Now It's My Turn for the Beer

[ase]

Inspired by roommate M.'s urgent need for a burger last night, I told her to get a margarita too and took her keys. Hey, I can still drive!

I've been saying for a while that I'm going to get a car when it gets hot and sticky, but I really like a positive cash flow. Does anyone have any experiences with Zipcar they'd like to share? I need to run the numbers, but it's worth investigating the costs of instant gratification vs not

[Poll #1370858]

ETA: Closing poll because I did the deed.

M fortunately is in less need of burgers tonight: I say fortunate because I got to make dinner while roommate H related her distress that her boss doesn't want to give her two weeks off in June. At length. I have drowned my low blood sugar in red meatsauce lavished over pasta and fresh spinach, with a possibility of hot chocolate to follow, while rewatching House (the one where House and Wilson go to House's dad's funeral), and laughing myself to tears. The comedy and bromance are awesome.

I spent this weekend doing nothing - except the biweekly WSFA meeting, laundry, groceries, library returns and pickup, finding a new-to-me thrift shop, and finding out the used book store of my childhood has been sold. My winter coat is in storage, and I'm caught up on most of my TV watching. House and NCIS are predictably amusing (especially episodes Doris Egan is involved in), Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles is two-thirds incoherence and one third awesome, and I watched the Kings pilot. Since my knowledge of Biblical events comes filtered through things I have learned from Unitarians or things I have learned from the internet, I'm watching this from an "updating the historical context, and oh, God may appear in this piece of fiction". So what I find interesting, as I read Guns, Germs and Steel is the movement from a tribal scenario (limited accumulation of wealth / kleptocracy of specialists), to a state scenario (much more developed specialization, more tech, reproductive technology like paternity testing and the Pill, etc etc etc) and how the show plans to reconcile a "modern" setting with divine intervention anointing an autocratic ruler. Sadly, there's a theme in my TV viewing: I get interested in the worldbuilding, but bored with the execution. This means I'm willing to watch a lot of pilot episodes and very few full seasons.

Speaking of GG&S, Corn domesticated once, around 9000 BC. . . . the researchers discovered a trove of prehistoric grinding stones to which phytoliths and starch grains from maize were still adhering. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal found with the earliest of the stones pegged the corn as 8700 years old, bearing out the genetic dating by Doebley's group. I'm sort of questioning the corn-char linkage, but I still think this is cool.

I accomplished the errands by biking around, and today tried to go jogging after work. My quadriceps may never forgive me.

So that is my life: both roommates in upset, and me considering the benefits of library study time to avoid both of them. They are both, in their own ways, nice people, but I wish to set their dramas on each other.

Comments

[meril.livejournal.com]

Ugh re housemates. Unfortunately I know entirely too much of what it is like as you know.

I've been sitting on a reply to your email for a week--I promise I'll have it out eventually. But not today, tired.

[ase.livejournal.com]

They're not bad, but they're tiring out my sympathy. Looking forward to your email when you have the energy.

[asciilifeform.livejournal.com]

Book Alcove? (Ignore the rest if I guessed wrong...)

(it will *always* be Book Alcove to me!) seems much the same as before under new management (at least as of this past Saturday.) Hopefully this won't change.

[ase.livejournal.com]

Yes.

[ashcomp.livejournal.com]

Housemates with rent on time are the win. Everything else is just gravy. Or sour grapes, depending.

[ase.livejournal.com]

They want to be friends as well as roommates. It's a different set of requirements.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

How are you planning to use a car?

Every day? Long trips? Big errands for a couple of hours?

We have Zipcar. We like it - it means we can get rid of the car when we're through instead of taking it to an agency and checking it in. It also means that if, Gd forbid, there's an emergency, we can probably rent a car on moment's notice even at night. But it's not cost effective for errand in the city (car service costs less), nor does it make financial sense to use it for even a weekend. For that, we have a preferred rental agency.

If I needed a car everyday, though, I'd buy one.

[ase.livejournal.com]

Have you been able to get a car consistently on weekends or other high-demand periods? How many zipcars are available in your area? What's cab fare cost for groceries?

Sorry for the flood of questions, but you spoke up. :-) I anticipate using it about once a week for errands, and occasional trips like DC-to-Baltimore to see friends (about 80 miles round trip, mostly highway driving), with an option for heavy furniture moving if Craigslist coughs up something cheap 20 miles away.

What do you use zipcar for? You mentioned a lot of cases where a cap or rental makes more sense; what niche does zipcar fill for you?

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

We have been able to get cars on weekends (Sundays, to be precise), but unless we reserve in advance, we don't get a choice. I haven't tried at other times yet, but they seem to be available on weeknights. There are about a dozen zipcars at two or three locations.

Cab fare is about $7 from the one store that doesn't deliver. I tend to go to other stores, who deliver for about $3 plus tips. If we went to a big box store (Home Depot, for example), it would probably cost us about $20 to go back home. Zipcars are $13/hour.

I use Zipcars for Sundays when we can't get a rental any other way, and - well, last time was a couple of weeks ago when they were predicting heavy snow on Monday. By using a zipcar, we could put the car back in its home garage Sunday night instead of worrying about getting it back the next morning. I also like that I could get a car very quickly in case of a family emergency.

[ase.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the information! There's only one location I'd call close to me, and it has three cars - but I'm also in the suburbs.

[tessfawcett.livejournal.com]

My friend J. (I think you met her on the 4th of July last year) uses Zipcar regularly and really likes it. She hasn't had trouble getting it when she needs it-- but the thing about errands is that you can semi-plan them for when the car is available, e.g. choose to go grocery shopping on Tuesday instead of Thursday. It does take some of the impulse out of driving somewhere, but you don't have to worry about insurance, parking, and maintenance, all of which can become big headaches very quickly, particularly if you buy a clunker.

For a long trip, I can see rental cars being much more practical, simply because of Zipcar's per diem rate. And now you're old enough to rent a car wherever you want!

[ase.livejournal.com]

Car costs are a nightmare: if you buy a new car, you're guaranteed the cost of monthly payments, and if you buy an old car, you're buying an erratic future of repairs. I like the idea of impulse driving (11 PM? Jump in the car, it's midnight s'mores time!), but I dislike exceedingly what it does to my net. So trying a couple of months of a Zipcar membership is looking very likely. If I use it a lot, a car would be a logical next step; if I don't, I can stick with renting and/or zipcar (zipping?). Let's see what happens.

[toraks.livejournal.com]

Is GG&S worth reading?

Good luck with the car and roommates.

[ase.livejournal.com]

Is GG&S worth reading?

I want to say, "absolutely!", but I think it's important to remember that the book was published in 1997 and research has advanced. I pointed out the corn example above; it's not the only case where more information impacts Diamond's theory. Part of his thesis is that European diseases were so devastating to native American populations because Europeans had large mammals that infected Europeans with mutant animal diseases; in at least one case, we gave cattle a disease: proto-M. tuburculosis infected cattle and evolved into M. bovis. We didn't get TB from cattle; it went the other way around. Also, people other than me have complained they get bored with Diamond beating the reader over the head with his broad thesis (geography's influence on food production is the ultimate cause of The World As We Know It). I enjoyed seeing different examples of the same idea, but I can also see how other people might roll their eyes as he reiterates the Failure To Take Over The World checklist for the Americas, Africa, New Guinea, Australia, etc etc etc.

So yes, I think it's awesome, but I also think it should be read with a critical eye.

Good luck with the car and roommates.

Thanks! They both have class tonight, so I made cookies, and I am not sharing. (With them. More than one. The rest are going to me, and to work.)