Month of August 2023 (Nat’l Avg $3.780)

In the bottomland twice this Sunday. On the first walk, I saw my 14th deer, about 25 feet away in an area often populated with people. Strangely, no people were around. She may have stayed, tho I did startle her a bit. But she had a side trail that she opted to follow. I advanced to the river & quickly binoculared no animals or birds to the east near the river. I re-treated, thinking the deer may try to out-flack me & get on the trail I had been on. & that was the case. I moved slowly & she wasn't bothered by me looking at her with the 12 power binoculars, which gave a great view of her. She was slender, but appeared to be in excellent health, as she nibbled on some leaves. She then went onto one of the little sand islands just off the near shoreline, that had become popular for picnics. I didn't want to bother her anymore & moved on. Within a hundred & fifty yards, I did start meeting people. Hopefully, the deer was back in the Woods & she wasn't bothered with a "line of people" on the trail. I crossed the bottomland & charged my phone at the rest stop. Then I walked through the bottomland again, eating blackberries as I went. One of the blackberries was large, yet a bit misshapen. But, it was near the best tasting blackberry I had ever had in my life....supremely excellent!

PS....To the bottomland for the 3rd time today. Just a walk. But very nice walk, despite some smoke coming from Eastern Washington. Very quiet.....till you could hear over on the access road, somebody's car pumping 500(more?) watts of bass....& I ain't talkin' fish.

 

My trip to Michigan :
Total 628 miles.
To Bloomfield Hills , good weather , friendly wind, good trip.
fcd = 59.4 MPG.
To Aurora IL :
rain for half the trip , unfavorable wind, bad traffic going around Lake Michigan
in Indiana (typical). fcd =56.4 MPG

57.9 x .942 = 54.5 MPG

 

To day , 59 deg F in Naperville , 64 in Elk Grove.

Wind SW 2

33.3 miles , fcd = 59.4 x .942 = 55.9 MPG

 

Today , 64 deg F in Naperville , 65 in Elk Grove.

Wind WSW 4

33.3 miles , fcd = 59.1 x .942 = 55.7 MPG

I think that this tank I bought in Battle Creek Sunday
will last me until Friday night.

 

Myrtle Beach, 9 Aug, 23..... Three Fiddy for Regular

 

Today , 67 deg F in Naperville , 70 in Elk Grove.

Wind SSW 4

Btw , all morning temps are at 5:05 when I get to work.
I am driving from 4:10 to 5:00 AM.

33.3 miles fcd = 61.1 x .942 = 57.5 MPG.

I can live with that until I find a super good deal on a plug-in hybrid or battery electric car.
Toyota ( at least their Chicagoland dealers ) have made it painfully clear that they
don't want to sell me a car. That , and the bad experience I had with my Gen 3 Prius ,
is making me re-think a few things.
Meanwhile , the Fit is a good soldier.

 

Yeah, I said years ago, that Toyota will not deal to poorer elements of society. Of course, I was rebuffed for speaking about Toyota that way.

As for the Fit, I agree with Edwin. Consumer Reports also agrees with us, remarking in their September 2023 issue, that Honda Fit is topnotch, as lower priced used vehicles go.

 

Well....I guess they have Guernsey cows in Birmingham.....Alabama.......oh....you mean England... oh . Decades ago, I had a pen-pal in Birmingham....Alabama.

 

Sunday I rode the Grom 8.9 miles at speeds
from 24 to 35 MPH. Fcd went from 180.8 to 181.4 MPG.

 

Couple of Sundays(?) ago, I surprised myself with my decreasing health, & walked almost 8 miles. Our warming (& now hot) weather makes it mandatory for me to walk the bottomland. After a month of meeting deer, I haven’t seen any for 10+ days. I am really missing the deer.

 

Today , 63 deg F in Naperville and Elk Grove.

Wind NW 11

33.3 miles. fcd = 53.6 x .942 = 50.5 MPG

 

A bit after 7am PDT, the present 63degF temperatures have nicely cooled from the 92 deg temperatures yesterday. I remember the hottest 111degF temperatures our area ever got, cooling the next morning to 72degF. Fortunately, that next day had ocean on-shore cloudy cooling so the previous day's 111degF temperature, got much lower. I think I hate temperatures of Southern California & Florida, when the temperatures are so hot day AND NIGHT.....just no relief.

So far, this apartment's 3rd story temperatures are quite nice. The angle of the complex is such that the afternoon sun doesn't strike the northwest side of my apartment till nearly 3PM. Also, there is a foot & half projection that delays direct sun warming on the bedroom till 4PM. PLUS, the 3rd story roof directly over my apartment is slanted AWAY from the hot afternoon sun! PLUS, any normal breezes from the southwest are nice on this 3rd story. Sometimes tho, I have to be careful about keeping the front room sliding glass door & the bedroom window wide open, because the wind could get so fast that it could damage the venetian blinds, which I love. The apartment complex doesn't have A/C, but at least my apartment doesn't appear to need it, at least into the 90's. With the apartment parking lot getting hot, the bottomland temperature is nicely lower. If I'm here a long time, we'll see how habitable this apartment & bottomland is when temperatures go into the 100+'s.

An aside:
Many people like to say how nice the Celsius temperature scale is compared to the Fahrenheit scale. But, I like the Fahrenheit scale, because triple digit temperatures show that weather is really really getting hot! Also, I'm used to 32DegF temperatures warning that freezing is occurring.

 

Oh….oh…..are you using…..over-sized tires?

 

On my walk thru the bottomland with 8x42mm binoculars to the Senior Center, I went on to the library, which is itself next to another bottomland. I hadn't seen any deer for 10 days. On my return to the Senior Center, I saw my 15th & 16th deer in a month & a half, a smallish Doe & a Fawn with spots. The Doe wanted to cross the street which would put them on the way into the city....not a good idea. She tried to move around me with the hippity hopping Fawn saying, "Lets go Mom, you're holding up the action". I backed off, still blocking their way to the city. They continued to want to move into the city, but I cut off their way around me. Finally, the Doe got the message, & she & the Fawn moved back toward the Woods. I thought she might travel along the back of the library, but they both moved into the Woods. The last I saw them with the optics, the pair moved down into the bottomland. I returned on my walk to the Senior Center. The 2 deer could return & enter the city, but I, at least, stopped them this time.

 

Today , 67 deg F in Naperville , 69 in Elk Grove.

Wind SSW 15

Went thru Naperville on Rte 34 today to get some free air in
driver side rear tire. There is a slow leak. This is a shorter
route than my usual morning commute , but takes a bit longer,
32.4 miles , fcd = 60.8 x .942 = 57.3 MPG.

I will try to get this tire repaired before I head to Michiigan
again on Sep 1.

 

and if you can't, try to get a plug kit just in case...

edit: if you can locate the leak and it is in the tread section, you may have to ream the hole bigger in order to plug

 

This morning, I moved slow thru the bottomland, but no deer. At the Senior Center, I signed in & went to the library. Again, no deer. Hopefully, the deer never came back, trying to go back into the city. But, both of them were really cute. Back at the Senior Center, the lunch was excellent. The salad was the best I ever had....& that is saying a lot. I told the cooks that too. On the way back to the apt. in the bottomland, the largest spotted Fawn(now 17 deer in 1.5 months) I've ever seen, bounced across the walk, no more than 20 feet in front of me. But the Fawn had no need to converse with me & kept going into the brush. I wondered if its mom was close by. I hoped so, altho I never saw her.