How to save on gas

Here are 7 quick tips that will help you save on gas. With the price of gas rising once again it is important to take advantage of every money saving opportunity we can when it comes to buying fuel.

Tips to help you save on gas

1. Walk more to save on gas. Sometimes we overlook the obvious
2. Car pool to save on gas. Don’t think this needs much explanation
3. Get an oil change to save on gas. Your engine will run more efficiently
4. Turn off the air conditioner to save on gas. Most cars will gain at least 2 to 3 miles per gallon if the A/C is turned off
5. Properly inflate your tires to save on gas. Tires that aren’t inflated properly cause poor gas mileage
6. Fill your car in the morning to save on gas. Gas expands as it gets warm so less fits in the tank in the warmer parts of the day
7. Coast to save on gas. Old technique that still works. When you can coast instead of using the accelerator

Does anyone else have any tips to pass along about saving on gas?

You can also learn more about saving on fuel costs at this other blog.

Posted in Interviews, Potpourri | 4 Comments »

The baglady of Concord

Kathi Rienstra handbag
Kathi Rienstra uses old plastic grocery store bags to make the hand bags using a technique called crocheting. I’ve not seen one in person, but from the looks of them you’d be hard pressed to tell they are made out of old plastic bags. Not sure how they’d hold up to the real world as most plastic grocery bags now days are made out of biodegradable material that will break down. For more information visit her blog and take a look at her interview in the Concord Insider

Posted in Potpourri | 5 Comments »

If the name fits…

So last week I decided to take care of one of my twice yearly ear cleaning. Let me clarify because that doesn’t sound right. I mean a “deep” cleaning. With hydrogen peroxide, flushing and the whole bit. I won’t bore you with the details but basically you dump some hydrogen peroxide into the ear and stuff and cotton ball in there and let it work for about 5-10 minutes. If you’ve ever dumped hydrogen peroxide (from now on called HP cause I’m too lazy) on a wound you know how active it becomes. Now just imagine the stuff sitting in your ear while it’s doing that. The racket is maddening.

Anyhow there I was with this HP in my ear trying to keep myself from wanting to tear the side of my head off when all of a sudden I was overcome with a vision of pure brilliance. I decided I would “help” the HP with a Q-tip. In case you haven’t figured it out the HP loosens the hardened old wax in your ear canal and helps it to release from the surrounding skin. And there’s a reason you flush it out with water. Something I knew going into the whole thing but chose to forget at that particular moment.

Out comes the Q-tip and gets inserted directly into the ear and when I pull it out I can’t hear out of the offended ear. Not a damn thing. My first thought was “My God I ruptured my ear drum! Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!!!!” then I realized there was no pain so that was out of the question. My next though was “Thank you Lord for making it so I don’t have to go to work in the morning!” but that dream was crushed when I realized that it would be Sunday. Work or not I couldn’t hear out of the ear and was getting a little disturbed. I mean wouldn’t that just be my luck to find out I suffered a bout of “sudden onset deafness” or something nutty like that?

I finally had enough and made my way to the emergency room on Tuesday and after sitting in the lobby for 4 hours was seen by a doctor and a nurse who of course dutifully took my temperature, heart-rate, and blood pressure. Doctor looked in my ear and asked if I had been using Q-tips. I said I had and waited for him to give me the news, “Son you’ve damaged your ear beyond repair. I’m sorry there’s nothing I can do for you.” Instead he said the nurse will be right in and you’ll be just fine in about 15 minutes. Which of course was a welcome revelation.

The nurse does her thing the doctor checks and declares me cured. He then admonished me for having used Q-tips as a tamping rod to pack the loose wax into a ball that blocked the canal. Just before I left I asked him what they had shot into my ear with syringe. He showed me a container. I don’t remember the name of the stuff but I do remember it said “Laxative and Stool Softener”. Yup, the fixed my head with laxative and stool softener.

So let this be a lesson to you (and me) - the next time someone calls you a shithead they might not be too far off the mark.

Posted in Potpourri | 9 Comments »

NY Giants vs NE Patriots Superbowl XLII

I need to disclose a few things before I say anything.

1. I live in the middle of “Patriots country”
2. I’m not a fan of the New England Patriots
3. I’m not really a fan of football in general anymore

Patriots

Now that I have that out of the way even I have to acknowledge they hype surrounding the Patriots. Something I hadn’t really done until now for the simple fact that I wasn’t sure if the regions collective ego could contain itself much long. Well judging by the idiots I passed tonight they won’t have trouble with their ego outgrowing their capacity to handle. But like I said now I’m even going to acknowledge the hype. If you look up the word hype in the dictionary you’ll see that it basically means to create interest in something by flamboyant means. Most of the time when you hear the word hype you think of something being overhyped. Well after watching the Patriots vs the Charges yesterday afternoon the word overhyped seems pretty fitting. I’ll go on record as saying that the Chargers beat themselves because judging by what I was seeing the Patriots weren’t doing it.

Mind you I’m not trying to be an armchair quarterback, but some of Brady’s mistakes make one cringe. Most glaring is the fact that he gets intercepted 3 times. In one game. Moss was a complete non-factor the entire game. Remember the Dallas Cowboys and Michael Irvine? Randy Moss is the premier receiver in the league and not one game, but two in a row now he’s been shutdown. When Irvine was the premier receiver he wasn’t shutdown to the extent that Moss has been. Aikman, and Irvine would keep working at it until they were able to break him loose and he became a factor. I watch Moss and Brady and I’m astounded by the fact that they run a few plays and then go to something different. Nor that it matters Moss or not the Chargers beat themselves.

Giants

I listened to a portion of this game on radio but from what I heard the Packers beat themselves. From what I was hearing there was a lot of three and outs going on because Farve was making some pretty crappy play calls. Overall I’m disappointed as I was hoping to see the Packers vs the Pats for the superbowl, but in this matchup the better team certainly won.

I’m not really a giants fan but they certainly played the better ball and deserve the spot in the superbowl that they’ve secured for themselves. The game would have been totally different if Brett Farve hadn’t been trying to relive his passing glory days. As one commentator doing the play by play on radio said, “He’s no spring chicken”. 8 or 10 years ago he was a premier quarterback, but now he’s become an afterthought at best.

The game

Patriots by 2 touchdowns and a field goal. The Patriots simply have too many weapons to defend against and it is almost impossible to match them down for down and score for score.

How about your thoughts on the games?

Posted in Potpourri | 19 Comments »

Government pork: 4 little piggies

Have you ever heard the term “government pork”? Simply put it is the government throwing away its (our) money on pointless projects that serve no ones better interest except the politicans. I’ve decided to bring four such pork projects to your attention.

15 billion dollars

In 1991 when the city of Boston broke ground on the so-called Big Dig project who would have ever guessed it would explode beyond its estimated 5.5 billion dollars to over 15 billion dollars? Who would have ever guessed that in addition to the initial cost just to get things going the tax payers of the Commonwealth would be saddled with ever increasing costs of maintenance, and upkeep? I guess those questions are kind of unfair. Perhaps I should ask who aside from the government didn’t know?

But there’s good news! The government has once again come to our rescue, or so they’d have you believe. But first a little background. Aside from the huge cost overruns the Big Dig project has also fallen victim to tragedy when 39 year old Milena Del Valle was killed by tons of concrete tiles collapsing and smashing the car she and her husband were in, seemingly endless leaks which will probably never be stopped completely, and a lot of questionable backroom political wrangling which saw engineering giant Bechtel make out with nothing more than a slap on the wrist over innumeral safety violations.

11.something million dollars

Do you know what that number represents? It’s the hourly cost we in America endure to wage war in Iraq. Nearly 275 million dollars a day. Can you even begin to fathom how much good we could do, even unto our enemies, for 275 million dollars a day? The mind literally boggles at the concept. Let me say that again. Two hundred and seventy five MILLION dollars a day. I don’t know about anyone else but I can dream up a whole host of better ways to spend 275 million dollars a day. And people wonder why we’re going into a recession. Sorry George, but all the economic stimulus in the world can’t save anyone from your lunacy.

130 billion dollars

I like space. Both in terms of “give me some space!” and astronomically. I find it to be pleasing and interesting. As much as I like space I can’t imagine spending 130 billion dollars to hang around up there. It seems that even though I’m not a visionary other people are. Welcome to the International Space Station which is supposed to be an effort between NASA, ESA,JAXA, Roskosmos, and the CSA. Anyone else amazed that we can come up with so much internation cooperation? I guess it really shouldn’t surprise me. If nothing else governments can certainly agree on taxing their citizens to death for pork projects like this.

1.3 billion dollars

Do you eat? Chances are you do, and if you’re like me you could stand to skip a meal or ten, but wait I’m getting way off track. Chances are you are a hunter/gatherer. You hunt for a parking space and gather your food at the local store. Someone has to grow that food. For those of you who aren’t quite with me here I’m talking about farmers. A strange thing has happened in the United States and other nations however. We now pay farmers 1.3 billion dollars here in the US not to grow crops. 1.3 billion dollars. Uh, how about letting them grow the crops and getting it sent out to the rest of the world who needs it? Can’t do that? Then why not use that money to help the countries who need it to develop their own farming industry?

Now if you’ll excuse me I need some sleep so I can work so I can get taxed so the government can keep throwng away my money so I can find something else to bitch about so I can do it all over again so I can stop writing this hideous run-on sentence.

Posted in Potpourri | 6 Comments »