[OT] The big rollover

On Feb 13, 8:26*am, "jmcquown" wrote:

When I bought my car I was still driving to work every day but it certainly
wasn't a 70 mile commute! *So no, you're not doing badly at all mileage
wise! *It *is* a 20 mile trip to the grocery store. *So I pretty much
compile a list and shop once a month to stock up.

A 20 mile trip to the grocery store? Okay my grocery store is so near
I can see how busy the checkout is from my bedroom window but if that
wasn't there even the local big store is 15 minutes walk away and I
have a couple of decent local shops so rarely go that far- I don't
have to make a big trip to stock up and if I did it would cost me cab
fare to get it back and Dave wouldn't fancy some of it until a few
days later when it was out of date so I ended up binning stuff so now
I buy on a pretty much daily basis for example today he fancied stir
fry so I got what I needed and something for him tomorrow, some cat
food and something for my lunch tomorrow (I am saving a fortune by
taking my own lunch in) and tomorrow I'll get whatever I need for
Tuesday

I can't imagine having to travel 20 miles for groceries- or do you
have a local shop (for local people-some of you might get that) in
case you run out of milk or something?

Lesley

Slave of the Fabulous Furballs

Lesley

Slave of the Fabulous Furballs

jmcquown wrote:

When I bought my car I was still driving to work every day but it certainly
wasn't a 70 mile commute!

The mentality in this area is very different - there are several major
centers of activity and commerce, sprawled all over a huge area (San
Francisco, San Jose, Oakland/Berkeley, and some smaller but still
significant areas, business-wise). So it's not unusual for people to
drive from one big area to another to visit friends, or to go to work.
When I lived in Massachusetts, where everything is smaller and much
closer together, an hour's drive was a special occasion.

So no, you're not doing badly at all mileage
wise! It *is* a 20 mile trip to the grocery store. So I pretty much
compile a list and shop once a month to stock up.

Smart way to do it!

Persia is snoozing on the chair behind me. It's nice enough we might get to
sit outside today. I haven't been besieged by snow like some of the folks
here. But it's been raining for what feels like forever. Today maybe we
can sit outside on the patio with Persia in her kitty walk. I'll read a
book, she watch the birds and squirrels.

That sounds lovely.

--
"Bacteria, with a few more bells and whistles."
-- Bonnie Bassler, describing human beings

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...

wrote in message
...
jmcquown wrote:

LOL!! When I took my car for an oil change at a local shop (I drive a
2002
Hyundai bought in 2003) the guy asked me (in amazement), "Is that
odometer
reading right?!" Yep! It was under19,000 miles. (It just recently
hit
20,000 miles. Not 200,000 miles.) I shrugged and said, "Yep. But I
don't
really go anywhere. I drive to/from the grocery store. That's about
it."
[Of course, we did drive it 700 miles from TN to SC with Persia in her
carrier buckled into the back seat.] I don't expect to hit 200,000
miles
any time soon.

When you decide to sell your car, your driving habits will be a major
asset - older car with low mileage = good buy.

Out of curiousity I checked the Kelly Blue Book value of my car. Even
having had someone hit it in a parking lot and having the door
repaired/repainted it's not worth much. But it's a handy little car (and
cute!) and gets great gas mileage so I won't be getting rid of it any time
soon

I bought my car in 2002. It was 5 years old and had 56K miles on it
at the time. So I've put 144K miles on it in 9 years, or 16,000 per
year on average. Hey, that's not so bad, considering I commute 70 miles
a day (round trip), and have been doing so for almost 5 years. I really
don't do a lot of driving otherwise.

Joyce

When I bought my car I was still driving to work every day but it
certainly wasn't a 70 mile commute! So no, you're not doing badly at all
mileage wise! It *is* a 20 mile trip to the grocery store. So I pretty
much compile a list and shop once a month to stock up.

Persia is snoozing on the chair behind me. It's nice enough we might get
to sit outside today. I haven't been besieged by snow like some of the
folks here. But it's been raining for what feels like forever. Today
maybe we can sit outside on the patio with Persia in her kitty walk. I'll
read a book, she watch the birds and squirrels.

Jill

An odometer can tell a lot about your driving habits, and especially when
there has been a change. I put 168,000 miles on my 1986 Corolla in 14
years, then replaced it with a 2000 model. I've put 61,000 miles on it in
ten years. Retirement does, or at least can, have an effect on driving
habits.

Joy

wrote in message
...
jmcquown wrote:

When I bought my car I was still driving to work every day but it
certainly
wasn't a 70 mile commute!

The mentality in this area is very different - there are several major
centers of activity and commerce, sprawled all over a huge area (San
Francisco, San Jose, Oakland/Berkeley, and some smaller but still
significant areas, business-wise). So it's not unusual for people to
drive from one big area to another to visit friends, or to go to work.
When I lived in Massachusetts, where everything is smaller and much
closer together, an hour's drive was a special occasion.

Yes, the area one lives in makes a big difference. The Los Angeles area is
very sprawled out. I know people who drive 60 miles to work, one way! The
most I ever did was 16 miles one way. We don't have the public
transportation some areas do, and people think nothing of driving 30 miles
or so to go to the beach for an afternoon.

Joy

Joy wrote:

Yes, the area one lives in makes a big difference. The Los Angeles area is
very sprawled out. I know people who drive 60 miles to work, one way! The
most I ever did was 16 miles one way. We don't have the public
transportation some areas do, and people think nothing of driving 30 miles
or so to go to the beach for an afternoon.

We probably have better public transportation than LA, but it's not
really that great. If you live in San Francisco proper, there's a good
bus and light rail system that can get you most places within the city.
And there's a decent rapid transit system that can get you to and from
San Francisco to many surrounding areas. But there's no public transit
authority, so each train, subway or bus system is on its own. In fact,
many are privately owned and they try hard to prevent people from using
other privately owned transportation systems, so they schedule them in
such a way that connections are difficult. Stations are physically
located in ways that make it inconvenient to transfer from one mode to
another.

My commute to work, which takes 45 minutes by car, would take about 90
minutes by public transit (which would be a 3-hour per day commute if
I did that every day!). But that's a lot better than the how it used to
be before a certain shuttle started running. I did travel that way one
day and it took me 3 hours to get to work.

The whole thing is utterly absurd. Our free market at work.

Joyce

--
I care not for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better
for it. -- Abraham Lincoln