Tank 115 - 14 May 2007

Filled up again at my local Costco with 10.578 gallons. After going 384.0 miles, that worked out to just 36.30 MPG. This was disappointing and the worst mileage in a month. But coming off of a great mileage of near 39 with my last tank, it evened out a little bit.

It appears that, although my pumping style is the same each fill-up -- pump until the first click, count to ten and pump again until the second click -- the amount of gas between the first and second click is sometimes a lot, maybe half a gallon, and sometimes a little, less than a quarter gallon.

With a small gas tank like mine, this difference can affect mileage by half-a-mile-per-gallon.

Overall, the mighty Corolla has returned overall mileage of 36.23 MPG, and averaging 36.68 MPG in 2007.

Interestingly, with all the news of record high gas prices, at $2.789/gallon, gas is just three cents more this May than last May, and well below the highest I have ever paid for gas, $2.959.

59 Minutes on 5/9

In addition to tracking my fuel economy in great detail, I also have
been tracking my evening commute times.

On Wednesday, my trip home was two minutes longer than average, but this
morning I noticed that 59 minutes on 5/9 looks pretty neat!

Not quite as awesome as the 02:03:04 o5/06/07 we had last weekend, I
suppose, but a small piece of cheer nonetheless!

Tank 114 - 4 May 2007

This morning I was first in line at Costco. I got there right as it opened up at 6:00 a.m. It turned out to be a good thing, because 10.635 gallons later I saw that my 412.6 miles worked out to be 38.80 miles per gallon.

I went nine days between tanks.

This is the third highest mileage figure this year, bringing my average mileage for 2007 up to 36.70 miles per gallon.

It is also the sixth consecutive tank of over 400 miles. I noticed this time that I actually went 406 miles before the reminder light even came on.

I suspect this spike in fuel economy may be due to the tire that was leaking that I had replaced. Proper tire pressure really counts!

If my next tank is also close to 38 MPG, it should remove any doubt that this tank had high mileage due to putting in less gas than normal. But I did run the pump until the third shutoff click because I wasn't expecting it to turn off in the 10 gallon range.

A nice tank overall.

News Anchor Late to Work

Yesterday morning one of the two anchors on the early morning news show
I watch as I eat my Pop Tarts was LATE. She showed up in the middle of
the broadcast and the weathermen (yes, two weathermen at 5:30 in the
morning!) were picking on this girl for being late!

They come back from commercials and you see her rolling fast up to her
spot behind the desk and stopping suddenly at her spot next to Doug,
reaching for a pencil or something off camera, a huge smile on her face,
her hair whipping around as she hurries to her post and she says
something like "welcome back to ABC 7 news. Time for traffic and
weather, let's go to Adam Caskey who's out in the field with StormChaser
7..."

And Adam starts his little weather eye report and throws it back to
Brian in the studio:

ADAM: So Brian, did you get a good night's sleep last night?

BRIAN: Why, yes, Adam, I sure did. And you?

ADAM: Oh yeah, Brian! And I got here all ready to be on my live remote
with StormChaser 7 on time this morning!

BRIAN: That's Awesome, Adam! Hey Alison, how did you sleep last night?

ALISON: Brian, I have three alarm clocks and none of them worked!

BRIAN and ADAM: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

...or something like that.

If you saw this on Washington DC's channel 7, please let me know if I
have the story right. It seemed like they all had a fun little time
picking on Alison and I hope nothing bad happened to her because she
overslept.

Mysterious Happenings in the Back Yard

Yesterday we were selectively cutting branches off our weeping willow
tree to allow for easier climbing up by the girls, and we discovered
that one branch actually grew into another branch!

It is sort of like two branches growing out of the main trunk that look
like "F" and a branch comes out of the bottom branch and up to the top
branch to make a "P" except the original branches from the "F" keep on
going out, too!

I'm going to twist some more branches together to see if they'll hook up
too.

So thanks to our selective cutting the girls can, with a little boost
from a step stool, climb up two levels of branches in the weeping willow
tree.

Today I will show them how to get back down. They have been stuck there
all night!

Tank 113 - April 25, 2007

Filled up with 11.003 gallons after travelling 409.7 miles in 8 days.
37.24 miles per gallon. Gas was $2.649 per gallon at Costco today.

This was the fifth tank in a row that I was able to go more than 400
miles. I think my new job, although farther away from home, is a good
distance to allow enough round trips to crack 400 miles just as the
"empty light" comes on.

I am on track to use 42 tanks of gas this year, down from 46 in 2006,
and 48 in 2005. However, I am also using more gallons per tank, so
total gallons may turn out to be higher.

There's a new Costco opening up near my office next week. This should
help me to push the envelope and perhaps start hitting close to 440
miles per tank on a regular basis.