Car talk

[cimorene]

We heard back from the garage, seven days after Bernie the Berlingo was towed there. His axle is borked, and it would cost as much to replace as he's worth. It's not DEFINITELY a bad idea though, since another car worth the same as Bernie could be less reliable? We don't have a really high need for a car, or for a van specifically, and we don't like the extra expense - should it come from our remaining renovation loan, is it actually that useful to future renovation? - and our income is temporarily less than our expenses until I find some other job. I was thinking I've heard they need substitutes for the municipal daycares and so on. Maybe that would be better than trying another retail store. But even in the long term and apart from that and other immediate concerns like a whole winter's worth of recycling we need to take to the dump, we don't really want to be carless, but we also have a pretty low need for a car, and that makes it hard to decide. Being in Pargas itself is somewhat isolated: the recycling goes to the grocery store, the vet is in the next town. But we're also like in the center of town, so the grocery store is an easy walk (although carrying a week's worth of groceries isn't that easy of course.)

Comments

[phosfate]

I walk or bus to the grocery and cab home, because that much milk won't fit into my cart and the gas station on the corner wants $6/gal for milk. It's probably gone up recently, I'm scared to look.

[cimorene]

In the winter we used a big sled to carry groceries home a few times. We could always try a little red wagon, although I'm not sure where we'd get one. The little rolly carts seem too small to be all that useful - they're typically about the size of a backpack, and the wheels are so small...

We actually can carry sort of... enough groceries for a week between the two of us, but we can't really get carried away and buy anything extra, or stock up on things, or anything like that. Huge quantities of beverages would definitely be out of the question.

[(Anonymous)]

You'd probably do better getting a garden trolley. (puutarhakärry/-vaunu)

[viggorlijah]

Sounds like you need a bike with a trailer so you can haul stuff when needed although can bikes work in winter in your place? And do you not have taxis or rental cars? My son keeps pushing for a family car but the math is so far cheaper to taxi or rent occasionally.

[cimorene]

Taxis exist, and so do rental cars, but Wax is so resistant to using them that it's not really a practical option. It has to be an emergency or else we have to plan or discuss it for like several weeks first to work up to the idea. Possibly I am too because the obvious solution of me just ordering it sounds way too scary to me. We have rented a car for the day before though! For things like moving etc.

Bikes do not work in the middle of winter here, but when it's very snowy you can use a sled to pull stuff. That's actually the most convenient way.

[cimorene]

Oh, and also, we have to get Wax's bike fixed? Or get her a new bike, not sure if we still have the one that was broken or not. But also I can't ride a bike. OTOH you can only have one person with the bike per trailer in this scenario anyway.

My childhood did not have safe places to practice bike riding available, really, after age 6, and I was not past training wheels yet then. Extremely timid and unathletic child.