BLANKETS FOR EVERYONE

After a little hiatus from driving our house around… we are back on the road and doing our best to stay warm.

Rivers and Roads

Bless the inventor of the electric blanket.

Cold camping is no joke. I can understand why most people who possess furnaces tend to stick to camping in the warmer months. From my experience, cold camping can be very fun if the people you are with also like prancing around at every waking moment so as to keep up circulation, getting into bed at roughly 5 pm because it is dark, perpetually applying lotion and chapstick, and playing the game—”is all my water edible or frozen”.

The idea of cold camping excites me. I am drawn toward the extremity of it—of surviving the cold with just the equipment that fits in the car. The risk of waking up shivering is matched against the potential satisfaction of waking up the following day from the deepest sleep you’ve ever had. The cold winter nights also tend to have amazing stars. It's more noticeable because the dark comes sooner, and the reflecting snow makes the stars seem brighter.

Our first night of camping this year was in about 5ºF temperatures. Ouch.

I do sleep better in cold temperatures so long as my hands and feet stay warm, but that is always the battle. My circulation—not great. Our sleeping bags are rated to 15ºF, and I have a liner that adds up to 25ºF of warmth… but I forgot to use the liner. This time around, we were camping in a state park that had an electric source, and instead of using our battery pack, we plugged in an old electric blanket I acquired (we didn’t steal it, I promise) from my parent's house. Having this blanket in our rooftop tent was like having a warm little hug on command. It preheated our sleeping bags (I always dread getting into our frigid sleeping bags at night) and then served as a pile of delight that I admittedly proceeded to burrow myself into before I was mentally ready to get properly into the sleeping bag.

I know that having an electric outlet at the campground will not always be a given. And frankly, I half expected the wire that hung exposed to the elements to snap or crumble in the cold. So, I will not take this camping win for granted. It is not every day that you can survive sub-zero temperatures (which is a confusing phrase since we Americans use the Fahrenheit system and below freezing still has positive temperature values… ugh don’t get me started on our measurement systems). However, having an electric blanket does increase my confidence that we will make it through the winter with all our fingers and toes. Wish us luck!

Hot Topic

THE WAYS WE ARE NOT THE SAME

The Sustainable Development Goal I will start the new year with is a doozy. #10: Reduce Inequalities.

The goal, in full, is to reduce inequality within AND among countries. Now, changing the level of equality of nations seems unfathomable, coming from an individual level. So, let’s talk about the ways we are not the same within our country. This is something that we often try to gloss over. Ultimately, we so often want to lean into our shared interests, commonalities, and the ways we are equal. But that can lead to simply siloing ourselves into these bubbles of people who are just like us.

There are so many differences we can have. We can have different identifying features, be it race, gender, or broader appearance. We can have different levels of skill, income, patience, humor, and the list goes on. Some of those differences can make living life more difficult. But it is nearly impossible to advocate for people who we do not know or understand.

The UN mentions inequality in terms of income and how 10% of people own 76% of the world’s wealth. But it is not that simple. Access to education and health care are two other significant categories of inequality. The very first thing that we as individuals need to do to tackle this goal is to learn, discuss, and read about what it is like (if you haven’t experienced it for yourself) to lack wealth and access. Then, we give what we can in time, resources, and knowledge to those less fortunate.

Wealth begets wealth. Because of this, it can be challenging to achieve upward social mobility, particularly starting from the bottom, if you are surrounded by people in the same position as you. Often, those who rise do so with guidance and opportunity given by others higher up. Economic connectedness—the social capital of having friendships that span different socioeconomic levels—boosts upward mobility. 

Particularly in the winter, and particularly after the consuming spree of the holidays, I challenge us to reflect on what we do not need—what we have that we can give—and who are the people who need those things. It is cold. Do you have a load of winter coats getting dusty in your closet? Are there people sleeping outside, unhoused, that might need them? You are smart. How can you share that knowledge? By giving, we can add a little balance to the world and shed some of the excess. The first thing to do, it seems, is make some new friends.

Refresh

• Health: It is hard to move in the cold. How in the world can I motivate myself to take daily walks?

• Household: With the holiday season behind us, spring cleaning lies ahead. By giving used clothes as directly to those in need as possible, we can significantly increase the chances they will be put to good use.

• Mentality: Having a plan de vida is the Costa Rican key to living to 100. Forget resolutions…I want a plan.

• Community: “At its core, boredom is “a search for neural stimulation that isn’t satisfied,” Sandi Mann says. “If we can’t find that, our mind will create it.” … I wonder what our minds would create if we sat and stared at each other instead of our phones in the airport or on the bus, just like in the good ole days.

Mouthwatering

THE BEST DUMPLING YOU’VE NEVER HAD

Just imagine a potato and cheese-filled pierogi but then topped with a zesty vinegar curry sauce instead of sour cream and onions, or whatever usually goes on them.

Here is a link to a recipe to make pelmeni by hand.

But who really has time to make dumplings? We do no such thing on the road. Instead, we buy Costco's cheese and potato pierogi and whip up the INCREDIBLE sauce to cook and dip them in. The sauce is what made my mouth dance the first time I ever ate a pelmeni (in Juneau, Alaska). It is simple. I might even say genius.

Sauce:

• 3 parts rice or apple cider vinegar

• 1 part sriracha

• 1 part water

• ½ part sugar

• ½ part curry powder (I think that is the right ratio, but I really just dump in the curry powder to my liking)

We pan-fried the pierogi in this fun, tasty liquid and saved some for dipping upon serving (much like dumpling sauce).

Game Time

CONNECTIONS

This is the year for bigger brains and making connections. To achieve that, you must find the four groups of four-word connections in a batch of 16 words. Sounds easy, right?

Well, this game is not called associations—it’s more concrete than that. We are biased. Words that our brain naturally groups together as similar or associated somehow might not necessarily be the answer.

I hope your next few weeks are as awe-inspiring as my first trip to a rodeo. (I didn’t expect that one!)