LIving — Blog — Healy Chen

I'm going to walk

Yesterday I had a truly blissful moment. It was around 5:00 PM in the afternoon. I’d just finished swimming some laps at the local pool. The sun was out, and the temperature was warm enough for San Francisco (which is to say: slightly cool). Being a local pool, I walk there instead of drive. A short 20 minutes of pre and post exercise. That walk back home yesterday was the best post-workout high I’ve experienced in a long time.

I’m generally a fast walker, but yesterday afternoon I walked at a far slower pace. Partly because I was tired from the cardio at the pool, and partly because I so present in the moment. What would I be in the hurry for anyways? Absolutely nothing. Saturday is for slowing down and enjoying life. At least it still is for my single, zero children lifestyle. Those of you with kids: sorry, Saturday is for spending more time with them!

It never gets old how utterly walkable (almost) everything is around me. Not only is it a time and planet savor, but I’ve come to enjoy walking to places. The air quality in this part of the city is fairly decent, plus I get that all-important sun exposure for those precious vitamin Ds. If a spot is within a mile or so radius from home, I’m walking. Unless of course I need to buy a big bag of rice from H Mart. Then the car comes into play.

Or when the weather is inclement. Walking in the rain is no fun, poncho or otherwise.

Suburbia may appeal to me at a later stage in life. For now, I don’t see myself giving up on this entirely walkable situation any time soon. Not for two times the salary would I go back to having a soul-sucking car commute. How you seen how crazy the drivers are on the freeways lately? My 10 minute walk to work is almost therapeutic in comparison.

Buy in bulk

One of the conundrums of living alone is: do you buy toilet paper and paper towels in bulk? A 32-pack of toilet rolls from Costco will last me well over a year. It’s not about saving money really, but rather it’s allocating the space to store the extras. Thankfully, I have plenty of unused cabinet space in the kitchen. If I were scarcer on storage space, I think I would buy a smaller batch from Target instead.

I mean, why move within walking distance to a Target if I don’t take advantage of it to the maximum?

I actually go through paper towels at quite a good pace, so the industrial-size pack from Costco is actually worth the initial storage hassles. My Asian mother would surely disapprove of how rapidly I go through a roll. I can remember her treating paper towels as if it were paper gold: only under the worse circumstances should I take a piece to use. Nowadays, I’d rip off a fresh sheet just to mop up some water on the bathroom sink. The Brawny branded towels do absorb very nicely.

The environmentalist part of me is just screaming in anger, but us first-world humans don’t care about that stuff when it comes to providing convenience and comfort for ourselves. Incentives have to come from above. The whole reason we’re getting the electric revolution in cars is not because of Elon Musk, or any altruistic feelings in the customer. It’s the super stringent European emissions regulations that are forcing automakers to ditch internal combustion.

I think if you have the storage space, you should still buy everyday essentials in bulk. Even if would take forever to go through a pack. Like the 24 dish scrubbing pads that would last me for many years to come. Something enticing about a low per-unit cost, even though we make good money now. Or perhaps I’m simply a hoarder at heart.