The same hike, but everyone sees a different vantage point.
August 19, 2021
by drplasticpicker
I’m storing up the memories still. Between my little sister’s visit with our nephew and niece for the first time in almost 2 years, and then our road trip to the Bay Area, our family is storing up those memories. We are back a day earlier than expected and I still have two day of vacation and two days of a weekend off, and now I realize that time is mine and does not belong to the HMO. I’m going to give that time to my climate work and getting the kids ready for the new school year. Our daughter wants to refresh her room, hang up some new posters and swap out some furniture. Our son doesn’t want to do anything with his room, but I need to venture in to dust and declutter.
Picture of a rainbow in the distance. Picture yesterday from our property in Oregon.
June 23, 2021
by drplasticpicker
Just thinking crazy things and dreaming on the blog. I half wrote a blog to get out some frustrations I felt after a middle management meeting, and then I deleted it. It was good to get it out and just virtually delete the stuff. And now I’m back positive and happy and dreaming.
I’m not sure where life will take me professionally. Mr. Plastic Picker is moving full force in his career and it’s hard to imagine having two HMO chief bosses in a family. I can’t really imagine how that is even possible. So I’m happy where I am and not worrying about the what ifs. Some of not worrying about the what ifs and able to recover quickly from a semi-annoying meeting and meeting(s) in the plural, is thoughts of the one what-ifs I like to think about – OREGON!!!!
I think I could do this and still do my current job. I really think I can. My family member is having such a great time up in Oregon right now. We actually don’t even have to pay property tax as the property currently participates in Oregon State tax programs that exempt portions of the land for being part of Riparian Habitat, leaving forest for wildlife habitat, and actually growing hay on the pastureland.
If I were to run some kind of 3 day retreat I would want the following covered. I can’t teach these. I just think they are very important for everyone’s wellness.
YOGA and MEDITATION and MINDFULNESS
SLEEP
PLANT-BASED EATING or PLANT-FORWARD EATING
FINANCIAL WELLNESS AND MINIMALISM
THE POWER OF ADVOCACY
INCORPORATING CREATIVITY IN YOUR LIFE
THE POWER OF WRITING
That is is. Just dreaming. The following activities would be optional and we could provide.
RIDE A JOHN DEERE LAWNMOWER AND MOW THE PASTURE-LAND, that would be harvested and sold for hay
VISIT NEIGHBOR who raises SUSTAINABLE PASTURE-RAISED BEEF, SHEEP and CHICKENS for EGGS (of course we would pay an entrance fee)
GO KAYAKING IN NEARBY RESERVOIR (Life jacket required and have to sign release form)
GO FISHING (we’ll have fishing poles, there is rainbow trout stocked)
JUST GO OFF YOURSELF TO VISIT CRATER LAKE OR UMPQUA NATIONAL FOREST, because being in any nature setting you are working on yourself
Yoga, Yoga, more Yoga
WORK IN THE ORAGNIC GARDEN
COMPOSTING (which is just toss your veggies scraps in the compost pile)
DRIVE POLARIS AROUND THE PROPERTY
DARK NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY (we are a certified dark night photography area)
That is it. Just fun dreaming on the blog. We are just going to enjoy the property for now. But I love dreaming about it. Helps me sleep. Helps me try to continue to #fightfor1point5 . We really need to save the earth.
Garden that needs some work. Alreayd lots of black berries and vegetables. Just neglected. Our garden right now. The other side of the garden.
The thoughts and dreams of Southwestern Oregon and our hopefully family farm sits in the back of my mind, and makes me so happy. There is not much for me to do right now. I’m sitting on our portion of the downpayment and ready to deploy whenever it’s time. The way some people love luxury purses, is the way I love real estate. It gives me this fuzzy and warm feeling, knowing it actually grows our networth if we do it the right way – but at the same time gives me so much enjoyment in other ways that actually doesn’t cost me any money.
Cloest place to buy sundries. Say hi to Phillip, nice gentleman there.
May 27, 2021
by drplasticpicker
I’m still processing it all. It was a whirlwind 48 hours. Someone mentioned to me on a work committee call that I was able to make because I was at the airport on a layover flying home, “I hope you enjoy your vacation.” I’m not sure why, but that kind of took me aback. Vacation? This trip was not a vacation. There is never a vacation from being Dr. Plastic Picker. This particular person didn’t mean anything by it and we have a complicated history between us, but it just shows no one knows your journey as well as you know your journey and I certainly do not know this colleagues – and the challenge is how and if to articulate it to folks. I’m not particularly close with the person who made this innocuous comment and it was meant as a pleasantry, so I didn’t feel the need to explain it further. I just said it was not a vacation and moved on to the next topic of the committee meeting.
Yep. It’s going to happen. I’m going to buy half of that Big Island Property. The math works out. It’s crazy when the math works out. I have our portion of the downpayment easy, and we are still investing in the other commercial project but this will be for fun and for creativity. The mortgage payment and taxes we split with my family member, and the monthly cost is actually not that much. Even if we just keep the land and let family and friends use for free (or you just pay to make sure it gets cleaned), it will be worth it. And when organizations like the posh private school we send our kids to ask us for donations, I can just donate a week at our vacation home and deduct it. I can do the same for Girl Scouts. But more importantly, we will get the land that I’ve been dreaming of.
Coastal Sunflower, part of the native coastal sage shrub flora.
March 19, 2021
by drplasticpicker
Our family is on a short few days get-away in Dana Point. This is just over the border of San Diego County and Orange County. We picked our vacation destination because Mr. Plastic Picker and I are very by-the-book. The County of Public Health website said within 200 miles of your home for travel during COVID-19 pandemic this week, and this was the furthest we could go. We were thinking of going to Palm Springs or Santa Barbara, and I know that likely that would be safe. But we wanted to set a good example and we are rule-oriented but desperate to get a away. Mr. Plastic Picker found the hotel-room which was more than I ever imagine spending $350 a night for a two-bedroom suite at the Residence Inn Marriot. But are kids are very large now, and we wanted a separate bedroom. Given COVID-19, we also wanted a fully equipped kitchen so we could cook and avoid exposures yet still be on vacation. That essentially was our only cost, two nights at the hotel. We can afford it, and it doesn’t hurt anyone and does help the local economy. So Mr. Plastic Picker booked the hotel and we drove up not having any plan as to what we were going to do other than to spend time together. We left the crazy poodle mix at home with the grandparents, and our organic garden and composter. Grandparents although vaccinated are being super-safe still and stayed home to putter around the house that we are still paying the mortgage on.
Highlands of Scotland. It was beautiful. But it is all deforested. We are lucky still in America. Let’s help the Scots by supporting rewilding Scotland, but we can enjoy our natural spaces nearby without spewing carbon into the air. This is our trip last summer. But I feel a great sense of guilt since it was quite a bit of flying. We did buy carbon offsets, but do those even work? Our family has drastically reduced our flying. Honestly, it is not sustainable and the 1% (yes us physicians) are contributing to this. Just do what you can though. Maybe that one trip that isn’t that exciting or that cruise you were thinking, maybe go visit a National Park instead?
February 14, 2020
by drplasticpicker
Martin et. al. just published this month an article that explains it all, “Nature contact, nature connectedness and associations with health, wellbeing and pro-environmental behaviors.” I have to email the HMO librarian about getting the article, because it cost $39.99. But the highlights are that
Visiting nature > once/week was associated with better health.
Nature connectedness was positively related to eudaimonic wellbeing. I had to look up eudaimonic, it means “a contented state of being happy and healthy and prosperous.”
Nature connectedness was positively associated with pro-environmental behaviors.
This explains it all. I sometimes was unsure if I was going on the right path, but this is my path. I need to lead people to the beach to experience nature and also to clean the earth. I will try to pick our next dedicated beach cleaning soon.
Local shop @drplasticpicker decided to spend my money. This money went to a local business with local owners. The shop keeper said she is a 1/3 part owner of the shop. Been in business for over 70 years.
January 10, 2020
by drplasticpicker
Today was one of those days that was beautiful. Today was like that day in December when our meeting was cancelled and I wandered around the hospital talking about plastic and my blogging and got my Fit-Mask test done with one of the most powerful physicians in our group https://drplasticpicker.com/a-meeting-was-cancelled-and-drplastipicker-meanders-around-the-hospital-convincing-the-1/. I had so many adventures that day, and I made tentative plans to have a plastic picking meet-up with said physician and her family. She wants to teach her children responsibility for the earth as well. Well today, our middle management meeting was not cancelled but I still had a wonderful day.
Overflowing trash receptacle from a random vacation rental. Photo credit by drplatsicpicker.
December 29, 2019
by drplasticpicker
It has been hard to silence the siren call of consumerism during the holidays. But on December 7, I declared on this blog “My plans to have a GREENER Christmas season,” and listed concrete actions we were planning on taking https://drplasticpicker.com/drplasticpicker-is-not-judging-anyone-my-plans-to-have-a-greener-christmas-season-just-do-what-you-can/ So how did our family do? The above picture is of a garbage bin I snapped while Mr. Plastic Picker was driving around lost. I only picked up 5 plastic bottles and 2 aluminum cans during our Christmas vacation trip. I focused mostly on reducing our trash footprint while we were is Utah’s beautiful aspen forests. It is so easy to be wasteful on vacations. We tried to treat this vacation destination like our own home and continued our waste reduction efforts.
