These are the reasons I want a car:
1) I could go to the beach or the mountain or anywhere out of town. All I'd need is a day off and a twenty for gas.
2) On bike, I can only carry home from the grocery what I can carry on my back. (I tried a basket- for two days- and I fucking hated it with an unholy passion.) If I had a car, I could take home four, five, six bags of groceries and not have to think about it again for a month.
3) All the other things I miss out on- day trips, thrifting, convenience in running errrands, etc etc... not to mention the pure, simple joy of showing up to school or work not soaking fucking wet and cold nine months out of the year.
I started searching Craigslist. The (imaginary) budget I gave myself was miniscule. I mean, I'm NEVER going to spend more than $4,000 on a car. But jeezus, in the nine years that have passed since I bought my first car (a burgundy 1988 Chrysler LeBaron, with velvet upholstery and a digital dash for a thousand bucks, natch!), prices have gone up just a tad.
Then I began to envision myself going through the process of buying a car. Then getting insurance. Gas money. The inevitable repairs. The actual driving itself. Destroying the planet. Giving money to oil conglomerates. Ew. EW.
Plus, if I'm being totally honest with myself, if I had a car I'd almost certainly never ride my bike if it were raining. Which is ALL THE FUCKING TIME in Portland. I would be fat and lazy.
Sigh. As I thought about it, I realized the benefits ultimately don't outweigh the detriments.
So, like the lovely Jemina Pearl says,
"Have fun, and be safe with it
Just kidding, fuck shit up!
We ride bikes, cars are for idiots!
All because, all because
We're on two wheels baby
We're on two wheels baby
We're on two wheels baby
We're on two wheels baby"
