Mark and his girlfriend Marie arrived last night at around 2AM. Picked them up from the train station, and stayed up until the wee hours of the morning chatting. Got up reasonably early today and explored Seattle. A full day. Dropping them off very early tomorrow to catch the Victoria Clipper. It was fun to reminisce, and I was glad to take my mind off work, if ever briefly. Now however, I'm back at it.
The most efficient way to drive a car, if you want to maximize gas mileage, is to accelerate briefly, then put your car in neutral and coast to a stop. Then you accelerate again, shift into neutral, and coast to a stop. Driving that way, you can get amazing gas mileage, like 80 mpg. However, it would take you hours to travel even short distances. A reasonable compromise is traveling at a good clip, say 55 mph, and just holding it steady there.
Right now I'm turning myself on and off, flooring it, accelerating off of stoplights, braking hard...I can only imagine the kind of gas mileage I'm getting out of myself. I'm ready for an extended vacation far from the maddening world.
I take care of my car about as well as I take care of myself. Right now my car is filthy, covered in dirt. That's about how well I'm treating myself as well. I just realized that today.