Drive, drive, drive.....Choke! Sputter! Cough! * CHECK ENGINE *

shuffles obediently to front of car, lifts hood, looks.

"It's still there, now what?"

Yep, this was me the other day at Logan Airport. I couldn't even limp back home, needed a tow. Days before driving to Florida to pick up Javi, my Throttle Position Sensor decided to shit the bed. Would have been an easy repair, but even my shop was cursing Nissan - the sensor is actually pop-riveted to the throttle body, so the entire unit needed to be replaced, not just the sensor. In any case, repairs have been made, and I'm ready to go.

But the day it was down meant I needed to ride public transportation in and out of work for a day. While we love to denigrate our public transit system here in Boston (The Oldest Subway in America - and It Shows!!), it's actually a lifesaver.

While I have a bus stop at the end of my street, it's a local. I walked the 4/10 of a mile to the city center and got on an express bus direct to Downtown Boston. Two stops on the subway, and it's another 4/10 of a mile to walk to my "office". I was there in just about an hour end-to-end. Sometimes it takes longer to drive.

Getting home was even easier. I don't like to ride the bus outbound, even though it's actually easier to connect to it from work. (There's more westbound traffic.) I was headed to North Station to connect to commuter rail, which needed a subway transfer. I walked to the stop, and arrived on the platform at the same time as the subway; strolled on board. I arrived at the transfer stop at the same time as another train, and made it to the commuter station just in time to miss the early train. But it was actually delayed a minute or two due to other trains moving around, and for once that was to my advantage. I strolled on board there too, and we were immediately underway.

Including the walk home - that actually took me less than an hour. Something unheard of for a routine MBTA commuter.

But all of that got me thinking. I'm here at the "BOS" end of the Bos-Was corridor. Every major city here has a subway system. Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington. Outside that corridor? Not so much.

I was able to go about my business with a minimal amount of disruption or delay. As I have noted here previously, it's possible for me to live and work here without a car if I so chose.

I cannot imagine how far up Shit's Creek I would have been in other parts of the country without such things.