This one is a challenge to find a positive side to

As some of you know, I do not own a car, which is good in some ways, and very bad in others. As I get older, the heat affects me worse every year, so I have to adjust my lifestyle rather drastically to avoid being out in the heat.  In the summer, I shop only at WalMart, because I can go there at 7 a.m.
and be home by 9:30 at the latest. I only shop at Aldi if I can get a ride, since they open at 9 a.m., and it's way too hot by 10 a.m. to be sitting out in the sun waiting for a bus.

The bus stop is at the apartment complex behind us, which is a high-end complex for this area (1 BRs are $979/mth). Their rent has gone up more than $200 over the past two years, and all the "regular folk" have moved out. It is now one of the "rich kid" complexes, full of well-to-do students, grad students with well-paying jobs and young professionals.

The Dilemma

There is a path that runs through a small strip of woods that separates our complex from theirs, and it has been there for as long as anyone can remember. They have extended the courtesy of allowing people to cut through the complex to the bus stops on either side of the complex, because otherwise, we have to travel about a mile to get there due to how the roads are laid out, or we have to walk half a mile and catch a bus the other half mile to the complex. All in all, it's been very nice to be able to cut through, and there have been no problems.

Now they have blocked that path off because tenants are complaining about there being "a lot" of people walking through there, which is really not true. There are maybe about 5 people who walk through to catch the bus to the university during the week and about 4 of us who walk through maybe once or twice a week to get to the bus or to the bank we use up on the corner. I don't know about at night, because I don't walk at night. You can still walk through at one point, but you have to step over a pile of logs they put there. I can no longer pull my grocery cart through.

I talked to the manager. She was very sympathetic, but said that the order came from corporate, because they had gotten complaints from tenants. I've been here 2-1/2 years and there have never been complaints from tenants before, so this is a whole new crop of entitled little brats that will call corporate if they can't get their way. I mean, how DARE the common people have the AUDACITY to expect courtesy from them! O.K., maybe I'm going overboard a bit, but this is the impression I got from the manager, in not so many words.

Making Lemonade

Turning this into something positive is hard for me. Not being able to roll my grocery cart through the woods to my complex means I have to get off the bus at another stop and walk 8/10 of a mile home. This is going to be a real challenge in the summer. I've looked at every bus that comes anywhere close to my apartment, and there used to be one, but they changed the route, so it's no longer available.

When I lived in my little house in the ghetto, I had buses that went right to Save-a-lot and WalMart that ran within 2 blocks of my house. But when I didn't have the money for the bus, I walked the mile to Sav-a-lot and back, even in the summer. I remember being soaking wet with sweat and exhaustedly tired when I got home, since they didn't open until 8 a.m. and I had to walk for 20-30 minutes to get there. But I did it, and I didn't die. I even walked the 1.5 miles to WalMart and back in the winter, when it was cooler, and I didn't die then either.

So I'm capable of walking the 8/10 of a mile from the bus stop, but still, there has to be a better way to do this. I still have my bicycle. I tried to sell it, but couldn't, so I guess I'm going to have to bite the bullet, get some baskets for it, and start riding it to the store. This is not the safest place to ride a bicycle, but there is one way that is a bit safer than the others. My only other option is to move (which I can't afford), or go to the store more often and buy fewer groceries so I can still cut through the complex walking, but who knows how long that will be possible? There is talk of them putting up a fence all along those woods.

Being positive about this is hard. I'm trying to save to get a car, but I had to buy a new computer, so there went this month's savings. I sometimes feel like the world is trying to make my life as difficult as possible, and I feel like I must have been a horrible person in a past life to have this kind of karma. These are the days I need to count my blessings, and I do have a few, so I'm just going to do that and figure this all out as I go along. Something will work out. It always does.