GOOD RIDDANCE

I'm now mere hours from giving up the car.  I should be out cruising around with the sun roof open and the radio blasted....spinning brodies on somebody's lawn...laying rubber like a high school kid.

Instead, I'm sitting comfortably on the couch and the car is parked.

Why?  Because I spent this afternoon doing many of the annoying things you do when you begin to seriously consider selling your motor vehicle:

 - mall parking lot
The problem here is that there are too many people in cars, too many people walking around, and all the cars look alike.  So when you don't pay attention to where you parked you're sort of doomed to stroll around like an idiot, dodging cars driven by people not paying attention.  Once in the car, you have to dodge all the idiots strolling around looking for their car, not paying attention.
Even if there was plenty of parking and no people, you'd still have to confront the fact that you're at the mall.  Nothing productive, important, or helpful is apt to happen in or near a mall.  Being there is a mistake.  The parking lot issues are ancillary annoyances.

 - grocery store parking lot
Too many cars and the spots are much too small.  Generally people here are in a rush, tired, and irritated that they're going into a building to spend too much money on unhealthy, bland, stale, and/or tainted food.....which an adolescent bagger will THROW into the bag in reverse order (cans on top of cookies).

 - main thoroughfare during rush hour
How do some people get a driver's license?  It's so irritating.  Tomorrow it will simply be amusing as I watch from a metal behemoth on rails.  Today it got me so annoyed.  So annoyed. If you're going to drive, DRIVE.  If you're going to sing, consume food and/or beverages, talk on the phone, sight see, put on make-up, or go into a brain freeze, stay out of the car.

 - gas station
Never enough room.  Long lines to pay a preposterous amount of money to keep driving in crowded, small parking lots or on busy, congested streets with morons who can't drive.

 - crowded street with parking meters
Got stuck in some gridlock caused by a driver displaying unwarranted importance by blocking a lane on a street with perpendicular parking, providing no room to maneuver around... which caused an impatient muni driver to decide to drive around into the oncoming lane....which worked until he couldn't clear the car prior to reaching the stupid woman who just kept driving and did not let the bus come around......  This so the driver with unwarranted importance could get a metered parking spot.

 - parking meters that charge a quarter for each 5 minutes
Enduring all this and finally finding a parking spot only to realize that you don't have enough money to pay the meter to cover your time in the grocery and are probably going to end up with a $50 parking ticket.

So - I repelled another urge.  This one to drive down to the waterfront and let the car go into the bay.  Just give it a push and watch it sink.  Common sense prevailed and I chose option #2: drive home and settle in on the couch.

I am sure I will eat these words but I'm going to say it anyway: 
THANK GOD I'M GIVING UP MY CAR. 

Tomorrow I turn it in at 7:30 a.m...impervious to gridlock and lunatic drivers. :)