This is day three without it. The sole household personal vehicle is a 1999 model, bought used when it was a year and a half old and had 16,000 miles on it. The odometer hasn’t hit 40,000 yet. So we don’t use it all that much, but when we want to, we want to.

The vehicle was struck twice when the keys weren’t even in the ignition, once in the original Central Market parking lot by a ferocious woman charging around in a large SUV and once at the Congress and Oltorf H-E-B by a mild-mannered woman in a smaller SUV. Otherwise, it’s been no trouble. But Sunday morning, it just plain wouldn’t start. Did the battery suddenly fail? We don’t know, because there hasn’t been time to look into it.

The last bicycles bought (and of course stolen) were no-gear coaster-brake models from Cothron’s Lock & Safe downtown, now the Key Bar. If only they were still there in the out-building, along with the rusty Radio Flyer wagon and the decades-old non-power mower. Nobody ever steals them.

Thanks to Capital Metro and a taxi to ferry groceries back after work yesterday, life goes on in the meantime. It just requires more planning about being places at a time certain, running errands, and carrying things.