Car Process

This week we moved forward with purchasing a car. John is writing about that too.

So I will add notes from my perspective. He was obsessing about it for a few weeks. This means that in his spare time, between working 24/7 from the pandemic-sheltering-in-place-office (aka the living room table) and sleeping, he was researching and analyzing. Neither of us has owned a car since moving to NYC. I had one in California but left it there when I moved to New York in 1999. 21 years ago. He hasn't owned a car since 1987. 33 years ago. 21+ 33= 54. John and I are both turning 57 this year, so it's almost like between the two of us, there is another person who has never owned a car...

I didn't really know he was thinking about buying a car until he announced it one day earlier this spring. I guess he was thinking that going back to the office he would want one to avoid the train because of the coronavirus. (Turns out, according to the NYTimes this week, that there has been little evidence of virus transmissions associated with the subways--but that is likely due to the fact that it is empty.)

He always identifies as someone who is not materialistic, so this turn is interesting to me.

I, on the other hand, would love to have the freedom of owning a car! But because I'm complicated, I also have the ethos of a low-carbon footprint. Nothing is simple for me.

Car Car

I have prided myself on not owning a car since 1987, having been a city dweller all that time. Now we are looking into more freedom from the city in the age of COVID... in a sustainable way. So we bought a 2017 BMW i3! It is a fun, peppy hybrid electric made of recycled materials in car plants powered by alternative energy. We love it!

Now we are researching snow tires because we are buying property in the Catskills: https://www.bmwblog.com/2015/04/04/bmw-i3-winter-tires-review-bridgestone-blizzak-lm-500-vs-nokian-hakkapelitta-r2/ . Also as people who have never owned a car we need to learn about tread wear and rotating tires.

It is going to be tough storing 4 tires in our Manhattan apartment! Condundrums of car ownership

Work process 1

The way I like to work is to identify a process and have it develop over time. I am a list-maker, as my mom was, and I use list-making as part of the process. Making lists is the way I capture my thoughts--much of the time I have lots of ideas all at once and they need to be captured into writing in order to be activated.