With gas prices hovering around four dollars a gallon, I, like everyone else, have been feeling the pinch. And it has been particularly bad because my fuel efficiency has been down and my driving has been up, as I’ve spent a good deal of time racing back and forth to Baltimore to see my lady fair. Completely worthwhile, I assure you. But in order to mitigate the cost, I’ve been trying to adjust my driving habits in recent days.
Driving like a madman through the city costs me 14% of my fuel efficiency: that’s a dip from my normal 22 miles per gallon down to 19. Ouch. When combined with the extra mileage of at least 40 miles every other day, it’s been quite a painful experience at the pump.
So lately I’ve been more conscious of my driving habits. No more jack-rabbit starts. No more flooring it to make a yellow light. No more flying up an on-ramp at a greater speed that the cars actually driving on the highway. And it’s done wonders for my pocketbook: where I was getting 19 mpg driving like a jerk, I’m getting 24 mpg nowadays.
And while you might think that saving some gas and money would make me happy, you’d be fooling yourself. I have to drive in Maryland: home of the oblivious driver. As far as I can tell, there are no suggestions made at Maryland driving schools that slower traffic should keep right. Getting into the turn lane before you slow down so that cars behind you don’t have to come to an almost complete stoo? Unheard of. It seems that it’s the goal of the Maryland driver to do everything possible to frustrate everyone else on the road.
But changing all of that just so I could eke out another 1 or 2 miles per gallon seems selfish, so I’m only going to request one tiny thing of the people of Maryland, and it only requires a change of attitude, not behavior: when you cut me off on the highway, don’t get mad when I tailgate you - if you’re going to make me slow down, you could at least let me draft off you.
My air conditioner stopped working yesterday. Part of the problem was that I hadn’t replaced the filter in a couple months (oops - I always forget that), but it was also low on whatever refrigerant they’re using nowadays. This morning I called our HVAC specialists, and they said they’d send somebody out this afternoon. The woman on the phone said that it was $110 for the visit, which only covers the first 30 minutes, $50/lb. for the refrigerant, and I’d probably need 3lbs. Ouch. Goodbye iphone 3G.
The reason it was running low is that I need to replace the blower on the inside of the house which has a very slow leak. Evidently systems that operate under pressure always develop leaks over time and it takes long enough to find and fix them (at over $100/hour) that they usually get fixed by being replaced. Since it’s $2,000 for a new blower, I’m happy to keep paying to top off the tank until the leak gets bad enough.
The way we picked this company to put in our heat pump in the first place is that the founder used to play cards with Kellie’s grandfather, and the heat pump that should have cost us $3,000 to put in was under $1,500. And that $2,000 for the blower? That’s friend prices. Nice deal, but who knows how much her family lost at the poker table over the years to get that discount?
Regardless, the repair guy came out, and I guess he must be the same person who has been coming to our house all along, because he remembered Kellie. And didn’t charge us a thing. It seems that he thought she was a pretty awesome customer, and now that I think about it, he didn’t charge us for the last visit either.
I’m going to miss having somebody around that has that effect on people.
I’d like to personally thank all of the stores in the world that stock men’s pants in odd sizes. That 2 inch range sucks if you’re right in the middle.Thankfully, there are a few stores that will sell me what I actually need.
The rest of you? Get with the program. I’m tired of pants that almost fit.