Let the Hunt Begin!

The weekly store ads have started including sales on school supplies. So I tracked down school supply lists for my girls (1st and 4th grades - wow). I know from experience that you must shop for school supplies with great care.

If you just go to one store and get everything, you might pay $2.29 for 2 boxes of crayons without realizing that another store has those crayons on sale for 22 cents a box.

Or if you buy the markers this week on sale for 88 cents a box, that would be a good deal -- unless they are on sale for 44 cents a box two weeks later. But you don't know if that will happen. And then there are the mail-in rebates. You might be able to buy the markers for $2 a box and then send for a $2 mail-in rebate and get the markers for free -- but only if you actually follow through and send in the rebate. If you forget the rebate (as I've done before), you've over-paid.

And then there are the hard-to-find items on the list. Where can you find D'Nealian Picture Story Paper, 1/2 inch? (Last year I found some at Staples, but I'm not sure about the 1/2 inch.) Sometimes manila paper is hard to find, and this year I need the large size, 12 x 18, at least 50 count.

If you wait too long, hoping something will go on sale for an even better price, it might be almost impossible to find at all. Then you'll drive all over, and hunt through disorganized boxes and shelves, willing to pay anything just to get the coveted item.

Of course, you could avoid all this by paying $50 (or more) to order the school supplies from a company recommended by the school and have them shipped to your house. But I think I can spend less doing it myself, and besides, you wouldn't want to miss out on all the fun. So, let the hunt begin!

*The examples given above are actual prices seen in this week's store ads.

Traffic issues

I am soon going to start commuting a longer distance. With that commute I have been forced to face the transportation issues of the area in a very practical way. I will be stuck in traffic a lot more than I was before.

I recently read an article about traffic issues in North Texas. The article suggests that the reason one stretch of highway had so much traffic was due to communities keeping another proposed freeway from being built.

In this case the democratic process worked. Vocal citizens against a freeway proposal killed the idea. At the time it likely seemed practical. Today, in hind-sight, it was probably a bit ill-advised.

As I have formulated opinions of late about traffic issues, I wonder, how do concerned citizens approach transportation issues to ensure the practical needs are met? How do you meet transportation needs while also taking into account environmental concerns? How do you fund the huge transportation needs without pushing the costs on to the next generation? Or how much should this generation have to pay for infrastructure and how much should be pushed to the next generation? How much has the Baby Boomer generation ignored infrastructure issues? What approaches to transportation need to change to ensure the economy continues to grow? Are changes in the technology which drives our cars the real environmental fix or are there other better approaches?

I'll be thinking about these and other transportation questions as I drive to work and try to post them in the future.

Milestones

We've been talking about it for a while. I encouraged Shawnie to do something about it a couple of weeks ago. The milestone was finally formalized yesterday.

Erica is now the owner/occupant of the high chair and Paul has graduated to a booster seat. Where has our little baby gone? She is eating baby food, sitting up, and rolling around after toys.

Paul is a proud big brother and took the opportunity to finally sit within reach of dishes on the table to promptly touch the casserole dish and burn himself. Change means learning lessons. Paul's first lesson about sitting at the table was a bit painful. Non-the-less, he enjoyed sitting with his hand in a bowl of cold water. He soon forgot which hand was hurt. When asked if I could take the bowl away, he quickly put his hand in the bowl. Had he placed the injured hand in the water I would have left the bowl, but he didn't. So he finished the meal dry.