Nothing new here but thought I'd add my commentary to the hoopla...

Ah, birthday's. When did this happen to us? We find ourselves trying to outdo or match last years gig or last friends gig. It's got to be a huge deal and not enough unless you spend $350.00 or more. A simple cake and a few friends over for a few hours to play isn't enough any longer. It's got to be something like Dave&Busters, Boomers, an Amusement Park or something outrageous.

It's no wonder why all our children have such high expectations and feel entitled. Every kid gets a trophy, every kid is made to feel like a winner. Don't get me wrong, I think every child should celebrate the great day and every child should be encouraged to do their best but very child will not be a pro baseball star or a Lady Gaga for that matter. The championship team gets the trophies and the other get a good pat on the back and , "nice try, we'll get 'em next time", speech.

We as parents are to blame. We want OUR child to excel, and that is reasonable, but we also fail to place boundaries where we know they should be. It's ok to not have the largest birthday party. It's ok to lose. All offer good experiences that build life skills.

Humility is a great virtue to have and the sooner someone learns it the better!

I know, I know...I've been nothing but neglectful on this BLOG. I'll really make a better effort in the future to post regularly, not that anyone really cares but what the hell, it's kinda fun and I get to polish my writing skills, (sorta).

Steve's Road To Green

Steve’s 2012 Lexus ct200h, the road to green…

So last Sunday, February 19^th, we went into the Steven’s Creek Lexus dealership and walked out with the latest hybrid in stock, the CT200H.

It took me some time to settle on this particular vehicle. My main interest is in saving fuel costs due to my normal commute distance that can reach a round trip of ~120 miles. I considered at first a fully electric and places $500.00 deposit some years ago, a bet really, on a now defunct Aptera. It’s claims were 300 miles on a single charge, which would have given me the range I needed. The only other vehicle with full electric that would suffice is the Tesla but I find it rather impractical to spend the $50,000+ expense. Really, the ROI on that is far too long and I love the earth but really…

So what I ended up doing to help me figure it all out was to, using the Consumer Reports data, http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/cars/most-fuel-efficient-cars.html, took the top 23 most fuel efficient vehicles and built my own spreadsheet to compare based on my data. I used variables that included Mileage (city, Hwy and overall), length of loan, average yrly miles, Fuel PG, yrly fuel cost, that x6 (length of loan), MSRP, int % on loan and down payment. This gave me a great idea of the total TCO of the vehicles. What this did not account for however, is the comfort so the test drive and dealership visits were still as must.

We spent nearly 3 months slowly investigating these vehicles, well armed with our data. Of course, there were some that immediately fell of the list. Vehicles like the Mini Cooper due to its TCO of $37,400 or the VM Golf TDI in at a TCO of a whopping $37,500. There were others off the list because of lack of desired fuel economy, 33 just does not cover it for me Mr. Mazda. The Prius was always in the running but just did not have some of the features I desired. To be totally truthful I wanted a little luxury after driving the Saturn SL2 for nearly 15 years. Of course I’m not terribly demanding so we settled on three cars to choose from, the Prius V, the Jetta TDI and the CT200H.

After comparing these three the Prius fell of due to the lack of luxury and the TDI lost due to cost of diesel, lack of luxury, service costs and poorer mileage. The winner…Lexus CT200H!

Yes, the Volt was on the list but TCO came in $9000.00+ higher than the CT200H.

So, after running for a week I have accomplished a 46.6 MPH on average. Incredible considering the skyrocketing costs of fuel in 2012. Now I expect of course that mileage varies, but I am hoping I can settle on an average between the 46 and 55 range. To do this I will have to continue to dramatically change my driving habits. Slow take offs, slow deceleration and plain old calmer driving is what it takes. This will be good for my health as well I think by reducing my stress.

What Lexus has done to help me through this though is pretty cool as well. The instrument cluster changes with hybrids. You get to see and monitor real-time, your success. On the left, when driving in normal or ECO mode, there is a display that shows me how economically I am driving.

 

When I keep the dial below the “ECO” word I am running in EV MODE. Above it and the vehicle manages the best economy with performance between the gas and electric motors. Now getting into the POWER range all bets are off. You trade ECO for POWER, which comes in handy when merging onto the freeway or passing, both of which I do now very carefully. Hardly passing at all really.

To provide the user even great control and options there is a dial on the center console and an EVmode button.

ECO mode lets the car govern itself to assist in controlling the amount of torque applied to the acceleration, thus making in smoother and saving fuel. It also minimizes the operation of the AC and heating to reduce energy consumption of those components.

NORMAL mode is when the gas engine is primarily used but will be supplemented when possible by the electric motor. An example of this would be, as mentioned earlier, the speed of the vehicle slows enough to place the needle below the “ECO” word on the instrument panel.

SPORT mode replaces the ECO indicator with a tachometer, essentially giving you better performance rather than efficiency.

Another cool indication that helps you be aware of your habits is the glow of the instrument cluster. When driving efficiently the light glows a vibrant blue. In contrast, when driving in SPORT mode everything turns bright red. This is a great simple way to help you be aware.

Knowledge is power, and this is one of the great advantages the new CT200H provides me while driving. I knew to get the most efficiency out of this vehicle I would have to change some of my own bad habits. I was a little concerned, knowing myself well enough about how good I am at breaking bad habits, that my greatest challenge would be myself. Rest easy Steve, I said to myself the other day, as this car is going to help you get through this and become a more aware and efficient driver.

I love my new car.

Next time I’ll tell you how well the Bluetooth works!

Cheers,
Steve

Just smashed and tossed my weed wacker. Tired of insufficient tools to get the job done and never have I been able to find a weed  wacker that works correctly. Either the line does not feed correctly or the motor won't run, even my electric version is crappy.
May be time to pay someone to tend my postage stamp yard...

Starting my composting

So, I finally got myself a composter, much to my wires dismay. I have always wanted to try to save the good stuff from the trash and landfills and turn it into a great addition to my garden or planters. I am short on the brown stuff, leaves and dry stuff, but will make due. I have bamboo in the back yard so going to try to compost the leaves from it. Not sure how it will turn out but aside front the additional time I expect it to take to break down the bamboo fibers it should be just fine. We have plenty of heat here in California and maybe almost too much. I'll have to keep and eye on that to ensure enough moisture stays in. Learning curve for sure but really looking forward to it.

I am open to learning from others so share your expertise with me if you care to.

Cheers!

Just a short statement about the Tea-Party

I wonder if they teach there children to avoid compromise as well? It's a rather poor example they are setting for our children and I only noticed this after my boy mentioned, in that so innocent perspective of a child, 'they are not being very nice".

Stand up for what you believe in but realize that you're opinion is not the only one and that in order for everyone to live side by side peacefully there MUST be compromise. I understand all the perspectives but cannot condone the way our representatives are conducting themselves.

By the way...re-register Independent if you have not already. I do not care what your views are but this way they cannot presuppose what a district my vote and it will make them work for your vote!

Enough about that...

My electric car blues

So I decided to give up on Aptera as it seems they cannot get anything to market in my future. I was considering the Tesla S-Class until they changed the price from $50k to $70K. I could come close to justifying, almost, the 50 but no way on the 70. My problem with these cars is that they are either lacking in stamina (can't go more the 100 miles on a charge) or are marketed to folks willing to pay close to $100k for a car. That limits the market and does less to help the environment. This can almost be a good example for why we need governmental regulation or incentives to move to this new technology. 300 mile a charge cars exist but the manufacturers are artificially ballooning the prices to pad their pockets. I liked Aptera mainly because the cost was reasonable and affordable for most Americans at $29k. At least it close and they are making an effort.

Just some simple mans thoughts on it...