My Daily Impact: August 26 and 27, 2011

My Daily Impact: Friday, August 26 and Saturday, August 27

This is the eleventh entry in my blog

Thursday evening, I got Herb back home and settled in at about 8 PM. The round trip in his car was about 20 miles, so we will call it one gallon of gas and 20 pounds of Carbon Dioxide. The average output of CO2 seems to be about 19 or 20 pounds per gallon of gas. I guess that some newer cars do better, and some maybe a little worse. I will have to research what the new carbon footprint scores for new cars mean.

Total grid energy use for the house on Thursday was 17 KWh. That included about 3 KWh for drying my whites.

Friday, August 26, 2011

This is the day that I get my new driver's licence with the motorcycle endorsement. After taking Astro for a walk, it was off to the downtown DMV (I did not see Patty or Selma there) on my trusty e-scooter. Because the e-scooter only goes 20 MPH, and because it has a pedal system, it is classified as an electric bicycle. It needs no tag or driver's licence to opperate. The lady at the DMV was really nice, and actually gave me a second chance on the eye exam. I guess that my vision is now borderline because I had trouble with two of the letters on the test. Off to the eye doctor with me.

Later on Friday afternoon, I went to Home Depot to pick up the new windows for my garage. I contemplated using the scooter with the small bike trailer, but decided to be safe and use the truck instead. I charged most of the batteries with the small charger since going to Herb's, and the trip to Home depot was a short one. The windows will look nice, so I look forward to installing them soon.

On Friday evening, I rode the Honda downtown to meet my friends and have dinner. After sitting for almost two weeks, it was a little sluggish to warm up, but it ran fine. I did have to stop for gas on the way, and had to drop a whole $3.50 into the tank for 1.007 gallons. That calculated to 115 MPG for that tank; this is about average. We went to Pei Wei again, and I got some yummy Thai veggies and tofu. The round trip was about 25 miles for about 4 pounds of CO2.

The grid energy use for the house on Friday was 15 KWh.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

I was up early to meet with my friends for the Saturday morning walk downtown. I rode the e-scooter, and we went to breakfast at Brians. I will now state the usual impacts for eating out: washing of utensils and a plate, and sometimes a cup or glass, a paper napkin into the trash, and the unknown origin of the food (how far did this meal travel before it got into my mouth?). I did forgo any meat (other than eggs), and did not have any coffee. I must add that I got a cup of coffee earlier (in my mug) from Panera.

On the way home, I stopped at a garage sale, and found a nice little foot pump for bike and scooter tires. My front tire3 was a little low anyway, and the pump worked very well. The price of $2.00 was right, and I will carry that on the scooter instead of buying any more Fix-a-Flat.

Once I got back home, it was time to wash my sheets. Nice clean rain water for the wash, and a single rince with municipal water. I was also able to wash some other odds and ends with the sheets. It was dry and windy when the washing machine finished, so onto the clothesline everything went. About 20 minutes later the sky darkened, and there was the sound of thunder. Everything had to come off of the line.

The sheets were dry enough to go onto the bed, and the rest had a short 5 minute run in the dryer to get mostly dry. Since there were three hand towels, this short stint in the dryer actually helped make the towels soft. I found that towels get like sandpaper if they are allowed to dry fully on the line, but a short turn in the dryer will cure this, that is as long as the towels are a bit damp from the line.

Later, it was off to downtown again. I probably make about ten round trips to downtown and back each week, and I have been for years now. Most all of my friends live there or beyond, so it is a convenient meeting place.

I used to drive my car there each time using gas until I got the truck. Then I drove it almost all the time until I decided to reduce my electricity use by riding the bike. The bike worked very well whenit was reasonably cool, but the heat made for a smelly me when I got to my destination. Then, I got my first electric scooter. It was really nice, but there was always a problem with the batteries. When the batteries no longer held a charge, the manufacturer bought the scooter back. I must say that Baja does a good job standing behind their products.

When I got he refund from Baja, I found another electric scooter made by Konced. I bought it on line from BJ's, and thought that it would be awesome. It had Lithium-Ion batteries, and was quoted as having a range of 40 miles at 35 MPH. The scooter never lived up to these figures, and I sent it back. It took quite a while before I got the credit from BJ's. I found e-scooter # 3 on Craigslist. It was not working when I bought it, but the guy only wanted $65.00 for it. After a new speed controller and some new batteries (about $350.00), it is my most efficient non-human-powered mode of transportation.

I really want some nice American-made elecrtic two-wheeled vehicles!!!
Well, back to Saturday night. Four of us went to the golden trough (GoldenCoral) for dinner. I had one eight-ounce steak, and some shrimp and scallops. The rest of my meal was veggies and fruit, and dessert. A little more restraint than my usual pound or more of steak! The four of us shared a ride to the restaurant for a round trip of about 12 miles and about 12 pounds of CO2.

Total grid energy use for the house was 17 KWh. This included 5 KWh for charging the truck for the 20 miles put on it Thursday and Friday. Some of the batteries still need topping off, but I can do this with solar power. I have been able to save power by using the small chargers to top-off the batteries. When I let the big charger complete its cycle, the truck only got about 2 miles per KWh. Now I can stretch it to quite a bit more. The truck also is more efficient when driven a lot. Since I now use other forms of transportation; my truck might be better off in somebody else's hands.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

I slept in some today, and didn't get Astro out for his walk until about 9:15. We had just started down the sidewalk when Walla (my neighbor's Husky) met us. Well, how could I refuse Astro some good play time; so off the leash he went. They played for about 20 minutes, and we all enjoyed every minute of it. After drying Astro off, it was off to Panera for a bagel and coffee. That is where I am writing this blog. I like to watch people while writing; it makes it much more enjoyable.

I ordered my bagel with two butters, but no knife or napkin. I brought my own. There was no funny looks from the guy at the counter, and I managed to keep some stuff out of the trash. I know that the bagel was baked locally, but as always, the coffee has some mileage on it.

I will update the rest of the day's impacts on the next blog, and also add some much-needed pictures.