Coffee heat rising

Back Online! And Chariot-Free

Hallelujah! Funny appears to be back online. Why, when, where? No idea. At any rate, we’ll soon see if this post goes up.

Meanwhile, our li’l world is toddling off to Hell on a handcart. (Can you toddle on a rolling thing?) Everybody that I know, just about, is sick as a dawg.

(Why are dogs thought to be sick, anyway?)

The purloined car is permanently gone. The Mayo/driver’s license issue is, I think (but am not sure) is still up in the proverbial air. I do have another doctor who says the Mayo doc is ridiculous and there’s no reason I can’t be driving…but truth to tell, I don’t feel much like barging into battle over the issue.

As more time passes, I find (more & more) that, given where I live and given the commerce all around here, I really don’t NEED a car to get by just fine. More than just fine, really.

Everything I need or crave, day-to-day, is available within easy walking distance. And for the stuff that’s not right around the corner, an Uber driver lives straight across the street!

Matter of fact, I’ve learned that at least half-a-dozen Uber drivers live right here in the ‘Hood. So as a practical matter, it really is true that you don’t need a car to live in this part of town, comfortably and conveniently.

That is a HUGE money suck that goes away forthwith! Riding on the lightrail, the busses, and the local Uber autos costs a tiny fraction of what owning a car costs. I’m now thinking I’m not going to bother to try to extract my license from those idiots at the Mayo or to retrieve my car from my son’s garage.

If he gives the car back or reimburses me for it, I’ll sell it and bank about 10 grand. That will buy a whole lotta Uber rides, eh?

Gosh. It’s almost like living in San Francisco. When my mother and I lived there, waaayyy back in the day, my father’s swell Oldsmobile remained parked in the apartment’s underground garage whenever he was off at work (he went to sea and was gone for weeks at a time). The only time my mother and I got that car out was to drive to Berkeley: there to visit the relatives. Most of the time, we rode the trains and busses. Or walked.

This, interestingly, changes the tenor of life in Phoenix.

Until recently, living here was more like living in Southern California than anything: hot, traffic-ridden, bourgeois, boring. But as commerce builds up and it becomes more feasible to get around on foot, it feels more like living in San Francisco, where you don’t bother with a car unless you have a long drive to make.

And y’know….since there’s a car rental place about three blocks from here, I may just get rid of the Dog Chariot altogether. Why own a hole in the pavement into which to pour money when someone else can own and maintain the thing, and you can rent one whenever you feel so inclined?

December in Phoenix…oh my!

Yea, verily! What a place this is come a fine December afternoon!

* Balmy, but not chilly.
* Warm, but not hot.
* Pleasantly active, but not especially busy.
* Goosed by busses roaring by on Main Drag West.
* Graced by kids frolicking in their yards or on the playgrounds.
* Blessed by shop owners and sales staff who are invariably friendly and none too pushy.
* Pretty much free of bums.
* Multicultural with a flair.

Sun City, it ain’t: thank Gawd! 

Seriously: its a beautiful, gracious, multicultural neighborhood on the low end of upscale. A handsome, reasonably safe, fun place to walk from pillar to post.

Walking from pillar (etc.) because my son has stolen my car and locked it up in his garage. And y’know what? I don’t give a damn! 

Turns out I don’t need the car!!! 

No kidding. No exaggeration. Whatever I need is within easy walking distance. Anything further than that can be reached by an inexpensive cab ride…but…but… Ya know what?  So far I haven’t had to call a cab.

Oh, wait: except that one time: to get to the dentist.

But I don’t go to WonderDentist every day or even every day-and-a-half. So…I figure the next time I need to visit him, either I will have figured out that one visit every three or four months costs one helluvalot less than three or four months’ worth of insurance, gasoline, mechanics’ visits and whatnot, or I will have taken up with a dentist who practices here in the ‘Hood.

😀

Today’s stroll-a-thon really has deep-sixed the idea that maybe I should move to Sun City (or Fountain Hills, or deeper into North Central) by way of staying independent in my house, all  by my eccentric li’l self. Incredibly, I can do completely without owning a car here! Wherever I need to go, the hired help can haul me. And…y’know…about 90 percent of the places that I need to go are places that I don’t need to go. Not any distance, anyway.

Seriously: I’m finding that by far most of the things I need to see or buy or do are available right here in the ‘Hood. Within easy walking distance. Yes: a few destinations, an occasional errand would require a taxi ride. But surprisingly few!

****

So what to do about the stolen car? Other than assassination, that is. 😉

Well…hang onto your hat:

One idea that has crossed my mind — and one that sounds better every time it intrudes in that precinct — is to suggest that we sell it. 

I could buy an awful lot of bus rides with the income from a $20,000 car.

Another is simply to give it to M’hijito as a gift. 

{cackle!} Let him keep it up and gas it up and pay the damn taxes on it!! 😀

Oh. That’s not nice, is it???

Well, if he wants it, just (heh!) give it to him. 😉

***

Seriously: as the days drift by, I grow more and more convinced that I really don’t need a car here. Between the Uber drivers and the buses and the trains and my son schlepping around…about 90% of the rides I would produce for myself are, indeed, redundant.

All that is needed to make that a fact is to get into the habit of thinking ahead. Just a few hours, really. Or a few minutes.

Americans spend absurd amounts of money on rolling tanks with which to fill up the garage. We’uns need to stop doing that!

And so…A challenge:

Try it, some one of these days. 

  • Seriously: Park  your car, walk away from it, and leave it there for a full week. And see what happens.
  • Figure that during said week, you spend exactly $0.00 on driving, fueling, parking, and upkeep.
  • How much would you have spent on the car and its fuel and its upkeep, were you driving it around?
  • How much would you have had to pay to park it at your office or wherever you leave it during the day?
  • How much extra exercise did you get, walking from the new parking spot to your office?
  • How long did it take you to figure out how much you really didn’t need to spend on groceries that week?

How much did you save on dinners out that you avoided by eating at home?

And on and freakin’ ON….

Interesting proposition, isn’t it?

Thank You, Good Realtor!!!

Y’know, my good Realtor Friend, a guy named John Shackleford, did me one of the greatest favors anyone ever did for me: by bringing me to this house, in this neighborhood.

What a lovely, peaceful, pretty place to live!

Ruby and I just got back from one of our circumnavigations of the ‘Hood. And oh, my! What a pretty day.

The park: brilliant emerald green in the spring sunshine. The weather; insanely beautiful. The kids: playing magnificently in the park, kicking  balls and chasing around. The dogs: handsomely trotting along  beside their humans. The sky, delicately painted with fine, thin white clouds against a deep blue background. The birds: singing and flying around in avian joy.

What more could you possibly want, eh?

Just now, I can’t think of much.

It really is a beautiful, upper-middle-class North Central Phoenix neighborhood. Just about anything you want or need is within easy walking distance — as I’ve discovered to my amazement, now that my son has kiped my car.

Yes, it’s true: living here, I actually don’t need a car! Get rid of the chariot, and come to find out you have, within easy walking distance,

  • 3 top-flight grocery stores
  • a veterinarian
  • a computer store
  • a bookstore/computer software store
  • a hair stylist
  • a doctor (of sorts)
  • a magnificently stocked drugstore
  • 3 pharmacies
  • 2 major urban hospitals with top-rated emergency rooms
  • a fine young lawyer

One could go on and on…but basically, the message is, you can get about 95% of the goods and services you need without ever setting foot in a gasoline-powered vehicle. 

Y’know, this characteristic of the neighborhood never fully dawned on me until after my son kiped my car. I mean…well, of course I knew all these places were here. But until the car disappeared from my garage, it never really registered with me that I didn’t need to drive to these places!

Seriously: in the summertime, get going early enough and you can do your errands before the heat comes up. Raining? Call an Uber…like, the one whose owner lives straight across the streeet. (Turns out a half-dozen Uber drivers live right here in the Hood!)

It’s every bit as good as San Francisco in that way. When my mother and I lived there, back in the Dark Ages of the late 1950s and early 60s, we did have a car. But we never used it unless my mother and I had to drive across the Bay to pick up my father when his ship came in. (He was a Merchant Marine pilot.) I’d guess we never turned on the ignition more than twice a month.

And now, between Uber and just about every daily need within easy walking distance, I find myself in the same situation. I don’t really need a car! 

Mwa ha ha!!!

My son has it in his garage. And frankly, he can have the damn thing. I may sign over the registration to him, next time I have to pay for it.

Car? We Don’t Need No Steenking Car!

LOL! Ever had that thought? The why am I spending 87 gerjillion bucks on this clunk thought? The what a PITA it is, schlepping this contraption in for its regular maintenance thought?

Yeah…..  Lately, I’ve been kinda haunted by that thought.

Main reason is that it has slowly but steadily dawned on me, now that we have a lightrail train cruising up and down Main Drag West and now that a rental car lot has taken up residence in a nearby shopping center and now that (duh!!!) I’ve come to realize I can reach three large grocery stores and a Walgreen’s on foot, none of them more than a ten-minute stroll away…that…yeah…maybe, just MAYBE I don’t need a car. 

Think o’ that!

Seriously: when I need a ride that’s longer than a short dash around the strip malls that surround the’Hood, I can call for an Uber. DAYum! A guy who drives for Uber lives right across the street. Several other Uberites dwell in the immediate neighborhood.

So…umh…WHY am I spending some unholy amount of cash to keep a pile of steel and aluminum sitting in my garage most of the time?

Why am I freakin’ going broke to insure that pile of tinfoil?

For the past couple weeks, the Heap has resided at my son’s house. And…y’know what has happened?

Yeah,

Nothing.

NOTHING horrible has ensued from the absence of a $15,000 pile of sheet metal, bolts, and rubber.

Well. Something HAS happened.

I’ve come to believe that in a city like Phoenix, now that it has installed piles of public transportation up and down almost all of our main drags, there really is NO NEED to own a car! 

Seriously.

From my house, I can walk to not one, not two, but THREE major chain supermarkets: an Albertson’s, an El Rancho, and a Fry’s. Not sufficient? We also have two huge chain drugstores: a Walgreen’s and the one inside the Albertson’s. All these have pharmacies. Three of them sell more groceries than you can dream of.

And with the trains running up and down Main Drag West, I can cruise as far as I please to visit stores, doctors, dentists, and whatnot. For just so much loose change!

Gosh. It’s almost like when we lived in San Francisco: a real city! 

So…I’m thinking get rid of the clunk. Maybe split the sale price with my son, giving half to him as a sales commission. And…call it a day.

We have a rental lot just a couple of blocks up Main Drag west. If I must have a car to drive around, I can go over there and extract one for a day. Same if I feel called to drive up to the Grand Canyon or some such. Why OWN a hole in the ground into which to pour money for the sake of a few rides here and a few rides there?

So…I’m kinda excited about this idea. Haven’t discussed it with M’hijito yet. He being the owner of the male voice here in the famiglia, I think he should have a say in this scheme. But frankly: I suspect he’ll approve. 

A Revelation in Transit

Y’know… Over the past few days — “weeks,” really, is more like it — a kinda startling revelation has occurred to me. Hang onto your hat, now: What with the proximity of key retail stores, the new lightrail running up and down Conduit of Blight Blvd., and a fleet of shiny new busses, I don’t really need to own a car. 

Oops: should’ve warned you to sit down before reading that…  😀

But seriously…  Without the little catastrophes of the past two or three weeks, this idea would never have entered my fuzzy little mind. BUT…oh, yes, but: the fact is, between the lightrail, the shiny new busses, and the Uber cars swarming all over the neighborhood, I actually may not need to have an expensive pile of metal and glass sitting out in the garage.

Yeah. Seriously!

I can get from Point A to Point B with very little more trouble than it takes to climb in my car and drive between those points.

We have several Uber drivers living here in the’ Hood. They’re delighted to take you wherever you imagine you want to go. And if they’re not available, Phoenix still hosts a fine fleet of standard taxicabs. Call a Yellow Cab and it’ll be at your door in minutes. An Uber driver lives right across the street from me! He can be here in seconds, not minutes.

But…but…what does it take to walk from here to most of the fine emporia where I shop and loaf?

A lightrail line runs across Main Drag North, turns south on Main Drag West, swerves southerly toward Central, goes right past my son’s street, and proceeds to a stop in front of the Beloved AJ’s Grocery Palace.

So…uhm….. {ahem!}

Why on earth would I imagine that I want a car, here in the ‘Hood??

Consider: AJ’s is indeed a drive away. BUT…within a ten-minute walk, we have these fine emporia:

  • Albertson’s: a huge supermarket
  • Sprouts: the beloved hippy-dippy peddler of nominally organic chow
  • Walgreen’s: huge drugstore
  • Bookman’s: bookstore, music, whatnot
  • El Rancho: supermarket
  • Fireworks store (!)
  • Post office
  • Doctor’s office
  • Beauty salon
  • Independent pharmacist
  • Veterinarian
  • Coinstar

And on and on and on… there really is little need to drive anywhere. Certainly not on a regular, day-to-day basis.

Do I need a car to get to the Mayo? Yeah: I wouldn’t want to hire a cab or Uber to schlep halfway to Payson. But I sure don’t go out there often. And for that matter, we’re within walking distance of a major regional hospital…I could extend my little self so radically as to take up with a doctor who practices there. (The one I had there moved to $un ¢ity awhile back, having seen the dollar signs on the wall of the new hospital out there….)

But if you’re considering how much it costs to keep a car — taking into account insurance, regular servicing, repairs, gasoline, parking, and whatnot — the tab for maintenance, repairs, taxes, storage, and the stuff so routine that most of us never even think about it anymore very probably comes to more than it would cost to hire Uber or a taxicab to get around town. A LOT more…

Truth to tell, something over 90 percent of the places I go are within walking distance, or within a reasonably priced cab ride.

And given that amazing little factoid, one could argue — quite reasonably — that a person living in this location really has no need for a car. Especially if that person doesn’t commute to a job.

What the heck: not only that, but walking to the destinations around here comes under the heading of good exercise. When the weather is sane — which, believe it or not, is most of the time — you can walk to any of those places without putting yourself out much.

So…frankly, I’m beginning to think more & more that my son did me a favor by absconding with my car. Who needs it???

Heeee! It keeps getting better…

Well, by damn! I found a copy of my driver’s license. 

Who would ever have expected such a thing? 😀

So now I don’t have to put up a friend or a taxi driver to schlep me down to the county and wait while I stand in line and I stand in line and I stand in line and I stand in line and I stand in line and I stand in line and ….. Ad effing infinitum. 

Seriously: the lines in that place are freakin’ endless. So this is a big relief.

It brings us back around to the question of whether I’m going to continue to drive the tank at all after this. 

And y’know…hafta tellya the truth: I’m inclined to think not. 

Why should I?

It has become surprisingly easy to get around this city without a car. Not as easy as in San Francisco. But…close.

Add to that the fact that an Uber driver lives right across the street from me! 

Think o’that!

Between Uber and the city’s hugely improved public transit, the truth is…I may not need a car at all. If something comes up that it’s just totally unavoidable, there’s a place a block up the street where I can rent one!

Well. For sure, we’re going to experiment with that thesis. Let’s give it a few weeks to see if I can get around, hassle-free, without owning a tank.

Can you imagine? Not to have to do battle with

* licensing
* maintenance
* gasoline
* keeping the car out of the local thieves’ hands
* storing it in a garage
* pouring money into it
* pouring money into it
* and pouring money into it…

Jeeemineee! This looks like a whole new world!