Gordon Wagner's Open Salon Blog

Six Months as a Pedestrian

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 16:04:57 -0400

As I walked to the market this morning, it occured to me (counting on my fingers) that it's been six months since I became a pedestrian.

No one from the State of California has contacted me (yet) about my citizenship being revoked for not owning a vehicle.

I've rented a car about once a month, usually to take Kid #2 to the orthodontist and dentist. I'll do major heavy shopping when I have a vehicle, stocking up on things like gallon jugs of bleach and vinegar, buying 40 pound sacks of water filter salt at Home Depot, cases of cheap red wine from Trader Joe's, things like that. Soda pop for the kids. Plants and amendment from the good local nursery.

I've discovered that Amazon.com has a "subscribe and save" program and that I can get quite a few things I like to keep on hand delivered, and at a discount. I have an "Amazon Prime" membership which I pay about $70 a year for and enjoy free shipping on almost everything.

Recently I stumbled on the notion that meat and dairy products are just not very good for you, so I no longer cart home liquid milk or cheese or eggs. I do bring home a lot more fruit and vegetables, though.

I have two large black mesh bags I'd used for camping years back and pressed them into service. I devised and had fabricated a 3" black nylon strap with rubber-coated black metal hooks on either end which I use like a yoke -- I hook the shopping bags on the ends and my forearms aren't numb by the time I get home. The strap lets me bear most of the load on my shoulders. I thought this was a clever tool. I'd seen movers using straps to help them move things at some point in the past, I think that's where the idea came from.

My left foot hurt, and I mistaken thought it was due to plantar fasciitis, which has turned out not to be the case. I went through a couple pair of walking shoes and tried heel cups and a fancy insole before I thought to wrap my foot with an Ace bandage. That helped a bit, then one day I wrapped more of my ankle and that turned out to make a huge difference. I remember my ex used to wrap the lower leg of her horse. Must be the same concept.

So between the strap and the Ace bandage nothing much hurts.

My walks are uneventful, but it's great to be outside and walking as opposed to teleporting in a vehicle and never being outside. It's like being on vacation where you don't drive... this is a bland suburban shrinkwrapped area, it's all been slapped up in the past twenty-five years or so, but it's home. We've been here going on seventeen years.

I've got an iPhone so I no longer carry my phone, iPod and digital camera. I have a mostly-jazz playlist that I listen to, heavy on vibraphones and saxophones. Great walking music.

There's a Trader Joe's, a Ralph's supermarket and a local health food chain called Sprouts within easy walking distance, it's about a three-mile round trip. I leave right after Kid #2 launches for school in the morning, as early as possible. I can foresee going marketing at six in the morning in the summer months.

Kid #1 still isn't interested in driving, and I have yet to see any vehicle I'm particularly interested in that isn't some weird vehicle or hobbyist car. If I'm going to buy another car, it has to be something the kids can make use of. Without having to maintain it, one of the modern cars which basically don't require any maintenance. I don't want to get another old aircooled VW.

I looked at an electric vehicle from Mitsubishi, but it's something like $30K and I can't make use of the $10K in potential tax credits due to how my income is structured. Cute little car with a 50 mile range. OK, they say 100 mile range but realistically I think it'd be more like 50.

I saw a mid-60s Toyota Land Cruiser with a short pickup bed -- I liked that quite a bit, but that's not practical for the kids to drive. Or maintain.

I can't bring myself to hitch up with a sedan. Gaah. Not that. I don't have the money or mid-life crisis which made buying a full-size truck attractive back pre-crash.

The exercise hasn't hurt me at all. I don't do much else outside of landry and housework and gardening that counts as exercise.

Overall... no complaints. I enjoy the slower pace of walking and having to carry things home makes sure I don't buy too many things. Today I hauled home forty pounds of groceries. And it wasn't all that difficult. That's about the maximum, though.

And I don't have to sit here at my computer being unemployed or underemployed or scouring Craigslist for freelance graphics work *all* the time. It's good to get out.

Life without a car. Who would have imagined such a thing?

Five shrubs

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 00:03:24 -0500

Rented a car the other day. I picked up five five-gallon Hawthorne shrubs to plant out in front along our garage. Very suburban. Very pleased about this.

In Dreams

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 10:02:47 -0500

Had a strong dream last night. My old flame was in a bedroom in a house I once lived in. She was asleep. I was shocked to see her.

She was still 23 or 24. Gorgeous. All the women I've ever pursued have been modeled on her. No one has ever come close to being her.

I've had maybe half a dozen dreams involving her over the decades, and we're into the third or fourth decade by now. Always powerful dreams, rattle me like an earthquake.

I made my bed. How do I get back to that dream? I want to return to that dream and I want for it to never end.

Cold this morning. Small headache. Tearing of the eyes. If only we'd actually had enough of a relationship for it to run its course perhaps I wouldn't be carrying a major torch for her all these years later.

How can I produce another dream like that? If only there were some formula, some combination of drugs or alcohol or scents or anything to get back there. Better than flying dreams.

I am with her and feel alive. In my dreams.

I know someday you'll have a beautiful life,
I know you'll be a sun / in somebody else's sky, but why
Why, why can't it be, can't it be mine

February? Really?

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 18:02:02 -0500

So... it's been about four months since I sold my vehicle. Been walking to and from the market and bank two or three times a week.

Bought some new walking shoes. Two pairs, actually. One pair was wide enough but the toes narrowed something fierce. Pinched toes equals ow. So in my OTHER new pair of walking shoes I installed a new pair of insoles, a pair of "heel cups" which are made of sex-toy soft latex and keep your heels from wiggling around too much... I also have some nice new Thorlo tennis socks PLUS pairs of very short socks to put on OVER the tennis socks. More cushioning and less wiggle.

It's about a three-mile round trip depending on whether or not I extend the trip to include the local health food place (good fruit and vegetables) and/or the Post Office. Very few other people are walking.

I replaced my old Motorola V365 flip phone with an iPhone, which is a lot of fun. And I don't carry my iPod or my small digital camera with me any more.

I have a couple of black mesh bags which I've had since an epic trip to Baja California years ago, they hold all I can carry and then some. I had a strap made up that has hooks on each end to carry the bags, takes stress off my forearms.

The first walking trip I overdid it and carried 36 pounds of groceries home. Ow. Felt that.

Since then I've learned to not buy too much at once. I've also found that amazon.com offers a "subscribe and save" feature for most of the staples we use. AND I've signed up with our local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm and get a nice delivery of vegetables and fruit and even a bouquet of flowers each Thursday. And a couple dozen fresh organic eggs.

The bottom line being... I don't particularly miss having a vehicle, though it is odd, especially in this area, to be a pedestrian. I've rented a car just about every month for one medical appointment or another. I'll rent a car again next Friday to take Kid #2 to her orthodontic appointment, at which time I'll lay in a supply of groceries... four gallons of milk, cases of wine, stuff I can store in our chest freezer like frozen vegetables and fish and chicken, et cetera. Stuff I'm not in a huge hurry to tote home on foot.

I've considered other vehicles. The only one that actually interested me was a mid-60s Toyota FJ45, their early Land Cruiser. VERY COOL. But, wait, that's not what I *need* for the kids.

I'll pass from the scene eventually, and buying something boring and basic like a Corolla or Camry makes sense. But I just can't bring myself to buy a sedan... deadly boring.

The truck was fun to drive, and I'd always wanted a full-size V8 truck. It came with a 6" lift installed. I added a cold-air intake (CAI) and dual-tip rear-facing exhaust. And improved coil-over shocks designed for the particular lift kit the truck had. It was fun to roar around town.

I looked at the Nissan Leaf, the electric car. Seems interesting but, again, non-standard. I had a Toyota Prius before I bought the truck. There was something about the Prius I didn't particularly care for... still trying to figure out what that was.

Anyway. Life goes on.

The funniest part of the story...

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 11:11:19 -0500

Mercifully, I have a sense of humor. As does the universe. About a month back I was faced with some dental work for Kid #1 and the phone bill when I learned that my ex would no longer be sending any amount in child support, which was something of a surprise.

I'd toyed with the idea of getting by without a vehicle. I'd been driving a full-size V8 truck, which I enjoyed but didn't need. So I sold the truck, paid for the dental work, et cetera. All well and good. Rolling with the changes.

Ah, but at the end of the week when Kid #1 and myself had walked a mile or so to the dentist's office I happened to look at my bank receipt from a deposit I'd made the other day for about $1500 -- I noticed my balance was about $24,000.

Then I recalled my ex having told me that she was trying to arrange some Social Security benefit for the kids. I wrote it off, even after a phone interview with someone from the SSA. In which they'd mentioned that if the case was approved the kids would receive a year of retroactive support. And a small chunk of money each month until they hit 18.

Long story short, I had a huge amount of money in my account at the end of the same week which had seen me parting with my truck. Reminded me of the last scenes in "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" where the old guy laughs at the gold dust they'd mined blows away, back to the mountain --

"Laugh, Curtin, old boy, it's a great joke played on us by the Lord or fate or by nature -- whoever or whatever played it, certainly has a sense of humor. The gold has gone back to where we got it. Laugh, my boy, laugh. It's worth ten months of labor and suffering -- this joke is."