Costs, Cars and Cats

I consider myself one of the lucky pensioners who can still run a car.  However, what was once a necessity has become a luxury.  A luxury which is becoming less economically viable and more marginal by the day.   As the cost of petrol increases I try to reduce my mileage which in turn pushes up the cost per mile.   My annual mileage is now less than six thousand and falling which makes my cost per mile twenty- two pence, that is for fuel, tax and insurance and not counting maintenance and repairs.   Of that twenty-two pence about sixteen pence is tax, not a green tax  but a greed tax.  I don’t object to paying tax but when I see where so much of it is going I feel as if I am being mugged.

This brings me nicely to the twenty miles an hour limit which have been proposed for all of the residential parts Norwich.   The cost of implementing it will be astronomical.  Most modern cars were not designed to drive at such low speeds and will travel in a lower gear – that should help to pump out more pollution per mile covered.  I would be first to admit that I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer but I think the slower journey times will produce traffic jams (or tailbacks if you prefer to be trendy) which will help to pump out more pollution. 

I have always been an enthusiastic supporter of  road safety.  Everyday I shout at the lunatics who speed down our road and I have often been tempted to throw stones at them.  I live in a quite suburb and am aware of the ever present danger to children, OAP’s and pets.  Will similar safeguards be put in place to curb cyclist, skateboards and invalid cars who travel on the pavements often without regard for pedestrians.  I guess not.  If I was a cynical person I might think this was just another way of raising revenue from the motorist.  Even worse if I was hyper cynical I might think this was a cunning plan to create traffic jams in Norwich to make a congestion charge seem necessary.  I guess it is a good thing I am not a cynical person.

I have not mentioned Earnie the neighbours cat for a while, we still have our daily contest of who gets the aviary first but lately Earnie has turned his attention to the pond, which is full of frogs.  But I think this is a diversion to put me off my guard.

Earnie was hanging around while I fed  the birds last week.  I was charging the seed hoppers using the top of my wheelie bin as a bench when along comes Earnie and leaps onto the bin to assist me.  He did this by knocking seed over which spilled onto the floor.  Then he rolled over onto his back so I could tickle his chin and in doing so he rolled off the edge of the wheelie bin.  I managed to catch him before he disappeared over the side and he thanked me by hooking my hand with his claws.  Then he slinked off in a real sulk and I didn’t him for two days.   In case you wondered we are back on speaking terms now.