In March, we drove to LA in my new car to a really awful comic book convention. But the children got to see LA and I got one of my favorite new shirts there.

Then Peter went to Germany, to a comic book convention, just as gas prices climbed to an outrageous level that put me on a driving strike.

Human Computing moved into new offices downtown, which are ever so much nicer, and better located, than where he used to be, in the office building purchased by, er, Ray. I’m sure I mentioned the new offices are across from the basilica, and I didn’t get around to mentioning that the new office building management put up spectacular Christmas decorations, on a level to match those at Christmas in the Park.

Neil found a boy scout troop to join, and I officially became a homeschool teacher. At the beginning of the summer, Neil found some neighborhood friends, which lightened my concerns about his social life. Little did I know that by the end of the year, I’d be homeschooling my daughter, too.

I also saw the San Diego Comic-Con again for the first time in several years, took full geeky pleasure in seeing Jim Butcher and Steve Coogan, and managed to keep myself sane by taking it in in only small portions.

We took an epic cross-country journey which let us see friends and family, as well as see and understand our fellow countrymen, plus get to know some of our most important national monuments. While we were traveling, the economy apparently decided to go to hell. But at least we knew all our other countrymen were in the same situation, no matter their situation or philosophy.

I have to say that I never expected that the fallout from Happy Happy Lenderman would be as dramatic as it turned out to be. I figured the banks were eating their lending mistakes, but it turned out the whole mess gave them massive indigestion–and the rest of us have to pay up now, too.

Our presidential election went well, but I’m not as excited about our president-elect as some other people are. Frankly the over-the-top adoration of him creeped me out, and I see a ordinary (perhaps egotistical) man who’s facing a tough situation, with an awful lot of overly-high public expectations. This tongue-in-cheek article from the Onion probably encapsulated my view of Barack Obama’s victory best.

But I go into 2009 in good health, with my family, and with a good freelance writing gig. For myself, I know 2009 won’t be as exciting as 2008, but it should be a’right. I hope all my friends and family will have a great new year, and if there are any rough spots that they’ll sail through them quickly.

I knew Happy Happy Lenderman had left a path of economic destruction, at least in real estate, but I had not idea how fast and dramatic the fall out ended being.

When we woke up after our first day in travelling, we saw the Salt Lake City newspaper had a headline that Washington Mutual Bank had failed. “Hey,” I pointed out the paper to Peter, “that’s our bank, isn’t it?” Luckily, it had been snatched up in some midnight deal by, ironically, our credit card issuer. Still, it was a joke that was to follow us for the rest of the vacation.

It was a relief to avoid the news, but any time we tuned in over the next week, it was all about a federal bank bailout, which everyone, everywhere, regardless of political leanings, hated as a political and/or corporate boondoggle. Somehow, though, the politicians spun a tale of imagined popular support, threw more pork in the bill to buy out any reluctance, and now I think the government has owns our banks, which really makes me nervous.

And when that had settled, the stock market crashed so dramatically even Peter couldn’t concentrate on the tour of the Gettysburg battlefields his dad was giving him. Since then, the stocks have bounced up and down like a yo-yo: so much for government interference stabilizing things!

However, it was to our benefit that gas prices plunged almost as rapidly as they’d risen in June. As we left Texas, we thought the $2.39/gallon price was an oil state rarity, but as I write this local gas prices are within 20 cents of that already.

But the thing that got me to write this post in the first place was a shopping trip I took today. Some of Neil’s pants have become so embarrassingly threadbare that even a cheapskate like me was moved to get him some new ones. We went to one of my favorite stores for children’s clothes, Mervyn’s, and found out the recently vibrant-seeming chain declared complete bankruptcy while we were gone. As we walked in, everything was 25 to 50% off, with no returnability, and most of the cashiers and dressing room attendants were already gone for good. I was too surprised to splurge at the discounts: I was trying to figure out which store would now be my go-to place for realiably sturdy childrens’ clothes.

It’s really a big shock, and an even bigger one as the changes seem sudden after a month of being away. I hope the crisis simply reached bottom surprisingly fast, because if this is just the beginning of the fall, we have a very rocky few years ahead of us.

I haven’t really been in a going out to San Francisco mood ever since gas prices took a stratospheric jump, and I was even dragging my feet on this concert. I generally dislike having to see opening bands, and I remember many a show not even beginning until an hour after the scheduled show time. Peter reminded me I was still in a 90s frame of mind. I had to remind myself that this decade in music concerts in much better: the opening acts aren’t always an insult to the audience, and most shows start on time, instead of having the band you wanted to see finally appear 4 hours after the scheduled start.

The opening band (and there was only one) was Penelope Houston, whom I didn’t know, but whom Peter recognized vaguely as the lead singer from a seminal San Francisco punk band, The Avengers. By the time we arrived, she’d already gone on stage, and she surprised us both (pleasantly) with how amazingly good she was. She’s evolved into an alt-country singer with impressive musicianship both in herself and her band. And the lyrics were edgy, like these from one of my favorites among those I heard, Pale Green Girl. Penelope Houston’s playing a zither these days, and she kicks musical a**.

She was a good opener for Stan Ridgway, who opened with “Factory” and joked that he was going to bring us all those feel-good songs of the New Wave era. He followed that up with his film noir song “Peg and Pete and Me,” which is still going through my head. The show followed that vein throughout the night, with Stan Ridgway occasionally singing out “Walking on Sunshine” to remind us that there was never anything frothy about his songs. Unfortunately, though Peter’s been seeing Stan Ridgway since the late 80s, I’d only seen him once before when he played at Slim’s in 2006. I had to ask Peter if Ridgway had always been as quirky as he was on stage, and Peter said he’s pretty much been the same kind of guy, but his fans are getting a little more eccentric (us included, probably.) It seems to be a tradition for someone (or perhaps a tradition for a small group of fans) to send Stan vodka martinis. Does this only happen in San Francisco, or does he get vodka martinis all over the world? He received three drinks while he was performing, though he only had time to take a polite sip from each.

This show was set up with chairs and tables for the audience, which was a surprise, since I’m used to open venues in which I’m shoved about near the front of the stage. But the Great American Music Hall is a small venue, so even seated, the show had a pleasant, intimate feel, and the people who wanted to dance just gathered on either side of the stage. And as I said, the acoustics were great: I could hear both Stan Ridgway and Penelope Houston clearly, and I’m used to having to decipher lyrics through garbled sound.

So in all, the concert turned out to be even better than I expected: it was a nice crowd, an intimate feel, great acoustics, and even a worthy opening act.

The weekend before, we’d gone downtown to see the fireworks and thanks to our office building, were able to drive in half an hour before the fireworks show and enjoy our parking downtown. Afterwards, we had the comfort of being able to stash our stuff in our office and stroll to Pizza My Heart, enjoy a snack, and wait out the massive jam of people trying to leave. On our way out, Peter bought group discount tickets (and advance tickets for The Dark Knight) at the Camera 12 Cinemas, because now he and his staff can walk to see new comic book movies together.

And then for this week, Peter snagged discount tickets to the Thursday night show at the San Jose Rep, The Reduced Shakespeare Company’s All the Great Books (Abridged.) We left Kelly with a sitter, but took Neil, since his education is, after all, based on the great books. Walking over to the rep, we walked through the Pete Escovedo concert in the plaza. Neil had no idea who he was, and Peter just made it worse my telling him he’s Sheila E.‘s dad. If they’re not in Guitar Hero or on one of my alt-rock stations, Neil’s never heard of them. I told him Pete Escovedo is a legendary salsa musician.

But we had come to see a play, not a concert. Needless to say, All the Great Books (Abridged) was funny, erudite, and even better if you were familiar with the books. As far as I’m concerned, their synopsis of Ulysses was probably better than you’d get in a lit class–and took a lot less time. There was some improv, and at one point, the actors rolled with a tangent so long they had trouble getting back to the script. I was worried about how much Neil would enjoy the play, but he loved it. In fact, he asked to see the books on the “class syllabus” and I pulled all the classics we had from our shelves. As a result, when he left for scout camp yesterday, he’d read half way through The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

The next day Friday, Neil, Kelly and I took light rail downtown for one of our regular “Day in San Jose” excursions. As it turned out, Peter never made it to his own office there, because he was too busy waiting in the interminable line for the new iPhone. I had a huge pile of books to return, so the kids and I went to the downtown library first, where I met up with my friend Michael. I dragged Michael along with us to the farmer’s market, where we each bought lunch, and I bought several pounds of seedless grapes to turn into raisins. Michael had to go back to work, but as it turns out, another friend showed up. Loretta had come by for the farmer’s market, too, so we hung out. Then I dressed Kelly in her bathing suit, and she splashed around in the fountains at Plaza de Cesar Chavez. Kelly wanted to see the Tech, so we fetched Neil (who’d just been reading in the office) and closed it down. Peter finally had an iPhone in hand (at the mall near our house) at 5 pm, so we took light rail home. He arrived home minutes after we did, and told us of the tale of horror, which involved several iPhones not being able to accept his cellphone plan, and an enviro-Nazi argument about how “green” the “green” iPhone cozies were. Really, if you care that much, just go live on a subsistence farm already, will you? That said, the iPhone is pretty cool. Neil doesn’t have a cell phone, but he was bonding with the iPhone so avidly, if he had one, he’d want the iPhone.

Tomorrow Kelly and I are going to see the San Francisco Symphony perform in the Circle of Palms. So San Jose’s giving us a pretty good summer close to home.

But, as we all know, this year travelling anywhere is a lot more costly, and I’m personally on kind of a gas strike. Furthermore, Peter’s offices are now right downtown, three blocks away from a Camera Cinema, and Camera Cinemas is still doing its “Diaper Days” movies for young families.

On the 18th, we took advantage of the Diaper Days event to see Kung Fu Panda. It pretty much had the typical “believe in yourself” storyline, but it was a lot of fun. In particular, it had a funny, cute and unforgettable dumpling chase; a few clever twists; and a nice soundtrack. Kelly’s been doing Kung Fu Panda kung fu moves ever since, so I know it delighted her.

When I found out Kelly could still get into the movies without a ticket aside from Diaper Days, we had a special treat and all of us saw Get Smart together. I was somewhat nervous about it because it has a PG-13 rating, but Neil loved The Pink Panther with Steve Martin, and the preview for Get Smart, with another bumbling-but-clever hero had him interested in the movie.

Reviewers had put the movie down for not being true to the TV series, for which I have to quote Peter: “Are all movie reviewers crotchety 60-year-olds?” I think I’ve only seen two or three episodes of the TV show, and that only in daytime TV re-runs. It struck me as kind of dorky and not very funny then, but I didn’t know whether this new movie would be better or worse.

The movie turned out to be great. It made a brief nod to the old TV series, most notably when Maxwell Smart switches into the old suit and tries to make a getaway in the classic car (which promptly runs out of gas.) It was smart, funny, and clever and it turns a few cliches on the head: for instance, the geeks get their revenge, a fat girl triumphs over some stuck-up socialite girls, and the bad guy’s lackey gives the bad guy his comeuppance. It was a wonderful movie to watch together as a family, though Kelly cringed (and I helped her hide her eyes) during some action sequences with fighting. It was absolutely better than the TV series, which is dear only to wrinkly newspaper writers.

The Tech has also changed its admission prices so that seeing the museum now also includes admission to an IMAX movie. So I think, like 2005, this may once again be a summer of movies for our family.

I was pretty hardcore in my efforts, though not yet to the extent of giving up my car altogether. While Neil’s elementary school was still in session, I took two hour walks just to pick him up and lead him home. I’ve become familiar enough with the public transportation system near me to know the frequency and even the schedule of the lines near my house. I carefully plan and schedule any driving so if it’s possible to combine errands along the same route, I do. And I’ve stayed close to home, so the longest trip I’ve taken was to the County Educational Center 11 miles away, and excursions with the kids has generally consisted of going downtown or to a local park.

Honestly, it hasn’t always been fun or easy to be on a gas strike. A heat wave hit just before Neil’s school ended, and I looked so bedraggled on the last leg home that a passer-by worried about my welfare. (I drove for the last few days, taking that as a sign that it was just too d**n hot.) Yesterday, I walked to a store and it didn’t have what I wanted, so I wasted two hours on what might normally have been a 20-minute task. Riding public transport, walking, and even biking do take up hours I would be doing something else, like, um, blogging.

However, my ascetic frugality paid off far better than I expected it to. On June 2, I bought $40 worth of gasoline at $4.18 a gallon, which seemed outrageous enough at the time. My “you need gasoline” light didn’t come on in my car until last Friday. I might be able to stretch the gasoline through the end of the month, since there are only 3 neccessary driving trips left, which at most comes to 23 miles of driving, which will consume less than a gallon of gas. Alas, I’ll fill up anyway, because I don’t want to risk being out of gas and stranded. So I can’t keep the bragging rights of only keeping to $40 in a month. But it hasn’t been that impossible to drastically reduce my gas consumption, and it’s my only weapon against the skyrocketing prices.

Now instead of driving to and from Neil’s school in the afternoon a few days a week, I walk it most days of the week. Altogether it comes to 6 miles in 2 hours, while pulling Kelly in a Red Ryder wagon, which more often than not is also piled up with blankets, pillows, and (on the way over) Neil’s scooter, and (on the way back), Neil’s backpack and lunch box. Kelly loves the ride, Neil scoots home so he gets home faster, and I get exercise without feeling like I’m neglecting Kelly for an hour while I work out with a video.

I do have to honestly say, I’d rather be biking which (for me, on my bike) is 5 or 6 times faster than walking, and I am looking forward to Neil’s school ending, when I won’t have to trek so far. I like the results though and there is some Schadenfreude as I walk past my local gas station, where the prices sometimes rise three times a day, and have already gone past WTF levels. I think we’ll be doing more walking than usual this summer, while sticking closer to home.

But it wasn’t that easy either. I had to think about every trip I make. There were a few trips I couldn’t exclude easily, like dropping Neil off at school every morning, and getting Peter to and from the airport. I felt like I was cheating (and getting another gift) when Peter drove us to the Legion of Honor for my Mother’s Day present, instead of letting me drive. And I didn’t regret a trip to the beach, an excursion (with dropping in at Peter’s office along the way) to the Santa Clara County Office of Education, or running to get books for my home-bound Ukrainian client, Tamara. But it seems like I sweated every other bit of driving.

A few times a week, instead of driving to pick up Neil, I put Kelly in a wagon and walk the 6 miles to and from Neil’s school. It’s 2 hours of walking, but I think of it as my exercise, and listen to music on my iPod. I compare the cost of driving to my destination to the cost and convenience of taking public transportation: so far, driving’s still been cheaper (and a lot faster). But Kelly and I took the bus to Neil’s school once, and as gas prices rise, the $1-a-ride “community” bus is becoming a more attractive option. I chained errands like I’ve never chained them before. One day I actually made a map so I could run all the errands in an efficient 6-mile circle, and another day, I parked my car at one store and walked to the stores nearby instead of driving around. I was also quite a homebody and (unusually for me) my car stayed put in the driveway most weekends. On the upside, this gave us a chance to play in our own pool, work on the garden, focus on events close to home, and get to know the neighbors better.

It’s the 31st of May now and I’m happy to say I met my challenge. I still have 1/4 tank of gas left, and I drove “only” 698 miles since my first fill-up in the challenge.

I’m going to try it again for June, but it’ll be tougher, I think. My first fill-up in May was $3.93 a gallon; now the cheapest gas in my neighborhood is $4.17. Neil’s school ends in the middle of the month, but I want to take him to homeschoolers’ park days which aren’t often at parks within an easy bus ride, and it would be nice to treat the kids to an outing or two. But being a homebody and having fun at home and in my own community has turned out to be not so bad either.