Love/Hate

There are days that I absolutely love not having a car anymore. When my parents and I circled the block 15 times looking for a parking spot and then finally gave up and they just headed home to their hotel, I thanked God that I didn't have to deal with that headache every day. When I looked at the parking meter this weekend and saw $3.00/hr, my wallet was very very happy that I don't have a car. And when I get a few minutes to read my book on the way home from work, I enjoy that time. However, my relationship with public transportation is definitely love/hate and there are days that I pine dearly for my trusty little Yaris.

Last night was one of those times that I would have given my left arm for a car. I had to "run" by the grocery store to pick up a chicken for dinner. And if I had planned ahead properly, I would have just gone down to the Ferry building and picked it up at lunch, but apparently my brain wasn't working today and that didn't even cross my mind until after I had gotten to the grocery store. So the "run" to the grocery store was going to take 3 buses but I still didn't think it would take me 2 hrs and 15 minutes to get home. I rode the 10 to the 49 but for some reason, I had to wait 30 minutes for the 49 to come. In the middle of rush hour, there was only one 49 that passed in 30 minutes. ?!?!?!?! Come on MUNI, let's re-think that schedule. So by the time I got on the 49, it was already 5:45. Then, for some completely unknown reason, it took FOREVER to get to my next stop. So I was going all the way across the city, should it really take 40 minutes? I couldn't help but think that if I had my car, I would have been at the grocery store and finished an hour ago. It took me 5 minutes to buy the chicken and then I had to wait for the 22 to come to get home. Which took another 20 minutes. So, it was 7:15 by the time I got home. 2 hours, 15 minutes to pick up a chicken. So the fundamental question is: does the time you save by owning a car make up for the extra expense of having a car in the city? Most of the time, I answer NO! to that question, but every now and then, I waver and a teeny, tiny voice in the back of my head whispers,

"maybe?"

And to add insult to injury, when I got to the grocery store, they were all out of the usual chickens that I buy - the $2.99/pound chickens. Instead, all they had were $6.99/pound chickens. I had fallen asleep on the bus and apparently was still in a walking state of slumber, because I thought, "Hmm, $6.99/pound isn't really that much more - it won't make a difference. It'll be about the same price". Yawn. Then the lady handed me the chicken with the little price sticker and that woke me right up. $24.95 - POW! A three and a half pound chicken at $2.99/pound is around $10, which was all the money I had to spend on the chicken. A 3 and a half pound chicken at $6.99/pound is much MUCH more than that. Yes, I am an accountant and yes, I should be able to do that math but the brain was just not functioning last night. I just stood there with the $25 chicken in my hand and cried a little bit inside. Because, really, what can you do after they've picked it, wrapped it, and price-stickered it. I'm not the type of person that is going to hand that chicken back.

When I finally got home around 7:15, took the dogs out and started cutting up the chicken into bits, I found that, to add insult to injury, the chicken that they picked out for me was pear-shaped. There were these GIGANTIC legs and thighs and teeny-tiny little breasts. I buy the whole chicken because it's more economical that way, technically, but I have to say that I merely tolerate the legs and the thighs and the wings. They are not the part of the chicken that I generally look forward to. I am a breast girl. So, my $25 chicken was really even more disappointing than I originally thought.

Let's see if I can find a way to tie the chicken thing back into the car thing. The bus took so long to get me where I needed to go, that it lulled me to sleep and I bought a ridiculously expensive chicken while still under the influence of the bus. If I had a car, I would have been bright, chipper and refreshed when I arrived at the grocery store (an hour earlier as well, when there might have still been cheap chickens) and could have made an intelligent decision about the chicken that I purchased. And, to reiterate: Does the time you save by owning a car make up for the extra expense of having a car in the city?

"maybe"?