There are simply too many interesting electric car options now, and all of them have way too long of a wait. There has never been a more interesting time to buy a car, and with my Tesla Model 3 lease about to end, I can’t make up my mind with what to get next. So instead, I ended up with four orders somehow between Tesla, Ford, and Rivian. After all of that, I’m still not even sure I don’t want to place an order for the Hyndai Ioniq too.

For years, I’ve been dreaming of the perfect family ski trip. Once we had our twins, I yearned for the chance to travel to the mountains and head out on the slopes with family. I pictured cozy evenings back in a cabin and warming meals in lodges together retelling our favorite parts of the day. We’d discuss our favorite trails and the best slopes. Of course we’d apres off of the slope together too.

Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise; there’s no right or wrong way to parent. It’s a common refrain that there is no parenting instruction manual, usually told to soon to be or brand new parents. But as our third child gets older, I’ve realized that even the things that worked for the first ones, the twins, don’t apply to the youngest, and we have to just make it up as we go.

My boys take hockey lessons and swim lessons weekly and we ski every single weekend. They’ve definitely skied more before they turn six than I had until they were born. The have probably skated a couple hundred hours now and played a few friendly games of hockey during their learn to play clinic. They’ve told me they want to be soccer and hockey players after just a few games. They’re already skiing Black Diamonds (though NJ ones).

Everyone understands that the past two years of the COVID pandemic have been tough on parents. For those with kids born right at the start of it, it’s been especially hard managing little kids without the normal help from family and other sources especially in the early days. It’s also hard not having the ability to see friends and fellow parents as often or to be able to get away for a break.

Back in 2019, a year before COVID turned the world on its head and before the EV renaissance kicked into high gear, I took my then six month old Tesla Model 3 (standard range) up to Vermont for our annual guys’ ski trip. At that time, it was the longest road trip I’d taken with the car, the coldest it had been, and there was still a lot I was figuring out with driving an electric car.

My heart is heavy this week with the news coming out of Ukraine. A war the people there didn’t not want and did nothing to deserve. A war, or rather an invasion by a tyrannical despot who is responsible for deaths, destruction, and suffering of the population of an entire country all to stoke his ego. It’s especially disheartening to see that the rest of the world is doing so little to protect the history, culture, and sovereignty of a democracy in Europe while the people suffer.

Over Presidents’ Day Weekend, we took a family trip to Stowe, Vermont to meet up with our friends and take in some winter activities with our kids. We took a similar trip last year, but with the boys a year older and the twins massively improving in ski ability, we spent even more time on the slopes and exploring the whole mountain. We also had the extra time to get around town and the Village for some skating and of course hanging out at our VRBO while sledding and relaxing.

Two years into the pandemic, and it feels like despite, or maybe because of the Omicron wave, we’re just giving up on protecting the kids and it has a huge toll on parents. There are unique challenges and stressors for kids of different ages, but with kindergarteners and a toddler, the past couple of months have been full of anxiety about health, testing, school closures, and work. Nearly every parent I know is going through the same thing with their kids, the schools, and their jobs, but it doesn’t seem like we are doing anything about it collectively.

When The Long Way Up first came out on Apple TV a year or so ago, I noted that it looked interesting, but passed it over because I wasn’t very interested in motorcycles. I completely missed the point though and didn’t realize it’s more of a buddy travel show featuring electric vehicles and how interesting that in turn would be. On top of that, it features Ewan McGregor who on top of being a good actor, is fairly funny and seems like a genuinely nice guy interested in making the world a better place on several levels.