thoughts

Going well with the theme of National Bike Month, my car broke down on Tuesday.  I have an mid/late 90's Cutlass Supreme, given to me by my wife's grandfather before he passed away.  It was in OK shape when it was given to me, not driven much, and it needed some work.  I don't drive much, so it spends much of its time sitting, we spend more money on it because of that.  Well, the brake lines finally broke, and the cost of fixing them, only to find out if something else is wrong with it is causing us to think it is time to get rid of the car.  The problem(s) are that we still need a car for my running around, and we don't have the money to buy something.  Like I said, I don't drive very much at all, on a normal week 10 miles - more if I have to go to an away soccer game or can't convince anyone to drive me to go mountain biking 30 minutes away.  Or if I want to take the kids to the museums or visit mom at work.  So I need a car that is reliable for those situations.  That stinks. 

I have a bunch of cool bikes.  I have another cool bike coming soon.  I like to ride bikes, a lot.  I ride them all over the place, and hopefully soon, will be riding them in even cooler areas.  As for my bikes, the Tradesman takes care of most of my needs.  The soon to be revealed hybrid and singlespeed mountain bike take care of faster, longer distances by myself and riding off road, and the matt chester (whenever it gets here) will take care of all my adventure riding - including the reasons why I have the hybrid and mountain bike.  So I have (or soon will hopefully have) cool bikes to do every I need them to do, except get both of my kids somewhere.  My son Owen is 8, he can ride his bike most places, but some of the roads we have to go on are shaky for him.  My daughter Josie is 3, she rides in a Burley everywhere.  I can't really put a Trail-a-Bike on the back of my bike and attach the Burley to that, too long, drawn out, and kind of dangerous.  It would look cool.  I could get a tandem, and have Owen on the back, but in bad weather he wouldn't want to go out.  So I'm thinking of getting a Cetma Cargo Largo.  I've wanted one for a long time, test rode one and it was fun.  Although my son is getting to the stage of that being dorky, it would solve the problems of getting everyone to the places we need to get, and in the nice weather, Owen could still ride on a Trail-a-Bike, or Josie could use her trailer.  Downsides -

Expensive, have to sell a bunch of stuff to get one

I really like the Tradesman, and the Cetma would make the Tradesman obsolete

Would have to really do some convincing on the wife front.  It probably won't fly.

But in the long run, having a reliable car makes more sense.  For all the reasons in the top paragraph, it would be the smartest idea.  I just don't like it.  I'd rather not have a car.  Crud.

Just some thoughts.....