smittenbyu | Entries tagged with cars

Every now and then when I drop D off at her preschool and head to the metro, I see the Toyota courtesy shuttle drive by - the service center & dealership is a mile away - and each time, I chose walking home after dropping car off and picking up when ready! This morning, the driver, whom I had seen on the premises, wished me good morning and asked, why is it he always saw me walking and not driving! He rminded me that must be the answers to our woes!

I lauhed. And realised, wow we are remembered! So, we must be in a small neighborhood! How great!

Yes, we finally hit the 10,000miles mark and our battery is still undercharged (the 12V in the hybrid's back). Sigh. Probably needs a new one. Can’t figure out how to use a maintenar when the building basement doesn’t have an outlet – or likely management doesn’t want us using it. I wonder if the electric car charging stations would do the trick….. never mind.

And I do now take it for a drive down the highway to the store 15 miles away. But alas, I-66 is not a highway, it’s a parking lot or just a regular road with more stop and goes than the regular road with 20 traffic lights. Pointless really.

And we aren't driving ours enough! Our car is two years old and we haven't hit the ten thousand miles yet! It's recommended we drive at last 250 miles aweek (average). And we are at nearly 90 miles a week.

Clearly it shouldn't have been a surprise to find our battery completely drained.

So, today I set out to drive to the Indian store 15 miles away (11 miles on highway), and other stores in that area. Battery just topped up and were back to where i started when i stated my journey, because well all of Fairfax county goes grocery shopping and every thing else on a Saturday! And Saturday morning all of Arlington/DC goes away on a weekend trip, so crawling on the highway at 15-30mph Clearly didn't help!

So i guess we are in search of a battery maintainer but no idea where we would hook it up. Dang it. But you know I'd much rather have this problem than be driving 250 miles a week!

Should after all go get those cables to jump start if every needed!!

N said I should note this down. For our amusement but also it was so nice to hear.

So it snowed like 2 inches over night. Roads were all clear by late morning. Life moved on. We didn't make any history. I was sharing with D that I would need to brush off the snow from the car later today, so we could use it tomorrow.

D responds, "Why do we need a car? We can walk everywhere! Or take the metro!"

Speaking of cars, our car will be two years old soon. We have new car neighbours and we are getting nervous again! For the newbies, our car was scratched and dented on our left side right when it was 3 weeks old. We suspect our neighboring car but aren't really sure. And it happened again, SAME thing last year. sigh. Maybe we WILL walk to the store tomorrow. Or I think we will take a day trip somewhere on the anniversary date!! :P

Just a year ago, I was so much fitter. I keep wondering what changed. Two things.. A car and lack of an India trip in fall.

Up until we got a car, I walked everywhere, even in the cold. I pushed a stroller that was probably 25-30lbs and so my arms were also strong. I actually had biceps I could call biceps and not some flab pretending to be that is today. I would walk to the store to get small groceries - milk, eggs, fruit with the bob stroller and kid in tow. The store is a little less than a mile and half away. I would walk to the yoga class - which is also a mile away. We would go to DC a lot and that was always by metro and day at the museum - on the feet. So, that averaged 4 days of walking at least 2 miles.

India is a walking city, at least Mumbai is. My in-laws live on the 3rd floor without an elevator. So, just basic daily activity included at least a bit of movement.

Here, I used to climb up the 10 floors every now and then. Now I have gotten lazy.

I can't blame the car completely. After all the stroller is still around and the store hasn't moved. But what's changed is the child no longer sits in the stroller. So, a walk to the groceries is no longer a workout. I have to walk at D's pace. She loves to walk but her pace is obviously slow. And she likes to help push the stroller, which was ok. Now she wants to do it all by herself and with the bob revolution I am just afraid it will whisk her away!

So, today in a few minutes I am walking to yoga class after a long time! The weather is beautiful! Fine, it's very overcast and looks like it will rain. But heck it's 55F now and said to head up to 70F! Warmth…going to savor every moment of it! Thursday the temps are going to drop again and will enjoy the cold too. That's funny thing about spring I guess.

The Virginia transportation bill was a big mess before it passed. Oh what a big mess. When it did pass though, it showed the utter idiocracy that has befallen our government. The only reason some of us were happy, metro gets a little more funding for repairs, etc.

But the logic behind some of the rules passed makes no sense. The summary is found here.

Well, recently we got a new car - a hybrid. At my insistence. I figured gas prices will only go up. It's better for the environment over the long run. If we can use free energy, why pay for it?! And so we got the Prius.

It seems someone in Richmond believes we are evading gas tax (proceeds which go towards maintenance and building roads in VA). So, as a hybrid owner I have to fork out $64 a year since I am not contributing to the roads' maintenance. Oh, that's after they reduced the gas tax too (they increased sales tax instead).

I am not against taxes. Fine if they have to increase sales taxes. We all should contribute for better infrastructure. But the hybrid tax makes no sense?! Plus, we hardly use the roads...we use the METRO!! I guess there's a reason for not fixing metro/public transport system. Revenues for roads will crumble! :S

What a tangled mess we indeed weave.

Current Mood: angry

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The Adventures of the Little Indian Girl

Entries tagged with cars

a friendly neighbourhood...

Boots are made for walking, cars are made for driving

Love of public transport...

walking...

VA transportation bill

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December 2024

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