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I'm in a profession (certified nurse-midwife) where there are very few jobs open at any given time. Hence the commute. The other midwife in my practice commutes from Keene to Nashua which in winter gets really bad. My husband's job is even more unique and requires that we live fairly close to the main work site so as to minimize his travel time to other work sites. So I commute. I've had worse commutes - in Oregon I commuted 65 miles one way (1 1/2 hours) through an area with zero cell phone or pager signal for about 30 minutes. In Southern CA it was bad, too, but at least there they had decent public transit as long as you had work hours that fit the bus and train schedules. If there were trains or busses that I could use, I would. But I'm stuck in the car. Most days I get home around 7 PM and it is a real stress to try to cook good food and eat healthily under this kind of stress. Homemaking and housekeeping suffer too. With a long commute and a high stress job it becomes necessary to prioritize life really tightly, and I really resent that at times.
It isn't often all that easy to find work and housing that are congruent, especially when you are looking at two somewhat esoteric occupations. Maybe teachers and office workers can do it better.

Children's Books in New Hampshire

Thousands of children’s books are published every year, and sorting through the bookstore or library shelf to find the right book can be tricky. Fortunately, there are plenty of resources to help a kid lit aficionado find something to his or her liking.

Here in the Granite State, the New Hampshire State Library’s Youth Services website features recommended reads on a wide range of topics and ability levels, from “100 Picture Books Everyone Should Know” to “Favorite Teenage Angstbooks.” The State Library also issues three book awards each year: the

At least I get summers off

For the last 6 years, I have been a grad. student at UNH, working mostly at home or UNH. During this period my husband commuted 85 miles every other day to Westborough, MA. Recently, he burned out on the commute and arrange through his employer to work at home but, at the same time, I got my first career job as a Prof. of Biology at Mount Ida in Newton MA, 87.5 miles away. So, now he's at home and I do the the commute. We recently got the Toyota Highlander Hybrid to help with the mileage and make it possible to commute through the winter. We are now considering getting a Prius also, as gas prices move out of site. At this point, I live on a lake in NH, (Pawtuckaway), so I'm not moving and I love my job, so, I guess I'll be settling in on this lifestyle. At least I get summers off.

Goodbye, Pulp Mill

By Kerry Grens on Sunday, May 7, 2006.

The Fraser pulp mill in Berlin closed this past weekend after over one hundred years of operation.

The mill helped shape The City That Trees Built into a hard working, no frills town.

Now that the burners have cooled and the steady hum of the factory has quieted, Berlin’s future is uncertain.

New Hampshire Public Radio’s Kerry Grens visited Berlin during the mill’s last shift and filed this report.

This story was awarded an honorable mention in the 2006 Spot News category by the New Hampshire Associated Press Broadcasters Association.

Kid Lit

By Shay Zeller on Sunday, May 7, 2006.

We talk with children's book author David Elliot about the latest in his Evangeline Mudd series. We'll also find out what the most common pitfalls are for the aspiring writers of kid lit from author Andrea Davis Pinkey, a vice-president and publisher at the publishing giant Scholastic.

Commuting Culture

By Laura Knoy on Sunday, May 7, 2006.

It takes longer and longer for Americans to commute to work these days, but while many regard commuting as a neccesssary evil, there are those who relish it as “me-time”. We’ll look at how technology, attitudes and expanded travel times are changing our commute, dig into the results of NHPR’s project on the subject and see what Granite Staters think. Laura's guests are Jon Greenberg, Executive Editor of New Hampshire Public Radio and facilitator of the Drive and Ambition project and David Levinson, Professor of Civil Engineering for the Center of Transportation Studies at the University of Minnesota. We'll also hear from Jaime Kitman, New York Bureau Chief for Automobile Magazine, U.S. editor and a columnist for the British magazine Top Gear, Member of the Society of Automotive Historians and contributor to several magazines, including GQ and the New York Times.