No car?
Oh yea...Vermont. So they deliver the milk&eggs, or do you just walk out to your backyard and get them yourself?
For milk I clearly just go to the spare bedroom where I keep the herd of milking cows
and then I head to the attic where I have 40 cackling egg laying hens along with 3 goats
I am reliant on the kindness of strangers
. I am fortunate in some ways as I am close to the food market along with a few other shops and have a dandy little vegetable garden. The doctor is 2 streets over and then there is the library, the dentist the hospital etc. all within comfortable walking distance (occasionally I have to hop on the trusty bicycle). For bigger distances I do ask for the assist of friends and they are more than willing. During my years of teaching I was a mere half mile from the school so that was never an issue either (although if a student failed I had to watch those vehicles creeping up along side).
Repairs
I've been repairing my own cars and motorcycles since I was about 15. The single most valuable tool is the shop repair manual. A good one, Like a Chilton's, will tell you what tools you need and step you through most repairs. You would be surprised at how easy some repairs are.
You can save a butt load of money doing basic repairs yourself. I agree that a lot of today's mechanics are skilled technicians rather than just mechanics. However, you don't need that level of training for a lot of common repairs, even with today's cars. You just need a good set of tools and some basic knowledge that you can get from the manual. As mentioned in an earlier post, overhead costs are getting to be astronomical. Then, there are so many garages out there, finding someone that you can trust can be difficult. For every fair mechanic out there there is another one ready to stick it to the first person that walks through the door saying "I don't know what it is but......."
Where I live, the shops get around $70/hr or more. At that rate, depending on the repair, you can screw it up, do it twice and still save money. Plus now you will know how to do it the next time.
