The Life of an Outlaw

I have been living an outlaw's lifestyle for the past few days. I drove around with...expired license plates. It wasn't as exhilarating as you might think; criminals are praised way too often in TV in my opinion. No, it was pretty quiet and uneventful, mostly because I didn't know they had expired until yesterday. I usually just go in after I get a notice in the mail, but since I moved I didn't get it. Yesterday Joey told me he had to get his car inspected and that's when I suddenly remembered. 

You may know of my previous attempts to get to the DMV (if not, go read eastside/westside rift) and I was discouraged several times in my pursuit to get there. I ended up in strange industrial areas where semis and huge trains would crush a car like mine just as soon as they'd look at one. Plucky as I am, I managed to avoid the crunching and ended up at the DMV. It was tucked away on an obscure street in the middle of nowhere. I think more government buildings should be like this: difficult to find and even more difficult to find again. I was relieved when the renewal process began and concluded quickly, but I did have to pay $189. At least I'm legal. 

The whole experience really makes me want to sell my car and get a bike. I am wary of what I would do in the winter though, when everything is slippery and the temperature sticks to below freezing for the entire season. The location of my work isn't conducive to bike riding either. There would be very little room to ride on the side of the road, and I don't think it would be very safe to ride alongside drivers. I guess I'll just have to wait until my life changes. Or, I could get a helicopter. I've noticed the skies are temptingly vacant. 

You'd Better Start Living in Your Car

I'm sure you've heard of this if you live in Utah, but if not, take a look at this article. A gigantic tanker overturned on I-15 and has blocked all traffic going North since before five this afternoon. The tanker weighs 210,000 pounds. Crazy. 

The nice thing about all this-besides the bizarre nature of a HUGE object blocking a whole freeway-is that people could still get up North as long as they were willing to leave their cars. I know it would have been a pain to go home without your car, but if you really needed to get home to, say, take care of the chilluns, then you could have gotten home much faster. 

Would this have been such a big deal if there was more public transportation? Yeah, but it wouldn't have had such a huge impact. Like most states, Utah has a problem with transportation. The development of most areas over the past fifty years has been fueled by cars and highways. Who wants to walk, or take public transportation? Of course, what has resulted from that is constant congestion during rush hour and often during other times too. 

I think the city would grow much more if there was a convenient public transportation system in place. That way, people could come into the city from the suburbs and the West side could be linked with the East. I think we should work toward a goal of making cars unnecessary in most urban areas in Utah. The problem is the reticence some people have with riding public transportation. I think suburbanites conceive buses as only for poor people. I have noticed that the kids going up to the university who obviously live in the suburbs have almost a fear of the other people on the train. It's ridiculous, but it also keeps people from riding. I hope that with gas prices staying high more people will consider public transportation and make it viable, so the next time a humongous tanker overturns on I-15 nobody will care. 

Disappearing Cars

I was on my way to work this morning when I noticed a man walking along the side of the road. This being the freeway I was sort of confused. About 100 feet in front of this man a street-sweeper busily worked. I had no idea how he would get around that and dodge the stream of cars flying by him at the same time.

It did remind of several dreams I've had in the past. They begin with me driving in a normal fashion, but as time goes by more and more of the car disappears until there is nothing left. I'm running on the road, pretending to be a car. It's a strange feeling because it is something I've never experienced in real life. I have never walked down the freeway.

I have heard that being on a motorcycle gives you a much different perspective on the road because you are not encased in metal; you are free to look in many different directions. That freedom gives a more tangible and distinctive feel of the road and everything you pass by. I like that concept. I would like to be able to engage in mundane activities in new ways. Walk down a road instead of drive. Take all the furniture from the living room and set it up in a field. Blindfold myself for a day. I think the world is so complex that even the things we think we know all about have extra dimensions we haven't yet discovered. I noticed this the other day when I walked down the sidewalk on the opposite side of my apartment. Although I had seen the view dozens of times, the slight difference in being on the West side of the street instead of the East made everything look different.

I think that man walking along the freeway must have been experiencing a completely different scene than myself. He would have seen the heat wafting up from the asphalt, felt the swirl of air as cars went by and seen the patterns of cars as some would were allowed through the stoplight and others not.

I want to find something new like that in something old. I'm going to start looking soon.