A few months ago, I mentioned that we'd gone carfree. I like to use the word "carfree" to denote our transportation situation over the term "carless". As carless makes it seem as though we are deficient in something somehow. Well here we are a few months later, with what we hope is most of the Chicago winter behind us, including one massive blizzard that dumped over 20 inches of snow and blasted us all with 70 mph wind gusts.
Well we weathered not only the aforementioned blizzard but, getting hit with the flu the week before Christmas, too. 3 down in a house of 4 was no fun. My son was still temporarily immune to the bug from a bout in 2009. It was about the only time I sort of wished we had a car to take my daughter to our doctor halfway across the city for a checkup. A quick phone call and a visit to a nearby doctor instead, though not ideal, helped confirm that all was well.
Lessons learned this winter so far:
1. We still like being a carfree family.
2. We've gained the weight back. Hey, we're working on it.
3. We could use a pediatrician a little closer. We're working on this too.
4. Being carfree isn't half bad when a blizzard hits, since there is no car to dig out and battle over parking with neighbors who insist on setting out their entire lawn furniture collection/broom and mop collection/empty baby car seat/flowerpots to hold "their" space.
5. We're still saving money and using the savings to travel more.
6. Snow pants are indispensable in Chicago winters. Why did it take me over 3 decades to find that out!?
7. I love Peapod.