Interesting turn of events in the dissertation department. My Peruvian advisor/committee member/mentor extraordinaire, Valerie, is moving back to the States at the end of the summer. This radically changes plans for us, since she was the biggest draw of Lima as a dissertation study location. More and more, I’m drawn to the idea of studying Latino issues in post-K NOLA. This has always been an area of interest for me (immigration, labor, and health) and is certainly a timely issue for an area in a crossroads. Whether hormonal, emotional, political, or circumstance, the thought of staying domestic for the next few years has brought out a strong sense of American Consumption.
In other words, I have the “I wants.” It’s not a particularly long list, but it’s a doosy. I’m so embarrassed.
– A minivan. Either the Odyssey or Sienna, fully loaded (of course), 2004 or newer.
– I want to see our house dreams (ie: renovation) realized. In my lifetime.
Anonymous | 04-May-06 at 6:00 am | Permalink
I relented with my wife in not getting a hybrid or diesel in our recent vehicle purchase. I regret that, especially with articles like this:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-warming15apr15,1,5996292.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
on Global Warming.
Hopefully some more serious rebates from the government on these more efficient vehicles will be on the horizon. The one fact about the hybrids is that they don’t put as much carbon into the air.
The average American car that is driven 12,000 miles per year produces about 4 tons of carbon per year. I was surprised by the size of that number, 8.000 pds of carbon…
Holly | 04-May-06 at 4:53 pm | Permalink
If there was a hybrid car on the market that would suit our family needs, we would buy it in a heart-beat. We’ve been saying this for years. When things were still on the up and up for living in Lima, we were going to sell our car (a Passat wagon that we love) and buy a new car when we got back — in the hopes that two years from now we would have a hybrid option.
That said, as a one-car family with no daily commute, we drive significantly — WAY significantly — less than average. We walk everywhere (from the grocery store to the movie theatre and everything in between) and use our vehicle for road trips and big hardware store runs. This means we are using our car for hauling almost everytime we set out to drive it. And with (almost) two kids and two cats, it’s not big enough. Plus, we cannot move within the cab, which is a huge deal when you have small children. Also, I never would have gone for the entertainment packages in vehicles — but using my Mom’s car (which has the DVD system) has totally changed my mind. It makes a HUGE difference. And considering I do the 2-3 hour drive to my parents’ house at least once a month, this is a big deal. Even more, with all the work we do on the house, getting lumber, sheetrock, and transporting 9 foot doors around is pretty darn difficult — we’ve had to put projects off for months waiting for someone with a truck to visit to find a willing neighbor. We USE big vehicles for what they are meant for and miss having our old Explorer for those purposes (towing, loading, hauling, etc.) So, we really want the fully loaded minivan. It’s the only vehicle that gives us all the perks we seek.