1 year anniversary BY THE NUMBERS

After writing the previous post about our 1 year "down to 1 car" anniversary, I started thinking about the evidence to support the claims I was making, namely that we were now healthier, wealthier, and happier as a result of getting down to one car and having to rely on public transportation, our bikes, bodies, and coordination talents to get around. Since my SO tracks everything related to our financial well being, I realized that I should take advantage of his love of numbers and graphs to try and provide some proof behind my earlier claims. So here is the evidence I could find:

Claim #1: We are HEALTHIER as a result of selling one of our cars and and having to rely on public transportation, our bikes, bodies, and coordination talents to get around.

Supporting evidence:

• We don't have conclusive evidence for this one, because we don't have hard data to support it - i.e. number of doctor's visits or doctor's conclusions about our health before vs after we sold our car. However, we don't really get sick or go to the doctor all that much, and so it isn't hard to keep a general sense of how often this has happened over the last few years. If nothing else, we have continued to feel healthier. Lastly, I know for a fact that my weight has stabilized since we embarked on this low-emissions lifestyle. I eat better, sleep better, feel energized, focused, and a lot more relaxed. 

Claim #2: We are WEALTHIER as a result of selling one of our cars and and having to rely on public transportation, our bikes, bodies, and coordination talents to get around.

Supporting evidence: Here is where my SO's tracking comes into play. 

• The chart above shows our annual car miles and costs over time, basically since we started dating at the beginning of 2012 to today, July 2015. The blue line represents the miles and the red line represents the costs. 
• The steep decline in miles and a less impressive, but still a decline in costs between 2012 and middle of 2013 is due to our moving in together, SO working from home, and living within walking and biking distance of my work. 
• 2014 was less consistent for a number of reasons. First, we moved again, but this time to a much less connected area that was within "car-distance" from all of our family and friends. The increase in miles in the middle of 2014 was due to a long, long-distance trip to NC for a family wedding. Nevertheless, our costs did not increase by a lot and at certain times declined. 
• Lastly, 2015 has been a good year so far. Overall, our car miles and costs continue to decrease. We still live pretty far away from family and friends, so most weekends we're driving at least an hour to see them. That said, we're keeping a very low-emissions lifestyle during the work week!

Claim #3: We are HAPPIER as a result of selling one of our cars and and having to rely on public transportation, our bikes, bodies, and coordination talents to get around.

Supporting evidence:

SO and I biking in WDC.

• We also don't have conclusive evidence to support this claim, because after all who knows how to measure happiness? It's an elusive concept that people still don't know how to quantify, and one that cannot be generalized, since it depends so much on the individual preferences, self-knowledge, etc, etc.
• However, we've been biking A LOT! And everyone knows that we've been displacing the car with the bike, and given a choice, biking is much more fun than driving. The below chart shows the growth of our addiction to biking. :) It's a 12-month sliding window of our biking miles. 

Based on what we know about ourselves, our self-constructed versions of past and present realities, we feel that we are pretty darn happy these days. We are grateful that we have the time and resources to experiment as much as we can in search of a lifestyle that is aligned with our values. And the lifestyle changes, such as going down to 1 car, have brought us even more awareness about our values and inspired us to continue down the road of REDUCING our waste on this precious planet Earth. 

Happy evidence-based analysis!

Modern Akhmatova

1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

This month marks the 1 year anniversary since we downsized from 2 cars to 1. I first blogged about this change in the 2 Bikes, 1 Car Couple post. Considering that there are about 1.8 cars per household (source: Governing the States and Localities) in our area, we consider(ed) ourselves ahead of the curve!

Although it was super exciting at first, we found the transition pretty uneventful actually. We didn't have to adjust our habits or plans that much as a result of this change. It did and continues to require some coordination, but the fact that I work from home and my SO works within biking distance makes daily commuting quite simple, easy, and stress-free. If anything, we found ourselves wondering if we needed a car at all. It might be possible to go car-free if we didn't live in suburbia and so far away from our family. Unfortunately, the public and alternative transportation infrastructure between Maryland, Washington, DC and Virginia is pretty limited. We even have trouble biking to some of the towns nearby because of the highway jungle that surrounds us.

Either way, I'm happy to report that even in an area that is dominated by cars we've been able to function just fine with only 1 car. If anything, we're benefiting from it. We're healthier, wealthier and happier as individuals and as a couple, because we're living our values and improving our ability to live in harmony with our wonderful planet Earth each and every day.

Happy downsizing!
~Modern Akhmatova

THE WONDER OF SLOWING DOWN

"Walk as if you're kissing the earth with your feet." - Thich Nhat Hanh

SO walking with his 95 year old grandma.

It was a beautiful Mother's Day celebration. Our family had gathered at my brother and sister-in-law's house to celebrate the amazing women in our lives - my mom, my sister-in-law and SO's mom, and their 95 year old grandma. We filled the sunny day with delicious home cooked food, drinks, and colorful and fragrant gifts and cards.

Hours before everyone arrived and the festivities began, I remember the distinct joyous feeling of slowness. My SO and I had arrived at our siblings' (they are married, yes, you got it right! :)) house the day before, so we were already at their house the next morning when the preparations for the day were starting. That morning, I decided to make crepes before everyone got up. A little later, the four of us shared a slow breakfast, chatted, and hung out. After cleaning up, I started to cook my special dish for the day and realized I was missing a few ingredients. It wasn't long before I was off on a walk to the store through a quirky Orthodox Jewish neighborhood, running into other neighbors walking because it was still Shabbat.

I love seeing people out and about. Moments like these take me back to my childhood in Belgrade, Serbia, where I walked and ran everywhere my young heart desired. It may seem so simple, walking to the grocery store, but unfortunately this is a rare event in America unless you live in a city. That is why my SO and I are trying very hard to use alternative forms of transportation (a.k.a., everything other than the car - walking, biking, public transportation) whenever and wherever we can, because we realize how important it is to truly connect to the land we live on, to become aware of our surroundings, and hopefully, to run into other people and animals on the way to our destination.

I returned home after my wonderfully slow journey to the store and started to cook again. Shortly thereafter, before I was done, people started to arrive. Usually at this point I'd start stressing out because everything wasn't ready before guests arrived, but this time it felt as if I had embraced this reality ahead of its arrival and everything turned out just fine.

For the rest of the day, we dined, wined, reminisced, and spent quality time together. No one was in a rush or worried about anything, we just shared the moments together as best we could. Everyone was fully present and in it to enjoy themselves in the company of their loved ones.

And then I asked  our 95-yr old grandma if she wanted to go on a walk with me. She enthusiastically agreed and off we went down the canopy covered sidewalks in the early evening sunlight. She told me how much she loved walking and how when she was younger, she shared walks with her mom on a daily basis. She went on to say that people nowadays spend too much time in their cars and that they should walk more. It's healthy, she explained.

As we walked and I listened to her wise words, I smiled within. The day had been perfect on so many levels...It inspired me to embrace "slowing down" in order to be more present with myself, others, and the space that surrounds and nourishes us.

Happy slowing down!
~Modern Akhmatova

Related read: "In Praise of Slowness" by Carl Honore (his TED talk about the book: http://www.ted.com/talks/carl_honore_praises_slowness?language=en#t-1140814) 

LIFE'S ADVENTURES: LIVING MORE WITH LESS

*Note: this blog post is not by me, Modern Akhmatova, but by my significant other (SO)

SO and I in Fairbanks, AK

The past several months since February have been quite busy with their ups and downs. As my SO posted briefly about, we vacationed in Alaska for two weeks. Then we had to deal with cleaning up the aftermath of our flooded out apartment after we got back from vacation. Shortly thereafter we started looking for a place closer to my work since our lease term was ending. Finally we had to move all of our stuff to our new place.

In Alaska, first we saw the end of a 1000 mile dog race in Fairbanks (the Yukon Quest). We also spent nights searching for the northern lights, took a day trip stopping just shy of the Arctic Circle to see the frozen mighty Yukon river where we had a lunch on the snowy banks. Then we drove down to Anchorage, stopping midday for a day hike in Denali National Park. We briefly saw family in Anchorage and then we were off again, this time to Seward where we stayed in a cabin on the beach, played lots of cards and did some frozen hiking.

Brent Sass on his way to Fairbanks...final leg of the Yukon Quest!

Brent Sass wins the Yukon Quest!

SO and I in front of the University of Alaska Museum of the North...notice the bike behind us! 

Aurora borealis or the northern lights near Fairbanks, AK

Relaxing in natural hot springs

This is where you get your mail when you live in the middle of nowhere.

A road trip through winter wonderland.

Eating lunch on the mighty, but frozen, Yukon River.

Denali National Park and Preserve

SO getting ready to dog sled on his own!

Miller's Landing in Seward, AK...where we stayed while there.

SO and I taking a polar bear swim in Resurrection Bay (Seward, AK).

Alaska was fun, however we had a little thing hanging over our heads the entire trip. Despite having a relatively balmy winter up until the day we left, Maryland was experiencing a cold snap. And thus the first day after we arrived in Alaska, I received a call from our landlord that our apartment had flooded due to a burst pipe, despite our leaving the heat on!
It’s actually pretty funny that this happened, because we are practicing minimalists. Having moved 4 times in the past 3 years, it has certain synergies with our lifestyle. At the beginning of our vacation, as we shouldered our packs for our six-mile hike to the airport, while our apartment was just going out of view behind us, we casually discussed what if we just owned the possessions in our packs. What if we had no burdens of “stuff” and were just free to travel the world? Well I guess we got to ponder on that thought a bit more heavily during our vacation.

I think I took the news better than my SO. Honestly, after the initial reaction of “FUCK!??” I didn’t really mind all that much. These past few years, I’ve really taken to heart that I don’t care about things - at least in a sentimental way. Almost everything in our apartment is replaceable. And for what is not, I believe the memories are enough. Unfortunately SO had some letters from her deceased father that she really cherished, and years of journals she had written going back to when she was a child so she didn’t take the news so well, fearing that these would be ruined and the information lost forever. But except for those items, she also didn’t really mind the potential loss of everything else. We tried to put the news behind us and enjoy our vacation, but little things would remind us now and then of what was waiting when we returned. We tried to stay optimistic about it and I think that paid off in the end.

Things were better than expected when we got back. The landlord had replaced our carpet, and drywall and it was almost livable. Of course everything we owned was piled in giant trash bags in our living room and our kitchen and all the insides of the cabinets were covered with drywall dust so that was a bit traumatic. It took about a week to set things straight and it was stressful at times, but I’m thankful we had as little stuff as we did - it could have been a lot worse. In the end we only lost a few things from water damage (a few rugs and towels) but everything else amazingly came through OK. A few weeks after we got back you wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference. We did get a bill for damages from our landlord which was a bit annoying since they had initially told us because our heat was on, we would not be held liable, but since we hold renter’s insurance, Geico took care of that for us.

After finding a new place, we again appreciated the art of living with less stuff as we did our moves by ourselves over the course of a week, fitting almost everything we own into just 5 or 6 VW Golf-sized loads (we did borrow our friend with his pickup truck one evening after work to take our composter and mattress -our two biggest items - in one load).

~The Other SO

OFF TO ALASKA

Lost Lake Trail in Seward, AK

Take down the concrete.

Open it all up to the greens, blues and browns...

the skies above and below...

Let us breathe and be in harmony with our cellular relatives.

~Modern Akhmatova

Me walking on Lost Lake Trail in Seward, AK

FUN DIY EXPERIMENT: haircuts

Source

As noted in previous posts, my significant other (SO) and I review our finances (savings and spending breakdown) on a monthly basis. The two main tools we use to track all of this information and make projections into the future are Mint and Google spreadsheets. We discuss many different things during these monthly financial reviews, including ideas for how to save even more. One such idea that came up during our recent annual review is haircuts. 

I have been cutting my own hair for over 5 years now and my SO wanted me to start cutting his hair so that we could save the $100 or so a year that he spends on haircuts and use that money instead toward experiencing things together. As I mentioned before, we don't believe in being cheap, we believe in using our money toward experiences that fulfill us. Furthermore, being creative about how we save our money has the added benefit of having fun together and the thrill of DIY-ness that comes from experimenting with things like this. 

So on Wednesday of last week we decided to finally try it. I found a great video on YouTube on how to cut hair similar to his, watched it twice, took notes and went for it! We didn't really have any appropriate hair cutting tools that are used in the video, but we decided to do it anyway. I used our regular scissors, a simple hair comb, and a tarp to collect the cut hair. When his hair got too dry he'd just dump it under the sink :). 

At first, I was really concerned and unsure of whether I was doing a good job, but I took my time and the longer I did it the more comfortable and fun it became. The one thing that became obvious pretty quickly was that the scissors we had were NOT meant for cutting hair! But that didn't stop us. I managed to cut off about 2 or so inches all around, and in the end, after about 30 minutes, SO had a pretty descent haircut. For all intents and purposes this DIY haircut experiment was a success. 

We'll try to do this again in two months and see how it goes. For now we'll enjoy the fact that his hair looks decent, we saved some money, had fun in the process, and learned something new!

Happy DIY experimenting!

Modern Akhmatova

PURE WINTER WONDER

Winter time is my partner's favorite season. If it was up to him, we'd be living in Alaska or Antarctica right about now. We probably will some day, at least for a bit of time, but for now we're in good 'ol Maryland, south of the Mason-Dixon Line, where it doesn't seriously snow until February, but the government and school systems shut down at the sight of snowflakes starting in December. Needless to say you won't find many people in these parts who are enthusiastic about cold weather.

But for my significant other (SO) and I, winter season brings so many simple joys. Since moving in together 2 years ago, we've made it a tradition to go out and tour the surrounding neighborhoods when Christmas lights and awesome decorations start popping up. We usually walk around or bike. I also get to enjoy these lights and sparkling snow on a daily basis during my walks. It's one of my favorite American traditions and I almost wish people kept their lights up year around (it's actually what we do in our own home).

And then there is the joy of winter biking! At the end of 2013, my SO and I began riding our bikes in winter weather. We bought our first set of winter tires and off we went to practice riding on snow and ice. It was hilarious at first because it felt and looked like we were learning to bike for the very first time. Soon enough though we were riding all over the place, so much so that I started riding 12 miles to work round-trip every day. We've moved since and now SO rides to work about 20 miles a day round-trip every day! We continue to bike around town to get groceries, go to the post office and the library. All in all, it's a great way to enjoy winter weather without harming the environment, use all that winter gear sitting in the closet, and stay fit!

Entrance to the Old Rag Mountain
parking area

SO at the top of Old Rag mountain
 looking across toward the
Shenandoah National Park.

Another winter activity that's become a tradition for us is a camping trip right around Christmas time. This year we decided to hike and camp on the Old Rag Mountain trail right outside of the Shenandoah National Park. We've been doing this for three years now and we absolutely love it! There are barely any people out on the trails during this time of year, so we have the mountain all to ourselves. It's also a way for us to get away from Christmas-mania and take comfort in nature together.

Homemade Nutella and fudge 

Serbian St. Sava celebration

Fire pit!    

Although we try to get away from the consumerism of the holiday season, we very much enjoy holiday festivities and the quality time we get to have with our loved ones. There is always lots and lots of good food around this time of year and our families like to make everything from scratch, so everything is always super delicious and we enjoy it in the comfort of home. We also travel to upstate NY every year to visit family friends for the New Year celebration. They have a large property and they love to have fun, so whenever we're up there my SO takes advantage of the opportunity to make huge bonfires that everyone gets to enjoy! And lastly, earlier this month I got to enjoy the Serbian Saint Sava celebration with my family. We dressed up, danced and ate a lot, which is typical for any Serbian event :).


So that's it for now! We're about to head to Alaska for a two-week vacation to enjoy -35 degree weather. Brrrrr. We'll see how I feel about the joys of winter season once we return! Until then...

Happy winter living!
Modern Akhmatova