heaven is not a truck

I got rid of my vehicle nearly five and a half years ago.  The day before Thanksgiving 2002, the man from the second charity I called showed up in a flatbed to haul her away.  (The first charity wouldn't take her off my hands because she was a piece of junk.)  It was a bittersweet day.  I was skeptical of moving beyond the highly suburban notion of auto ownership as a necessity of life.  But then, only a few months prior I had gone to court to contest a parking ticket and subsequent tow that occurred because it'd been months since I'd had an occasion to move her.

Since that time, I have come to relish the freedom that not owning an automobile affords, and it's increasingly unlikely that I will be re-joining the ranks of vehicle ownership.  Yes, my commute sucks ass and yes, sometimes public transit really pisses me off, but it still would take longer if I drove.  And what's more, I'd be even less my normal cheerful self once I arrived.  Needless to say, very few things frustrate me more than driving.

I have to drive several times a week now, and thanks to Zipcar I am able to be where I need to be.  But I don't like it.  It has come to my attention that I am an aggressive driver, which I guess I should have known already from my disdain for all those other assholes on the road who don't know how to drive.  A recent study confirms my hypothesis that DC drivers are among the worst in the nation.  They're in the bottom five, actually.  This is most certainly not news.

Also not news is that Minneapolis drivers are among our nation's best.  Of course they are.  We all know damn well that nothing of any importance happens in Minnesota, so why should anybody be in a hurry to get where they are going?  I'd approach my day at a more leisurely pace, too, if the most pressing item on my agenda was the tractor pull or making snow angels.