Piqued

Why aren’t US automakers doing better on gas mileage?

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One of my favorite magazines arrived in the mail a few days ago with a back page ad for the 2013 Ford Explorer.  Nice looking car.

The tag line on the ad reads “EcoBoost fuel economy and 365 horsepower*”

The fine print at the bottom says EPA-estimated rating of 16 city/22 hwy/18 combined mpg. This is for a 3.5 liter engine and 4 wheel drive.

Until very recently, I drove a 1995 GMC Safari (essentially the same as a Chevrolet Astro), that was rated at 16 city/21 hwy for the AWD model, and this was with a 4.3 liter engine.

How is it that in almost 20 years of automotive technology advances a brand new passenger crossover SUV gets the same mileage as a hulking 1/2-ton utility van? That just ain’t right.

The fine print also notes that the advertised horsepower rating of 365 is for 93 octane premium fuel. When was the last time you saw premium at your gas station for anything more than 91-92 octane?

I don’t mean to pick on Ford here in particular, and I come from a family that bought and drove Fords for generations, But all of the automakers are pulling the same BS and greenwashing their new cars, and they need to be called on this. Do you agree?

 

Sunday Night in Spring

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It is after 7:30pm on Sunday night, on the first weekend of official Spring, and one of those rare early spring evenings in the Pacific Northwest where it’s actually comfortable to sit outside in the yard and enjoy the fact that there is both still light in the sky at this time of day and it’s warm enough to enjoy being outside in the evening without multiple layers of insulating poly clothing.

My neighbor has just finished mowing his ¼ acre with a gas-powered lawn mower and is now finishing up the job with a power leaf blower. I use similar machines myself, and know that I am disturbing the peace of my neighborhood whenever I do, so I try to use them only at mid-day. I am torn between admiring my neighbors energy, feeling like I should be out doing the same, and wishing that I could just sit here and enjoy quiet and calm of the evening.

Should I post this on my Facebook page?  My neighbor is one of my Facebook “Friends” and we are generally on good terms. If I posted this, might he take it as antagonistic?

Newspaper with good news

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Remarkable:  all front pages news stories on the printed edition of our local newspaper today are good news. Possible HIV cure in a baby, brewpub opening revitalizes downtown Springfield, and, the U.S. and Russia are cooperating in an effort to protect polar bears.

So much better to start the morning read this way. No blaring headlines of murder, no mayhem, no political bickering. Thanks Register-Guard!

 

Sierra Club Mail

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Today’s snailmail, once again, includes a thick envelope from the Sierra Club urging me to renew my membership. It’s hard for me to understand how an organization that is supposed to be all about the environment keeps sending out the same tired packet of paper: four page letter about all the good things they do, special offer (hurry, limited supply) for a backpack, poorly reproduced flyer on John Muir, a “petition” to sign with membership renewal (printed on heavy cardstock), another flyer telling me I must respond immediately to get this special renewal offer (same one I’ve been getting for years), and a very large, totally useless map of the USA.

I have been a strong supporter, and sometimes member, of the Sierra Club for many years. It’s a great organization and it’s members have done a lot for conservation and trail maintenance. But these repeated, wasteful mailings really irk me.

Yes, I recycle the whole thing. I doubt that most people who receive it do. And even if the vast majority of recipients recycle all that paper, it’s a giant waste of resources to print it, ship it, have it delivered, haul away the recycling and process the pulp all over again.

I have asked Sierra Club to stop sending me snailmail, told them I’m fine getting email from them, but I still get the fat packet. I think maybe I’ll start mailing all the papers back to them in the postage-paid envelope they provide.

 

Quicken for Mac users

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Why is it that Intuit continues to ignore the many thousands of Mac computer users and not come out with an updated version of Quicken for Mac?  They produce an update every year for Windows users, but haven’t updated the tired, crippled “Quicken Essentials for Mac” in years.

Stranger still is that Quicken 2013 for Windows users can use a new iPhone app, but Mac users can’t!

What’s up with that Intuit?

 

How can that be?

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The Amazon Kindle is now selling for about $70 bucks. This wonderful piece of high tech gear is full of complicated hardware and runs on some amazing software. It is an amazing little gizmo.

It is also amazing that a simple leather and plastic protective cover for the Kindle runs $40. The cover has no electronics, has no moving parts. It is just a piece of plain black leather glued onto a piece of molded plastic. How can it be that the cover costs more than half the price of the Kindle itself?

 

Web hosts counter pollution with green power

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I just read that, if things continue the way they have been, the web hosting industry will be a bigger polluter than the entire airline industry by the year 2020. If you have a blog or website, I hope you’re using a green host like GreenGeeks.com or Hostgator.com, and not supporting that Daddy guy just because he’s cheap.

Electricity-generating wind turbines in wheat field near Condon, Oregon. (Greg Vaughn/© Greg Vaughn)

Here’s a New York Times story about the problem: http://nyti.ms/Rgujuu . And here is Hostgator’s statement on what they’re doing: http://www.hostgator.com/green-web-hosting . And GreenGeeks: http://www.greengeeks.com/about/how-is-greengeeks-green.php .

A good friend

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My wife/partner/bestfriend has just spent the past three+ hours on the phone with a friend who has recently gone through a difficult divorce that involves a longtime partner and two teen kids. She burned through the battery on her cell phone, then switched to the land line (thank goodness for plenty of minutes on the cell plan and Unlimited Long Distance on the land line).

Everyone should have a friend like this, someone they can talk to for hours at a time, someone they can just spill it all to, someone who can offer advice and opinion but at the same time not be judgemental.

Our friend is lucky, and so am I.

Do you have someone like this you can count on in times of need?

 

Summer Scene

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sunset over Lava Lake in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon
Sunset sky and clouds over Lava Lake and South Sister; Deschutes National Forest, Oregon.

One of the reasons I love the Pacific Northwest:  summer, midweek, sunset, sitting on the shore of a Cascade Lake. Osprey cruising, chee-ewping, suddenly diving. The last diehard fishermen quietly dipping their oars, hoping for that last strike of the day but not really giving a damn if it doesn’t happen because it’s so darn beautiful just being here. Peace, serenity, lots of soft noises but at the same time a calming quietness. Billowing thunderhead clouds on the west horizon, wispy, golden clouds to the south. Water smoothing to a glassy mirror as the breeze dies, reflecting sky above and dense green forest of pines and firs all around. It doesn’t get much better than this.