No car, baby

I love my bike. I own a Fuji Sunfire which is a low/middle end bike which is good for the beginner. In other words not something to take on ESPN extreme sports show for the Olympus Mons Rally but good enough to tour around my neighborhood.

Around this time last year my car died. The receipt for my bike reads "April 1, 2002." So far it has been the best three hundred dollars I have ever spent. I initially decided I would go car-less for a while and save up enough money to eventually buy a new vehicle. I am getting to the point now where I don't really want a new car. I want to get into a situation with my degree and potential career where I can live without a car. That is now my goal. It's been a few months since I had a concrete goal and now I know what I want to do. I want to get a job somewhere that will allow me to live well without needing a personal gas guzzler. Living without a car has been both restrictive and freeing. It is restrictive because there are certain areas of town, like N. Davidson St, that have clubs I have don't go to like I did before my card died. It is freeing because not having the expense of a car has allowed me to buy a couple of items, electric guitar for one, that I would have had trouble affording before. It has also allowed me to save a little money.

There are two reasons not to have a car:

Practicality: having a car in a giant pain in the ass. Having to maintain a car just sucks money like nothing else you will ever own. Homeowners sinks lots of dough into that particular investment but houses appreciate. Cars do not appreciate, at all. The need to own a car has been the biggest scam ever foisted upon first the American people and then the rest of the world.

Evironment: Cars are bad for the environment. This is a fact and if you don't believe it you are lying to yourself. Even though I was initially driven economically into going car-less, my year without one is actually a point of pride now. My environmental debt is a little lower than it was one year ago.

That is my announcement. Fuck having a car. I am going to attempt to live without one.