ZipCar

Tried it yesterday, in advance of possibly getting rid of the car. Brief summary for you:

CONVENIENCE: Pretty much off the charts. There are dozens of cars within a few blocks of us (including some within a block). Once you've booked it, you just go to the car and it's programmed to accept your card to open the locks. While out with the car, you can use your iPhone to lock/unlock it (the keys for the ignition stay in the car at all times). When you're done, you just return the car same place. No paper work, nothing. Only marginally less convenient then taking the elevator down to your own car in the parkade.

COST: For the cheaper car, it's about $10/hr. (You can get a 10% discount with a small monthly commitment, which we would likely do if we sold our car). So let's call it $9/hr. That includes gas. I took it for 3 hours, probably used $10 in gas. So the net cost is around $17. We figure we'll net (conservatively) around $300/month by not owning a car (not counting whatever we get for selling it). So we could use the zipcar for 3 hours a day roughly 17-18 times a month and break even. Seeing that's probably four times as often as we actually would, I'm pretty sure we'll be considerably ahead. Even allowing for the occasional longer trip (the day rate is not that great, if we were going to have a car for a few days I think we'd go with a rental car company).

DOWNSIDES: Well, you have to commit to the amount of time you want the car ahead of time. If you go way under, you don't get a refund. If you go over, there's a hefty late fee. But if the car is not booked by someone else, you can extend it by text at the very last minute for the regular rate. I was late getting back yesterday, but it only cost me $5 to book an extra half hour. When you are booking online you can actually see what cars have bookings later in the day, so you could make sure to book one that is not otherwise claimed and be fairly confident you'll be able to extend if running late.

Also, the car I had was covered in birdshit. It was pretty gross. Otherwise the car was totally fine, if a wee bit non-descript (certainly not remotely baller, but whatever). You can book better cars for a bit more, like an Audi A3 for an extra $5/hr. I assume they keep those parked places with less birds. If I had more time, I would have taken the car I had for a wash. They'll reimburse you for that (and give you $15 for your trouble). There's a lot of stuff like that, trying to encourage the community to take ownership of the cars. Which makes sense and is kinda cool, even the cynical part of me feels like it's just a way for them to have less employees.

Overall I think it's a pretty amazing system. Super easy, reasonably priced. Looks like the family car is a goner.

A Dream Of My Mother's From My Youth

In her dream, we're at the beach and my mother looks out and sees that me and my sister and my dad are all drowning. And she has to decide who to save. And then she wakes up.

I think I was around six when she told us the dream, because my little brother didn't factor into the equation (it could have been that he was too little to be out swimming, so maybe I was about seven or eight). From memory she had (and related) the dream repeatedly, and would often tell us about it while we were at the beach.

She would always immediately follow it's telling with "of course, it's so silly. I would just rescue Dad and then we would each rescue one of you".

This was undoubtedly meant to be reassuring, but I promise you, it was not. Even at that young age, I was aware that I would likely be a goner by the time they got to me. And besides, if Dad was able to come rescue me, why would he need Mom's rescuing in the first place? No, I knew she could only rescue one, and I was dang sure that wasn't a lottery I was gonna win.

What's interesting to me about it (besides maybe serving as an explanation why I never wanted to see "Sophie's Choice") is that she would make such an apparently misguided decision to burden her six-year old son with her nightmare. Maybe it's possible she was trying to keep me from going out too far. In my most cynical teen years, I entertained the idea it was to make me behave, in a general sense, so as to improve my chances of surviving. But now I think it simply weighed too heavy on her to not speak it.

She obviously knew it was not a particularly great thing to tell her children, and the unrealistic rescue scenario she attached speaks to that. But I think the dream was going to be on her mind literally every moment until she spoke it. Basically, if she wanted to keep it to herself (which she probably did), she had no chance.

I feel like I see that more and more in life. Definitely still in my mother, but also in myself, and in most anyone who I know well at all. Some things people can keep secret. But some things just have to come out. Doesn't matter if they're hurtful, or harmful, or meant to be kept quiet. Or just boring, not funny, really of interest to absolutely no one. There's just no stopping it. If the six year-old gets scared shitless in the process, well, nobody's happy about that. But it couldn't be helped.

Goals

I'm an hour away from celebrating a milestone birthday. While I'm obviously cynical enough to feel these milestones are almost entirely arbitrary, that the true milestones in our lives don't occur at ten-year intervals, it still seems like a good occasion to set some goals. I'm hampered, happily, by the fact that things are going pretty darn good. And some things that I might find myself wishing for don't ultimately matter. I do have a couple, tho. On or around this time next year, I want to have:

!) run a marathon;
2) finished a novel-length work of fiction.

I have no expectations regarding how fast I run the marathon. And I certainly don't make guarantees as to the quality of the fiction. The goal is just to accomplish these things as best I can.

Oh, and start blogging more again. It's kinda fun, and it's a good break from my routines (day job-free as I am, I still have some pretty repetitive days).

Bachelor Life

So the wife and kid have spent the last two nights with a handful of other moms and babies at a cabin on one of the nearby islands. A retreat, if you will.

Since the arrival of the little fella, I've been on a normal person's schedule. For the first time in many years, probably since high school (and I rebelled against it pretty hard even then). You know, in bed by around 11pm, with my alarm set for 6:30am. I do have quality interactions with the snooze button pretty much every morning, but even my latest rousing would have been earlier than early in the pre-Henry days.

So I was curious if the schedule would last in the absence of my family. And as I sit here at 11:30pm, wearing only my FullTilt Poker Bathrobe, and eating Kraft Dinner & wieners, I clearly have my answer. Hurry home, babe, before I am further undone!

Cable

"This house is a fucking prison."

"On Planet Bullshit."

"In The Planet Of This Sucks Camel Dicks."

Do you like yourself some Stepbrothers? It's a pretty terrible/really funny movie, probably more fun to quote than actually watch. And there's a lot better quotes than these, but these words are of the moment. For this is how the boys react when they are told there will be no TV for a week. And less than an hour ago, the man came from Shaw Cable and removed our digital box, officially rendering us a family without cable.

It's pretty major, if you ask me. At least to do it of your own volition. We're not in bankruptcy, and we don't live in an igloo. And I'm a pretty big fan of the television. We probably had ten shows that we were PVR'ing, so it's not like there's nothing good on. And we'll be watching a lot of DVD's, many of them of programs originally aired on television. So it's not like we've gone all hippie commune/batshit crazy. It's just the absent-minded, time-sucking viewing we don't like.

It's all just an experiment anyway. The Canucks are out, the good shows just had their series finales, we'll see how it goes for a bit. Our regular programming may well resume in a couple months.

In the interim, here are some of the motivators:

1) http://www.vancouversun.com/Vancouver+rated+fourth+best+city+world+quality+life/3072680/story.html. (seawall two blocks from our place).

2) http://www.vpl.ca. (massive central branch two blocks from our place)

3) (in our place)




Your cable television is experiencing difficulties. Please do not panic. Resist the temptation to read or talk to loved ones. Do not attempt sexual relations, as years of TV radiation have left your genitals withered and useless. ~Matt Groening, The Simpsons

Damn Canucks

It’s not over, we’re only down 3-1. And I haven’t lost faith. Well, in a sense I’ve lost faith. In the sense that I think we’re kinda the Chicago Cubs, just sort of destined to not break through. But I haven’t lost faith in the sense that I still care. I mean, we could be down 49-0 in a best of 99 series and I’d still be sweating that 50th game.

But, man it’s frustrating. We looked to be in such good shape going into the third period of Game 2 and since then it’s just been seven periods of hell.

The point of this blog is that twice now on this tour I’ve watched the Canucks lay a home ice egg and then gotten up on stage to play, and I just haven’t quite gotten over my Canuck disappointment in time for the rock and roll show. And so it’s taken me maybe half an hour to shake the bad mood. I just find that so ridiculous. It’s just a hockey game. And man, these are actually the glory days as far as the Canucks go. Normally we’d have been long ago eliminated. It’s been a good year, and by Canucks standards an excellent one. So if a relatively great year results in me pissed off in Missoula, MT for no real good reason, what’s the point of fandom? Just sitting around waiting for the 1 in 30 chance (at best) that this is our year, and accepting the 29 in 30 change that they’ll make me sad?

People mock the ‘bandwagon’ fan, but maybe they have it right. Get excited when things are going great, don’t sweat it too much when they aren’t. Win-win, right? Or maybe more like win-tie.

Otherwise, it’s been a really great tour but kinda heartbreaking to be apart from the family so long. Skype is a mixed blessing. It’s awesome to see them, and pretty amazing when I can actually get Henry to smile at me. But it does make you feel the separation even more acutely. Cannot wait to see them Sunday. I have a strong suspicion hanging with them will take the edge off Game 5, whatever it brings.

So Much To Love In One Photo