Winter Break: Trip Tips

Trip tip: Never leave a light on in the car you leave at home for a week.

The battery will be dead when you return.

Trip tip #2: Realize the other car has a dead battery before you strand your wife and kid at home when they're supposed to meet up with the family for lunch.

Trip tip #3: If at all possible, pick up your phone during wrestling practice when your wife and mom are calling to tell you that the Prius' battery is dead!

Trip tip #4: This is easier to do if you have your phone with you and not turned off in the car to save the little battery that is left.

I can't make this stuff up! I can't help but grin as I write it either. It's a pretty funny story!

Car go kaput

Today was going to be the day my last cavities were fixed.

The plan has changed.

I hopped in the Prius to go to my appointment and things went south from there. Well, that's not entirely accurate. I tried to unlock the Prius and the automatic locks weren't working. The manual key let me in and then the car started blinking angry lights at me. It doesn't start, and I had to reschedule my dental appointment.

Right now, we're waiting on the tow truck. Carrie was doing research while I handled other chores. When there's a task or something stressing me out that I can't resolve right away, I like to start dealing with other tasks and chores in its steed. I'm happy to report I made a dent in the laundry, dishes, and trash before I sat down to write this.

I'm praying for a quick/cheap fix, but since my car is a hybrid I'm not counting on it. I miss when I had basic/cheap cars I could diagnose and fix the problem on myself. All of the electronics and computers in the nicer cars acts as a barrier for people like me.

Whoops! Tow truck is here. Game on.

UPDATE: It turned out the auxiliary battery kicked the bucket and not the multi-thousand dollar hybrid battery. It was still a chunk of cash to get the 'special' Prius battery, replace some blown amps, and whatnot. I know where Dan's first month of rent is going.

My Prius Makes Me a Worse Driver

My Prius makes me a worse driver.

There, I said it.

There's nothing wrong with the car. This problem is not mechanical or electrical in nature. The Prius offers a touch screen display to access different features such as the radio and climate control. One feature calculates miles per gallon. It displays your current usage, averages your mpg every 5 minutes, and a histogram displays your trip data.

I am forever going for the high score. I am now that annoying person on the road who's speed varies more than it should. It's a compulsion. I thought it was mildly distracting at first, but now I can't help myself. I sacrifice steady driving for mileage readily.

Obviously, acceleration and hills kill gas. This means that I don't constantly accelerate and maintain a single speed. Instead, I speed up a little on downhills so that I can let off the gas and slowly lose the built up speed on the uphill. I have to maintain my speed somewhat to stay with traffic, but my eyes constantly wander to the display. I've managed a high score floating around 50 miles per gallon for short periods of time, but short grocery  store runs and speeding up to merge with traffic usually keep my average in the 44-45 mpg range.

There's something in my brain that forces me to do this. Whenever I see that I'm getting less than 25 mpg my foot reflexively comes off the accelerator. The efficiency-oriented region of my brain recoils from the idea that I'm wasting my gas, or maybe it's just the game aspect and I hate thinking I'm 'scoring' that low below what I could be averaging. It's a strange compulsion that never existed back when I was lucky to get 20 mpg in my 5.0 mustang (that was a different kind of fun!).

If you see a Prius varying speed in front of you it may be me. You can honk all you want, but I'll be busy shooting for a new high score.