A New, Old, One Car Life

Hello, friends! 

Below, you'll find a photo of me saying goodbye to Shmeevus the Prius. After 173,000 miles of work, we had a water pump blow, 2 belts snap, and a mass O2 censor go kaput. The cost to repair was more than the car was worth, so we sold it and now we're down to being a single car family. 

We've been a single car household before but it was when Megan and I were in CoMO, sans children. After The Rolla died (after over 300,000 miles, mind you!) we decided that we could live a single car life for a bit. We traded in Meg's car and actually bought Shmeevus at that point. We stayed single car up until we found out Megan was pregnant with Thaliea. That's when we went for the minivan (a choice I definitely don't regret). 

Our first foray into being a single car family was relatively easier that it will be this time around. For one, there are more of us. For two, Omaha is a bigger city than CoMO, so everything is further away. For three, the hills in Omaha suck, so biking around, even to closer places, is a beast. 

So, you may be asking yourself, "why not just get another car then?" Great question. There are a few reasons. First, because of the pandemic, car prices are through the roof. We know we'll (probably) need a second car at some point but we want to wait it out to see if prices go down. Second, there are environmental factors to consider as well. Cars are one of the big reasons climate change has gotten as bad as it has. If there's a way for us to limit our gas consumption and exhaust output, I'm all for it. 

Honestly, moving back to the single car life was something we were considering anyway. Just a few months ago, I'd started a spreadsheet, logging all the times we actually drove Shmeevus or needed 2 cars. At least through the Spring and early summer, we really didn't use both cars at the same time all that much. The times we did have both cars out often were times when I could have biked but it was more convenient to drive. 

The next few months are going to be interesting. I bought an electric bike prior to Shmeevus dying but now I'm really getting some use out of it. The weather should be mostly dry for the next few months, so that will give us time to save up and more time for me to ride. My hope is that I'll be able to leverage public transportation in tandem with the electric bike once it gets colder (and wetter) but we'll see. For now, it's back to that one car life. I'm pretty stoked. 

Have an excellent day!

~Adam