Hypermiling Update

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I’ve been trying some hypermiling driving techniques and seeing improvement in my mileage so far. It takes a lot more concentration than traditional driving, but it seems to work. My current goal is to break 300 miles on one tank, which I haven’t done in months. The essence of the driving technique is to coast as much as possible and apply the gas or brakes as little as possible. For example:

  • As soon as you know you’ll have to stop ahead at a stopsign or light, take your foot off the gas and coast. Your tachometer might still show greater than idle RPMs, but the fuel flow will be idle fuel only.
  • When approaching a hill, speed up gently at the bottom and coast up the hill.
  • Coast downhill when possible.
  • If you don’t have much traffic nearby, “pulse and glide”. Pick a target speed, accelerate gently to slightly over your target, and then coast until your speed drops a bit below your target. Make sure no one is behind you because this is highly annoying to other drivers.
  • When you accelerate, pay attention to how hard your engine is working by watching the tachometer, listening to your engine, and noticing how much torque you feel. If you’re pressed back in your seat and approaching redline on the tach, you’re having fun but wasting tons of gas. I try to keep my engine below 2500 rpm.
  • Time your lights. Stopping and starting burns more fuel than maintaining a constant speed, and it’s annoying!

Good luck!

In the Nick of Time

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I’ve never really understood that phrase. Anyway, Sunday was our first water volleyball event. Having never owned a pool or set up a water volleyball net, I wasn’t quite familiar with the technique or the net that we had borrowed from a friend. I didn’t even know if I’d bought the right kind of ball. Wanting to set up the net before anyone was at the pool, I stopped there after work that morning to get started. I was tired, really tired, after getting up early on Saturday afternoon for another CARES event and then working Saturday night. All I wanted to do was crawl into bed, but first I had to outsmart the net.

Unfortunately, it was a lot more difficult than I thought. Our community pool is much wider than our friends’ pool and didn’t have good posts to which I could attach the net. I would have to stretch rope between the net and the side poles and somehow attach the poles to something sturdy. I also know embarrassingly little about knots. I can tie a bow and a double knot, but that’s it. I wandered back and forth and thought and thought. Suddenly I noticed a resident opening the gate to the pool area and walking over. In my mind a beam of light from heaven appeared over him and angels sang, but I think I just made that part up. He had finished his workout and was walking home when he noticed me floundering beside the pool and offered to help. I can’t fully explain how thankful I was to have his help. He had set up nets like this before and used to have his own pool, and he did most of the engineering work for me. It seemed like God had pity on me and sent this guy just when I needed help most. Thanks to him, I was in bed by 9:00, and the water volleyball event was a success.

Free Food, Sort Of

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Jenny sent me a cool website: restaurants.com. It’s simple: you buy a gift card there worth a certain amount but only pay a fraction of that amount for it. A $25 card might cost you $10 instead. The participating restaurants are interesting local establishments that you might not have heard of, so it’s a great way to explore the area and try new places. I just got gift cards to five different restaurants, including Addison’s Magic Time Machine and a special place in Richardson where I plan to take Jenny for our first date after Brenden is born. Bon appetit!

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Hypermiling

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Although the skyrocketing price of oil is killing the airline industry (except Southwest) and making a wide variety of products more expensive, it’s finally persuading people to make better transportation choices as well. That makes me happy. People are trading in their gas guzzling trucks for more fuel-efficient sedans, setting up carpools, moving closer to work, and using public transportation. Recently year-over-year oil consumption actually dropped for the first time in a long time.

One technique many people are using has been labeled “hypermiling”. They challenge themselves to squeeze every possible mile out of their existing cars through improved maintenance, pulling unnecessary stuff out of their cars, and most importantly changing how they drive. Check out this website on the subject. Many of the techniques seem easy to do once you’re in the habit, but I obviously don’t recommend NASCAR-style drafting. =)

Weird Day

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The following strange things happened on Wednesday:

  1. While listening to the blues station on our digital cable, I heard a blues song about a woman whose husband/babydaddy left her for a man. I’ve heard of situations like that, but not in a blues song. Sign of the times, I guess.
  2. We visited some friends from church who have been living in a hotel for 100 DAYS and counting due to a bad water leak in their house. As if that weren’t enough, the woman was 6-7 months pregnant with TWINS and had a 13-year-old daughter. The twins weighed 7.5lbs EACH. The house repair is taking forever and won’t be done for several more weeks. I’ve never met anyone who lived in a hotel for months at a time, much less with a teenaged daughter and two newborns.
  3. While visiting them, I held one of the baby boys. Suddenly I felt a warm, wet spot on my shirt and looked down. Apparently diapers are not foolproof.
  4. That night, Jenny and I got kicked out of the pool by our courtesy officer. And no, not for skinnydipping. Apparently some of the pool lights aren’t working, and the city said we had to close the pool after dark.

We’ll see what Thursday brings, other than a much-needed night off from work.

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Bid Time

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It’s that time of year again. Our office is in the process of bidding our schedules for Feb 2009-Jan 2010. Everyone has his/her own priorities and strategies for bidding. Some people want Christmas off above all else. Some people want a particular start time, such as 700c, the most senior shift. Some less senior people want as many day shifts as they can get, even if it means taking some afternoons or midnights. In general, the day shift is more senior and the afternoon shift less senior. Midnight guys are scattered throughout the seniority list. Strangely enough, even though I still sorta feel like a new guy, I’m number 110 out of 146 for this year’s bid. We’re adding a bunch of people this year, which is always good when you’re on a seniority list. I still like the midnight shift, and I’ve decided that 2300c (11:00pm) is my favorite start time. It will allow me extra time for events and hanging out with Jenny and friends after Brenden is asleep. It also has better weather in general since most of the flights are in the western half of the country. It is highly unlikely that I’ll get Christmas off again next year (this year was a fluke!), but if I can get 2300c starts, I’ll be happy. We’ll find out the results at the end of June.