ZipCar

With the car gone to Oregon, and bike commuting not always practical, I joined ZipCar. I figured there would be occasions when I need to go further than my legs are willing to pedal, or carry more than will fit in the Burley. Today was one of those days. We completed our first ZipCar reservation. It was fabulous.

I have to say it was a little weird just using someone's car without ever speaking to them. I reserved a car about half a mile from home, which meant a 15 minute hike from the house. We loaded up the car seats in the little red wagon, donned our rain gear (with garbage bag 'raincoat' for the car seats), and hiked on over. The kids were troopers. Once at the car I installed the car seats, installed the kids, stowed the wagon in the trunk and we were off. We went to church, we went to lunch, we did the weekly grocery shopping, brought it home and then drove the car back to its parking space. Loaded the car seats back into the wagon and trooped on home in a rainstorm. Along the way we stopped to float leaf boats down a rushing river of water running along the curb, stomped our way through a couple of good sized puddles, and generally enjoyed the foul weather. Nothing like youngsters to help you see the joy in any situation. Once home, after sliding out of our wet clothes, we capped our outing with hot chocolate & marshmallows and another screening of Polar Express. 'Tis the season!

I have to say renting a car by the hour, for just the few hours you need it, and not having to worry about gas, tolls, etc. is fabulous. They make it really easy too - get to it, unlock it, get in, and go! Way to go. Thank you ZipCar!

Another step

And now we are a bike-commuting family. We were proud of ourselves a few years ago when we sold the second car. We've been managing pretty much without issue ever since, having just a single motor vehicle. Every once in a while the logistics get a little hairy, but generally we do ok and don't miss that second car. Since our move closer to work last year I've been suggesting that we could now eliminate the remaining automobile. My partner has been pretty resistant to that idea, and the car has remained. But today the car left the state and now I get to make good on my assertion that we don't need a car in the city.

This morning was day one. I attached the new-to-us Burley double bike trailer to the back of my bike, affixed helmets on both munchkins and myself, and we were off. My poor bike has been locked up for over a year, so the muscles that move it forward were a bit surprised to be called out of retirement, but that's a change for the better. It was pretty much a non-event to be commuting to school and then work on the bike. I was pretty delighted to discover the "trunk" behind the seats in the Burley - plenty of room for my purse, book bag, and the kids stuff. Too cool.

In addition to the simplified, human powered transportation, we simplified the cable TV subscription this week - eliminating a pretty hefty chunk of that monthly bill (and the premium channels that went with it). We'd considered quitting completely, cold turkey, but ended up taking a less drastic first step in that area. Ah well, the good news is we're headed in the right direction.