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Sep. 1st, 2005 11:39 pmToday is Prickle-Prickle, day 25 in the season of Bureaucracy, 3271.
I knew I should've topped off the gas tank yesterday -- the price of a gallon of gas at the place I normally stop on the way home from work went up about 70 cents overnight, it's $3.29 now. Half a tank of gas cost me more than $22. I'm not in a position right now where I can buy a hybrid, but at least my car gets between 30 and 32 mpg highway and so it's not as bad as it could be. I'll be looking to consolidate trips as much as I can.
I miss living in an area where I didn't have to depend on a car to do pretty much anything at all. Right now, I live 25 miles and at least half an hour by car from my office, and there is absolutely nothing in the way of public transportation that goes to Warrenton. I would love to take the train or the bus to work, but it's just not an option; while there's some extremely limited amount of bus service here (confined mostly to rush hours, and if you travel outside that time or in a different direction, you're pretty much screwed), there's absolutely zero further out. The closest commuter rail stop is in fact the only one that is even remotely close to my office, so that's not exactly a big help. This area isn't terribly pedestrian-friendly and isn't at all designed to be convenient for people who don't have a car. While I personally wouldn't have much of a problem moving closer to my office and having a shorter commute, that shifts a bigger problem on to C., who works in Bethesda and I don't think would relish the idea of a more than 120 mile daily commute. Ideally, I'd be able to move back into Arlington and live within walking distance of or an easy bus commute to a Metro stop again, but the big problems there are that the job is still out past what qualifies as a DC suburb even with the sprawl and that's not going to change, and it is ungodly expensive to live someplace with Metro access. I used to live in Westover when I worked at Georgetown, and I really liked the neighborhood a lot. There were two nearby Metro stops with near-constant bus service to either place, there was a grocery store (which I think is actually not there anymore), a nifty variety and hardware store and a couple of good restaurants within walking distance. I didn't have a car, and almost never needed one. Unfortunately, there's no way I could afford to buy a place there now and needing to commute to Warrenton every day would negate most of the benefit of living near the Metro.
I knew I should've topped off the gas tank yesterday -- the price of a gallon of gas at the place I normally stop on the way home from work went up about 70 cents overnight, it's $3.29 now. Half a tank of gas cost me more than $22. I'm not in a position right now where I can buy a hybrid, but at least my car gets between 30 and 32 mpg highway and so it's not as bad as it could be. I'll be looking to consolidate trips as much as I can.
I miss living in an area where I didn't have to depend on a car to do pretty much anything at all. Right now, I live 25 miles and at least half an hour by car from my office, and there is absolutely nothing in the way of public transportation that goes to Warrenton. I would love to take the train or the bus to work, but it's just not an option; while there's some extremely limited amount of bus service here (confined mostly to rush hours, and if you travel outside that time or in a different direction, you're pretty much screwed), there's absolutely zero further out. The closest commuter rail stop is in fact the only one that is even remotely close to my office, so that's not exactly a big help. This area isn't terribly pedestrian-friendly and isn't at all designed to be convenient for people who don't have a car. While I personally wouldn't have much of a problem moving closer to my office and having a shorter commute, that shifts a bigger problem on to C., who works in Bethesda and I don't think would relish the idea of a more than 120 mile daily commute. Ideally, I'd be able to move back into Arlington and live within walking distance of or an easy bus commute to a Metro stop again, but the big problems there are that the job is still out past what qualifies as a DC suburb even with the sprawl and that's not going to change, and it is ungodly expensive to live someplace with Metro access. I used to live in Westover when I worked at Georgetown, and I really liked the neighborhood a lot. There were two nearby Metro stops with near-constant bus service to either place, there was a grocery store (which I think is actually not there anymore), a nifty variety and hardware store and a couple of good restaurants within walking distance. I didn't have a car, and almost never needed one. Unfortunately, there's no way I could afford to buy a place there now and needing to commute to Warrenton every day would negate most of the benefit of living near the Metro.