Okay, okay…not THAT hot. But it is humid, sticky, and too damn warm out there.
Ruby and I: freshly back from circumnavigating the park. It’s after 2:00 in the afternoon, which makes it a bit too hot to be frolicking around out there.
That notwithstanding…the dawg LOVES it.
*****
My honored son, in a fit of filial righteousness, has made off with my car. Interestingly, though, this makes little to no difference in the Human’s frolics. Within easy walking distance, we have a computer store, a Sprouts, an Albertson’s (bloated supermarket), a Fry’s (bloated cut-rate supermarket), a pet store, a hair salon, a record store, a bookstore…and on and freakin’ on.
As a practical matter all this maneuver of his does is prove, indisputably, that one does not need a car if one lives in this neighborhood. Just now the human and the dawg have stocked in…
- a pile of canned dawg food
- a fine bottle of cold white wine
- uncounted bottles of beer, cold
- bread
- cocktail tomatoes
- chocolate chips
- coffee beans
- maple syrup
- Parmesan cheese
- corn on the cob
- artichokes
- asparagus
- lamb chops
- scallops
- steak
- more steak
- fish filets
….and on and on and on…
So…somehow we seem not to be in much distress. 😀
Probably will wait until the day after tomorrow to make a cool-of-the-morning run on one of the nearby supermarkets, there to reload a bit. No hurry, evidently.
This has got to be one of THE best neighborhoods in the city in which to live car-free. As a practical matter, with an Uber driver living straight across the street, a train line running up main drag west, and a herd of public busses, there really and truly is no reason to own a car here.
It’s almost as good as San Francisco. When my mother and I lived there — back in the Dark Ages — we hosted my father’s fancy Mercury while he was off on the ships at sea. But we rarely drove it, except to rev up its engine a bit. Because we didn’t need to!
We were within easy walking distance of all the places we needed for daily errands, work, and school. And the busses and streetcars would take us just about anyplace else.
Amazingly, that’s now much the way things are here.
Not what you’d expect of Phoenix, a powerfully car-centric, L.A.-style city. But things have changed enough over the past six or eight years that if you live in the right districts, you really don’t need to own a car.
And the presence of Uber drivers converts that to REALLY don’t need to own a car. An Uber driver lives right across the street from the Funny Farm…and another half-dozen lurk here in the ‘Hood. So all you have to do is pick up a phone to get a cab at the front door…for one heckuva lot less than it costs to own a car!
So…depending on my son’s whims, I’m thinking I’ll let him keep my car at his house. If he doesn’t want it taking up space there, we’ll sell it. Because…frankly…with a car rental place a block from the house and the Uber guy lurking across the road, I don’t need a car anymore!!!!!
Jeez.
Why own a giant liability on four wheels when you can get around conveniently in cabs and rentals?