Would I even need a snowblower?

I spent a bunch of time today on our walk thinking about self driving cars. I do that a lot these days when I'm stuck in traffic, looking at the car just sitting in the driveway, paying for parking, dodging people doing dumb things with their vehicles, etc.

I started to imagine 100 years from now when self drive cars are not just the default, but the only choice for public roads. People drive cars would be relegated to private property or niche race tracks like horse racing is today.

Not only would traffic flow well, but roads wouldn't need to have capacity in both directions. If you had 6 lanes total, in the morning you could have 5 going in one direction and change it in real time as load on the "road system" increased.

Most individuals wouldn't own cars, only the super rich would bother. Everyone else would have a service that would have a pool of cars ready for our call. Businesses would have sheltered drop off / pickup areas and cars would go someplace else. Cars wouldn't need to be brushed off because they would either be on the move or parked in a sheltered setting. A garage would only be used to store "stuff" and maybe a cargo bike. You wouldn't even need a snowblower because you would only need to clear a path from the front door to the road / sidewalk. The public snow clearing equipment would of course also be automated.

The more I think about it, the more that I agree that it will be one of the biggest societal changes we have seen in recent memory.

I can't wait.

How to catch a star

Tonight Laura had a special treat for me: a replacement for our disintegrated copy of How to Catch a Star. Our first copy was read by me about 3-4 times daily for like 2 years. Long term it didn't hold up super well. Tonight I read it to our two kids while they cuddled close.

That's a pure happy memory.

Of course tonight it couldn't be about a girl or a boy, but it had to be about a princess. Times change, but they also stay the same.

You'd think that reading the same book for the 2738th time would annoy me. It doesn't. It makes me so happy.

I have caught a happy thought. A happy thought of my very own.

Not the reaction I was expecting

Sometimes you picture how things are going to play out. Then when it happens, it doesn't resemble what you had pictured. At all.

For instance. Today I thought that we'd see a reaction like "Wow! That's wonderful! That's the best news ever! I'm so happy for you all!". This was one reaction we got.

What we got was more like "Oh no, not again! Was it an accident? What are you going to do? Uhh... congratulations. You're a sucker for punishment, eh?". This was another reaction we got.

Not what I was expecting. Probably because people were caught off guard. Meh. It's all good.

Winter biking

Every time I wait for the bus or ride it, I can't help but thinking of winter biking. Waiting 15 minutes for a 30 minute bus ride that would be 20 minute bike (in good weather) is just infuriating. However I also don't want to die under a car tire. So there's that. 

Two days a week I'm taking the bus and really, I could get in other ways. I'm assuming that my frustration is just "temporary" since the light rail will open in 2018 and presumably I'll have a < 20 minute public transportation commute again. But when I'm waiting in the cold 2018 seems really far away. 

What I need is someone to give me a fixie with studded tires. I also need to figure out some kind of ski goggles that would fit over my glasses. 

One day maybe. We will see. 

It's all in the pronunciation

Isaac is at that really cute age where he's able to say a lot, none of it clearly, and it's changing all the time. Like "banana" - last month it sounded like "Bahrain", then "ba yan", then "ba nan", and now it's "ba na na".

Overall things are going well. The children aren't actually trying to kill each other all the time, just occasionally. Mostly Alice takes from or restricts Isaac, and he hits her on the head with fists, blocks, or rips out her hair. He's strong and she doesn't move away so she gets the worst part of the deal.

I miss going to parks and getting around on bikes with the kids. Usually in January / February I feel a bit antsy, but this year it's different. I miss exercise, but I also miss the fresh air with the kids.

Soon my pretties.