Data

taaarlight0 miles per hour. Stopped at the Stadium / Liberty light. Loooooonnnng light and just turned red for me. Plenty of time to take a pic.

19 degrees F. No comment.

16.7 miles on the trip odometer for the week so far. I reset this every Monday morning because I am a Nerd, not because I am tracking gas mileage. I don’t have a clue what mpg the Ninja gets and I don’t really care. Close yer eyes and pump. 100 years from now, we won’t be commuting via automotive vee-hickles or maybe we won’t be commuting at all. Hopefully the road infrastructure will be maintained well enough that people like me who *like* to drive will still be able to go out and drive. More likely, driving and owning a car will be the privilege of a few elite 1% automobile aficionados who will pay beaucoup bucks for speshul hand-crafted autos and to maintain certain scenic by-ways so they can drive them. That’s as far as I’ll go with my sci-fi book idea. You’ll have to contact my agent [snort].

Engine temp? Warming up but not quite there yet. No heated seats in this thing but they are cloth so it doesn’t really matter. Heated steering wheel? Hmmmm. I know they make those. Definitely snow-mos have them these days. I learned that from a snow-mo gal up at the brewery at Tahq in February when it was 20 below zero or whatever.

Gas-o-leen… The GG might say this is a full tank. It’s pretty good but I will top it off this weekend even if it doesn’t go below half a tank by then and it may not. I’m not afraid I’ll run out of gas. I just don’t like to get low enough that I have to make a stop on the way to or from work. For the record, I have *never* run out of gas. Ever. Once in the Jurassic Age, I was driving my cute little Ford Fiesta to the yooperland and I *was* very low on gas and the engine started sort of “stuttering” or whatever. Like I was out of gas. I got gas. I made it to the parents’ house. But I also hadn’t been out of gas. I was experiencing carburetor ice-up. Who knew? My old WWII pilot dad knew. It was a characteristic of that vee-hickle and boy oh boy it could be a pain in the *ss.

Cruise control: on. At least I think that that green “Cruise main” light says that it’s on. I think that means I can use cruise control if I want to. I have never used cruise control in the Ninja. To me, manual transmission and cruise control do not compute. What am I missing? That said, the last time I used the cruise control in any vee-hickle we’ve owned was the Exxon Tanker Valdez (1989 red minivan). I did not get along well with cruise control in that vee-hickle and I have not used it since in any vee-hickle ever. I would rather control my speed with my foot, not to mention my eyes and ears and instincts. It occurs to me that I could make some kind of a Cruz joke here but I’ll refrain.

Tachometer. I guess that idling at a loooonnnnng stoplight renders 1000 revolutions per minute. I don’t totally understand this (speak slowly I’m blonde). Brother [engineer], where art thou?

One more thing. That [grrrrr] yellow light? You know what that means don’t you? No, I doesn’t mean that I have a flat tire today. I could probably drive with that frickin’ light on for six months and not have a flat tire. On the other hand, I could run over a blasted nail and that light would come on because flat tire. I hate dashboard lights in general. I particularly hate those yellow lights that alert you to things that may or may not be a problem. If you are not mechanically inclined (or INTERESTED in maintaining your car in your driveway), you have to find someone to help you out. I have about 5,000 more words about this but I’ll quit while I’m ahead. You’re welcome!

2 Responses to “Data”

  1. Margaret Says:

    19 brrr! My 2002 SUV doesn’t have many gauges or fancy do dahs in it, which is fine with me. I’ve never run out of gas either; blame that on the ’70s and waiting in gas lines with my mom. I still get a bit nervous when my tank gets to 1/4.

  2. jane Says:

    my thoughts — my next car will have heated seats – LOVE THOSE! Cruise control – love it! for the drive north. The parental units used to say that I would put the cruise on as soon as I got out of the driveway. not exactly true, but I love it on the highway, especially the further north you get – less traffic. around Flint – not so much.

    and I have run out of gas, I think once. It was back in the Tech days, a bunch of us piled into a car and drove over to Wisconsin to drink legally and visit someone’s parents I think, then our designated driver piled us back in the car at the end of the night and drove back while the rest of us slept. Then about 40 miles outside of Houghton when the gas light had been on a while, going up an incline the engine died. yes – out of gas. It was something like 4 or 5 in the morning and we luckily found a house with a light on (nurse getting ready for her shift) and she let us use her phone. College was full of new experiences, wasn’t it? 😉