The car
It's 9 in the morning. My alarm hasn't gone off yet, but I'm suddenly woken up by what seems like underground noise. My walls start shaking, the ground appears to be moving, and my windows start to rattle. Is it just another tremor? Maybe it's an earthquake? Or is this finally the end of times?
Nope, it's actually just another stupid car driving by my house. And that's how my day begins.
I get out of my warm bed and onto the cold house, check up on my animals, all of them alive. No signs of mangled animal corpses with tire marks on them within sight. They live to see another day.
So far it seems like any other day, the air feels as heavy as always, the sound of people and animals gets drowned out by the incessant noise of combustion engines and tires rolling through the asphalt, occasionally interrupted by a really loud motorcycle or the sound of impatient horns. Business as usual in the city.
I wash myself with the help of the wasteful heat of a gas-powered water heater. Another day where I lament the lack of an electric heater of some kind in my house. Maybe I'll have something of the sort in the future though. But what about power outages? Maybe solar panels would solve that, but not without forking out big cash.
Outside now, I begin my short walk to the bus stop. Massive cars are parked along the walking path, wasting perfectly good space and making it awkward to transit through the neighborhood. All they're good for now is for looking at my reflection on their windows, but not without worry, lest someone think I'm trying to break into their precious 20-million-peso-or-whatever killing machine. So far so good though.
I wait for the traffic light to change and give way to me. I check every direction, then cross in haste, for this particular crossing is not properly adjusted for pedestrians; it changes too quickly. I feel for those slower than me, as they will absolutely need to wait for two cycles before being able to cross to the other side.
3 lanes on either side of the road, and rows upon rows of cars, whose seemingly miserable drivers await their green light so they can scoot off to wherever they're going. The toxic stench of exhaust smoke becomes inescapable. Meanwhile, I catch a glimpse of the smog-ridden city in the distance. The mountains decorating the landscape are nothing more than a pale shade of blue.
This particular bus stop has no place to sit, so I must awkwardly pace about while my bus takes its sweet time to arrive. My injured knee starts to hurt. A seemingly aged person approaches the bus stop, and with no care in the world, lights a cigarette, so I must now play the game of desperately reaching for breathable air. Unfortunately, more cars start to pack up at the red light ahead, so now I'm forced to pick my flavor of poison. Do I want to breathe in exhaust fumes, or the sticky cigarette smoke?
My bus arrives, but not before some jerk rolls coal from their poorly-maintained car. This bus has no windows, and it stinks of smoke too. To top it off, the AC isn't working. Is the driver smoking again? Guess it's time to file a report.
After what feels like the longest bus ride of my life, I finally arrive at my destination. The streets are far busier here. Clean air seems like a ridiculous prospect. I have to raise my voice to be able to talk to anyone for as long as I'm out here. I watch the occasional brave cyclist who's fighting for survival on the street, as they simply travel from point A to point B, like all of us. At least they don't have to sit through traffic jams, I guess.
At 5 in the evening, I'm done with my business, so it's time to go home. Do I want to take the metro, traversing multiple flights of stairs, to then end up packed like a sardine? Maybe I'll take a cab instead, but getting to the cab stop requires me to take the metro anyway, and... well, I'm not carrying any hard cash after all. Should I order a ride through an app instead? Oh, nevermind, they hiked the prices again. Guess it's time to gamble with the bus once more.
The bus rolls at the speed of a river of honey, stuck amid an endless traffic jam, with each car in sight hauling one person who's trying to get home after another exhausting day at work. The cost of fuel, insurance, and maintenance keeps adding up for them. Meanwhile, I only paid a single fare for my two buses, and I have to do no driving myself. I wish more of them could opt for a more sustainable alternative.
I get off the bus; it's getting dark by now, and the sky has this beautiful, yet unsettling shade of red to it. Most of my walking is now done while looking at the ground. If I don't, the blue lights of every passing car will blind me. I still need to lift my view often, so I can be aware of my surroundings. It's a bad time to be photosensitive.
Finally at home. My throat feels like I could scrape a fair bit of soot off of it. My mood is in the sewers. My eyes and my head hurt. I no longer want to know about anything or anyone around me. I look at my bicycle, and mourn the lack of enough infrastructure to safely go to places with it.
The thought of this not being a work day, but just a random busy day, fills me with dread. As my medical leave comes to an end, the time to get back on the grind looms over the horizon. My knee hasn't fully healed at this point in time, and my job is quite physical. All I can do is hope for the best. Perhaps I will find more meaningful work at some point, but for now, this is what I must do.
Time for bed now. I start counting the loud motorcycles in the distance, and eventually fall asleep.