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Feb. 16th, 2023 09:44 amI finally got my car back last night! It was supposed to be last Monday, then last Wednesday, then this Wednesday but it was touch and go whether it actually happened Wednesday and then I got a call around 4PM that it was finally done. The setbacks were a combination of supply chain/shipping issues for replacement parts, and a little bit of carelessness on the part of my mechanic- apparently he didn't run a test confirming that the air bag control unit was reset until the day the car was supposed to be finished, when he realized that it wasn't reset. The car is driving fine and visually looks good on the outside, but I caught a few more careless things this morning- internal cover panels they removed as part of their work that they didn't reinstall, missing valve caps on three of my four tires... I'm going to be driving carefully for a while to make sure that doesn't indicate sloppy work where it counts.
I'm very happy to have gotten it back, life has been mildly more inconvenient without it.
In the intervening time I've been doing a mixture of bike commuting and Uber. Google says that combining December and January I biked 200 miles, and I think I've gone another 50 miles so far in February. Given that I biked zero miles in November, it's been a nice ramp up to hopefully being able to do even more once it warms up. I drove in to work today but I plan to bike tomorrow, and it's important to me to try to keep up the practice.
My overall logistical plan is sort of unclear until I know what will be happening to my license. If it does end up being suspended, I'll probably buy an ebike and more or less keep going on as I have been, but doing everything I've learned in the past month to make it work better. If I keep my license, I still want to keep biking much more than I was, but I don't see the need for an ebike if I can drive.
I live in suburbia and it's really not set up for biking. There are lots of places where I have to deal with dangerously busy roads and drivers who don't know how to drive around bikers. Last week, I passed an off-ramp from 287 and I gave a full clear lane for the drivers getting off the highway to pass me, as I always do when possible, but for some reason the driver just kept trailing behind me at 10 miles an hour, making me increasingly nervous that he was going to make some sudden unexpected move. Bikes are rare enough here that drivers aren't well prepared for them, and roads are not designed with bikes in mind. And then there are just the distances involved. Biking everywhere is not quite a viable solution for my needs. But biking more often is definitely viable, now that I'm doing it more there are lots of times when it turns out to be less hassle to bike for local trips. Don't have to worry about parking, can avoid some traffic, can just plain go places that my car can't go. Also it's more fun.
I'm very happy to have gotten it back, life has been mildly more inconvenient without it.
In the intervening time I've been doing a mixture of bike commuting and Uber. Google says that combining December and January I biked 200 miles, and I think I've gone another 50 miles so far in February. Given that I biked zero miles in November, it's been a nice ramp up to hopefully being able to do even more once it warms up. I drove in to work today but I plan to bike tomorrow, and it's important to me to try to keep up the practice.
My overall logistical plan is sort of unclear until I know what will be happening to my license. If it does end up being suspended, I'll probably buy an ebike and more or less keep going on as I have been, but doing everything I've learned in the past month to make it work better. If I keep my license, I still want to keep biking much more than I was, but I don't see the need for an ebike if I can drive.
I live in suburbia and it's really not set up for biking. There are lots of places where I have to deal with dangerously busy roads and drivers who don't know how to drive around bikers. Last week, I passed an off-ramp from 287 and I gave a full clear lane for the drivers getting off the highway to pass me, as I always do when possible, but for some reason the driver just kept trailing behind me at 10 miles an hour, making me increasingly nervous that he was going to make some sudden unexpected move. Bikes are rare enough here that drivers aren't well prepared for them, and roads are not designed with bikes in mind. And then there are just the distances involved. Biking everywhere is not quite a viable solution for my needs. But biking more often is definitely viable, now that I'm doing it more there are lots of times when it turns out to be less hassle to bike for local trips. Don't have to worry about parking, can avoid some traffic, can just plain go places that my car can't go. Also it's more fun.