Commuting

My check engine light has been on for upwards of six months now. Normally that causes me a great deal of heartburn. There are a only a few things I loathe more than my car breaking down.

Haircuts, ipecac syrup, and taxes for example.

Suffice it to say, I hope a special place in hell is reserved for unreliable cars.

However, my car showed no signs of failure. Check engine light a’blazing it kept brining me to and from work with no side effects. Being extremely busy with work I never bothered to do more than a token Free Engine Check at the local Autozone. Surprisingly that yielded not one, but six different things that could be wrong with my ol’ car.

Thanks for narrowing that down Mr. Computer Diagnostic tool.

The Check Engine light would have stayed on indefinitely if I’d had my druthers. After all, the car ran fine.

I’m happy to report that, for reasons unknown, this particular car failure hasn’t ruffled me in the least. Maybe because I expect things to go wrong on a car with 215,000 miles on it. Maybe it’s I’m getting less high strung as I age. Maybe because I’m secretly hoping that my trusty old Protege will die in his sleep and I can buy an Subaru Outback or a Toyota Tundra.

Nah. Who needs a new car when your old one runs just fine?

With my registration due in October and this being the last week in September (I’m all about procrastinating, see), I finally had to set aside whatever else I have going in my life and get it into the shop.

The way it’s looking now, that little check engine light is going to cost me upwards of $1500. The car only Blue Books for $2000.

With those thoughts in mind, and being deprived of a vehicle, I decided to brave the bus this morning.

I rode my bike to the stop and waited around for a while until the bus came. The weather was a in the 50s, pleasant and dry. When it arrived, I loaded the Cobia under the bus, paid my fare and sat down in a pretty comfy seat. These express busses aren’t your typical round-the-town fare. It was warm and I had wi-fi. Or, at least, I was supposed to have wi-fi.

Instead of doing everything possible to stay awake like I normally do, I simply laid my head down and rested. When we passed a four-car pile-up I didn’t do anything but rubberneck. I texted my wife. I thought about opening up my laptop and working while underway.

This isn’t half bad. I might be able to do this full-time. Do I really need a car?

Of course I need a car. I can’t ride my bike around everywhere. I can’t take an hour to ride into Provo on errands. I can’t haul stuff. I can’t take one of my kids to an appointment. I can’t stop for a quick errand after work. And my mountain bike isn’t exactly set up for wet-weather riding so going to early morning church meeting and coming in clean of mud, dirt, and slush would be almost impossible in the winter.

But I still wonder. Can I go for six or eight months without a car? Should I try it? Should I sell my car and get a sweet commuter ride?

Decisions, decisions…