Hitting the Pavement
Weekend Rambles Late in June
Tank full, on the road,
never enough cupholders.
Mark with a gold star
each gas station bathroom
that doesn’t require a haz mat suit.
Summer fun paid in blood—
damn mosquitoes.
But that marshmallow,
oh, that marshmallow was roasted to perfection.
There never was a better s’more.
On the road again, ha HA.
We’re cracking up a little.
The podcasters are our new best friends—
we will braid them BFF bracelets
while we contemplate
how to fold time and space
so we never have to drive again.
But, really, there’s something fantastical
about realigning our locations
so dramatically within hours.
Our thoughts fly about,
unfettered in this liminal space,
and brush against each other
like a traffic jam of butterflies.
Hitting the Pavement
Ideally with a sledgehammer…
A few years ago, our decrepit garage was on its last 2x4s—all the wood was rotting because of water damage and soil pushed against the exterior walls, chipmunks had claimed it as their territory by stockpiling bladdernuts and defecating on everything, and the doors no longer closed properly, in ways that made you think, “Am I ever getting out of here again?”
In that situation the answer is obvious, right? Replace the garage. But to do it right meant making the garage a little bigger and placing it farther back in the yard. More concrete. More $$$. More space that was just… for the car.
We had to ask ourselves: does more space for the car make sense? We work from home. Lucas occupies the sunroom at the back of the house like it’s his second office. The glare of pavement and a wall of siding as prominent backyard features will never hold appeal for us. We rarely parked the car in the garage at the old house anyway. What if we didn’t have a garage at all? There would be bird poop and the occasional hail risk, but what was that compared to hundreds of plants and flowers?
We went with a cute shed instead—just big enough for our yard tools and bikes plus a few storage containers—and were able to get rid of extra driveway that was no longer necessary. No regrets, even on those very rare days when I accidentally stick my hand in bird poop opening a car door or we have to rush our vehicle to a covered parking garage to wait out a storm.
Yet, even with that attitude, I admit that some of Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World by Henry Grabar took my by surprise and, honestly, took me a second to process. Parking seems to be all about expectations. If we expect cheap parking close the door of our destination, we get upset when we don’t have it. So, because no one likes to deal with irate customers or tenants, or be frustrated themselves, we apparently over-optimize for parking spaces and force their construction in unnecessary, oppressive numbers. As Grabar demonstrates, all that parking has had painful impacts economically. And while it wasn’t a big focus of this book, environmental impacts too, of course.
This book is part practical city planning guide, part thriller. The history of parking is shady (once perfect for money laundering), bad at math (so much, so many places, but especially looking at you, Chicago, for your parking meter shenanigans), and downright violent (road rage feels like parking fury’s toddler cousin). One of my favorite lines from Grabar was: “That has long been how it goes in the ice cream truck business, where the baseball bat is as important as the blender blade.” (249) Even ice cream isn’t innocent!
As you read Paved Paradise, the amount of money wasted will make you cringe, the anecdotes of altercations may make you think twice before you get upset about someone swiping “your” spot, and you might find yourself riding your bike a little more often. That was my experience, anyway. Highly recommended for the “wow, seriously?” value of it alone, but especially for being able to understand what your city’s up to, beneficial or otherwise.
What grabbed your attention the most from Paved Paradise? Can you parallel park like a pro? (I’ve avoided doing it since my driver’s test.)
My pocket dino, Winston, on our Door County road trip, exploring the Ridges Nature Sanctuary.
Highway Hypnosis
June was our first book buddies pairing, one nonfiction, like usual, and one fiction book, plus one graphic novel for good measure. I thought it would give us a break from the gloom of climate change that can hang over our books… but I totally failed you on that level with The Desert Sky Before Us, which features frequent plane crashes due to clear air turbulence increased by climate change. (If that sounds so wild that you’re wondering if it’s a real possibility, you’re not alone—I had to look it up. From the BBC: “Aircraft turbulence is worsening with climate change. Studying birds could help”)
The Desert Sky Before Us is the story of two sisters following a geocaching treasure hunt across the country per their paleontologist mother’s instructions before she died. I most appreciated reading about occupations I don’t usually encounter—race car driver, falconer, and paleontologist. I wasn’t expecting the climate change implications of their mother’s work, though I really had no problem with that aside from trying to get a bit of a break and feeling like I didn’t fully grasp the potential metaphor embedded there. Every time I picked the book back up, I struggled to adjust to the writing style, which is in first person, uses no dialogue punctuation, and relies upon fractured sentences or phrases. Despite the difficulty, this surreal style felt fitting—like drifting down the road, hours into a road trip with hours left to go, unable to say “I am here” because I am in constant motion, no longer “here” as soon as the thought has entered my mind, now I am “there” and gone again.
What was your favorite roadtrip? Best road trip snack? Where would you like to go next?
Dino Loafs
Dinosaur Sanctuary, Vol. 1 by Itaru Kinoshita was an impulse addition since paleontology was a theme of The Desert Sky Before Us, and what a delightful addition it was! Disregarding the headless deer within the first twenty pages, this was a pretty cute manga, with an upbeat protagonist, a triceratops that sits in the cat loaf pose, and jokes about the “realities” of dino-keeping. Unexpected bonus: a page of notes at the end of each chapter from “Dr. Dino” aka Shini-ichi Fujiwara, the real-life research consultant for the series. In this first volume we learn about dinosaurs hatching, what makes up triceratops’ horns, and more. I’m looking forward to continuing the series.
Dinosaur Sanctuary inspired me to doodle the dino loafs above, which led me to wonder where an ankylosaurus’s nostrils were located, and I learned that they had nasal passages like long squiggles that might have helped them cool down. You can see more, including an illustration mapping the inside of their snouts, on the Smithsonian website.
Do you have a favorite dinosaur? Very Important Sidenote: Has anyone else out there seen Mr. Right and been forever entertained by Anna Kendrick’s character wanting to be a T. Rex when she grew up?
Erupting in July
It’s 91° but feels like 107° here right now. What the heck I was thinking turning up the heat for our July books? Let’s just say we’re going for immersion this time. (We’ll balance it out with a cold plunge in August.)
Our upcoming book buddies are Super Volcanoes: What They Reveal About Earth and the Worlds Beyond by Robin George Andrews and The Volcano Daughters by Gina María Balibrera. Because reading a graphic novel made for a sweet ending last month, I’m also adding The Art of Elemental. (Sadly not pictured, but it’s on its way.)
Super Volcanoes declares it will take us on a molten adventure, not just through our volcanic backyard here on Earth, but our solar system. Then we’ll trek across the world with The Volcano Daughters, two sisters who meet each other for the first time in 1920s Ecuador. I have a feeling that the story inspiration revealed in The Art of Elemental might have a high degree (ahem) of connection with The Volcano Daughters.
Sailboat art in Sturgeon Bay
Five Hopeful Things
1. Street Art
Have you ever walked down the street and suddenly been delighted to find yourself in front of a gorgeous mural or fun illustration? It’s like you were on a scavenger hunt and didn’t even know it, and suddenly you’re a winner! We visited Sturgeon Bay recently with my mother-in-law, and we had fun spotting all the painted sailboats (there are many)! You can see them all on the Sturgeon Bay visitor website, but I had to snag that pirate ship for reasons revealed below.
2. A Treasure Trove of Good Books
Shiver me timbers! I finished a few more books this month thanks to this year’s pirate-themed Wonderthon and my same friend who introduced me to Escape the Readathon. Two highlights were The Mountain in the Sea (loaned to me by my dad) and The Vanishing Cherry Blossom Bookshop (a $5 with cafe purchase at B&N that I didn’t expect much out of but ended up loving). These two books got moved to the top of the TBR stack because of the predominant pink on their covers (a bonus for Team Blackbeard). The books are very different from each other, but they both made me feel connected to the characters and real-world humans.
3. People Happy to Teach Others
Some people take so much pleasure in teaching that their joy is contagious, whether you’re invested in the topic or not. I recently watched a handful of videos on how to split wood as research for a book scene and I was impressed with them all, but especially Nicole Coenen. Admittedly, I watched more videos than I really had to for writing, but if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have picked up the adage “firewood heats twice.” (Once when you split it, once when you burn it.) You can bet I’m going to work that into my book.
4. Being Recognized at Places We Frequent
Not by name, but isn’t it comforting when someone you recognize by sight at a place you visit regularly recognizes you too and is a little extra friendly for that reason? This has happened to us at some of our favorite places recently: Thai Basil, Trio Ramen, and Flix Brewhouse. Each time it was such a pleasant surprise on some rather glum days.
5. A Commiserating Boost
It was a bit tough topping off the list this month. I told Lucas that, thinking our conversation would shake something loose, and he said, “We need the tong lady.” If you, too, have been feeling wiped out, here’s some wise advice from Anna Przy, or as we call her, “the tong lady,” in less than 30 seconds.
To which I’ll add—maybe it takes an extra nap, another square of chocolate, or a few more hugs than usual to recharge. But we’ve got this. Even when the world feels like its trying to drag us backwards, we’ll find our footing and move forward again, one step at a time.
Credits
All doodles and photos by Leigh Anne Gray.
The quotation for the book review is from the 2023 paperback edition of Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World by Henry Grabar, published by Penguin Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.
You can find Winston and his friends at SetApartCreation if you’d like your own mini travel pal.
