Month of October 2021

Were the potatoes free, too? Bet the pub wasn’t free!

 

The best things in life are free , but it's hard to put a price tag on the joys
of an English pub.

Today , 49 deg F in Naperville , 53 in Elk Grove.
35.0 miles , fcd = 67.1 x .943 = 63.3 MPG.

 

People joyfully pay at a pub, so they can get more joyful. I have my BEST LIFE, when I can FREELY get to land, sea & air.

 

Hmmm, do you plan to use free L2 chargers for your inexpensive electric boat and electric plane? Cruise/fly 5 minutes and charge an hour perhaps?

 

Never been able to afford boats or planes. Really, really won’t be able to afford boats or planes, once I buy an EV. Still doubtful about that!

 

Don't do this with your EV. https://insideevs.com/news/541624/tesla-models-plaid-turned-submarine/

 

Our egg lady, has given us free tomato plants the last 3 years. This year, once we planted them last May, the cold weather “killed” them…..at least we thought them dead. My wife pruned the dead leaves, & watered & cared for them. & after a month they started coming back. They were small despite the care & took forever to ripen. Eventually, some ripened (specially the cherry tomatoes) & we’ve had some good tasting tomatoes. One tomato, in particular, had a very very different taste & was the most flavorful tomato I have ever tasted. I’ll remember that tomato. With almost freezing weather in early October, we picked all the remaining really green tomatoes, brought them inside & placed them in a sealed plastic container. Ah…..many of them are slowly ripening. Having tomatoes right now, with eggs from our egg lady.
//////10-24-21:
PS…..The stored tomatoes are really ripening now. Eating lots of them, tho they’re NOT as good tasting as earlier in the season. But of the dozens of green tomatoes I picked, looks like we’ll have dozens of red tomatoes!

 

Today 54 deg F in Northbrook , 55 in Elk Grove.
Wind SW9.
17.2 miles , fcd = 64.6 x .943 = 60.9 MPG.

 

Just saw a U-Tlube video on World Potato Production since 1960. Russia had a big lead for decades, early followed by Cuba & later by Poland. In 1991, communist china (always small letters) took over the lead & sometimes was leading by 2 & 3 times over any other country. Poland eventually fell to 10th place & below. The US, generally was in 4th to 7th place(?). Germany & France generally trailed the US. The UK was down the order of countries. So your potato growing is important for the UK.

 

If & when I get an EV, I’ll try to get 5+MIles/kW-hr. I hope to avoid installing a 240VOLT L2 charger at home…..for the same reasons happening to you. Hope between free L2 charging away from home & use of my uprated 120VOLT Nema 5-20 amp, low charging circuit, I won’t need to install a home charger. EV charging can really tax electrical circuits to a high level. So far, I know of 10(?) free L2 chargers within 20 miles of me, in MANY different directions. Volta even has free charging for half an hour on an L3 fast charger(try my best to avoid), 90 miles away.
Yeah…..ain’t free charges the best.

 

Today , 46 deg F in Naperville , 40 in Elk Grove.
35.0 miles , fcd = 62.1 x .943 = 58.5 MPG.

Taking off work early today to pick up my new motorcycle !

 

Wear your full-face helmet & heavy clothing. I was in an accident, was unconscious for 3 days & wiped my memory for 3 days before the accident. Tho I was severely & solidly black & blue from left shoulder to my left ankle, I had no road rash or cuts. My left arm was swollen to twice its normal width, but two heavy wool coats eliminated any further damage. My jaw was broken in 2 places, but my full-face helmet kept me from losing my lower jaw. But, without my helmet, losing my lower jaw would have been OK, since I would have been dead from a head injury. The state trooper that responded to my accident was a friend from high school & he kept me from swallowing my tongue.

Years before the cycle accident, I had an inexpensive, light-weight aluminum frame with plastic upper case & side cases, that fit my Suzuki 450. It was just the right weight for small Suzie. Tho the plastic seemed to NOT be durable, it never got any cracks & even held up after dumping Suzie on a short heavily graveled access road at slow speed. I traveled 8000 miles all around the west, back to Wisconsin, down to Texas & had one of the best times of my life. Tho I traveled to the top of 14,250 foot Mt. Evans in Colorado, many other mountain passes, & was loaded down with food, camping, cooking & camera gear, I still averaged 67MPG.

 

I gave away my helmets years ago , thinking I'd never ride again. But a co-worker of mine , a fellow motorcyclist ,
offered to give me one. It's a like-new Nolan. Lots of cool features. litesong , I would never ride without one.
I still need a real official jacket and better gloves.

My dad had a 79 Suzuki GS 425E that he rode from Illinois to Idaho , Canada and Mexico all in one long trip.
When he died in 87 , I had that motorcycle up until 2010. Very bulletproof bike.

 

Today , 37 deg F in Naperville and Elk Grove.

This tank is at 524.5 miles , 110 remaining , fcd = 67.9 x .943 = 64.0 MPG.
2015 Prius Two is at 124K miles.

 

My helmet was an inexpensive Grant & did everything to keep me alive. All the bikers say leather coats are the only thing to get. Slides on the ground, without rotating the body, yet eliminates road rash. Very expensive. Me…..my two layered, heavy wool coats, a Pea-coat & another heavy wool coat I used at work($10 each at the thrift store), really were the best for my accident. Can’t remember my accident, My long skid marks to avoid a car that pulled out in front of me, indicate that I had lost quite a bit of my speed, when I probably high centered off of Suzie. At higher speed, maybe a heavy leather coat would have been best, like the bikers say. But, I loved my 2 heavy wool coats. My heavy padded, leather gloves were great. Heavy to protect my hands(from the cold, too), but flexible enough to handle the controls well. Again, cheap at the thrift store.
The engine in the Suzuki started as a 400cc, was bored out to become the 425cc & was bored out again to become my 450 cc. I heard a decade later, the engine was bored out again to become a 500cc, the longest-lived Japanese engine block in cycling at the time. My 450cc was exciting for its time, but the 500cc engine was considered tame next to all the popular, hot 600+cc machines in that era.