first thoughts on non-car life

[mellowtigger]

Life without a car hasn't troubled me in this first week. I expect it will eventually, but at least not yet. I've stopped keeping my keys in my jeans pocket, since the only thing there is the house key, and I don't require it either. I got in the habit of using a safely stored key instead of carrying one with me, back when I walked the dog. It's a strange change of habit. My brother gave me that key ring some 4+ decades ago. The monogrammed initials on the attached tag fell off long ago, but the main ring is quite sturdy and practical, so I've carried it for most of my life.

I think the main travel issues are these:

• food: We're expecting above-freezing weather one day next week, so I guess I'll wait until then to walk to the small (4 aisles) Aldi's grocery store. I should find a way to order food/shipping online for non-perishable purchases.
• doctor: I cancelled my next doctor visit after my car died. Luckily, there's a new University Of Minnesota research clinic that moved into the former CVS building. I scheduled it, and I walked there this afternoon for my first appointment with them. (More on that in a moment.)
• vet: I don't have any solution here yet. The vet isn't all that far away for a walk, but it's a very long way if you're carrying a howler-monkey cat wailing at the abuse of being cruelly stuffed into a cage for a trip to the vet.
• medicine: It's farther away. Theoretically walkable (but along the most-unsafe territory in my part of the warzone), but it's a very long walk.
• laundry: I think I might buy a tiny 24" washer for the house now, even if I end up moving away a few months later. I'm tired of stomping on my clothes in the bathtub to get them clean.

It's still below freezing out there, so I put on my thickest gloves and boots (and got my "fake wallet" with its $6 cash, expired driver license, and expired credit card) before walking to the new doctor clinic nearby. Along the way, I passed the catholic church that had a manger out front. That's so very... catholic. I took this photo of it. I looked up that church online, and its new name after a Vietnamese saint would explain why I've noticed it so popular with the Asian crowd here (where the Hmong are plentiful).

Currently, I'm still on the public healthcare insurance paid by Minnesota taxpayers, so I didn't overdo the many procedures they wanted to get me current. What I DID do: tetanus vaccine update, blood iron test (due to family-wide hemochromatosis issues), and CBC/DIFF. What I DIDN'T do: colonoscopy planning, prostate screening. Save those for when I have income (and transportation?) again, in case they require the big bucks to solve something. Which... is exactly what they say poor people do that worsens their outcomes. *shrug* Capitalism does what it does.

Comments

Medical Stuff

[dewline]

"Capitalism does what it does"...and it's been trying to "reset" Canadian health care to that sort of thing for as long as I've been alive.

My understanding is that - at least in Ontario, at least for now - colonoscopy and prostate screening are still "listed" as covered by the province, the latter specifically when you get a referral from an MD or Nurse Practitioner.

[rebeccmeister]

After we got tired of this rental house's washing machine leaving schmutz on our clothes every time we used it, we got one of these:

https://www.amazon.com/Panda-PAN6320W-Portable-Capacity-Programs/dp/B083G9WVNC/ref=asc_df_B083G9WVNC

While it is not cheap, it works well and my only regret is that we didn't get one sooner. It would have been way better than the hunk of scrap metal I bought in Texas, and it would have been great to have in Nebraska.

Good luck with car-free life. Vet trips are my biggest challenge as well.

[mellowtigger]

I looked around (even found a 6-month-old list) and perused what's available at Target (instead of Amazon or Walmart), but I don't see anything with better size/price/reviews. I'm going to give it a try. Thanks for the recommendation!

[rebeccmeister]

You're most welcome! Most of the credit for this goes to scrottie because he did all the investigating.

The only confusing part about it is trying to understand what the different wash cycles all mean. I usually just use the first one and it seems to do appropriate things to my clothing.

I also actually really like that you can just directly control how much hot and/or cold water goes into each load.

And its load sizes seem more appropriate for a single person's amount of laundry compared to most American washing machines.

[mellowtigger]

Ok, so how do you ensure that the drain hose stays in the sink? That little plastic curve thing is totally inadequate. I've got big bowls full of water stacked in a balanced way to help hold it in place under the faucet between the two sink basins. When that hose fills with heavy water, it just wants to lift out of the sink.
P.S. Oh, but it's wonderful! I'm so glad to be able to wash laundry at home so easily!