Good afternoon!  AnnieJo here, guest-hosting Frugal Fridays with a heartily UN-glamorous topic in the ongoing frugality chronicles: Maintenance!  We'll take a look at the intersection of maintenance and frugality from several angles -- and we'll see if I've come up with any you didn't expect, and what new perspectives the comments will bring.  

In the words of your regular host sarahnity:

Welcome to Frugal Fridays where we share money saving tips, discuss living frugally and generally talk about personal finance issues.

Yes, you may well have Democratic superdelegates.  Such as, your Congresspeople and Senators (if you're represented by Democrats!)

Did your superdelegates endorse early, only to find that their state or district voted overwhelmingly for another candidate?

If so, TALK to your superdelegates!

Jump...

The gift catalogs are filling the mailbox en masse, the piped-in Christmas music fills the stores, and the desperate holiday advertising clamor grows louder by the day.  And Halloween is only a week gone!  It must be time for... the Frugal Gifts Holiday Edition for Frugal Friday!

My thanks to sarahnity, regular author of this column, for inviting me once again to contribute.  In her words:

Welcome to Frugal Fridays where we share money saving tips, discuss living frugally and generally talk about personal finance issues.

Three months ago, on the night of May 4, a massive tornado leveled the small town of Greensburg, Kansas.  "Leveled" is not too strong a word.  Almost nothing was left standing and ten people were killed in this rural community of 1500.

Within days, a fascinating dream emerged from the rubble.  From local leaders, to an architect in Wichita, to Democratic Governor Kathleen Sebelius, the dream took form: Greensburg could rebuild as a model for "green" construction, a visionary example of an ecologically friendly town.  I diaried this on May 12, in "Green Dream for Post-Tornado Greensburg, Kansas."

Three months later, the update takes a strange twist.  The Discovery Channel, partnering with Leonardo DiCaprio, has proposed a reality show called "Eco-Town", thirteen segments documenting how Greensburg goes "green".

Echoing through my mind lately has been a line from the rock opera Tommy by The Who, a story in which the main character spends most of his childhood and youth unable to hear or speak or see.  The line is sung by the character of Mrs. Walker, Tommy's mother:

What is happening in his head?
Oooooh, I wish I knew, I wish I knew.

I don't have a "deaf, dumb and blind" son, but I do have a 3-year-old daughter who has both autism and epilepsy, in context of a rare disorder known as Linear Nevus Sebaceous Syndrome.  It's pretty clear that her mind is wired differently than mine, and she is both too young and too communication-delayed to be able to describe to me what it's like to be her.

Below the fold, a little bit about what I do and don't know about what might be happening in her head, what I wish I knew, and why it matters.

Or, what I learned from Sen. Tom Harkin's diary yesterday, and some additional helpful wonky details!

I had not realized, for example, that workplaces can feel free to discriminate against individuals with epilepsy and cancer and diabetes.  If you're treating your condition (and who wouldn't be?), the courts have ruled that the disability is not covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.  Outta luck, sickos.  Too bad.

In the seventeen years since the passage of the original Americans with Disabilities Act, various court decisions have carved out a whole slew of such exceptions, in utter disregard for the intent of the original legislation.  Fortunately, thanks to Harkin and allies in both the Senate and House and (amazingly!) across the aisle, we now have a chance to set things right.

More after the jump!

Sarahnity, who regularly writes this series, has kindly let me take another turn as guest author.  As the introduction goes,

Welcome to Frugal Fridays where we share money saving tips, discuss living frugally and generally talk about personal finance issues.

This week's theme is brought to you by folk singer Tom Chapin. My kiddos and I were listening to his Mother Earth album when these words from his song "Good Garbage" leaped out at me:

Every time that we buy food
We also buy the package,
Bottles, boxes, bags and cans,
They end up in the garbage.
Half of all our cash
We're spending on our trash.
For the sake of Mother Earth,
Let's get our money's worth!

So follow me below the fold for some thoughts on frugality and waste-reduction!

There have been some excellent, thought-provoking diaries about abortion in the past couple of weeks.  However, I have not seen a diary focusing on where miscarriage (and responses to miscarriage) fits into the issue.  If I have missed something, my apologies and please tell me if I'm duplicating!

The outline of my personal experience is that I have, from a medical perspective, "aborted" twice, the first two out of four pregnancies.  One had a surgical component, one was spontaneous.  However, neither of these early pregnancy terminations was intentional: both were miscarriages of planned and deeply-desired pregnancies.  I'd like to share, after the jump, how that experience contributed to my thinking about abortion.

I suggested the topic of gifts to sarahnity for her Frugal Fridays column a couple of weeks ago, and she graciously offered it back to me to guest-write.  I always enjoy her Frugal Fridays work, so this is an honor and a pleasure!  In her words,

"Welcome to Frugal Fridays, where we share money saving tips, discuss living frugally and generally talk about personal finance issues."

By the time my father was my age, he had run for Congress (1970, what was then 4th-district in Kansas).  His galvanizing issue was opposition to the Vietnam War.  He lost quite decisively in the general election, but by gum he'd gone all-out to make a difference.

My political engagement has been on a much more subdued level.  As a child I trotted around passing out campaign flyers and marched in peace marches; as an adult I've voted without fail, marched and rallied, signed petitions, written to legislators, written checks here and there.

But by a strange confluence of hanging out with you folks here, and finding MY issue (autism), I've just discovered that my voice is quite a bit louder than I had thought.

Follow me over the jump to hear the story, and add yours, and (if you're from Wisconsin) click a nifty web link for helping pass crucial autism-insurance legislation!

Eight days ago, a tornado leveled 95% of Greensburg, Kansas.

The devastation is almost unbelievable -- the town has been practically wiped off the map.  

In spite of the tragedy, and a National Guard left short-staffed and short of equipment by the ongoing travesty in Iraq, a powerful new dream for Greensburg has emerged.

What if Greensburg could rise again and establish itself as "the greenest town in rural America"?

Bedtime story-hour is one of my favorite times of the day.  I get to cuddle up on the couch next to my pajama-wearing 5-year-old and make another chapter come alive in whatever "chapter-book" we're working on at the time.  

Some books have an extra thrill of both discovery and teaching.  The latest nugget: what does a spunky 10-year-old girl-character from 1934 have in common with bloggers in 2007?  Find out after the jump...

It's hard to raise a voice above the front-page issues this week: Gonzales hearings, Virginia Tech, death spiral in Iraq, the list goes on.

But here's the one that's on my heart and mind this week, complete with legislative action alerts.  The issue is autism treatment funding, and my own personal stake is my beautiful almost-three-year old daughter.  

Our national stake?  One in every 150 children.

Options & action steps, past the jump...

What, this country's foundational documents aren't pre-kindergarten bedtime material in YOUR household?

OK, not in ours either.  We're actually moseying our way through Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books.  However, when we got partway into Little Town on the Prairie the other night, we hit an interesting surprise -- excerpts from the Declaration of Independence.

This diary took an unexpected twist in the writing, so if you'll accompany me past the jump, you can see where bedtime story-reading just might lead...

I commented on this in bobcatgrad's excellent diary My son is autistic, but it deserves a diary all its own.

There are two national legislative efforts underway right now in support of individuals with autism.  You can read about them on the Autism Speaks web site, at http://autismspeaks.org/..., and link to online petitions to encourage the support of your Congresspeople.