Month of July 2021 (Nat'l Avg $3.123)

While I cycled about half that far today with friends, at a much more modest pace, and about a third that far yesterday with even slower friends. It's too hot in S.C. now to ride fast!

You seem to be the athlete here.

 

Today , 68 deg F in Naperville , 71 in Elk Grove.
No wind. 35.1 miles , fcd = 69.2 x .943 = 65.2 MPG.
After work today , I go to LaGrange to pick up my new glasses.
Some of the roads are not very MPG-friendly(Rte 83). And since I work later now , more traffic.
At least going home from LaGrange should be better. If can average 70 MPG (fcd) , I'm okay.

 

I don't want to be outside let alone be athletic. We're getting fine particulate matter in the air from the Western fires. I don't know what the scale for the air quality index is but if linear, it is seven times our average. We have air quality alerts from the government. Before we were aware of the alert, the air was so bad that my wife thought it was a fire in the neighborhood and sent me a text about it as she was leaving home yesterday for an errand.

 

Yesterday when I got home , Trip B read 41.6 miles , fcd = 71.1.
So I reset it like I do at the end of each trip. Then I toggled thru to see
117 miles remaining , Trip A at 540-something miles and 70.5 MPG (fcd).
Then , like a knucklehead , I reset Trip A as well !
Not planning to fill up until I leave work Thursday afternoon.

Today , 75 deg F. It started raining when I left the house at 4:00 and was
raining HARD when I got to work at 4:55. Our parking lot was flooded ( it happens ) so
I had to park somewhere else. That trip was 35.2 and 58.4. Ouch.

 

Today , 71 deg F in Northbrook , 73 in Elk Grove.
Nice headwind SW 9. 17.2 miles, fcd = 68.9 x .943 = 65.0 MPG.

Because of the headwind , I could not find the sweet spot that gives
70-75 MPG at 40-ish MPH. So I did P+G most of the way.

At least it wasn't raining.

 

Last year, the forest fires from British Columbia province, California, Oregon & eastern Washington states were extreme on the west coast(terrible this year, too). Last year tho, the wind directions were different & blew smoke thickly into our Salish Sea(Puget Sound) area. Just like your wife, I looked out of our upper floor window & saw a concentration of slowly moving, swirling smoke, & thought it was a fire in the neighborhood. Never had I ever seen such thickness in the past & like you, people here didn’t want to go outside.

So far this year, the wind directions have kept our western Washington skies pretty clear. But I’ve been worrying for the last decade, that our western Washington very heavily treed(& brushy) forests would catch fire en masse. Our western Washington forests have one of the greatest bio-mass concentrations in the world. The thickest smoke concentrations ever on the planet would be here in western Washington, & I think hundreds (thousands?) of people would die, not only from direct fire burning, but from fine & large fire particles & suffocation.
Climate change is now & excess energy in the atmosphere is having its way.

 

... and you're a very long distance from the fires. While I was in western Kentucky 1-2 weeks ago, skies were hazy from those Western fires. During my return to S.C. via I-40 last Thursday, the smoke was even worse in the N.C. mountains. My sister showed an animation of the pattern of that smoke spreading over much of the US. It's not as bad here as it was in Kentucky---so far.

 

We've had a bit of rain recently so the air quality is much improved. I have had a portable HEPA filter that I can use in the car. My DIY version of Tesla's "Bioweapon Defense mode" though undoubtedly less effective than Tesla's. I kept the vents on recirc and I've been doing that more frequently the past year and a half with COVID-19.

 

Some of the thick clouds (not smoke clouds) we got after the Northwest heatwave, I was hoping would have delivered considerable rainfall. But we only had 1/100th of an inch of rain or less. That’s why the fires are raging on the West Coast. We, in western Washington tho, have had spectacularly nice weather, with the winds blowing the smoke over the US, except for our area. We have had long weeks, to eat our evening dinners in the back yard & watch the squirrels, birds, tomato plants & flowers grow. Our sunflowers are over 10 feet high.

 

Sure, rub it in, litesong.

 

Hey….if I was rubbing it in, I woulda tol’ ya ‘bout our 11.7 foot sunflower from 2 years ago. Oh, I jes tol’ ya. Guess that means….I’M RUBBING IT IN NOW.

 

I just looked at one of the smoke maps for the July period. Your wife’s comment that your smoke was like a neighborhood fire floored me that the smoke could stay so concentrated as it blew across the country.
One thing the smoke map showed, was a strongly concentrated forest fire just north of Minnesota in southern Canada really blew up in mid-July. The smoke from that fire headed for Massachusetts & remained very concentrated, as it passed over your state(& other states). It was quite phenomenal.

 

Yeah, we had a sweet run of clear weather. But, the last few days, I’ve noted haze gathering on the horizon, during the last few days of cloudy weather. & today, I was walking under trees, & noted the trees cast weird shadows. Looking toward the sun, a distinct pale red showed itself surrounding the sun & round-about. Smoke is coming from somewhere(maybe the many fires in British Columbia).

 

You're absolutely right! Clear sailing henceforth!

Those short trips really take a hit especially when all the warmup cost is borne by that segment. But you're not driving much on vacation so that's goodness in itself.

I watched some shows about factory built kit homes delivered to remote locations in the UK. I can just picture you sharing those little roads with the big trucks. Hey! I was here first. YOU back up!

 

Very impressive tank you have, dude.