Reflecting on my still-carless situation, nearly ten days after that darn thing of mine breathed its last:
* How I will get all my financial duties solved tomorrow without donating $50 more of my money to cab companies remains to be seen. I don't want to keep bugging Sheila for rides everywhere, especially since she lives so far out of the area. Neighbors and my aunt, the same way. Can you believe that on a full paycheck, $200 has to go just for rides into work? That is an outrageous admission price if I've ever heard one, and it's to WORK, for pete's sakes! This is why I had to take Tuesday off... I wouldn't have been able to afford to go in tomorrow (payday) if I did.
The need for a different car is now more obvious than ever. I had hoped to have a loan paid off for good by tomorrow, but that will likely never happen. That is okay, so long as the amount borrowed doesn't exceed what it is today.
* SMART, the local bus service, has taken a hit from citizens over the past ten years or so because of their apparent lack of service. But in the times I have taken it, off and on the past three years, I've never had a complaint about it. True, some busses have been late, some have had to spend ten minutes in transfer mode, and one even broke an axle on the road (although that can be attributed to the road). Hey, I don't ride the bus for the friendliness of the drivers. I use it to get to where I want to go, and it's not failed me to this point. At least it doesn't rob me blind like the cab company does.
Not being able to drive does have its perks. One of the hidden advantages is being able to look freely about you as you're transported. I have been in Garden City since 2003, and I still don't know where businesses are, even a mile from me. I took one of my old cars four miles to have the transmission looked at. There's a shop just four blocks from me, and I just found that out while looking out the bus window Tuesday!
I lived in Southgate for 28 years. Duh, you would think after that long over there, I would know the city inside and out. But obviously, I thought I had a photographic memory of where things were, and indeed I do. Yet obviously, it only helps the cause when you're able to look around and see what's there, versus always looking at the cars in front of you, trying to avoid accidents.
If I ever know half of Garden City in ten years as well as I know Southgate (six years after moving from there), I will either consider myself lucky, or used to not having wheels of my own.
