This year’s tree, dumped into the box as usual: it’s like a 30 second job to load it.
I don’t post much anymore, OBVIOUSLY, but we continue doing our thing. Another year on and things are not bad, personally speaking: I got promoted to full professor earlier this year, which was cool, and we have seen a lot more of the world than we ever anticipated over the last couple of years. Our kids are older so we’re spending a lot more time on transit, which appeals to them because they can play games on phones when someone else is in charge of getting around. We haven’t purchased a car and it seems increasingly unlikely we ever will again. I have ridden some new bikes recently but so far, the thought of writing reviews sends me into paroxysms of ennui. Perhaps that will change, but if not: try some out, there are many exciting family bikes out in the world these days.
We continue to buy our tree by bicycle. It no longer seems unusual at the lot we frequent. Every year there seem to be more people living in San Francisco, and this year the line to buy our tree was over 50 purchasers deep. The lines to park a car stretched down the block. This kind of thing is why the prospect of buying a car seems increasingly inconceivable.
Time moves on and we’ve had to give up our children’s ambition to buy a “tall” tree, relative to them. Our son has grown taller than his grandparents and it seems likely that he’ll be taller than both his parents by next December. Happy holidays!
Taller every year
Hum of the city 
Nice to hear you and your car-free life are going strong! You may not recall letting me test ride your MinUte some 5-6 years ago, but as a result, I am right this very moment schlepping a record sized load home on BART using our family MinUte. Thanks see much for all of the wonderful reviews and inspiration, and congrats on making full professor!
Congrats on your professorship and on continuing the car-free life!! 🙂
Hi Dorie,
Congrats on your promotion! I was excited to read your new (annual) post. I was hoping that you weren’t going to break the streak of Christmas tree posts! I’ve read each of your blog entries starting from the beginning and was drawn in by how your family biking life transformed through time. Your ups and downs were certainly felt by your writing; I really enjoyed reading them. Thanks for sharing your personal experiences. It was a great source of information and inspiration as my wife and I started biking with our three kids, ages 6, 4, and 1 now. We too have a long tail and Bullitt and love them for all the same reasons you do. Although we still have a van (winters in Toronto are snowy and icy). Even your zero waste posts made an impression on me as I view the world differently now, so thanks for that too. My wife and I started a blog about a year ago with the intention of getting more families on cargo bikes. Postings are few given work and a young family but it’s something small that we hope to build on. I don’t know how you were so prolific with the same time constraints.
I’ve been meaning to ask you for your thoughts on something: what is your biking life like now, with older kids, and were you mentally prepared for the change? Would you have done anything differently? Reading your posts felt like I was taken on a fast forward time warp tour and I can’t help but wonder what my biking life will be like once my kids are too old to be in our bikes. There’s immense joy riding my kids around that I’m sure it will hit me hard the day I realize that my kids are too old for this. I often wonder what my future self would tell me now. I thought you would be a great proxy for my future self given that you’re steps ahead in your biking life!
Happy holidays and thank you again for sharing your personal life and biking experiences with everyone.
Gary
Do miss your posts! 8 years of tree by car is amazing thanks for being one of the car free pioneers in North California.