CharmingGeek.net Funness

I’m in the process of moving. I think Monday, my coworker Brian described this as the slowest move ever. Probably. I’ve been packing and moving and unpacking for about 3 weeks. One more trip to make. As much as I love my old bachelor pad with the gorgeous view, I’m really looking forward to being out of it. My new place out in Reston is so much more convenient to the places I actually go. It cuts my trip to church in half and my average trip to work is less than half of what it was. The cost is all the trips on the toll road, but with what I’m saving in rent, I can easily handle the $2.50 a day. There’s a one-lane bridge on the road to my office in Sterling. Seriously, Virginia DOT? A one-lane bridge?

At 12:10 AM
Why is there such slow traffic
On I-66?

I’m sitting at waffle house right now waiting out a thunder storm. The gentleman next to me just ordered and specified twice that he wanted his eggs scrambled with American cheese.
I’m here thinking “Whoever decided to call pasteurized processed cheese food ‘American cheese’ should win a marketing award.” Somehow they took the lowest form of “cheese” known and turned it into something patriotic.
I sure hope in other countries they’ve never heard of American cheese. Otherwise, it has to be the biggest insult against Americans imaginable.

I read today that Americans drove 1.4 billion fewer highway miles in April as compared to the same time last year. That was a “hmmm” moment, but the number alone didn’t mean much too me. 1.4 billion is a huge number. I can’t even wrap my head around that, especially without context.
Fortunately, I turned up the DOT Statistics on Traffic Volume. The estimated total miles driven in the US for April were 245.9 billion, down from about 250 billion last year, or a decrease of 1.8%. This change isn’t in isolation though. The trend tells more of the story.
I think this graph speaks for itself:

This is one of my favorite songs.

That whole “band of brothers” thing we bikers have is cool. I mean, we all wave, and we immediately have something to talk about. And the wave is cool. It says, “I’m tough, I’m cool, and I’m friendly.”
But most of my riding is done either on interstate or on city roads, and I have only so much attention to give to anything that’s not currently threatening my life. So let’s both focus on getting home from work for right now.
When you see me riding the back roads of western Virginia on the weekend, shoot me a low wave. I promise to reciprocate.
That goes for you scooter guys too. Say hello!

I finally burned through that tank of gas. From the time I filled up Monday morning until I dropped back by the gas station this afternoon, I made some small changes to my driving habits while riding my 600 cc 2006 Honda Shadow. In addition to a couple of short errands, I made two trips to my office in Arlington — about a 15 mile round-trip in city driving conditions — and two trips to my office in Loudoun county — 60 miles round trip on highways and rural roads.
I drove more slowly, accelerated more slowly, increased my follow distance, gained momentum going down hills and slowed down while going back up. When I saw I would need to stop ahead, instead of gassing it until the last minute and then braking, I’d let off the gas completely and slow down over the entire distance. I turned my engine off while waiting at stop lights and while slowing down to come to stop lights.
My original goal was to stick to the speed limit wherever I was driving. That turned out to be nearly impossible, so instead I stuck to the speed limit where the road was open or traffic was moving near the speed limit and otherwise moved a little slower than traffic. Sometimes this meant comfortably riding along I-395 with traffic moving 10 miles below the speed limit. On the George Washington Parkway, cars blew past me in the left lane while I puttered along at only 10-12 miles over the 40 mph speed limit.
And the results are:
2.289 gallons of regular unleaded and 166 miles or 72 miles/gallon. That’s a 20% increase over the 60 mpg I typically get riding at peak efficiency during the summer without “hypermiling” techniques.
Well, now that I’ve figured that out, I’m going back to driving like a normal person.

Let’s play “Spot the day that CNN linked to my blog”
Ready?
Go!

Martha asked “Will people invent ways to safely carry babies and small children via motorcycle?”
And I say, they already have! It’s the leash, as shown here.

If I needed proof that Americans are changing their fuel-usage habits, this is definitely it.
After being the top-selling vehicle in America for 17 years, the Ford F-Series pickup fell, not to second, but fifth place behind four Japanese sedans.

Meanwhile, I’ve ridden about 20 miles in the past two days, mostly in city traffic and have realized I probably spend more time idling at stop lights then actually driving. My six-mile commute to work yesterday took almost 30 minutes.