morrowlife

Here’s one of Thomas Edison’s gadgets. I can’t remember what it does. Any Loyal Readers care to venture a guess? Part of both my Machinery and Workbench series.

Missed the train, drove the Honda. The repairs seem to be great! I can shift into third without grinding! And there’s no new grease on the interior! Amazing.

I listened to a podcast on diesel engines this afternoon. They were interviewing a guy from Bosch, one of the companies that manufactures a lot of diesel components. When they asked him whether it was still worth it to spend the extra money for a diesel vehicle, given the current outrageous price of diesel fuel and the premium prices they charge for the engines, he was vague and talked instead about how great diesel cars are for the earth. Not a good sign.

So I decided to figure it out for myself. I checked out which 2008 cars are available with diesel engines. Turns out there still aren’t too many, but the Jeep Grand Cherokee does have several engines available, including a diesel. They charge a reasonable $1655 for the diesel above their 4.7 liter non-hemi V8 (the diesel’s only available in an upmarket model, which has a standard V8). Their website says the diesel gets 17 MPG in the city, and Yahoo’s auto website told me the V8 version gets 14 city MPG. Assuming gas/diesel fuel remain at $4.50/$5.50 and that you drive 15,000 miles/year, the gas engine will end up costing you $24107 in fuel after 5 years, and the diesel will cost $25919 (including the initial cost of the engine), for a net loss of $1812. It never catches up – at 10 years the difference is $1970 in favor of the gas engine.

Maybe my numbers aren’t reasonable, though. After all, diesel engines are renowned for their great gas mileage, so maybe Jeep’s numbers are just too low. So I created a fictional car with an engine that costs $5000 extra (not out of line for luxury diesel sedans) but gets 22 miles per gallon. After 5 years, the diesel engine saves you $357, given the constraints documented above. At 10 years, the diesel’s advantage is $5714. At the two-year point, though, the diesel owner is $2857 in the hole.

Bottom line: the Jeep diesel is no deal, but if you can find a diesel car that gets substantially better mileage than its gasoline counterpart and you plan to keep the car for an unusually long time (substantially longer than five years), it’s definitely better to spend the extra money on the diesel. For the most part, though, the oil companies are taking all the money. As usual.

Of course, I didn’t look at the differences in resale values, which may or may not give the advantage to the diesel. It depends on the future relative price of fuels, the unpredictable relative reliability of the two engine types (although diesels do have a reputation for durability, 1980’s GM models notwithstanding), and lots of other variables. Feel lucky, punk? Well, do ya?

Anyway. Thanks to my Loyal Readers for their insightful comments on the beer commercial controversy. The consensus seems to be that making the commercial was bad for Kirby’s career path. Tsk tsk, Kirb. And do as he says, Loyal Readers, not as he gets paid to pretend to do.

Today’s controversy: want some good advice? Keep your bathrooms clean, men. Why, you ask? Because ladies love clean bathrooms. Controversial question: which song is lamer?

Time to do something else. See you tomorrow.

Here’s a very strange Buddha. I don’t exactly remember where it came from – probably a restaurant, based on its surroundings. Part of my famous Statue series. Courtesy of my junky famous RAZR cam.

Well, we’re back from The Island. Had a great time. The boys had fun in the canoes, in spite of the weather, which had a part in the group declaring victory a little prematurely. Loyal Reader Number Four and I had a good time doing the logistics and everyone went home tired and happy.

Back to work today – it was busy, busy, busy. Which is good.

Our friends the Smiths have invited LRN4 and I to go on a cruise with them later this year. They’re going to the Mexican Riviera – Acapulco, Puerto Vallarta, and a couple of points in between. The cruise leaves from San Diego and takes nine days. I’m tempted. We need to decide in a day or two, as they’ll be buying their tickets this week. The price certainly seems favorable right now. Maybe it’s another casualty of the gas-crunched travel industry. And every other industry, come to think of it.

No controversy today. That beer commercial one really took it out of me. I’ll try again tomorrow.

No time for any more. See you tomorrow.

Here’s the tinsmith’s workbench at Greenfield Village. This may have been the subject of a blog picture before, but at least it’s a new picture. Great Art can get to be repetitive. Great Art can get to be repetitive. Part of my famous Workbench series.

Sad news – the person hit by the train yesterday did not survive. They’re saying it was an emotionally or possibly mentally disturbed person. Very sad.

We’re off on the canoeing trip tomorrow. Wish us luck! Or at least safety. Or something. Fortunately, we don’t leave until mid-day, so we can spend the morning getting ready. Since we don’t appear to have made any efforts to get ready up to this point.

Today’s controversy: should this guy have done the beer commercial? I say probably not. Bad for the image as an LDS actor. On the other hand, I wonder if his image was permanently damaged by The Singles Second Ward anyway. No additional harm done, no?

No post tomorrow or Friday. We’ll be on the island. Sorry about the shock to the collective system, but I’ll make up for it with plenty of interesting discussion on Monday.

See you then.

Here’s the followup to that bear statue picture the other day. Loyal Reader Number Two looks to be in pretty bad straits. Don’t worry, Loyal Readers – we eventually got him out of there. Part of my statue series.

Tough night on the train. The train ahead of us hit somebody and had to stop for the police and ambulance response, of course. Then there was all the paperwork. We’re running over an hour late so far. The good news is that we’re moving again. Sigh.

Otherwise a good day. The heat appears to have broken, at least in the South Bay. Loyal Reader Number Four told me it was still pretty warm at home, which is how I like it.

No news from the Honda dealer. I’m as nervous as a cat. I’m supposed to get it back tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed, Loyal Readers.

Speaking of which, how nervous are cats? They’ve always seemed like quite sensible animals to me.

Yesterday’s controversy appears to have generated some vigorous debate. About as vigorous as it gets around here, anyway. Some think we should get the tank back. Not to mention washing it for us. The reason being that they were the ones to get it all dirty by burying it. Others think we ought to leave it there, what with the environmental cleanup involved.

I’m still searching for some middle ground. Maybe we should demand it back and then refuse to accept it when it gets here. We don’t want to get too obnoxious, though. They might ask for their statue back.

Today’s controversy: Political news. And more political news. Controversial question: which is more pathetic?

See you tomorrow.

Here’s a big barrel full of the stuff we use a lot of here in Lardville. Photographed in the WWII “homefront” exhibit at the Henry Ford Museum. I have no idea why they needed to collect lard, but apparently the uses were practically endless. Lardville must have been quite the popular town back then.

Great weekend, it being the Second Happiest Day of the Year and all. Several Loyal Readers were here, and I spoke to various others on the phone. What a great day.

Saturday was fine too. We swam again – the pool was a couple degrees warmer than Friday. Just a little chill when you first jumped in and then perfectly comfortable. Did just a little bit of work on things around the house and then spent a whole lot of time working on my digital mousebot. Not much joy there. I can’t seem to get a reliable signal out of the IR emitters/sensors. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong, but the output doesn’t appear to be a function of how much light is hitting the sensors, which kind of negates the whole purpose of the thing. The odd thing is that they worked okay in analog mode. Maybe I need to experiment with the voltages. Yeah, that’s the ticket. In the meantime, the project is in its box back in the garage.

Speaking of the garage, the Honda finally went to the dealer this morning for its new transmission. Cross your fingers, Loyal Readers. I feel like a member of the family is in for a heart transplant. Except the heart would be more like the engine. Maybe it’s in for a liver transplant. Or maybe its lungs. Opinions?

In any case, it’s supposed to be ready on Wednesday afternoon, and I’m anxious.

Another question: is it appropriate to pray for your car’s well-being? I’m saying yes, based on Alma 34:24-25.

Controversy of the day: Should we ask for it back? I say yes.

Lame controversy, I know. Maybe a better one tomorrow. See you then.