"To Zip or Not to Zip" or "The Ode to My Car"

When my daughter was about 5 weeks old, I discovered that my car had a flat tire. Naturally, I did not discover this until I was already on the street, rolling along. Had I been without a baby in a two door car, I would have probably been much more composed. But alas, I was still high on my post-partum hormones, so this was not a calm moment for me. My first instinct was to cry. Which I did not. My second was to call my husband for help, which I did not. My third instinct was to call AAA and use our gold membership for a quick tire change (thankfully, I had a spare in the trunk). Which I did.

As the guy was leaving, I said to him, "Is the spare tire supposed to be so flat?" He said: "Yeah, it's a donut, lady!". Thankfully, my subsequent trip to Natick was without mishaps.

When I got into the car the next day, I yet again discovered that I had a flat tire, this time the spare itself was flat. Aha. Now AAA can't really help. First, I again wanted to cry. Thankfully for my self esteem, I did not. Then I decided to call my husband for help. Thankfully, I nixed that also. Then, I decided to call the only people who could help me - Sullivan Tire down the street from us. They helped! They added air to my spare AND told me 4 hours later that my holy tire was unrepairable.

Fast forward two months later, on a hot summer day, I am cruising to Natick (maybe I shouldn't go to Natick any more) on 4 new tires. I turn on the AC only to realize that there is no AC and the air that's projected at me is just as hot as the air outside (maybe a little hotter). So, I do the only reasonable thing and go to the Sullivan Tire guys again and get some freon. $200 dollars. One week later, I have no AC again! Do you see where this is going? Well, we donated my car with brand new tires to WGBH on June 2nd. It's blue book value was $500 in fair condition and $900 in excellent condition. Guess how much they sold it for? $1400. No joke.

So, why is this post titled, "To zip or not to zip?" As you can imagine, a modern woman in a city hardly needs a full time car. So, I've done the only reasonable thing and signed up for a part time car, a Zipcar to be exact. So, now, I am a Zipster, baby in tow and all. And every time I think that I may need to go somewhere, I say to myself, "To zip or not to zip?" And that is the question.