership goes up as a result because funding for all transit systems is going down. They need more riders to fill their trips and help to fund the system. It makes it possible for them to continue serving those who depend upon the system as their only means of transportation.

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I’m on the brink of a car-lite transition. By selling a car, we would be better off financially by about $4,000 right away according to the blue book, and then enjoy steady savings when it comes to gas, maintenance, and parking. We aren’t all convinced of the practicality though. How about going car lite without selling a car right away? That’s the test, and our goal is to start next week. For $56, Valley Transit issues a 30 day ride card, and I’m buying it with gas money. It only takes 16 days of round trip commutes to become cheaper than the single ride fair costs at $1.80 per trip. That’s a pretty good bargain if I stay committed and keep the car key hanging on a hook. The great thing is, I won’t care as much about gas prices.

We don’t have the best funded transit system in the nation here in Appleton, WI, but we do have bus coverage. This took a fair amount of looking at bus schedules and routes to figure out. I’ve requested the information packet that the transit center offers commuters. I plan to ride my bike 1 mile on residential streets, catch a bus that carries me to the transit center in 5 minutes, and transfer to the bus that takes me 10 miles to the town where I teach. There, I’ll be pulling my bike off the bus 25 minutes later and ride another 20 minutes to work. A bit tight for preparing a first hour class, but at least I’m not sitting in traffic while class starts. All told, pretty close to an hour to travel what I could cover on my bike in 45 to 50 minutes if the roads weren’t icy. But hey, it has taken me over 45 minutes to drive with traffic backed up on the HWY 441 bridge cutting deeply into the gas mileage. It took about 80 minutes to commute by bike through the snow, so a dependable hour commute will be sweet and provide some added reading time!

But what if I have to go in to work early? I can ride 2.5 miles and catch the first bus that runs between towns and be at school early enough for a staff meeting or host a make-up swim session for a group of students. This time of year, I’m pretty sure the racks will be free on the bus. The return trip may have a bigger say in what I actually do on a given day due to other obligations. It is disappointing that another bus isn’t running the Neenah route so that a departure happened every half hour. Here, they alternate bus routes with schedules offset by a half hour, and there is another trip from my work town that goes to Appleton’s West side, but both routes leave at the same times:(  It just links with another route that takes me into the transit center a half hour later. That means, if I miss the bus, then the bike and I will complete the trip in less time than it takes to wait for the next one. Now, it’s time to adjust the fenders so they clear the studded tires I ordered for my bike…

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We’ve used the special shampoo everyday.  We used the hair oil a couple of times at the beginning.  And I used the hair tonic when we were in a bit of a hurry and needed to get the combing done rather quickly.  I just spritzed it on the hair so that it was wet and easier to comb through.  The good thing about the tonic is that it can be left in, since it’s just water and the essential oil mix.  I’m hoping it will serve as a deterrent if we come into contact with others who have critters.

We’ve been pretty clean each time we’ve combed during this last week of craziness.  I would say that we probably had the infestation pretty much under control by the end of the 4th day.  But we still wanted to be sure.  The second week, we went to a once a day combing, even though all the advice out there says you should comb twice a day for two weeks.

This is going to be my protocol if we should be visited by these critters again:

1. use the above-mentioned hair oil twice in the first 24 hours
2. wash that oil out with the above-mentioned shampoo
3. comb (if you leave conditioner in, or at least use a conditioner after the shampoo it makes this easier)
4. each morning of the first week, spritz with the above-mentioned hair tonic and comb
5. each evening, wash with the shampoo and comb
6. comb twice per day the first week
7. comb once per day the second week, using the shampoo each day
8. I don’t honestly know if I think all the laundering was worth it.  But we did have a houseful of clean bedding and clothing, so maybe just for that it was a good thing.

So, 60% of people who have lice don’t know it.  Lice are only itchy and bothersome, not really a disease.  Many of the treatments out there are quite toxic and can have devastating consequences.  To me, buying a pesticide containing shampoo is about the equivalent of using nuclear weapons when a bit of diplomacy will do.  I’m not going to go so far as to say I’m grateful that we had lice, but it’s really been an eye-opening and educational experience.  And we did have a lot of family together time–talking and reading books–while we were doing all that combing.

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It’s getting easier now, we have this combing routine down pretty well.  We did miss one combing on the morning of the 4th day when I got called to a birth.  When we combed that night, we thought we’d find lots, but we really didn’t.

The boys in our house consented, even asked, to have their hair cut.  All the websites say that cutting the hair is not necessary, and especially not to shame a child by cutting the hair extremely.  But my Eastern European practical genes are saying that this would be so much easier with a shorter cut.  So the boys got a tasteful trim that has made the combing less painful and tedious.  I did think briefly of that scene in The Education of Little Tree when the people at the Indian school shave the boy’s head and spritz him all over with heaven-only-knows-what.

This hair, however, has been long for some time, and the fine toothed comb is a painful process with curly locks.  We trimmed a little bit off the ends, but the combing still takes quite a long time.

long hair, sectioned off for the combing

The combing procedure is to section off the hair, comb through the section and then pin it up so that you know you combed that part.

I’m willing to do this work, though it’s tiring, and it means that a lot of things haven’t gotten done for the holidays.  But when I read stories like this, I know that the time is well spent.

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After the thrill of having the school nurse declare us nit free, I made the mistake of thinking we could back off a little bit.  So, yesterday evening we delayed the combing procedure a little longer than we should, and then discovered a few more nits than we had seen in the morning.  Ok, kiddos, everybody gets oiled up again.  Maybe the oil should be a nightly thing for a while.

spikey do with mama made oil

I also decided that the hair tonic (the water with the essential oils) would be a leave-in product.  So, the new procedure is this:

1. at night apply the oil, allow it to remain on the hair at least 1 hour.
2. shampoo with the doctored up shampoo to get the oil out.
3. comb
4. in the morning, at least wet the hair or shampoo if needed (in case all the oil didn’t come out the night before)
5. comb
6. spray with hair tonic and leave in.

This morning, the situation looked pretty good for most of us.  Some still had a few little empty egg casings in our hair, but we’ll be doing a good combing tonight.

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Well, we got a clean bill of health from the school nurse this morning.  She seemed rather amazed that she found no live lice, and not a nit on my kids.  We’re not out of the woods, yet.  The recommendation is using the nit comb on each person twice per day for a total of 14 days.   I’m feeling hopeful and up to the challenge today, whereas 48 hours ago I was practically despondent.

So, the plan is to use the oil treatment again this weekend, and then next week.  And we will wash with the shampoo once per day for the next two weeks.  Hopefully, this combined with the combing will do the trick.

This has really changed some things in our home, at least temporarily.  And it’s striking me that many of these things are choices that we made long ago in the interest of greenness, and being frugal.

1. Bath towels have become a single use item, and then they get washed.  I realize that this is the way many people handle towels, but we have always had folks use their towels for at least a couple of times before washing.  It saves water, energy, and time.  Each person in the house has their own collection of towels (a different color for each person), so that’s helping out in the “keep it to yourself” philosophy we’ve had to adopt with the lice in the house.
2. A lot more showers and shampoos have been happening.  Normally, only a few of us shower every single day.  The littles (who have sensitive skin and are prone to eczema) usually only bathe about once or twice a week.  I’m usually an every other day person myself, as I also have dry, eczema-prone skin.  We’ve used a lot of hot water in the last two days, and have even run out of the hot stuff a time or two.  This is pretty incredible since we have 100 gallons of water in reserve with the solar hot water system. I realize that perhaps people will think that this minimal bathing routine is what got us into this mess in the first place, but honestly, it’s served us well for 17 years, so I can’t think that one event of lice should change our mind that it’s an ok practice.
3. We keep the heat in our house fairly low most of the time with a programmable thermostat, and snuggle up together under throw blankets when we read together or watch TV.  With all of the blankets and throw pillows requiring laundering, and the prospect of re-infecting each other, all this togetherness has been at least temporarily discontinued.  I was sad yesterday to hear my 6 year old ask if it was ok to hug each other.  Even he is seeing his family as a potential source of nits.

A lot of time, I hear comments from people that they might like to live a little greener, but it so expensive to do so.  I think this feeling comes primarily from magazines featuring some celebrity’s eco-friendly home that cost millions, and is all tricked out with the latest and greatest, and some really obscure items to boot.  But really, many of the choices we make in the interest of being green have helped us to save money.  If we save money on everyday things like energy and water usage, we have a little more money to spend on other “green” choices that do cost a little more, like organic food or theraputic essential oils to treat our head lice.  And, I have to say that snuggling under the throw blankets is a habit that has lots of other benefits besides energy saving, and it’s a hard habit to break!

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I have a new appreciation for this saying now that it’s been about 24 hours since finding the first louse in our house.  No, I’m not talking figuratively about anyone living here, but literally about head lice.  There was the original panic (as in, “WHAT is THAT?!?), then the gathering of information (as in put the offending critter in a plastic bag and then start researching on the internet).  Then there was the run around town to purchase nit combs (visiting no less than four stores).  And, since I know most people don’t want to admit much less talk about a lice infestation, I think it’s important to share some of the things that I’ve learned through this affair.

1. When you’re feeling weary and not able to gather the strength and energy to make the holidays happen at your house, there’s nothing like a case (or 5 or 6) of head lice to make you wish you were decking the halls, or baking cookies, or even writing out Christmas cards for heavens’s sake, anything, but picking nits out of people’s hair.
2. Most common suggestions are to use a product with an actual pesticide in it.  On your child’s head.  And you’re supposed to leave it there for a certain amount of time.  Now, I’m thinking that if I don’t want to use pesticides on my lawn, is there really a good reason to use them on my child’s scalp?  Lice are nothing more than a nuisance; they carry no diseases, they do not leave you weakened for something else to attack you.  So, I went in search of a cure that didn’t involve pesticides.
3. When you talk to the school nurse, she will tell you that as soon as you use the product with the pesticide, your children can come back to school.  And, if you can’t afford the product, she will give you some, because she has lots.
4. The information that I found on the internet basically said that whether or not you use the pesticide, you will still have to thoroughly comb your child’s hair with a nit comb (a fine-toothed comb) twice per day.  Many people use the pesticide and think they can skip the combing, only to become re-infected once the chemical wears off.
5. There is a LOT of laundry to do if your family becomes infected with lice.  The school nurse said to wash “everything that your child has come into contact with in the last 48 hours.”  That’s a lot of stuff, especially if more that one child is affected.  And it all has to be washed on hot water, and dried on hot for at least 30 minutes.
6. If you happen to notice the infestation on a cloudy, below freezing day, when your solar hot water heater can’t keep up with all of the laundry, you can take your bedding outside and freeze the critters out.  I’m very much appreciating Wisconsin winters today.
7. Spraying or fogging the environment in your home, school, or day care is not recommended.  This is unnecessary exposure of people to yet more pesticides, and lice only really survive on their host.

not even close to all of the bedding

So, after the panic, and the research, and the talking to a few good women (here and here), I came up with a protocol with which I’m comfortable.  The school nurse may think differently, but that’s her problem.

First, I made a hair oil.  I filled an opaque 4 ounce bottle with olive oil.  Then I added 8 drops each of the following essential oils:  sweet thyme oil (Thyme vulgaris L. France), eucalyptus oil (Eucalyptus radiata Australia), and rosemary oil (Rosmarinus officianalis Spain), and 5 drops of Neem oil.  The aromatherapist I consulted with assured me that it was safe for use on children, contrary to the content on the Wiki entry.  Neem is used widely as an anti-bug agent, and though it is an essential oil, it is not lovely smelling.  Fortunately, the other oils are nice, so we all smelled a little like a pot roast for a while.  This oil gets liberally applied to the hair, and sits for at least an hour.  A shower cap comes in handy for this.

non-toxic treatment for lice

Second, we wash out the hair oil with a shampoo I made.  I used Dr. Bronners unscented baby mild liquid soap in the 8 oz bottle and added the same essential oils that I used for the hair oil.

Third, we comb.  And comb, and comb, and comb.  We spritz with a hair tonic made from 6 ounces of water in an opaque spray bottle and the same essential oils that are in the oil and the shampoo.  If the hair dries out and gets hard to comb, we can spritz with this concoction to help with combing.  This is painstaking and time-consuming, but very important to comb, no matter if you use the natural remedies or the pesticide.

We spent the day oiling, washing, and combing through hair–everyone times three.  In between we laundered.  It’s been a tiring day, and hopefully our efforts will pay off.

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In an effort to protect us from harmful substances in toys, the Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act was passed this year by congress.  The law goes into effect in two months, and will introduce sweeping changes for small mom and pop type toy operations.  These are just the kinds of places I do try to buy from, because I’m fairly well assured of a quality product.  You can read more about the act and what you can do to help here.

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I was looking for a book for my 6 year old son on how cars are built in the on-line catalog of our local library, and came across a book called “How to Live Well Without Owning a Car: Save money, breath easier, and get more mileage out of life” by Chris Balish. I wanted to encourage his interest in designing cars in case he has the engineer genes of both grandfathers. I visit web sites like Car Free Cities and participate in some bicycle commuter discussion groups, so I was familiar with some of the ideas that I might hear from this author. But the idea of an entire book dedicated to how I might benefit from living car free, particularly the economics of the choice seemed interesting, so I wrote down the call letters, and headed for the non-fiction aisles.

What I found was my second brand new untouched book on a green topic in as many visits to the Appleton Public Library. Since this book was placed in circulation nearly a year ago, it makes me a little doubtful about how well Americans are responding to international concerns about global warming. Our economic woes may have a bigger impact on worldwide consumerism than suggestions on how to individually reduce our carbon footprint. But then again, we wear huge blinders when it comes to our assumptions about using automobiles. This author may have found the way to get people’s attention with his argument that much of what keeps Americans from feeling wealthy is their habit of using automobiles. The actual cost of owning a car is about double the car payment. That turns out to be a lot of money considering that the alternative is to pay for something that looses value at 10% to 15% each year.

Now, I’ve long thought that when the price of non-renewable resources becomes high enough, maintstream people will begin using alternatives. But Mr. Balish points out that people have alternatives in the form of public transportation systems if they want to use them. He points out that there is always the rental car if you really need one for a trip not serviced by the transit systems. He goes on to promote the transit systems’ effectiveness by sharing paragraph long testimonials on page after page by people who have sold their cars, and live without them. They rave about the experience of not having to worry about a car, sit in traffic, worry about maintenance, and the many things that they have money for because they don’t own a car. The funny thing is that without exception, they look at the rest of us car dependent Americans as the people who are losing out. I’m talking with my family this holiday about getting rid of a car, and depending upon the Valley Transit System and my bicycle to see how much of a difference it makes for us. Even loosing one set of car related expenses may make a difference for us.

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