October 26, 200

Still no killing frost. A couple of light frosts but the tomatoes are still growing. We are debating this weekend at EGR. Caelun is loving debate. We were debating at City High this last week, and I had him there. Two of my debaters were actually fighting over him. One had a hold of his arms and the other had his feet. He thought it was hysterical. Not wanting a King Solomon moment, I promised them he wasn’t on loan and there will be plenty of him to go around in the next three years they have to debate- they are both sophomores. I just finished judging a round and I have some time before the next round starts. I don’t want to butt in the middle while my kids are debating, so I thought I would up date. We had our family pictures taken last weekend. Tracy Will – who I teach with – and her sister have started a business called Sisters Taking pictures. Dad feels his eyes just aren’t good enough to take pictures and our dear friend Dawn Landis who took them last year is up to her eye balls with six teaching preps. so we decided to bite the bullet and actually pay to have pictures taken. If you like them this is the link to Tracy’s e-mail. sisterstakingpictures@hotmail.com You get a 20 minute time slot for $75. They guarantee you 75 pictures. We got 263. You then get an immediate copy of the pictures on a CD and you own them. For an additional $24 dollars you get 24 color corrected, cropped, proofs. I won’t put up all 263, though it will be difficult to choose. Cae will be six months old on Sunday. He is standing as you can see in the pictures. He is very vocal and laughs all the time. He thinks it is particularly funny if you sneeze. Every time some one sneezes he just laughs like it is the funniest thing. Goofy kid.

My 1994 Ford Taurus finally joined the wounded at the edge of the herd. The transmission is leaking so it has a problem, Clint can’t fix. We have decided that transmissions and engine problems are an irrevocable death knell for a vehicle. Actually we are going to take it to the skill center and let them make it a “project” but that doesn’t get me to work and back every day, so new transportation was the order of the day. We bought a mini van this last Monday, a 2003 Chevy Venture. Dad Conley will be moderately happy. It isn’t new so it doesn’t contribute to his pension but at least it isn’t foreign. I keep telling him we are never going to buy a new vehicle regardless of how much we make but that is beside the point. It has 8 count them 8 seats plus an extended section in the back to put debate tubs, mulch for the garden, building materials or our off road stroller depending on which hat I am wearing. I have had several friends and colleagues act surprised and say things like you finally gave in. I am not sure what I am giving in to. Maybe it is the soccer mom thing. I guess the vehicle requirements fro a soccer mom and a debate coach aren’t much different. I have taken kids to debate competition an hour away in my Taurus with debate tubs on their knees. It wasn’t pretty. I have also filled the trunk with mulch for my garden and the city signs. That wasn’t pretty either. I won’t even begin to talk about building materials. I began to ponder what my friends and colleagues were talking about. I guess many people define themselves by the car they drive. I never really have but if I were going to a mini van would probably fit the profile. Roomy, slightly used, very comfortable, lots of complex inner workings, takes a while to learn, dependable, reliable, steady, good cushion for the bumps. This vehicle is 9 years newer than my last and I can hardly believe the changes. Power doors, seats, everything really. Heated/ cooled everything. I started wondering about why we build cars to do what they do. Why do they make a car that can go 120mph when you aren’t allowed to drive that fast? I see these people driving around in Hummers and I wonder why? Are they afraid of a guerrilla attack in the mall parking lot? I here the Hummers required extra armor when they were used in Iraq. I guess everything isn’t made to suit the need. That being said my mini van has some very useful features such as being able to open the side door with the key fob which is great when you have your arms full of heavy things such as debate tubs, bags of concrete, or children in car-seats. I have had lots of people ask me why I got a mini van when for the same money I could have gotten a SUV. I am honestly astounded that any body would drive an SUV. Not to sound to much like a debate coach but mini vans are better than SUV’s for the following reasons:

1. SUV don’t have 8 seats
2. Older SUV’s are tippy and dangerous
3. SUV’s don’t get 30 mpg
4. SUV’s don’t have sliding doors
5. SUV’s aren’t as long for ease of hauling building materials
6. SUV’s are more expensive to insure- cross apply sub point 2
7. SUV’s are higher and harder to lift heavy things into cross apply sub point 2 and sub point 4

There for judge the advantages of mini vans solve for dependence on foreign oil and thus solve for war, they are better for the economy by decreased health care and insurance costs and out weigh the negative impacts of SUV’s. Vote mini van.

I asked my husband why does anybody drive and SUV? He said four wheel drive. I can see that if you live on a dirt road in a climate like Michigan, but I don’t. I have needed a four wheel drive vehicle about a half a dozen times in the twenty plus years I have been driving, and I am a person who does lots of driving. I log about twenty thousand miles a year. All in all I like my mini van.