Category Archives: Prius Hybrid

Exercise, Family, Life and Meaning, Meditations, Prius Hybrid, Psychology, Thankfulness

MUSINGS FOR SUNDAY 29TH, JULY 2018

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“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” – Marcus Aurelius

Well…. has this been another good week??  I guess they can’t all be good weeks…. Or can they??  That is a good question.  Everyday that I am able to get up and do the things that are important to me and others is a great day.  So, if that has occurred on a majority of the weekdays then I believe it has been a very good week.  Life is good and I cannot complain too much is something that I write in a journal each day and it never gets old.  I think that it is a good reminder in a way that things could be so much worse.  I believe that most of the limits, problems, boundaries that we find in our lives are self-created.  And it is in how we use our minds that helps us to navigate these self-created issues.  One of the first things that I do each day is to try and remind myself how great it is to just be alive.

Afternoon bike ride this week along the Poudre Trail.

I think that we all have the tendency to look beyond ourselves to try and find “something or someone” to help us to be happier or to blame, but reality is that you and only you have the power to make yourself free.  It is not “out there” it is within you and only you.  For me I am still learning this lesson, but the first step was the “realization” that it is only you.  And that starts with the mind….

“Only a Buddha can realize a Buddha” – From Mountain Record of Zen Talks by John Daido Loori.

 

 

On a different note, by the end of this week we are close to the 4-month mark of using the new car.  A Toyota Prius Prime, a gas / electric hybrid.  I think that we are at 5000 miles already.  And all I can say is WOW!!  The efficiency of the vehicle cannot be over stated.  In the last month Janet has been driving it to work, around town errands, AND we have put ZERO gas in it.  The last time we filled it up with gas was coming back from vacation June 26th.  I believe that was just West of Laramie, Wyoming on I-80.

Work for Janet is here in town as are the errands.  So, she charges the battery every second day or so and voilà – no gas needed!!  Cleaner air, decreased dependence on foreign oil, fewer issues with resource extraction, and a much cleaner environment.  In my humble opinion there is no reason to ROLL BACK any gas mileage requirements.  Every car coming out in the next few years should all be Hybrids or a the very least “Gas – Hybrids.”  Yes, the power grid would need to be upgraded, but that is all achievable with current technology and would provide thousands and thousands job.  Every new home should be required to have solar power installed to help in this endeavor.  And rebates on Solar for homeowners with existing homes.  If you can give millions to the oil and gas industry in subsidies then you can gradually shift that money to the homeowner to help install solar power.

The “CAT DOOR” charger!!  LOL

Running this week has been a little bit limited due to work on replacing a roof/deck over the garage.  But it still has been good.  I am lucky to live in an area in Fort Collins that has great trail access.  One of my most convenient and favorite running trails is the Powerline trail.  The trail is composted of a hard path surface but also a side by side soft path dirt surface.  Very nice for those of us that prefer to run on dirt trails.  The other great thing that I have come to enjoy about it are what I call trail apples.  Someone years ago, planted about 20 apple trees along a section of this trail.  They are small but very flavorful.  Everything from tart to sweet and this time of year they are really starting to ripen.  So, it is a kind of treat to run this trail,  pause and pick a handful to eat and continue running.

Deck and Roof replacement!  It will be nice when finally done.

Trail Apples!!  Lol

I did not get to run the Never Summer 100k this weekend due to unavoidable work issues.  (Could not get the time off) So I will concentrate all my effort on doing the Run Rabbit Run 100 in September.  I have never run 100 miles before and I am anxious and curious to see how that feels.

I hope that everyone had a great week and in saying this I want to send you all a little loving kindness for the week to come:   May you be free from danger.  May you be happy.  May you be healthy.  May you live with ease.

Until next weekend – Adios amigos!!

Prius Hybrid, Vacation

MUSINGS FOR MONDAY 25TH, JUNE 2018

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“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did.  So, throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor.  Catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore.  Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

“Better to see something once than to hear about it a thousand times.” – Asian Proverb

Whistler, British Columbia – Fitzsimmons Creek

Well just got back from vacation.  Great road trip but it feels good to be home.  Decided to go to the Pacific North West.  Made it all the way North to Whistler the Ski Area in British Columbia.  Went through Glenwood Springs – Colorado, Ogden – Utah, Prosser – Washington, Monroe – Washington, Bellingham – Washington (our longest stay), up to Whistler for a day and then retraced most of the route back home.

Glenwood Springs, Colorado – Hot Springs

Ogden, Utah – Catholic Church

The longest stay was Bellingham, Washington – this was about 5 days.  It reminded me a lot of Fort Collins.  Brewery after brewery after brewery.  Bike trails, hiking trails, great restaurants.  And you have the ocean at your doorstep.  It was good to see new places and experience new things, meet some interesting people, and see some of the family that we had not seen in a long time.  The road trip was 14 days in length and covered about 3500 miles of driving.

Bellingham, Washington

Bellingham, Washington

We decided to take our new car, a Toyota Prius – Prime.  A gas hybrid.  And this was a kind of eye opener to what battery powered cars are capable of.  Out of driving 3500 miles our gas mileage averaged about 64.2 miles per gallon.  Which is really good but if there were more “convenient” charging stations, the miles per gallon would have been way higher.  Probably in the 100mpg range.  This was traveling between 65 to 80mph depending on the state laws, fully loaded.  Janet and I packed way too much!  LOL

The weak link in electric powered cars is the charging stations.  There are a lot out there but they are not all convenient.  Every motel, very grocery story, every park, every movie theater, every downtown parking area, every restaurant, etc.…  Needs charging stations.  Any place that you are going to park for an hour or more.  Out of a full fourteen days of driving and exploring we only ended up charging twice.  And the main reason for this was “convenience.”  We found one charger at a downtown public parking area in Bellingham Washington.  This worked out great to go out for dinner, shopping and just walking around while the car charged.  The second one was in a Grocery store / shopping center parking lot in Park City.  Again, this worked out great to load up on groceries, drink a little coffee and to do some other local exploring.  Not one motel that we stayed at had a charging station.  What a perfect place if you are traveling.  You could charge the car each night and it would be ready to go the next AM.  The Toyota got about 50 miles on the battery with in-town driving and about 20 miles on the battery with highway driving and the air conditioner on.  We did a lot of in-town exploring with the car at each stop and figured that at least 500 miles of the trip could have all been on battery power with access to more charging stations.

Views from Mount Baker Ski Area, Washington

I used the app called Plug-Share and it did a great job of helping to find charging stations, but again in a lot of situations they were not convenient.  The technology is out there to vastly reduce the use of fossil fuels.  It just needs to be put in place.  Tesla has a lot of charging stations and seems to get the idea of convenience.  A large Fred Meyer Grocery Store in Monroe, Washington had seven Tesla charge stations in the parking lot.  But unless you own a Tesla you cannot use them because of the amperage.  Tesla’s are superchargers and if we tried to use one it would “melt” our battery.

Anacortes, Washington

Again, a great trip.  Hope you enjoyed this short overview of it.  There were a lot more pictures and things to say, insights and reflections to share.  But I figured this was enough.  Hope everyone has a great week.  See you next week.  Adios amigos!!!