This no car thing is getting REALLY old.

Back in September, I made the mistake of getting a place with my younger sister. I knew it was a bad idea. We've had problems in the past living together and I knew at anytime, my husband and daughter would come home and then there would be even more problems. My sister and husband do not get along. But, the friend I was living with was getting ready to sell her house and needed to get the room I was staying in ready for that. Isabelle was starting to have issues with colic and I really didn't know when John and Natalie would be returning to the US. My sister had two weeks to find a new place to live because where she was living, the landlord would not let her stay so she had to go. She has three kids and had such a bad rental history that it was next to impossible for her to find place. We found a 3 bedroom apartment that was right next door to members of my sister's first husband's family. The landlord was not overly concerned with rental references, and it was a three bedroom apartment which we were going to need for the six people who were going to be living there. We got the place and moved in. She needed some help with babysitting because she was both working and going to school full time. One of the things I had expected was some help with transportation (I mean, I was footing most of the bill for the apartment as I paid about 90% of the rent and security deposit and I was babysitting for free). Things did not exactly work out that way. And when John and Natalie returned, there were some huge problems and my sister moved out less than two months into the lease (she was able to get taken off the lease though).

This left us with no car. And while we live right on the bus line, the bus system itself is horribly inconvenient. It runs every half an hour until about 6 pm and then once an hour until 10:40. That's during the week. During the weekends, it's once an hour. Some areas have even less coverage, once an hour until almost 6 Monday through Friday. One area in particular even lost coverage, from 10:25 am to 1:25 pm, there are no bus runs. Problem with this route is that the two big grocery stores on that side of town (and also one of the cheapest grocery stores in town) is along it. These are the two stores we go to the most. The rest of the stores are more expensive with items up to $1 or more than what you would pay at the cheaper store.

John works until 3:30 during the week. He's off on Fridays. Other than Fridays, he can't go to the cheaper store. Then there's the fact that we try to shop only once a week. When we lived in Korea, we didn't have a car. We were shopping almost every single day in order to replenish supplies because when you don't have a car, you're limited in how much you can buy because you have to carry it home. So there's the time thing there too. It's incredibly time consuming to take the bus to the store several times a week because you can't carry home a week's worth of groceries.

I'm just beyond frustrated right now. We've gotten by using the neighbor's car because my sister's first husband's dad sort of adopted us kids so he has always helped us out and has said we can use the car whenever it is available. It used to be available quite often and so we didn't have any problems getting out to shop but now they've had some car problems and the car isn't available as often and now we're finding ourselves without a way to get groceries. I HATE asking people to take me to the store. I don't know a lot of people who are willing to do this. My sister couldn't even be bothered to take me to the store when she lived here and I was babysitting for her. Forget asking her now. My one friend probably would but she has done SO much for me, I hate asking her for anymore help. My brother probably would but then I'm having to kick in about $20 or more in groceries for him and I can't afford it. So I don't know what we're going to do. I don't know if we're going to get anything back on our taxes because John only worked a month and a half before the end of the year. Cars are not cheap. Getting a car licensed and insured and gassed up is not cheap. Keeping a car running is definitely not cheap. But we really do not have any other options.

I hate how politicians go on and on about all the things we need to be doing to reduce global warming and stuff like that but when it comes down to it, they really don't do anything to SUPPORT making earth friendly life style choices other than to sign into law things that take away our FREEDOM to make choices about what we buy. A ton of money went into building this bus station downtown and the bus routes were all changed to include it making the whole thing a huge deal and yet the bus routes and times are SO inconvenient that only people who absolutely do not have a car are going to use the bus. Anyone else isn't going to waste their time. Why take the bus (even if it does cost a lot less to use than a car each month) if it takes about two hours to get from one end of town to the other when it takes only 30 minutes at the most to do it by car! They could make riding the bus FREE and it still wouldn't get many people riding it (and they do make it free too, once a month). John has the choice of catching the bus right outside of our apartment and taking it downtown and catching another bus in order to get to work or walking seven blocks to catch the bus that will take him to work. He usually makes the walk which isn't a problem most days of the week but it's winter in Wisconsin and he's done this on mornings where the temps have been as low as -12 or more degrees (and that's before the windchill). It's just really frustrating and I'm especially frustrated by the fact that instead of my sister giving me her car when she got her new one (since the car was given to her), she sold it instead. And instead of paying me back the money she owed me for rent when she moved out, she took her entire tax return (that she had to call and brag to me about when we've been struggling for the last three months to pay our rent in time) and spent it on a car. Sometimes, it's really hard not to hate her.

I'm just getting to where I'm going to post an ad on Craig's list offering $30/month to someone who can drive me to the store once a week to get groceries because this is getting absolutely absurd.