Left Over Food Some Random Person Gave My In-Laws.
March 8, 2021
by drplasticpicker
It’s crunch week for the kids. Our son has four finals this week and he is in the inbetween area for several classes. It’s stressful being a sophomore high school student. These are all honors and AP Classes, and it was his choice to take them. Mr. Plastic Picker is somewhat stressed about this week, and it spills over to me. All in all, our son is going through something every teen should go through. He seems more relaxed then he really is. I created him in my womb so I know. It definitely is that crunch time and he feels it. My job is to make sure he gets to bed on time, and is eating nutritious food. He asked for a new video game, and Mr. Plastic Picker bought it for him. I put my mommy foot down and told him no video games until he is done with finals. Sometimes my husband who is usually really smart is not so smart. I might rename myself Dr. Common Sense at some point. But then he definitely can’t be Mr. Common Sense.
How I felt yesterday after a few folks sent “helpful suggestions” to some work emails.
March 5, 2021
by drplasticpicker
Wow, 1499 things that I’ve salvaged from the landfill and redeployed into the human circulating economy of things that we use. #1499 single things that had use, that were going to be thrown away. You can always check out my Plastic Picking Totals Page that details it all https://drplasticpicker.com/plastic-picking-round-up/.
I had a good nights sleep last night. The puppy was barking at Mr. Plastic Picker and he was again working. I told my husband that he really needs to find a hobby, and that your brain works better if you have something non-work related to meander to as well. But I took our puppy, who likes to sit and bark at my husband as she is his little annoying super-fan, and I carried her little 12-lb furry warm body up onto our roofdeck. It had rained yestserday and the air was crisp and the concrete of the roofdeck was wet. Ascending the spiral metal steps up to the roofdeck is like entering a different world.
I had turned on the outdoor lights, that are low to the ground but gives one enough illumination to tread safely. When we reached the top, our puppy sniffed the plants cautiously. I’ve planted a blueberry bush, coastal rosemary (which I learned afterwards is not edible and not a rosemary! LOL), clementine dwarf tree, orange dwarf tree, juniper pine, many succulents, Dr. Jill Gustafson’sa actual rosemary I’m trying to propogate, and three small pretty pots of strawberries with onions. I added a lavender container late yesterday afternoon. Then there are the tray of baby succulents I’m working on.
But we were up there together, and it was quiet. She sniffed everywhere including the artifical turf from my brother’s house that I salvaged. It is now a small square area for her to hang out when we are up there together. It’s the first time she has seen in, and let’s just say she “inaugurated” it. But after cleaning up her mess with a plastic bag I had handy up there, I picked her up and held her to the top of the conrete wall that keeps us from tumbling down three stories. We overlook all of mission bay and can see right to the lights of Sea World and Mission Bay and the beautiful Pacific Ocean. She loves to close her eyes and feel the wind on her doggy face. I think it’s probably because scents are also carried on the wind. I wonder what our fur baby thinks about?
It’s nice to have that little retreat. We’ve had this area for years since our house was built, but it was really never used. But I’m up there often now. I planted most of those things really to combat the urban heat island effect, and to grow food. I am trying to change the micro-climate but without buying too much “new” things.
But after our puppy and I had our moment last night, I did just a few yoga moves. Then both of us relaxed, I picked her up and we returned to the 2nd floor. Mr. Plastic Picker was returned a calm puppy that was minus some poop and also some canine anxiety, I’m sure. She layed at his feet for most of the night and was less her usualy annoying self.
As for me, I wondered downstairs to check on our human children and chatted with our teen son. I checked the pantry and kind of mentally prepared for tomorrow’s meals. And then I went back upstairs and did 20 minutes of Yoga by Andrienne and was feeling very relaxed. And then I put my phone away somewhere out of arms reach and had a good sleep. As I was falling asleep, I do what I do more often these days – I visualize soil and compost and microorganisms recreating an entire ecosystem in the places that I’ve planted.
Gardening, composting, and farming have been around since before we were who we are – but I’ve only as a physician recently noticed it’s importance. I’ve had gardeners around my whole life, but I never fully realized what was happening to create the nutritious food I’ve always had or the shaded and wooded areas that always have made where I live – more comfortable than others.
But now I am becoming aware and growing in my knowledge. I really love composting and making dirt. I love trying new gardening projects and sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t. And when I can’t sleep, I visualize soil and it regenerating and sequestering all the carbon that we need to sequester.
We are advocating! But this my amazing younger sister did! It gives me strength.
March 3, 2021
by drplasticpicker
We did it! We advocated. I started this blogpost yesterday and just wrote “Time to ADVOCATE!!! SB 467.” And that was it. I’m returning to this blogpost now with a cute new picture and also to say that for the last 24 hours (with some well deserved sleep in between) I worked really hard for our HMO/department doing a gazillion projects but in between was advocating. It is all happening.
When I declared I was going to save the earth (along with everyone else) I was not kidding. The Youth Climate Movement is powerful, but they are children. They woke me up, pediatrician and mother me. The adults need to get to work. To be honest, back in August 2020 when I wrote this post https://drplasticpicker.com/ab-345-did-not-fail-politicians-failed-but-pediatricians-are-quick-learners-and-we-rise-up/ I was really sad and mad. I just emailed Erik Anderson from KPBS thanking him for the interview from August, but it was again a sad time when we were accused of this being a publicity stunt and ultimately the bill failed in committee.
I spent most of the weekend puttering around the house and gardening this weekend. My friend Dr. Jill Gustafson https://drplasticpicker.com/dr-jill-gustafson-environmentally-minded-pediatrician-4/ referred to it as my urban farm, which I guess is a really cool way to think about it. I need to update the blogpost I wrote about her as the picture link does not work anymore. I might just use a picture of the cool hand-made soaps that she has been working on or the 3D Boston Puzzle she leant me! Sharing is caring folks, and Dr. Jill Gustafson cares about the world and everyone!
Back to gardening. I think it is when I read Project Drawdown and the emphasis on the emissions of the agricultural sector, reading about the power of plant-based eating on reducing climate change and looking at myself and my influence as pediatrician that takes care of kids who need to eat better food that made me realize what the gardeners around me had known all along. If we want to save the world, we have to do it by regenerating the soil and eating more locally and plant-based. And what is more local than your own urban garden?
I was updating our financial spreadsheets and remembered it kind of all started when we sold our “extra car” which was a Honda Odyssey Minivan. It actually went to an old high-school friend for a bit below market rate $4500. But not only did we get that money and avoided paying the yearly DMV fee which was about $150 or so, but we gained all this square footage of concrete pad in the back. As I began to transform that area into a container garden, I realized I had room for the Aerobin 400 composter that I had always wanted. And then the success in our backyard pad led to me venturing back up onto our roofdeck and now creating a green space up there. Between walking in the backyard and then up and down the spiral staircase, I’m getting a lot of steps in.
It’s been a beautiful process. I’ve planted beet greens, radishes, onions, and chia microgreens successfully. It might have been just a few plants, but given that I did it on my own with guidance from my mother and mother-in-law – it made those dinners especially meaningful. I’m also working on succulents and I was inspired by a friend’s house and her succulent container front-porch area. I bought hybrid aloe plants that are doing really well, and continuing to collect and propogate succulents gifted to me by people I love or that I’ve found in our own front yard or sometimes a stray succulent that has broken off itself and I will gather on my litter picking walks. I know it sounds silly but at those moments, I feel like a forager – although I’ve never foraged for food and I don’t think I’ll get to that point! Although I admire them whole heartedly.
Got some deals at Costco! Wow 3 succulent large planters were $16. Citrus tress were $25 each!Lime tree planted in the front by my mother-in-law. They are so happy. Buddha Hand tree! We used to have one in our old house in Kensington. Now we can have one again. It’s a fascinating tree.
And then there are my adventures in composting! We harvested our first compost this weekend and I’m so happy. I check on my compost everyday and either turn it, or water it. With the Aerobin 400 , you aren’t supposed to need to do anything – but I have fun with it. And the more I harvest our compost, the more the top level sinks and I can add more scraps. I actually don’t have enough scraps so I’ve asked my little brother to save vegetable scraps for me! He lives in a downtown condo so no yard space. I need to buy him a kitchen compost container for under his sink but I need to know how tall. I’ll call him today.
Compost. It is so cool! I made dirt! Made something out of nothing!.Plants love compost.
And in the end, my family will be eating even more nutritious food all powered by this regenerative process that is the composter, our own urban farm, and a sense of regeneration and wellness in our lives.
I gave my mom that huge funny looking radish that I posted on Instagram, and she was delighted and happy. She said the gardening is good for my mental health. It definitely is. Maybe I would not have gone through that dark period in my professional life when I was so stressed and sad and hypervigilant and irritable if I had been a gardener then? But going through burn out led me to the beach, which led me to declare I was going to save the world, which led me to gardening which led me back to my mom and mother-in-law and back to our own waste in our house now miraculously turned into soil. For each of us, we have our own journey and what I have most learned from all of this is to live in the present and not let worries of the future the “what ifs” destroy the joy of today. This is Dr. Plastic Picker, your pediatrician being present with you fully today and during your clinic visit.
The radish this weekend was so funny!
Radish with the guardian chickens who are named Marilla and Rachel Lynde. Yes I’m an Anne and Green Gables mega-fan.
Granny Flat. I admit, our family is in real estate.
February 26, 2021
by drplasticpicker
I admit it. My family has been involved in the real estate business since the 1970s. But then so have many people in our region. There are a lot of “real estate” families like ours. Just like anyone who has worked and thought about things through many times, real estate is a skill set. And like anything, when you first look at it – it appears daunting, then easy, then really difficult and then in the end simple again.
A really smart HMO resident called me yesterday to ask me real estate advice about buying their first home. They have a small downpayment and are approved for a 30 year fixed at 3.1%. But there is some uncertainty about their lives in terms of where they will be in a year, and where in San Diego they could eventually settle if the graduate gets a job here. No children yet. Smart young doctor that is usually good with money.
Our son’s old superhero cards I’m cutting out into butterflies.
February 25, 2021
by drplasticpicker
It’s 2AM and technically a new day. I had fallen asleep early as I was curled up in a ball, processing some work decisions I had to make. Medicine is hard. I’ve had to make some tough calls morally, and I made the right one. But I had to go to sleep as sleep is restorative. My daughter asked to read something to me, and I just did not have anything left. It had been a long day at clinic as well, supposed to end at 2pm but for me stretched to 5pm after calling local authorities to do a wellfare check. I hardly ever turn away from my children especially the youngest who was born so early, but I had nothing left yesterday. She quietly left and closed the door after I turned her away, and her father followed her to help her with her question. The handsome college junior , my college sweetheart Mr. Plastic Picker came back later and hugged me and told me to go to sleep. We are on the same career track and he has similar situations at work, so he understood my moral fatigue. We are a good team.
I would usually write a Hopeful Wednesday post, but today in lieu of Hopeful Wednesday – I will just cross-post something from my real-life facebook. Our AAP-CA3 Climate Change and Health Committee is a real group of friends. And one our friends did something amazing. Here is the post.
It’s been a year of efforts, and I wanted to give a big shout out to Patty Pascual Hosking part of our AAP CA3 Climate Change and Health Committee who works on the climate advocacy/legislative side of things with us. She was helped by our colleague Jim Moseman who leads the award from Kaiser. Patty had this dream of establishing a Green Ribbon to be given out by pediatricians in our committee at the Greater San Diego Science and Engineering Fair for research on climate change. Patty is San Diego raised, and Science Fair had been a treasured part of her teenage years and she wanted to give of herself to our community and to the environment through this venue. As with things that are driven by passion, it happened. I can’t tell you how joyous I am. And thanks to Drs. Anne Marie Birkbeck-Garcia, Joe McQuaide, Cindy Fuji and Laurence Ashbacher and our premed intern UCSD student Ashley Teo for jumping on in. “The AAP-CA3 Climate Change and Health Committee has been established as a professional organization at the Greater San Diego Science and Engineering Fair. The committee will judge and award the top 2 high school science projects that are most committed to the improvement in environmental health and most likely to lead to impactful environmental change. The GSDSEF is scheduled to take palce virtually on 3/15-3/18/2021.” Two high school kids will be awarded a “Green Ribbon” with a small monetary award for books, and also we decided to give each a cool concrete planter below with a native succulent. They have been ordered and on their way. These are made locally in Los Angeles by a small business, and hand poured using carbon-capture technology on site from coal and gas plants before they are released into the atmosphere. The carbon is infused with fly-ash and replaces 80% of the concrete compared to traditional methods. It’s lightweight and it’s cool, because Patty Pascual Hosking is cool as is saving the earth, science fair and empowering youth. Oh, women of color in science too since three of the judges are women pediatricians of color. Patty is too modest and I’m telling her awesome story.
And that is it. There is a Bright Vibes Feed they had reposted a quote “The Greatest Threat to Our Planet is the Belief that Someone Else Will Save It” along with the caption “We need more than a handful of environmentalists. We need 7.8 billion of them.” This is true on so many levels. We are all influencing eachother. And I know that in my small corner of the real world and virtual blogsphere, it’s not just me as a climate advocate. I have friends who are more modest (I’m the loud out there one) and they are environmentalist as well, and we’ll do this together. Hugs from Dr. Plastic Picker on this Wednesday morning. Amazing what good friends who care, and a solid night of sleep after yoga will do for my wellness.
I’m working on several substantial climate projects. Therefore I’m up at 424AM to take advantage of the quiet and to read and think. Anyone who wanders onto this blogpost, please know that the readership is like this virtual blanket of friendship I feel as I’m typing away in the silence. This blog is really my journaling about the eco-avatar me trying to save the earth.
We are working on an article for the Journal of Applied Research in Children entitled “INFORMING POLICY FOR CHANGING OUR BUILT ENVIRONMENT TO REDUCE CARBON EMISSIONS AND ALSO TO SAFEGUARD THE HEALTH OF CHILDREN IN EJ COMMUNITIES, COMMON SENSE ADVICE FROM FOUR COMMUNITY PEDIATRICIANS.” We were excited to get the article accepted, but now we have to write it. Since our tween daughter was able to almost finish her 7th grade drama project and her History Day Project on Mahatma Ghandi, I thought to myself yesterday – I certainly can try to knock out some work on this writing project. Time moves quickly and I’m the lead author, so I want to really get this moving so we enjoy this experience.
Yesterday was an epic climate advocacy day. Yes it was. Do you know what I did? [DRAMATIC PAUSE] I sat in front of my computer and sent emails. Yes I did. And it was an epic climate advocacy day. I am not being facetious.
Back in January, I had been invited to attend the National Children’s Health and Leadership Forum. The AAP National Leadership had signed the local chapter climate advocates up, and registered us. I just virtually showed up. But it was a very useful conference, as I was able to virtually meet person after person working on climate issues. There was a panel of speakers from the youth climate movements, who had organized the climate marches two years ago. What struck me is when they were asked about how they were able to mobilize and their activism, they were open and said that the reality of activism is that it’s a lot of sitting in front of the computer.
