46 degrees (40 degrees wc) this morning, Walk 38:12 minutes
Our internet, tv and phone wend out yesterday. It was out from about 3:00 p.m. until some time in the night.
Makes me realize how dependent we are on others for our lives. The cable company actually called us every half hour to advise us of the expected time it would be fixed. When we first reported it, they didn’t even realize there was an outage.
Also, yesterday morning was like a river in front of our house as a water leak several houses away streamed (and wasted) water.
There seem to be an extraordinary number of water leaks in this city, or maybe I just happen to be the first to see and report them. I have reported at least four major water leads (several REALLY major, they actually flooded the streets), and I think Aliene has reported one.
We went through “Hurricane Elvis” in Lakeland (I believe in 2003) and were without electric power for seven days. It was lucky it was Summer. While we were glad to get the power back on, we actually adjusted to it without any major problems.
I think that was the summer we first started going to going to Memphis Redbirds baseball games. It felt so good to go where there was power and everything was relatively “normal”!
Last night on my way to Toastmasters, I noticed gas at gas station I normally get gas was $1.58 per gallon and, 4 miles on down the road, it was $1.57. (The station I normally get gas is about 2 miles away.)
On my way back from Toastmasters, the station 4 miles away had increased the price to $1.69 per gallon, so I quickly got some gas at $1.58 while I still could!
While .11 per gallon isn’t much considering I only needed about 10 gallons of gas, but I figure I can use the money better than the gas station!
The Toyota Camry hybrid has been averaging (long term, all driving) about 36 mpg. As with all cars, short trips bring the average down. On longer trips I average about 41 mpg, but on road trips it goes back to about 36 mpg again. I really can’t figure it out!
It has an “electric vehicle” mode, which really isn’t much good other than just a play toy. I do enjoy trying to keep it in electric mode as long as possible and about a mile is it.
I have been reading that many of the smaller hybrids now have “electric vehicle” modes (just the battery is used) up to 60 miles, which would be a big help, since most of my trips are less than 60 miles.
Of course, I think the real goal is to have an all electric car that can be powered completely by solar power.
I like the hybrid, not just because it saves money (with the current price of gas, it doesn’t really matter that much) but because I feel like it is a swing against the oil complex, OPEC, ISIS etc. and especially the oil companies etc. who arbitrarily increase the price of gas and gouge the public.
For example, I knew that right before Thanksgiving Holidays, the price of gas was going to increase, so the oil complex could gouge the pubic as they went on holiday travel. When gas increased .11 in one hour, I think I was correct.
One of those things I can’t do anything about, so I won’t worry about it, except do as much as possible to beat the system by driving a hybrid or eventually an electric car of whatever.
I have to praise “7-11”, at least the locally owned chain. I feel they are the most ethical gas chain in town, they don’t play the “10% ethanol” game where they advertise a low price for “10% ethanol regular”, but then their premium gas is “pure” gas, at about a $1.00 higher! Of course, the Camry doesn’t require premium, but I’ve stayed with 7-11 out of principle.
Also, although I have nothing against the lottery, they maintain ethics above profit by refusing to sell lottery tickets. I’m sure this costs them both in lottery tickets and gas and merchandise they would have sold if they offered lottery tickets. If the owners are against the lottery and don’t sell them, I have to admire that.
That is why I continue to buy gas at 7-11, even when it is higher.
That’s it for now, Tuesday, November 24, 2015.
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