Walking practically everywhere
I get enormous perverse pleasure in seeing cars swept away by floods, tossed around by twisters, & especially getting swallowed by sinkholes. I love living without the misery of having to care for a car, worrying where to safely park it, or having to deal with its endless array of frustrations: refueling, oil & filter changes, car tire changes between seasons, maintaining proper tire pressure, insurance, & countless other regular failures & unpredictable surprises.
Walking & mass transit, in contrast, are refreshing opportunities to exercise & especially to interact with others, something impossible when I am staring at concrete over the steering wheel & avoiding hitting other moving objects or being hit by them. Even running errands becomes a pleasure allowing for pleasant diversions unavailable when all the energy goes into driving & figuring out where to park the car at my next stop.
Ever since childhood when I learned that Europe had excellent mass transit, especially when compared to the U$, which, along with Canada, was all with which I had to draw a comparison, I had dreamt of living in Europe. The dream, however, was not fulfilled until I was 48 & the post-Soviet Era was upon us.
