CagerTools

This is my situation.

I've been trying to be car-lite as much as possible the last 6 or 7 months. I've been doing really well. I use my bike for the grocery store, to go to University, friends places, other stores, etc. I might use my car once every 2 or 3 weeks...for a short trip for some reason. Also, I've used it to go home a few times (3 hour drive round trip). Altogether, I've saved a lot of money, put a ton less wear and tear on my car, and have helped the environment. I really do enjoy helping do my part in not contributing to air pollution. This is the main reason I am trying to go car-lite.

I don't have any sort of carrying capacity, other than a messenger bag, which sucks. I want an Xtracycle but I don't want to spend that kind of money, yet. So sometimes this is when I do use my car.

But there are other times that I use my car, and this is where I feel guilty. For instance, if its late, and I'm tired from biking alot or from biking/working out... and my friends want me to join them at a club. Most of the time I bike, but there have been a few times I have driven.

During these times that I drive, I think to myself... if I didn't have a car, then I probably just wouldn't go to the club. I think sometimes, that having a car just enables me to do alot more in life, more than I really NEED to do. In a way it just adds more stress to my life, because otherwise I would just not go out and relax.

Recently, I've been dating a girl, who actually likes to bike to most places... I never thought I would meet someone like this its amazing. So this is good, but at the same time, since she doesn't have a car, I can see how I might be using my car more. I've thought about this some... how much am I willing to budge from my car-lite attitude, with this girl? For instance she wants to go rockclimbing outdoors this week...and biking would take awhile to get there.

And now an even bigger thing is coming up in my life. I've basically decided to join this band, that is about a 15 minute drive from my place. I will probably be making 2 trips to this location a week. So thats around 60 minutes of driving a week. This would make me SO not car-lite! UGH!

I feel kinda guilty about this. Its a really good band, and I feel lucky/priviledged to be in the situation that I"m in, to play with these people... I've been playing music for awhile, and have only dreamed about being in a band... and now I feel guilty, because its intefering with my car-lite attitude.

The reason I like to be car-lite, is for the environment....but now I"m wondering how much of my life should I sacrifice for the environment? Should I just feel okay that I have to drive to this band practice for the time being, and just make sure that I bike/walk to most places that I can? In other words, should I just change my attitude, and just do my best in being car-lite when I can... and not worry about this other stuff?

I mean, if everyone in our country would bike/walk to places within 5 miles of them, they would cut out a ton of trips by car. Even if these same people made a few trips by car a week, thats still a ton less air pollution and environmental toxins.

So the guilt is still with me. I sometimes catch myself thinking... 100 years ago I probably wouldn't even have joined this band... but then I think, "Am I crazy? This is modern life, and people use cars!". So I'm having a lot of conflicting arguments.