Spinning my hypocratic-web

Can you have a car-free month and still drive your car once, how about twice, three times? I know we got off to a rough start, but we have been going great since the 2nd of August. Oh, then there was that one time Brent drove to get Grandma from the Greyhound station. Does that count? I mean, if we really didn't have cars, we would have had to rent one in that particular situation, so driving was relatively unavoidable. Having two cars sitting out front and driving one to the station was sort of like renting a car right? One of the purposes to this entire car-free month was to set out to discover what was possible, for our family of six, without driving a car in Huntington, WV.

If part of our self-inflicted contract was to reduce our carbon foot print, this blog would read more like No Impact Man. While what we are doing has great benefits to the environment, it's not one of our primary purposes, just another great by-product of our efforts.

With two blemishes on our record since August first, I am knowingly committing to another. After spending four days with my grandma she was picked up by her friends from Milton last Saturday, and has spent the past week with them. Before she left our house she was wanting to get her return ticket from the Greyhound station to leave tomorrow, August 27. Grandma is 76. She was obviously slowing down considerably since the last time she visited and I feel that going home on the Greyhound isn't right. I am driving her home tomorrow. She's paying for the gas, at her insistence, and no objections from me. It was a compromise. She doesn't like to have folks go out of their way for her and she really just wanted to take the bus. I told her I had been wanting to get up to Ohio anyway and she would be doing me a favor by providing the excuse. I think we are both happy.

I couldn't let an opportunity to go to central Ohio pass by. I am making plans for an afternoon in Columbus.

While I feel like a cheat and hypocrite, I do feel justified with the next breath. We are still saving enormous amounts of money. We have been able to live without our cars here in Huntington and I am replacing a potential rental with my own van. Yet, obviously I feel guilty enough to lay myself out here to try to assuage my own mind and keep my path honest.