R.I.P. Hedley Lamarr

This is way off topic, but I'm taking this opportunity to acknowledge the passing of comedic actor Harvey Korman.

Most obituaries are focusing on his contributions to "The Carol Burnett Show", but I'll remember him singularly for his performance in "Blazing Saddles."

Here's one of the many trademark scenes with him.

Wuss

So we decided to give up on of our cars for five months. A big deal? Not so much. In fact, I kind of feel like a wuss compared to the intrepid Brian LaFave of Sheboygan Wisconsin.

On May 11, Mr. LaFave, 31, parked his pickup truck in an attempt to live gas free for one month. He now commutes to work by bike – a nine mile round trip. He calls his boycott “a personal stand against the oil companies.” He'll accept rides from friends if they happen to be passing near his home. And to top it off, he’s donating his savings to an African food program.

Way to go, Mr. LaFave.

Garage Snail

One of the weirder suburban rituals is the annual garage sale. Here in my subdivision, the homeowners association encourages those households with hand-me-down clothes, worn garden and lawn equipment, outdated computer gear and other worthless chachka to participate on one day in mid-Spring.

While walking my dog, the endless parade of mini-vans and SUVs slowly trolling the streets for bargains took on an even greater level of odd. With so much whining and gnashing of teeth over the price of gas, why on earth would people spend time burning gas to buy someone else’s used stuff? I guess they figure that finding bargains will offset the price of something new. To me, the effort and the expense is all junk.

Can We Still Be Friends?

The grim reality of rising oil prices is turning our love affair with cars into a never-ending nightmare date. But there are a number of ways Americans are coping. Take 10 minutes and look at the MSN Money article, “Could you get by with just one car?” It’s a comprehensive read with startling statistics and video sidebars about our car centric culture; what it costs us; and how we can at least like our cars, if only one of them.

Thanks to Greg Godsell of Velocity Automotive Journal for the idea.

Tally Ho!

It’s been one month since we handed back our leased mini van. It’s time to calculate what we've saved in the first month of our five month experiment in one-car suburban living.

• Car payment: $660. This is an approximation based one of the many auto finance calculators on the Web. I arrived at this figure assuming the purchase of a 2008 Toyota RAV 4 Limited (the vehicle we almost bought) for $26,500 minus $1,000 down payment based on six percent interest with 48 month financing. By the way, I would never actually string out a car payment that long.

• Gas: $100. Now remember, my wife and I work out of the house, so our gas consumption compared to most suburbanites is going to be relatively low. A normal fill-up of our ’98 Subaru Outback would last about two weeks without business-related travel.

So, I’m pegging our savings at $760. Nothing to sneeze at.

But what about other costs, such as insurance? The nice folks at State Farm Insurance pro-rated our premium, yielding a $100 credit. They said they’ll happily apply the amount to our next car. Gosh, how thoughtful. For repairs, we’ll apply routine maintenance, such as oil changes and such, based on a three-month or 3,000-mile interval. As of this post, no cost has been incurred.

So it’s so far so good concerning economics. But rough terrain is ahead. Our two kids get out of school on June 5. That’s when the real fun begins.

Tied Down

Two weeks with only one car and I felt the pinch of limited mobility. Heck, I couldn't even escape by bike.

My son and I were home-bound on this cold and drizzly Saturday. My wife and daughter went to Brookfield Zoo. For some reason, the rain bypassed them, but Naperville stayed under what seemed like a Joe Btfsplk rain cloud.

Saturday chores kept me busy; video games, TV and a lame attempt to clean his room occupied the 10-year-old's time. The lack of enclosed transportation walled off any outside errands or entertainment. We were stuck with a near endless number of to-do's that don't get done. For example, I finally got around to assembling a radio-controlled race car my son received for Christmas... in 2006. My defense? I don't really have one, except to say that having two cars got us away from the house a lot more often.