I’m a neat freak, but only regarding things I care about. I keep my apartment spotless by the most rigid standards. However, I don’t particularly like cars. I don’t like driving them; I don’t like America’s dependence on them; I don’t like how much money is required to keep them legal; and I loathe how much physical space and natural resources they consume. Consequently, I haven’t cleaned my car in ages. It’s a complete mess. I stopped cleaning the outside a couple of years ago, because I take issue with how much car washes cost and the fact that they’re not good for the environment. I also stopped cleaning the inside because……I have no idea why. I just don’t like cars. I am grateful to have one, but sometimes I think breaking my dependence on private transportation would be a good thing. Then I ponder how western America underwent massive expansion at the same time the automobile did the same, and cities were designed around the automobile rather than public transportation. What a gigantic mistake that was. I would be a wreck without my car. (Um…no pun intended.)
My favorite newspaper just had an article about how it’s nearly impossible to hail a cab in Denver. My experience has consistently been that you have to call a cab company, then wait typically 45+ minutes for one to show up. If it’s a Friday or Saturday night, then forget it. In a fantastic show of irony, a national taxi convention was just held at our convention center in the heart of downtown, and people who attended couldn’t get cabs afterward. Get this…our mayor went down to personally give a few of them a lift after they had been stranded for something like two hours and called the mayor’s office to complain.
Our downtown bus service shuts down at 1:50 AM. Bars close at 2:00 AM. How shameless is that? DUIs generate a lot of money for the state. Hmm….