Some time in the next day or two, I'm going to get the chair and mirror out to check out our new porch guest.
I may have scared Ms. Robin over the weekend because I dragged out the lawnmower for the first time this year. Most of the mowing was in the back yard, which had reached near jungle status with all the dandelions thriving there. Regardless of the fact that it has been a cool spring, the dandelions are full bloom.
That's not to say winter has entirely given up, however. There was ice on my car's windows when I got up this morning, and we're supposed to have a heavy frost again overnight, with temperatures dipping into the mid 20s.
We had a unusual Memorial Day holiday weekend. We stayed home nearly all the time, except on Saturday, when we (my wife and I) went off to visit my mom at the nursing home and do some shopping. My mom wasn't feeling terribly well, but we had a nice visit. We got a sandwich for her and her roommate at Subway. Today is her 86th birthday, so I'll phoned her tonight.
On Wednesday, I get to see her again. It's the first of three trips in four days I'll be making to the Iron Mountain area for high school sports finals. Tennis on Wednesday; golf on Friday; and track on Saturday. The track meet lasts all day, and I will be very busy with the camera. For a while it appeared that I would have to buy a phone for David; he said he needs a new phone--the old one is busted. But he called tonight--he visited the local "liquidators" store to see if they have phones, and they did. Apparently high quality workmanship is not a high priority.
He visited on Memorial Day. We watched a couple DVDs, he had some dinner with us, and spent some time upstairs on (I think) my computer. I had to drive him home at about 9 p.m.--it was in the mid 60s when he got here, and he wore a light jacket and T-shirt--but during the day a cold front blew through. By the time he had to go back to his apartment, it was around 40 with a cold wind from the north.
I spent Monday night (and Saturday night, after I got home) watching the Red Wings take apart Pittsburgh in the Stanley Cup finals. It's been way too easy so far, and while I suspect the Penguins will be a different team once they are back home (starting Wednesday), it sure looks like the Wings will lift the Stanley Cup in next week or so. They have been very impressive so far.
My wife will be relieved to know that hockey season is nearly over. She watched part of last night's game with me. Charlie is much more of a hockey fan; she sat with me through both games. She seems to enjoy hockey--of course, I was rubbing her tummy while watching, so maybe that had something to do with it. Saturday night, after the game, she came upstairs and sat on my lap when I was on the computer, so we had our own little love-in: I petted her, and she went purr, purr, purr. It was good for both of us.
My mind has been occupied with other things, too. The Midwest has seen a major tornado outbreak in the last few days that has caused a lot of destruction and taken many lives. One of the deaths was a 2-year-old boy who lived in the northern suburbs of St. Paul, Minn. It was just a few miles east of where my late aunt lived. In fact, when we visited that area last summer, we drove right past that town.
Except for the trip to see my mom, we stayed very close to home during the holiday weekend. Gas jumped up a full quarter last week (to $4.24/gallon), and we figure the easiest way to cut gas costs is to cut back on driving. I love to drive, and my car gets good mileage, but ...
Still, despite many people in our area belly-aching about the high cost of gas, they are still driving their bigass trucks all over the place. I don't mind big trucks if they are working trucks--if the owners need to haul stuff around. But many people seem to think that the bigger a truck is, the more tricked out it is, the better it is. And the faster they drive, the more they like it. All of which kicks your gas mileage in the chops.
So they whine about the cost of gas, and then they climb back in their heavy duty, king-size beauties, one person per truck, and drive all over creation. I mean, I drive a small car for a reason. I believe in efficiency. Others believe in the same thing, too. Others don't. What can I say? It's their wallet.
Tomorrow, I'm off to that tennis tournament. It's a 100-mile round trip. Let's do a little math. My car gets about 34 mpg. So 100 miles/34 mpg = 2.94 gallons. If gas is $4.24/gallon (as it is now), then the trip costs me $12.47 for gas.
Now let's say that instead of my little Mazda I'm driving a Bigass pickup that gets 14 mpg. Then the 100-mile trip burns up 7.14 gallons. At the current rate, that's $30.27 for gas, which is 2.4 times what I pay.
Now instead of the pickup, what would happen if we go there in a Hummer H2? These babies get 11 mpg on a good day. So the trip consumes 9.1 gallons, for a total cost of $38.54.
Isn't that interesting? That's more for one trip than I will pay for my three trips there and back.
You see, my theory is that many people buy the biggest, baddest truck they can afford regardless of their needs. Again, if you need to haul a lot of stuff, then that's what you have to do. What I'm saying is that many people buy way bigger than they need to. Prestige, and all that.
Here's another fun experiment. Let's say I'm going to a basketball game up in Houghton, which is 100 miles away--so 200 miles total. At $4.24, those 5.9 gallons cost me $24.93.
Now, how about the school bus that carries the team there? School buses get about 8 mpg. That's right--8. And not only that--they burn diesel, which currently sells for $4.99.99999.99999 at the pump locally.
So that trip consumes 25 gallons of diesel at a total cost of $125. Think about that, Mr. School Administrator!
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