For those of you who did not hear, I was in a fender bender a few weeks ago. We were just fine but the car had extensive damage to its back end. It needed enough work from the body shop that up until last Friday, we were car-less for 3 weeks. Not having access to a car had not been part of my life for quite some time. In those 3 weeks, if I needed to go anywhere, I took the TTC or just walked. We would buy groceries a little bit at a time every day or two rather than the big weekly shopping trip. We ordered stuff online and had it shipped here. We actually survived quite well.

But Lisa and I do work from home. It just so happened that during that 3-week period I had no gigs or travel related to my music career. We also don’t live in the central core of Toronto, but rather a South Etobicoke suburb so everything isn’t terribly close and every errand took much longer than usual.

While I survived very nicely without the car, a part of me was happy to have it back just for the convenience that it offers. I feel guilty about that as I’m an environmentalist and a minimalist at heart. Full disclosure though, I drive a Prius which is pretty good on fuel efficiency and normally I only use it once or twice per week. Still, do I need it? I genuinely use it as part of my work (sometimes) but are there other means? Am I a decadent bourgeois or is it “normal” to have a car in this day and age if you can afford it? Should it be the “norm”?

Lot’s of questions, no answers. Please help!!