Time

I should keep a time log, one of these weeks.

Just about everything is 3 miles from my house, which generally translates into a 20-minute bike ride to get places (that would probably include time spent locking up and unlocking my bicycle). So, today I've already spent an hour getting to and from campus (one trip here for morning crew practice, second trip here for work). Grocery store trips take between an hour and an hour and a half, when bicycling and shopping are combined. Laundry takes an hour and a half, too. Yard work sucks up a tremendous amount of time as well, as does cooking, as I cannot multitask cooking with other daily activities because I'm not home enough.

My commute to and from campus at ASU was 10 minutes long - so, 20 minutes, round trip. The closest grocery store was down the street, so it only took 10-20 minutes to pick up groceries. The grass barely grew, so yard work mostly consisted of watering, which would take about 15 minutes a day. Cooking probably still took up about the same amount of time, though perhaps less time because I cooked and ate with scrottie quite a bit.

Point being - living in a place where there are fewer social distractions doesn't necessarily translate into more free time or a better quality of life.

Quality of Life

Somewhat related to my previous post -

For a while, the news filled with stories predicting that the Millennials would wind up with a lower quality of life and life expectancy than previous generations. I'm thinking of a manifesto-style article on the topic, in particular, although I don't remember what it was called, just that it described an incredible optimism in the face of pessimistic economic and political forecasts. Part of the optimism reflects a cultural shift; Millenials aren't thought to have the same values or prioritize the same things as previous generations. I think of my younger sister, as an example - she doesn't necessarily expect to own her own home, or have children. Instead, she's looking elsewhere for a sense of personal fulfillment. I don't mean to say she's ruling out the possibility of home ownership or children, just that the idea of the "American Dream" is unappealing or repugnant to her. Heck, I don't know where I stand on the whole business, either.

One thing that's tied to this cultural shift is a change in priorities on where to live and how to get around; it seems that younger Americans are driving less than their parents did.

I'm happy to be a trend-setter in this respect, and am even more happy to know that many of my peers realize that there's more to life than a shiny, dangerous car dependency. I wonder - how will that shift in priorities affect this country's cities?