What I Really Want for Christmas

I received a lot of wonderful and thoughtful gifts for Christmas this year. Once again, however, no one got me what I really, really wanted.

The De Lackner HZ-1 Aerocycle was the Segway of the sky 50 years ahead of time. It could land on water. All I’m asking for is a personal omniphibious flying craft. Is that too much to hope for?

Peak Week II: The Final

Ladies and gentlemen, the final for Peak Week II was incredibly disappointing. The number is 52.11 mpg.

I swear to you that the first commute leg on this tank yielded 55 mpg. It really did. The weather just didn’t hold as the week went on. One leg coming home from work featured a steady, cold rain for 44 miles. I just couldn’t recover from it.

I do think Pulse and Glide helped to keep this tank above 51. But it is not a technique I can recommend for the highway. It works really well in the city, though. As I coasted into my fuel vendor of choice, the ECU posted a p1300 “Igniter Circuit Fault ( Bank #1 )” code. I blame pulse and glide.

I want to give a big  thanks to all the moderators and contributors at www.ecomodder.com.  Thanks to information from the forum, I have saved $417 in fuel and burned 161 fewer gallons of gasoline as compared to the EPA highway rating for my car since February.

 

I have five more days of motorized commute ahead of me. That statement is a hot breakfast for my soul.

Peak Week II: Early Update

Since this is a go-for-broke top efficiency run, I’m employing a couple of driving techniques I’m usually cautious with. The first is engine off coasting or “EOC” as it’s known among hypermilers. I regularly use this method, but this week, I’m aggressively applying it wherever I can. And I can apply it more often due to the fact that I’m also using Pulse and Glide or “P&G.”

I suspect that regular use of P&G just has to accelerate transmission and clutch wear. I also have yet to undertake an injector killswitch mod, so my car’s ECU also gets cycled every time I kill the motor. Since I depend on my car for a commute, I didn’t want to take any risks that would compromise reliability. The ECU is not cheap. Frankly, P&G annoys me on the highway as well.

Here’s the bottom line. I got into a good P&G groove for about the final third of my drive to work this morning. The ultra-gauge is reporting 55 mpg average. This is an encouraging start.

Also, I’m not bothering with GPS readings this time. My odometer, ultra-gauge, GPS, GPS navigator, and google maps are all consistently within 1% of each other. This isn’t a laboratory. I’m calling it good enough.

Finally Delco Cat Toys

I consider the following to be in the top five funniest things I’ve seen on television. It has, for the past few years, never existed on the internet for more than 2 days at a time. Finally, Vince Vaughn has hosted it for us and my wife has found it for us. Not Safe for Work! I give you:

Delco Cat Toys

Bike Thievery

How easy is it to steal a bicycle these days?  Apparently so easy that one has to steal 2,396 of them before anyone gets suspicious.  Read article.

As further evidence, below is a video made by 2 brothers, in which one of them steals his own bike, multiple times, during peak A.M. rush hour, using increasingly conspicuous methods.

Somehow the apocalypse is related to all of this, but I’m not sure how.