Car maintenance

Well, the battery's dead on the second car again, which is to be expected because it is never driven, just sits on the side of the driveway under the oak tree. We always take my Subaru everywhere both for logistical reasons and because I like to drive it better than his large sedan. I was never much on big cars; probably shouldn't have learned to drive in my first VW Beetle.

I just set up the battery charger and I'm keeping an eye out for rain, because, well, an electric cord hooked up to your car in a downpour would not be a good thing. The rain seems to be staying to the west so I may be able to charge it up and drive it around for an hour this afternoon to get the fluids stirred up and the flat spots off the tires. It was easier when both were in service daily, but now that we are retired my car doesn't get moved more than 3 times a week, and his not at all, unless I'm doing the recharge-the-battery dance.

It would be nice to live somewhere you could walk to do errands, like the place where I grew up. Well, in my case we lived outside the town and had to drive in to school and dad's business, but once there, and if you lived inside city limits, you could walk anywhere in just a few minutes. I used to walk to dad's business after school and ride home with mom at dinner time, and she walked to the post office, and to pick up their lunches at noon. Everything was human-scaled.

It would even be pleasant to live in an urban area if normal errands were within walking distance and walking was feasible. Having to jump in the car to do everything is a nuisance. Even where I live now, inside the city limits, it's too spread out to go anywhere except by car, and there aren't necessarily sidewalks everywhere. And, there are stretches of road between my house and the stores/post office/etc, such as the intersection where the ramps on and off the interstate merge into a divided four lane road, which would be nearly impossible to cross by foot. I don't think I've ever seen anyone try it. The regular traffic light intersections further on are hard enough, what with the turn lane signals and all. I've seen a few brave souls sprint across, as well as one older lady who tottered across the four lanes and a center traffic island with turning cars stopping on all sides to let her pass. I held my breath the whole time.

You notice I didn't mention public transportation once during this whole post? Well, I am in the southeast, an area of the country which seems to have some of the worst city bus systems in the whole country, and no other options available. So it's drive or nothing.