I like to tell people it’s because we’re reducing our carbon footprint.

    But the real reason Kari and I are now sharing a car
is that I’m too cheap and/or lack financial discipline to come up with
the money for a new car.

    The whole “footprint” thing sounds better.

    This all started a few months ago when the used car
I bought– I won’t say exactly what kind, but it rhymes with zubaru–
blew up in the middle of an interstate exit ramp. Well, “blew up” is a
little dramatic; I guess the technical term is “overheated.”

    It was not unexpected. Roughly 23 hours after
securing the pink slip I gleefully brought my new car to a zubaru
specialist who, before popping the hood, told me to get rid of it as
quickly as possible. It seems there is a design flaw with that
particular make and model that requires many owners to replace the
engine at around the 100,000-mile mark. Guess how many miles my car had?

    I asked him how I explain to some unsuspecting dupe
why I’m selling a car I just bought. He said to make up a reason- It’s
too much car, you want something smaller and more fuel-efficient.
Basically, the same exact reasons the guy I bought it from gave to
explain why it had been sitting in his driveway so long that little
seedlings had sprouted in the doorjamb.

    I hated that car ever since. I never trusted it and
I treated it with scorn. Even without replacing the engine I spent a
small fortune keeping that car on the road.

    I once drove from Maine to New Jersey at night
without taillights– 400 miles with my hazard lights flashing. I only
got pulled over two or three times, depending on how you count the time
I was pulled over by the same trooper twice after driving off while he
still had my license, registration and insurance.

    And so, when the car blew up on the exit ramp, I
knew that was the end of the road for us and Kari and I have been
sharing a car ever since. It hasn’t been so bad as 90 percent of the
time there is no conflict.

    For quite a while before the blow up we recognized
our driving habits verge on the wasteful. Both of us work in Biddeford,
which means between the two cars we were driving roughly 90 miles a
day. Kari at least car-pooled a few times a week, but still, we started
in the same location and ended up a few miles apart– Kari almost has to
drive past my office to get to hers.

    The problem always was that we don’t always have the same schedule and I need access to a car during the day.

    So in order to make the one car thing work, we had
to learn to compromise. Actually, Kari has had to learn how to
compromise while I take her car whenever I darn feel like it. I was a
bit shocked to learn that this arrangement was causing a bit of
resentment on Kari’s part. It turns out I’m a bit self-involved (I’m
sure you’re shocked to learn a person who subjects strangers to 1,000
words about his personal habits is self-involved). For me “compromise”
meant rolling down both windows when I smoked in the car I shared with
a non-smoker.

    After a few weeks of such compromises the whole
arrangement was about to collapse and I was in danger of compromising
myself right into a big honking carbon footprint.

    Now I try to give Kari a bit of notice when I
absolutely need the car and if I don’t absolutely need it, I’ve stopped
pretending that I do and we’re both more or less confident we can
manage this arrangement indefinitely.

    Of course we couldn’t do it without a bit of help
from our friends, as there are occasions when the car would otherwise
need to be in two places at once. A number of my co-workers have given
me rides to and from work, sometimes at ungodly hours in the morning.
So far I don’t think I’ve worn out this courtesy or at least, they are
much too polite to tell me so. On one occasion, a friend even let me
borrow her car for an entire day (does Hallmark make a thank-you card
for that?).

    It’s a nice little bonus that everyone involved is
doing their small part to stave off environmental destruction. Just
don’t tell them they’re really playing a big part in helping me keep
some money in the bank. Except that phenomenon is only theoretical due
to the lack of financial discipline mentioned earlier.

    While I have had to adjust my schedule on occasion,
I have yet to cancel an appointment because of a lack of a ride. I
haven’t yet arrived at an interview in a taxi nor have I needed to
catch the bus to get to a photo opportunity. As indispensable as a car
seemed to be, it turns out I don’t need one at my disposal all the time.

    We all like our cars and the freedom they afford us,
but we can all do our part to keep our money out of the hands of the
ayatollahs and Al Gore off our televisions screens by carpooling every
once in a while.

    If I ever do get around to getting another car, I plan on leaving it at home a lot more often.