Nick Danger Part 1

Firesign Theatre was one of the many "recreational" accessories I indulged in in my 20's...but thats another story...
Nancy: Oh, Nick. I'll never forgive you.
Nick: And I'll never forget you neither, Nancy.

Yahoo! 360° - Canice's Profile

http://360.yahoo.com/canice_macthomas
This is where over 200 blogs started out from, and are now here. These are the posts that reveal so much of me, my growing up, experiences i had, things i share with other over 50 folks like me, who grew up near the center of the universe in the 1960's, San Francisco. Such a beautiful city.

Southwestern roadtrip

Taking a roadtrip across the southwest US, here are a few pix i took

Carmel

Point Pinos in Pacific Grove CA

Point Pinos Lighthouse

NW Vacations

my stuff

My 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee
I bought it new with 7 miles on the odometer!!!

Blue cars are chosen by the more introspective, reflective and cautious driver.
yeah, right...LMAO

March 22, 2008

WOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOO

I realized while honey was gone earlier this month that the main TV in our house was going goofy picture wise. I was talking to honey this morning about that, and finally got that look that says I know what you want, and so the words"Why dont you just go get what you want, its OK by me" I just love when we agree on something. First we need a new stand, so we went to the furniture store and got a thing that looks like a 2 foot tall corner hutch, with two shelves and doors with stained glass, brought that home and had the guys set it up. Honey said " a 47" inch would be OK, thats what Glenda has ( Honey's sister)". I went to the store and the sales woman waltzed be from the 40 to 42 to 47 and then...50". WHOA!! I know I do not want to spend $3000 on a TV. I didn't. but I did get a 50" - gawd, its like a small theater in our living room. Had the guys set it up, and then I helped Honey do the setup and re-install all our other junk-satellite, Dvr, surround, DVD...Honey is a really good person, but i seem to be the one with the patience to figure out where all those darn wires go!

As i write this, Honey is watching Band of Brothers (for about the umpteenth time) on the DVD, and stopping it every 15 minutes to come ask me to come see what a good picture it has...I guess I know where the Economic stimulus check georgeie is sending us will go- into the bank....

Have a Wonderful Easter!

Entry for March 22, 2008

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Getting this message repeatedly in the last week is pushing me beyond frustration!

Entry for March 21, 2008

when there is nothing to say, say nothing

Friends

Friends need music....so here they are

This is the original version of Hey Joe by the Leaves.... How many people knew that?

Better sound quality hear(no pun)

Betty Blue by (seriously) The 69 Eyes and finally one of my favorites, because it says a lot (and is linked inmy head to when i met honey)

Later ....Squirrel Valley Reports for Tipsy Thursday

Diabetes

Diabetes symptoms may include:

• high levels of sugar in the blood when tested
• high levels of sugar in the urine when tested
• unusual thirst
• frequent urination
• extreme hunger but loss of weight
• blurred vision
• nausea and vomiting
• extreme weakness and fatigue
• irritability and mood changes

I was unaware of my own diabetes until I saw this list after I was unable to buy life insurance because of "preexisting untreated diabetes". That was in 1996. Once I did see my doctor and go over the list, the bolded ones were the ones I was most familar with. Doing this blog made me look up some of the records i have, and I realize I have known I was diabetic for 12 years. It has not been easy, but once i dealt with the facts, and took ownership of the disease, things have been better. Like many people, i remember thinking exercise and a modified diet would do the trick. It will if you know what you are doing, but unfortunately I did not, and got conflicting advice when i sought it. So eventually I was put on a medication, and then as the medical community did more research, it became apparent that as a preventive, people like me need to have rigid control on blood pressure, lipid levels, manage stress, modify diet and exercise. So today I am taking 4 prescription and two over the counter (vitamin and lo dose aspirin) pills .

But the effects can be reversed. my doctor told me that if I continue to lose weight( a very difficult and conscious effort) I could start back down and eventualy be off my prescriptons, at least for the diabetes. But I would still need to control my diet.

I thought of this subject today,because last night I was really upset about something, and as bedtime neared, I foolishly went online and wrote a scorcher of an email to one of my friends, which was heavily influenced by a high blood glucose level induced lack of cognitive control. I apologized for that, and hope my friends will understand.

I have asked my doctor about this, and he is unaware of any substantial research, but says my complaint is something he has heard before.

I wish all of you good health, and take care of yourself.

Blog 200 March 18, 2008

I was going to really go wild here, but the events of the day have dampened my spirits a bit.

As the day unfolded, saw my honey drive off to work, and nothing was amiss. Our daughter got up, and as i got ready to go to work, she packed her bag, and ate breakfast, preparing to go home to her husband and two cats. We loaded her car, and she was about to give me a hug when I saw something on the ground as she opened the car door...a flat piece of metal shaped like a U, with holes at each end of the U...and several bolts, rusty in a neat pile. I gathered my robe, and got on my knees and looked under the car, and it looked wrong, exhaust pie, do floppy, empty space, muffler..and it hit me, just like the news story I had seen a couple of days ago...somebody stole her catalytic converter!!! Seeing as it was 7:30 am, I said we need to go back in the house, and so we bundled up her bags and did so. I sent an email to work about not coming in til later, while she called her husband,I think to tell him and get him ready for the idea she would need to spend money(his own mother says he is cheap). At the end of the call, she said he would rather drive here and tow the car home(180 miles) rather than have her pay more than $200 to get it fixed. I quickly dressed,and we started out looking for a shop close by to fix it, only most were still closed. I am not immune to worry about money, but there are times you need to spend a nickel more to get better value....We went to the Toyota dealership, me thinking (rightly) this would be a high water mark of prices- replacement would be $765, plus shipping an labor, because it would be a special order, two days!!!! Next we went to get coffee, and regroup...returning home, i called a couple of place, and found one that guaranteed they could fix it for under $100...Anne was too mortified to drive her car without the converter, knowing its like a muffler and her car would be loud. me on the other hand drove a MG that had a muffler that would fall off at the slightest whim, so loud exhaust was not a deterrent,,and the man on the phone assured me it would be OK, since her model car mounted the converter so far back...She drove my Jeep, and I drove hers to the shop, and then we did what we do best, and went shopping, and then home...about 3 hours later it was done, so she went home about lunch time! Total cost $140(they needed to replace a flange and pipe section which was bent by the crooks...what i thought interesting and sad, when we dropped it off, there were 3 other people getting the same thing replaced...Honey says they have replaced the water main value at work 3 time in the last year because it gets stolen..by code it has to be brass, and all drinking water through copper pipes...no wonder the new home sites post armed guards when the plumbing starts going it!

Different stuff

The puppy was leaning forward growling , back legs quivering, ears erect, eyes focused on something on the wall behind our house...it was a lizard, which I guess she would have never seen before, since she is only 8 month this month. Our dog that passed in October would chase lizards all over during the summer...

As a thank you for helping her out, my daughter gave me a CD, which I listened to this evening. It is a selection from Beethoven, which she knows i am crazy about, and the soloist is a young woman, Hilary Hahn. Its pretty, she is a very talent woman. I am not all that keen on violin however, preferring piano soloists, maybe because of their dramatic flair while playing some of the more vigorous pieces.

We saw Konstantin Soukhovetski play at the Mondavi Center for Anne's birthday recently.. very good, played Grieg, which was quite good...

Just to let you know, Squirrel Valley News is likely to be a frequent feature.....

Channel One: Squirrel Valley's First News

Transcript provided by Acorn Transcribing Service...

Announcer : And now, Squirrel Valleys First News, Channel One, with Deft Touch and the Roadkill Report

Good Evening. Yesterdays editorial in the Squirrel Valley News has touched off quite a fervor in the Coolarado mountain village of Badgerville, which prides itself as home of the Badger made famous by his global adventures with the professor.

Pawl Househunter has this report on todays riotous event

Total panic gripped the community, as news spread that the Badger clan, offended by the passage of 222.22.222, is bent on "righting the wrong", claiming Squirrel Valley is the ancestral home of the badger clan, and no one can deny it. Fear that the badger will try to evict squirrels from across the valley cause pandemonium, and lead to a needless loss of life at two leg crossing, where the Nuthoarder family was brutally crushed by a rolling house.

It was only when the Terrier and Hound Canine patrol arrived did order get restored

"It was Ruff, yeah ruff, i tell ya"

More as we get the news...remember, Channel One, the only news organization covering ground, tree, and flying squirrel news in the Squirrel Valley!!

commercial:

This just in: Copy from the Squirrel Valley News

Squirrel Valley News

All the news we want to print…the more salacious the better!

Editorial

As spring nears, it becomes more difficult for us, as the two legs start bringing all their animals into our valley. Of late we have had to protect the children from not only canines and cats, but one cranky old fart has brought a badger into our valley, to escape the colder climes of some damn place. Enough.

Mayor AcornHusker and the Valley council have approved measure 222.22.222, “The Badger Restraint Act of 2008”

We approve their efforts, but it does not go far enough. Unless the council gets enforcement by a much needed treaty with Canines of the Valley, routing the dreaded (and wiseass) badger will be doubtful.

So far only the Terrier family is on board with enforcement, and they are no match for the Badger. We strongly urge Mayor AcornHusker to seek a treaty with the Rottweiler and Pit Bull gangs, as endorsed by the Free Animals Roaming To Open Nature Most Imperiously committee, known locally as FART ON MI.

Entry for March 15, 2008

Open Letter to Yahoo:
While many are eagerly awaiting the new universal profile, I for one am not so enthused. Once and awhile a product is made available and its success does not meet the goal set,and so business managers make decisions that in hindsight look like they were made in a vaccum; case in point would be something like Star Trek. Pulled by the network, the fans persisted, and eventually the studio realized that a cash cow had been squandered. My concern is that Yahoo is following just such a course.
Thank you for providing Yahoo 360 in beta for the last several years since its launch in 2005. As of the most current statistics available, there are approximately 4.7 million Yahoo 360 accounts, and those still plugging along(like me) are thankful 360 is still going, despite the pulling of technical support in October 2007.

After playing around on Yahoo MASH, I know I am underwhelmed. But I understand you have other issues now, like the impending takeover by Microsoft. Their own service has 40 million plus accounts, and gets active support from their organization; maybe thats the only hope we have left, to be merged into that service. While i greatly enjoy using a service rated as one of the top 5 for bloggers, with more features than many other blog pages, you wisely have decided that making it better and even more useful is not in the interest of the shareholders. I have news for you. I am a shareholder. I am also a business professional . Yours is a niche market, and now you are letting that go, chasing a goal that has alluded Yahoo, mostly by your own doing.

Great business builds on success, not squash it. Drive away your customers with the knowledge the product (360) is going to be disposed of at some date uncertain only exacerbates the notion that you are a ripe takeover. PULL BACK those plans, and salvage a value added product, or I will be voting to sell...in my best interest.

Are you ready for Windows7?

“

I will say that if you are impressed by the "touch features" in the iPhone, you'll be blown away by what's coming in Windows 7. Now if only we could convince more OEMs that Windows Touch Technology is going to drive their sales. That means that right now when you move from one PC to another, you've got to install apps on each one, do upgrades on each one. Moving information between them is very painful. We can use Live Services to know what you're interested in. So even if you drop by a [public] kiosk or somebody else's PC, we can bring down your home page, your files, your fonts, your favorites and those things. So that's kind of the user-centric thing that Live Services can enable. [Also,] in Vista, things got a lot better with [digital] ink and speech, but by the next release there will be a much bigger bet. Students won't need textbooks; they can just use these tablet devices. Parallel computing is pretty important for the next release. We'll make it so that a lot of the high-level graphics will be just built into the operating system. So we've got a pretty good outline. Its going to be a whole new user interface paradigm for consumers. ” If you have an iPhone, or have used a tablet PC or other device with touch screen technology, you have an idea what Bill gates is talking about.

Imagine the possibilities? I also tend to think about the resource requirements, because they are basically talking about the ability to render your home page anywhere you want, via Live Services. I dont imagine that will be without fees. Still, not needing a mouse would be interesting. The other day I got to see a demo of a virtual keyboard, which is a projected image of a keyboard that functions like a keyboard on a computer it is linked to. It was pretty neat. A big step up from this:

From Wikipedia:

An optical virtual keyboard has been invented and patented by IBM engineers in 1992. It optically detects and analyses human hand and finger motions and interprets them as operations on a physically non-existent input device like a surface having painted keys. In that way it allows to emulate unlimited types of manually operated input devices (mouse, keyboard, etc.). All mechanical input units can be replaced by such virtual devices, optimized for the current application and for the user's physiology maintaining speed, simplicity and unambiguity of manual data input.

Entry for March 14, 2008

I have had a BAD day...and it started at 7:30 AM

Dropped honey off at airport, to go visit family in Oregon over weekend, because i have committments at work, I could not go. Its OK, but its me and the dog now at home.

Get to work and start preparing for a bunch of meeting, the last one at 2:30 this afternoon- mentally drained fromit all. Because my project gets government funding, its subject to audit by them, which is no big deal, until...I start comparing what they are auditing against what the contractors have doen, and what the client has done,and realize there might be some issues, so the meeting are to resolve those before they are a problem.

Then i had to do some notes and send some documents by email, and so i end up at work unitl 5:30...I get home and eat, and start goofing around, and find someone on 360 sent me a message that pretty much devasted me-maybe i was there already, and that was the final straw. Thankfully I have some perceptive 360 pals that helped me with this minor problem. Thanks

My work life is cyclical, either too much or not enough, why seems to be a direct correlation with how busy managment is...and how competent the vendors are.

OK enough blah blah blah, let rock...

Entry for March 12, 2008

Caution - Heavy Internet traffic ahead. Delays possible.

For months there has been a rising chorus of alarm about the surging growth in the amount of data flying across the Internet. The threat, according to some industry groups, analysts and researchers, stems mainly from the increasing visual richness of online communications and entertainment - video clips and movies, social networks and multiplayer games.

Moving images, far more than words or sounds, are hefty rivers of digital bits as they traverse the Internet's pipes and gateways, requiring, in industry parlance, more bandwidth. Last year, by one estimate, the video site YouTube, owned by Google, consumed as much bandwidth as the entire Internet did in 2000.

Entry for March 10, 2008

Hey...here's something a little different...political music videos...what a country

March 08, 2008_The things you think about when you wakeup

This was a favorite in college-Firesign Theater-

This was a song I thought about this morning-weird, how they pop into your head?

Your Hippie Chick Name Is:

Starshine

Hippie Chick Name Generator

Phenomenal Woman

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size But when I start to tell them, They think I'm telling lies. I say, It's in the reach of my arms The span of my hips, The stride of my step, The curl of my lips. I'm a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me. I walk into a room Just as cool as you please, And to a man, The fellows stand or Fall down on their knees. Then they swarm around me, A hive of honey bees. I say, It's the fire in my eyes, And the flash of my teeth, The swing in my waist, And the joy in my feet. I'm a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me. Men themselves have wondered What they see in me. They try so much But they can't touch My inner mystery. When I try to show them They say they still can't see. I say, It's in the arch of my back, The sun of my smile, The ride of my breasts, The grace of my style. I'm a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me. Now you understand Just why my head's not bowed. I don't shout or jump about Or have to talk real loud. When you see me passing It ought to make you proud. I say, It's in the click of my heels, The bend of my hair, the palm of my hand, The need of my care, 'Cause I'm a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me. Maya Angelou and now for something completely different

Entry for March 07, 2008

Led Zeppelin will not play live again together, according to a source close to the band’s singer, Robert Plant.

The Sunday Mirror newspaper quotes an anonymous source as saying that the band have turned down a £100 million offer to tour, with Plant’s own non-Led Zeppelin musical plans the reason for the decision.

Thats (currently) $201,400,000

Either Plant is holding out for more(doubtful), he is a musical purist(maybe) or he is friggin out of his head(probably)....Taking in a gate of $200 million, and all the spinoff deals they could cut, LZ could easily see Half a BILLION dollars....

Led Zeppelin--Kashmir, London O2 Arena December 10, 2007

what the heck happened to my blog from this evening????????

What Punctuation mark am I

You Are a Comma

You are open minded and extremely optimistic. You enjoy almost all facets of life. You can find the good in almost anything. You keep yourself busy with tons of friends, activities, and interests. You find it hard to turn down an opportunity, even if you are pressed for time. Your friends find you fascinating, charming, and easy to talk to. (But with so many competing interests, you friends do feel like you hardly have time for them.) You excel in: Inspiring people You get along best with: The Question Mark

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

March 06, 2008

My blogs sometimes depress me...maybe because the news of the day is so, well, awful. And yet if there was happy news, most people wouldn't care.

I rant a lot, maybe too much, about people not staying in touch- whats the point of friendship if you can't even drop a friggin line once and awhile??? Lately I have had my fan club of 2 commenting, or saying something or /and another. I invite others to join, and they just dont...because they think what exactly? I am too bitchy, too old, too fake, not fake enough, too serious, too flakey, too liberal or conservative???Who the hell knows, because on the other side of this screen is a isolated world. and maybe afraid to say hi?

I know I have ranted about all sorts of things, and I think too much about what to write. Maybe its because i am a child of the generation that is having to come to grip with age, no longer some abstract concept. Maybe because of the distrust in government that our generation fostered, and now our children and grandchildren are living in a time when distrust in government and authority are considered normal. The excesses of our time have depleted the opportunities for them, literally.

I could go on, but why??? So no silly limericks, no poetry, no stories of the good old days, of drinking, drugs, rock and roll, chasing sheep down a cliffside trail and following them to a beach when you lost your vir...wait, I said no more.

Last Entry for March 05, 2008

No long blah blah yada yada. My friend J says so.

Heres for you J

Small Town News

One of the basics I learned in journalism was who, what, where, when and why? Later as an investigator/auditor I learned about evidence, and how to verify conclusions, based upon facts, not just supposition or opinion. Somwhere in the time between when I learned that and now, what passes for journalism has gone off the path, and no longer deserves the high esteem it once held; not a blanket judgement, but there are a disconcerting number of examples, from the New York Times to our small town paper in Eureka CA. Here is one of the stories I have been following, about an ongoing investigation into the Blue Lake Police Department.

Blue Lake is a lazy little town, a few miles inland from Eureka and Arcata in Humboldt County California, the heart of the Redwood Empire, but for the last 30 plus years also a focal point of law enforcment for the war on drugs. It is rumored the primary cash crop in the county is marijuana...

Blue Lake's gun arsenal called shocking

The Feb. 8 arrest of Blue Lake Police Chief David Gundersen on charges of spousal rape, and the subsequent investigation, has shed a new light on one of Humboldt County's smallest police forces. And some information coming out of Gundersen's case file has some wondering what was going on in the department.

An investigation report by the Humboldt County District Attorney's Office in Gundersen's case file includes a list of firearms reportedly taken from the Blue Lake Police Department and, law enforcement experts say, the numbers are staggering.

Among the 46 weapons listed, 27 were submachine guns, according to the report.

Gregory Lee, a retired supervisory special agent for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and a former FBI Academy instructor, who now works as an expert witness on police procedures, said the numbers coming out of Blue Lake are shocking.

”You sure as hell don't need 27 machine guns for a department of four officers,” he said.

Reached Tuesday, Blue Lake City Manager Wiley Buck said the department acquired the submachine guns about a year ago, but had no intent to use them and didn't pay for them.

”We didn't purchase any of them,” Buck said. “They were free from other departments or free from companies. ...

Buck said Gundersen acquired the guns with the intent of loaning them out to other local agencies. Buck said the department loaned two of the submachine guns to the Rio Dell Police Department in exchange for traffic monitoring devices.

Rio Dell Police Chief Graham Hill confirmed that his department did have two of Blue Lake's Colt AR-15s for a while, but returned them after Gundersen's arrest.

OK, I'm no expert, but I do know an AR15 is a civilian M-16, which is an assualt rifle, not a machine gun. They fire rifle ammunition.

a sub-machine gun is defined in the dictionary as: A Submachine gun is a type of machine gun. In particular, a submachine gun is a machine gun which fires ammunition normally used in pistols.

I know its semantics to some people, but its like saying a Porsche designed car when referring to a Volkswagen.

Now what the Blue Lake Police was doing with all these weapons is another story..

Plutocracy

Diebold Machines Miscount New Hampshire Primary

New Hampshire’s 2008 primary election used Diebold "Accu-Vote" machines to scan and count 80% of the votes. These are the same machines that were hacked by the famous Finnish hacker Harri Hursti in "Hacking Democracy". The hand recount of New Hampshire’s paper ballots has already revealed unexplained machine miscounts in Hillsborough County, NH:

Wilton district = 10.6% miscounted by machines
Nashua, Ward 5 = 4.9% miscounted by machines
New Ipswich = 7.5% miscounted by machines
Manchester, Ward 5 = 10.6% miscounted by machines

Plutocracy: the United States is a plutocracy in which there has been "the fusion of money and government." For example billionaire George Soros' efforts to influence US politics by backing left-leaning PACs. And with the technology currently being used, anything is possible, probable and achievable with little evidence that the vote you cast went to someone else, to meet someone eleses agenda....talk about Orwellian?

Late Entry for March 04, 2008

Projected results of this evening elections Obama-1464 Clinton - 1371

Huckabee quits, McCain wins race Wed, 05 Mar 2008 07:23:49 I posted this at 8:57 PM March 4, 2008- ergo the above headline was from overseas, but where? Press TV takes revolutionary steps as the first Iranian international news network, broadcasting in English on a round-the-clock basis.

Entry for March 04, 2008

March 4, 2008

MALTBY, WASH. -- Radical environmentalists torched three multimillion-dollar homes Monday that developers had touted as examples of "green" building, authorities said.

The predawn blazes destroyed three furnished homes that ranged in size from 4,200 to 4,750 square feet. They were built at the end of a wooded cul-de-sac as part of a luxury home development featured in Seattle's Street of Dreams home tour. Two other homes suffered smoke damage.

Police and FBI investigators said a spray-painted sign bearing the initials of the Earth Liberation Front mocked developers' claims that the homes were environmentally friendly.

"Built Green?" the sign read. "Nope black! McMansions in RCDs [rural cluster developments] r not green. ELF."

The attack coincided with the trial of a former member of the Earth Liberation Front now in its fourth week in Tacoma, Wash. Briana Waters, 32, of Oakland faces up to 35 years in prison if she is convicted of setting a 2001 fire at the University of Washington[where ELF mistaken thought tree genetic engineering was going on].

Federal authorities consider the Earth Liberation Front a domestic terrorist organization.

It was clear the fires were deliberately set, said Rick Eastman, fire chief of Snohomish County District 7. Eastman said he held back his firefighters, letting the blazes burn out on their own, because he feared the homes might be booby-trapped. Incendiary devices were found inside the homes, fire officials said, and the blazes will be investigated as acts of domestic terrorism by the ATF and FBI.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Watching this unfold on live TV, I couldn't help but notice the raging fire from these homes had spread to the forest around the homes; I wonder how many trees the ELF torched along with the houses? How much carbon and other gases was unleashed into the air from the burning homes, furniture and other contents?

Ego, Id and self awareness March 03, 2008

I am home sick today, and was checking out my page for any new stuff since yesterday morning.

As I peruse the pages of friends, I can't help but to notice most have a zillion more friends than I do, and hence a bunch of comments. And most of my friends seem to avoid contacting me, which prompts me to wonder if I really am too self centered? And is that a bad thing? I know that I can come across as kind of a smarty sometimes, maybe most of the time, but in my own defense, i am smart, at least that's what my coworkers tell me...So maybe then I just picked the wrong friends on Yahoo, basing friendship on a random set of values so minuscule that friendship is extended to near strangers?

And we each have our troubles to air, and then seek some reassurance or care from out online friends, sort of like imaginary friends only they aren't, because somewhere out there is a person who has to read what is written, think about it and then apply those thoughts to a keyboard and post to the internet.

My friends include a lot of different professions, with distinct the personality is what come thru the writing, and maybe my personality is just plain and unfulfilling, like white bread toast.

Who invites me to be their friend? Nobody? why? I invite people to be my friend and get nothing back, like the word is out, don't be friends with her, she really is a bitch...My friends Joe and Jon and PH all send me messages periodically, saying I am too harsh on myself, that people do read my blog, and I wonder what people think after they do so. Maybe I am too centered on feedback, especially from those who want to be unknown...I know that when i write really technical blogs, people get bored,because who really cares...

No wonder i like the TV shows like Monk and Frasier, I relate to the quirky main characters...

Entry for March 02, 2008

OK, so whats Inactive Bear Country look like?

Common Ground - March 01, 2008

Four years ago i downsized from my "midsized" pickup truck to a Jeep Grand cherokee with a 6 cyl motor that gets me about 18-21 mpg during the week, and maybe 28 on hiway trips. It has a 19 gallon tank. But with every week costing me around $50 to fill up, I was looking into either a diesel or hybrid. Since diesel in my area is now around $3.85 a gallon, even with better fuel economy, I would be spending a lot on fuel. I filled up last weekend, and it was a little over $60 for 18 gallons, or around $3.35 per gallon. this morning its at $3.51 in my neighborhood, so if I need half a tank, 9 gallons, it will be about $32.

OK, so you see the problem is I commute not very far to work, about 11 miles each way, 22 miles a day times 5 days=110 miles and then there is the other driving. i have really scaled back to maybe 100 miles during the week and weekend, most in the local area, in as few trips as possible, 210 miles a week, or about 10-11 gallons fuel. I know this don't seem like a big deal to most peopl, but we almost always use our gas card to pay, so we can track fuel costs for our vehicles, for tax purposes (I have a side business as a technology consultant). I used to pay that off in full every month, but if I charge 40-50 a week, and honey about $35 a week, thats $85 a week, or $4420 a year!!! So when fuel finally hits $4 a gallon this spring, and stays there, I am definitely changing to another vehicle. I am thinking of a 15 year old Geo, which got 60 mpg....whatever vehicle, it will have to get over 30 mpg............