auf Wiedersehen, Volkswagen

It's something we've talked about for years: could we actually live without a car? There are many reasons for having a car but there are only a handful - if that many - for not having one. To tell you the truth, the idea was a bit scary. And, for that reason alone, I wanted to try it. And, you ask, why not just keep the car in the garage and not use it? My answer: yeah, like that's really going to happen.

The move to the city and the apparent lack of children made this the perfect opportunity to conduct an experiment such as this. We've already tested the no-car waters for the past month and - even with rainy days - seem to have done just fine. There is a Safeway a few blocks up, which is right on the way home from school/work. There is the FlexCar system, which you can pick up around the corner and rent at $8 per hour, which includes gas and insurance. And, there are feet to do the walking, which don't get much use in front of a computer all day anyway.

(IMAGE - one of my favorite memories with the car: the bike trip from Logan, Utah to Jackson Hole, Wyoming and then down to Moab for a week. Good times.)

So the first gal to come test drove it bought it on the spot with cash in hand. It was a little creepy counting out thousands of dollars in the back corner of a dimly lit parking garage. It would have been extra creepy if she was a leather jacket-wearing guy named Rosko (no offense to my "nephew" with the same name).

I thought maybe it would feel liberating to see the car drive away but it wasn't. It evoked a little hollow twinge. I'm sure by tomorrow morning I'll be asking myself what I was thinking. But for now, I'm not going to think about it. I'll take the trolley downtown to meet Ben at the end of his shift and we'll go to dinner. P.F. Chang's for lettuce wraps I image.