CharmingGeek.net -- Funness

DC Haiku

webmaster@charminggeek.net — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 21:41:00 EDT

At 12:10 AM Why is there such slow traffic On I-66?

American Cheese

webmaster@charminggeek.net — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 18:22:32 EDT

I'm sitting at waffle house right now waiting out a thunder storm. The gentleman next to me just ordered and specified twice that he wanted his eggs scrambled with American cheese. I'm here thinking "Whoever decided to call pasturized processed cheese food 'American cheese' should win a marketing award." Somehow they took the lowest form of "cheese" known and turned it into something patriotic. I sure hope in other countries they've never heard of American cheese. Otherwise, it has to be the biggest insult against Americans immaginable.

The world has turned upside down

webmaster@charminggeek.net — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 10:39:42 EDT

I read today that Americans drove 1.4 billion fewer highway miles in April as compared to the same time last year. That was a "hmmm" moment, but the number alone didn't mean much too me. 1.4 billion is a huge number. I can't even wrap my head around that, especially without context. Fortunately, I turned up the DOT Statistics on Traffic Volume. The estimated total miles driven in the US for April were 245.9 billion, down from about 250 billion last year, or a decrease of 1.8%. This change isn't in isolation though. The trend tells more of the story. I think this graph speaks for itself:

Rainbow Connection

webmaster@charminggeek.net — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:10:52 EDT

This is one of my favorite songs.

The Biker Wave

webmaster@charminggeek.net — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:15:44 EDT

That whole "band of brothers" thing we bikers have is cool. I mean, we all wave, and we immediately have something to talk about. And the wave is cool. It says, "I'm tough, I'm cool, and I'm friendly." But most of my riding is done either on interstate or on city roads, and I have only so much attention to give to anything that's not currently threatening my life. So let's both focus on getting home from work for right now. When you see me riding the back roads of western Virginia on the weekend, shoot me a low wave. I promise to reciprocate. That goes for you scooter guys too. Say hello!

Hypermiling Results

webmaster@charminggeek.net — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:28:11 EDT

I finally burned through that tank of gas. From the time I filled up Monday morning until I dropped back by the gas station this afternoon, I made some small changes to my driving habits while riding my 600 cc 2006 Honda Shadow. In addition to a couple of short errands, I made two trips to my office in Arlington -- about a 15 mile round-trip in city driving conditions -- and two trips to my office in Loudoun county -- 60 miles round trip on highways and rural roads. I drove more slowly, accelerated more slowly, increased my follow distance, gained momentum going down hills and slowed down while going back up. When I saw I would need to stop ahead, instead of gassing it until the last minute and then braking, I'd let off the gas completely and slow down over the entire distance. I turned my engine off while waiting at stop lights and while slowing down to come to stop lights. My original goal was to stick to the speed limit wherever I was driving. That turned out to be nearly impossible, so instead I stuck to the speed limit where the road was open or traffic was moving near the speed limit and otherwise moved a little slower than traffic. Sometimes this meant comfortably riding along I-395 with traffic moving 10 miles below the speed limit. On the George Washington Parkway, cars blew past me in the left lane while I puttered along at only 10-12 miles over the 40 mph speed limit. And the results are: 2.289 gallons of regular unleaded and 166 miles or 72 miles/gallon. That's a 20% increase over the 60 mpg I typically get riding at peak efficiency during the summer without "hypermiling" techniques. Well, now that I've figured that out, I'm going back to driving like a normal person.

New Game

webmaster@charminggeek.net — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 06:19:47 EDT

Let's play "Spot the day that CNN linked to my blog" Ready? Go!

The Family Car

webmaster@charminggeek.net — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:39:13 EDT

Martha asked "Will people invent ways to safely carry babies and small children via motorcycle?" And I say, they already have! It's the leash, as shown here.

Hypermiling update

webmaster@charminggeek.net — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 05:20:18 EDT

If I needed proof that Americans are changing their fuel-usage habits, this is definitely it. After being the top-selling vehicle in America for 17 years, the Ford F-Series pickup fell, not to second, but fifth place behind four Japanese sedans. Meanwhile, I've ridden about 20 miles in the past two days, mostly in city traffic and have realized I probably spend more time idling at stop lights then actually driving. My six-mile commute to work yesterday took almost 30 minutes.

Hypermiling

webmaster@charminggeek.net — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 19:48:11 EDT

Turns out $4 a gallon gas might have been the sticking point for a lot of Americans. Gas prices have been going up for years, but I think this is the first time I've seen people changing their habits because of it. People have complained and tried to get prices down, but suddenly SUV's aren't selling, Smart cars are. People are driving less, biking more. Houses in the suburbs (even more than others) are a hard sell. With all that, there's a lot of talk about hypermiling. Maybe not so much that you've heard about it. The first I'd heard of it was last week with a video on CNN. The video featured a man who averages nearly twice the fuel economy of his standard Honda Accord by using fuel-saving driving techniques. I have to admit I was a little skeptical watching him push his car out of his driveway. I guess overall it made an impression on me, because I realized there are a lot of more reasonable things you can do to greatly increase your mileage. I'm going for it At least for one tank of gas. I have a mighty small tank on my motorcycle, so the real question is, "How far can I go on 2 gallons of gas?" I already have a distinct advantage -- I ride a motorcycle that gets 50+ mpg. I usually average around 55 in the winter and 60 in the summer. That 5 mile difference is mainly because of item 10 from the link above. When my engine stays warm, I don't have to burn extra gas warming it up. I just hop on and go, keeping the RPMs low. It's easy to kill the engine and coast to stops, and thus not waste gas idling at stop-lights. Now, I usually go a few miles above the speed limit. If I just cut that back to the unreasonably low limits in the DC area, there should be noticeable increase in fuel economy. So that's it -- At least for my next tank of gas, I'm driving less aggressively, turning off the engine whenever I can, and coasting more than I brake. I already ride without air conditioning! Anybody want to venture a guess at how far those 2 gallons will take me? It should take me about 3 days (4 if this goes well!) so I'll keep you posted.