sounds like your job sucks. figure out a way to get ready faster in the AM, use less sleep = go out and do things. one of my favorite things is, find somewhere you like stopping on your ride home (like a bar or cafe, or even a shop) and stop there on occasion
[quote=surfcat]Another thing to consider about the truly car-free lifestyle is what you’re gonna do if you get a relatively serious injury that keeps you from being able to ride.
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sounds like he’s already car-free though. also in portland the zipcar or whatever the hell they call them there is surprisingly convenient according to the people i know who’ve used them.
http://artofmanliness.com/2010/09/27/where-is-the-grass-greener-the-economics-of-happiness/
This article has a long discussion of things that affect one’s happiness, including long commutes. Long commutes are a major contributor to suck factor in life. I say if a car drops your commute below 30 minutes or is light on traffic, get a car. Buying a car doesn’t turn you into a lazy asshole, you’ll still ride a lot but now you’ll have a backup plan. It is obviously more expensive though. My car is paid off but I’m still dropping an avg of $50-100 a month in basic insurance, gas and maintenance. And if the commute is still going to be a pain even with a car, move.
Is changing jobs on the table? There’s nothing wrong with changing jobs right out of school as long as you don’t make a habit out of it. I thought I’d like my first job, then realized I didn’t and got a new one after 3 months. New job was longer hours initially and more stressful, but it was more interesting, more challenging and (most importantly I think) I had more control over my own time: even if I was working more hours it was because I knew I had to, not because someone told me to. The commute also dropped from 45 minutes to 15 which was awzum.
Definitely time for a major change one way or another. It sounds like you’re bummed enough that small tweaks aren’t going to cut it. Hopefully that article helps you sort out what would make the biggest impact.
stop giving a fuck
[quote=beargrinderrrrrr][quote=surfcat]Another thing to consider about the truly car-free lifestyle is what you’re gonna do if you get a relatively serious injury that keeps you from being able to ride.
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sounds like he’s already car-free though. also in portland the zipcar or whatever the hell they call them there is surprisingly convenient according to the people i know who’ve used them.[/quote]
Right but what happens when/if he gets an injury? Just because he hasn’t had one yet, doesn’t mean it won’t happen eventually. If you have a car, or preferably live close enough to your work that public transportation or just walking can get you there, then that’s great… otherwise, are you really gonna rent Zipcar five days a week for the number of weeks it requires to get back to health? He may not even make enough to afford it. Car-free is great but there has to be some kind of thought given to contingency planning.
I’ve seen this video before. It’s like a list of all my favorite things in life. Man, I miss solitude.[/quote]
that poem is fucking incredible. HY solitude.
@sandbag- I have been roaming in solitude for a bit, but in a different scenario. After splitting with my gf of 6 years, all of ‘our’ friends became ‘her’ friends and I continued to not vibe with my co-workers.
I starting volunteering at the co-op more, watching a butt-ton of sports, tinkering with my bikes more than usual, and going to the gym. I still feel isolated, but I dont care as much.
edit- I make no sense, dont listen to me
[quote=surfcat][quote=beargrinderrrrrr][quote=surfcat]Another thing to consider about the truly car-free lifestyle is what you’re gonna do if you get a relatively serious injury that keeps you from being able to ride.
[/quote]
sounds like he’s already car-free though. also in portland the zipcar or whatever the hell they call them there is surprisingly convenient according to the people i know who’ve used them.[/quote]
Right but what happens when/if he gets an injury? Just because he hasn’t had one yet, doesn’t mean it won’t happen eventually. If you have a car, or preferably live close enough to your work that public transportation or just walking can get you there, then that’s great… otherwise, are you really gonna rent Zipcar five days a week for the number of weeks it requires to get back to health? He may not even make enough to afford it. Car-free is great but there has to be some kind of thought given to contingency planning.[/quote]
I really don’t understand why you are fixated on this. Who’s to say this theoretical injury won’t be severe enough to make driving a car impossible? Real jobs like it sounds like Jake has have things like sick time and short term disability. Hell, man if it’s really that bad he can buy a car later. It’s not like there’s a waiting period for car ownership.
There are some good reasons to consider owning a car. This is not one of them.
Same for me except I was with girl for 7 years and the breakup is still fresh(1 month ago). It’s weird. I have a couple friends and my co-workers are OK. But holy shit, world rocked. Lonely for sure. But it’s not all sadness and whiny bullshit. I feel like this is a time to really get to know myself again. I’m 26 and still have a lot to learn and do. Regardless those times when I’m not riding, working, or randomly hanging out with someone, I can’t help but reflect back to the times when I was part of a unit(Me, Girl, Dog) and get nostalgic.
[quote=kyle!][quote=imoscardotcom]
@sandbag- I have been roaming in solitude for a bit, but in a different scenario. After splitting with my gf of 6 years, all of ‘our’ friends became ‘her’ friends and I continued to not vibe with my co-workers.
[/quote]
Same for me except I was with girl for 7 years and the breakup is still fresh(1 month ago). It’s weird. I have a couple friends and my co-workers are OK. But holy shit, world rocked. Lonely for sure. But it’s not all sadness and whiny bullshit. I feel like this is a time to really get to know myself again. I’m 26 and still have a lot to learn and do. Regardless those times when I’m not riding, working, or randomly hanging out with someone, I can’t help but reflect back to the times when I was part of a unit(Me, Girl, Dog) and get nostalgic.[/quote]
yep, shit sucks dude. Luckily I got the cat we adopted together. Would have been super crushed if she kept her.
I have a new sup girl that occupies a lot of my time, but its just not that same
[quote=redyourmoon]I really don’t understand why you are fixated on this. Who’s to say this theoretical injury won’t be severe enough to make driving a car impossible? Real jobs like it sounds like Jake has have things like sick time and short term disability. Hell, man if it’s really that bad he can buy a car later. It’s not like there’s a waiting period for car ownership.
There are some good reasons to consider owning a car. This is not one of them.[/quote]
So I am about 99% car free. If I drive my car more than twice a month, then it’s been a big month for car driving. I’ve been doing this for almost three years now, which isn’t really that long at all, but long enough to be pretty well acquainted with the challenges involved. There are plenty of things that can happen which after a day or two aren’t bad enough to keep you from working, but can keep you off your bike, especially if you’ve got an hour+ ride to contend with.
But you’re right, no need to fixate on that. There are plenty of other temporary inconveniences that can result in the same thing: mechanicals where you need to wait on parts, extended periods of bad weather, etc. These can be worked around in various ways, but I guess what we’re missing is my stated point, which was that, if the OP wants to remain car free, it’s far easier to accomplish if he lives closer to work (either by moving closer to work, or taking a job closer to home), for a wide variety of reasons, with the most annoying to me (since it involves human frailty and the misfortunes of chance) being injuries of the type described.
When taken as a whole with the rest of the challenges of the car-free lifestyle when living at an hour’s ride distance (or more) from your place of work, this all probably does add up to justification for owning a car in the event that the OP does not want to move house or change jobs. Which I think means we’re in agreement, for the most part?
surprised nobody has brought up tri-met (public transport) yet. in 2+ years at Portland State, i probably took the bus to commute no more than a dozen times total, but each time it was worth it.
it might not be much faster than a bike commute (i was lucky to be able to make it from woodstock to park blocks on a single bus), but what i liked the most about it was how it extended my morning and evening “free” time (reading, playing gameboy, schoolwork, etc) by a fair amount.
I personally find the bus frustrating most of the time. It’s mainly the waiting. Still, to be car-free, you really do need a public transportation backup.
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Trimet is a pretty good backup. Both times I broke my collarbone I relied on the bus for a while to get places. It’s generally quicker to bike than take the bus here, but overall our bus system is well linked together, reliable, and for most areas, comes every 15 minutes during commuter hours.
The bus or train is also great alone time in public. I took the bus a lot when I first moved to Portland. My first “real” job I had a 1.5 hour bus commute. I really didn’t mind the bus time, I just didn’t like how it turned an 8 hour day into an 11 hour day, so I got a car. If you can zone out and read and stuff, the bus can be great, and the train even better cuz less stops.
online dating.
where do you live now? you should move
Thanks everyone for the input,
That video was nice.
I’m late to this thread, but I say get a car. I’ve been car free on-and-off for a few years now, and I have to say that my life was noticeably less stressful with a car (something I don’t have at the moment). My riding and racing improved dramatically, as I was able to having more meaningful rides, and more meaningful recovery. I could pack my MTB up and go to the trails on my days off. I could get out to races without having the borrow and beg from everyone that I know. I could drive out to my mom’s house and get dinner with her, without it being an all-day ordeal involving extensive planning. Most importantly, I could forget about riding for days or weeks if I really wanted to. When I don’t have a car, the bike is everything and that can be really stressful and annoying. I don’t really like riding in 20° weather, or in the rain, or with saddlebags full of melting groceries, or the twenty miles to the Western suburbs in order to see my family. When I leave work after nine hours, I am home in ten minutes, and it required no change of clothes, shortness of breath, sweatiness, or brushes with death.
I am glad that my car will be fixed and working on Tuesday, for the first time in nearly a year.
this. then you can come kick it with me. im cool. i think…
ps are we talking alberta/mississippi/killingsworth north or like st johns/deep lombard north?
big differences.