Author: Jon

This thing is going to look funny

Inhabitat » TRANSPORTATION TUESDAY: The Smart Car

The Smart car is a tiny subcompact vehicle, only about 9 feet long and 5 feet wide. The three cylinder engine has fantastic fuel consumption, getting 42 miles per gallon, and has a top speed of 90mph.

So, those of you not in the United States, or who have traveled to some of those other countries who realize that not everyone needs a gigantic car may have seen the Smart car, about the size of two defensive linemen.  Seeing them parked on the street looks a little ridiculous even when the cars around them are smaller than your typical American behemoth, so imagine this car parked between a Yukon Denali and chromed-out H2.

I ‘m a little disappointed that it will both cost $11,000+ and get only 42 miles to the gallon, but the bigger picture is that Daimler thinks this thing will sell here.  That means that we’re starting to see people thinking differently about transportation and conservation and things like that.  Hopefully seeing these tiny things driving around will make more people reconsider buying an 8-passenger SUV to drive to work alone.

Im one of those DC snow car people now

When I first moved to the DC Metro area back in 2001, I was living in Fairfax, VA, and working on Wisconsin Ave NW.  I used to park on a little un-zoned residential street.  One winter, either 2001 or 2002, I forget, we had a big snow that was on the ground for a couple of weeks.  We got 4-6 inches, and then it just stayed cold.  Most of the cars in the neighborhood just didn’t move.  For weeks, they just sat, covered in snow.

Now, today we got our first snow since we moved to the city, and my car is still covered.  I expect it will be covered tomorrow.  I mean, it’s supposed to get up close to 40 degrees tomorrow, so there’s not much point in clearing the car.  In fact, since street cleaning has been suspended for the winter, I don’t expect to touch the car during the week until March or so.

Well, tomorrow we have errands to run in Virginia.  But other than that.

It’s funny how quickly my attitude about driving has changed now that, for the most part, I don’t have to do it.  Going a day without driving used to be really strange, and now it’s the norm.

Anyway, the snow’s kind of nice.  My commute is only outdoors for three blocks to Metro, and then a minute where the Yellow Line train goes over the Potomac into Virginia.  So the snow isn’t really a concern.  I do have to take some trash out tonight, though.

Bread is delicious

So, the bread I made last night was fantastic. It’s the kind of stuff you can just sit and eat. We haven’t even tried toasting it or putting butter or anything else on it. I’m all ready to go out and find a good recipe for some fancier bread. Some 100% whole wheat, maybe some grains and other bits of goodness. Maybe some raisin bread, although the wife doesn’t love raisin bread.

I would recommend that anyone who is disappointed by the quality of bread in the grocery store (Or the omnipresence of everyone’s favorite, high-fructose corn syrup) try baking his or her own. Yes, it helps a lot to have a Kitchen Aid mixer, and I know these are not cheap, but you don’t HAVE to have one, and it’ll probably save you money in the long run if you actually bake your own bread regularly.

The instructions for baking, incidentally, are very detailed and easy to follow.  We had to look up how to prepare the yeast, which wasn’t explained, but that wasn’t too hard.

Doing a little baking

The Simple Dollar » Homemade Bread: Cheap, Delicious, Healthy, and Easier Than You Think

It does take time, but once you get used to it, most food preparation doesn’t take much more time than going to the store, buying it, taking it home, popping it out of the package, and following the directions.

Bread!So I’m baking bread tonight. I found the above link somewhere, Lifehacker I think, a while back. And it seemed like a good idea. So here it is. It smells delicious. We have to wait until it cools to slice it, apparently.

I’ll tell you all how it tastes tomorrow.

Snow? Really?

So, I drive to work less than once a month.  I take the Metro almost all the time, but our corporate office is out in Manassas, and so on the infrequent days I have to go out there, I drive.  Today is the first time since I started at this position in March that I drove to the office where I actually work because I’m going to Manassas a little later today.

Coincidentally, today is the first day of the winter that we’re getting snow.  Now, it’s just flurries, and shouldn’t affect anything, but seriously.  The ONE DAY I drive to work, we get snow.  That’s just absurd.  That, I think, is the most convincing evidence of a supreme being that I’ve ever heard – there must be a god because he/she/it has a sense of humor.

Well, Supreme Being, if it’s not too much trouble, can I get some rain on Saturday so our flag football game gets cancelled?  We’re really short on players this week (including myself), and it’s the first week of playoffs, and I’d really like a rescheduling.

A Tribute to Sean

We will miss you, SeanThe pregame tribute to Sean Taylor was really pretty moving.  Watching the entire stadium waving the #21 towels that they gave out on the way in while they showed a slide show on the scoreboard was pretty intense.

There was a pretty huge ovation, too, when they ran the first defensive play with only ten players.

It’s too bad the team couldn’t come away with a win, but that was hardly the defense’s fault.  Since the margin of victory was less than the safety allowed when the offensive line decided to just ignore everyone while Campbell dropped back in the end zone, and we managed almost no offense against the 31st ranked defense in the NFL.

Sean Taylor tribute

So, I haven’t heard all the details.  But it looks like Taylor wasn’t doing anything wrong, which is both better and worse.  If he really had turned his life around, it’s an even bigger tragedy that he died so young.

Anyway, a ticket to tomorrow’s game just fell into my lap, so I’ll get to see the tribute and pick up a #21 towel that they’re giving out to everyone.

I’m excited to go, although that’s mostly because I haven’t been to a game in years.  An old college roommate has season tickets, and when we lived together, I used to go to some of the games with him. But we kind of lost touch after I graduated, and I’m not on his invite list anymore.

So, it should be cool.  It’s definitely a winnable game against Buffalo, although we haven’t played too well against that division this year.  Two overtime wins against the miserable Jets and Dolphins, and that utter embarrassment against the Patriots.

I’m going to Metro there, which I’ve never done before.  Apparently there’s a relatively new Blue Line stop that’s less than a mile away.  That should be a disaster after the game, but that’s fine.  Getting out of FedEx is always an ordeal.

But it will all be worth it to spend the day yelling and drinking beer.

Nano is done

At 7:21PM Eastern, I saved my 2007 Nano novel for the last time.  50,262 words, according to the word counting robots at the website.  I’m happier with it than I was before, but the plot is still kind of strange, and I think my characters are motivated more by wanting to advance the story than by any sort of realistically human motivations.  But that’s okay.

Now I can go back to my normal routine.  There are a bunch of things I thought of doing in November that I’ve had to put off.  Now I can not think of them again until next November, when I’ll remember that I said I would do them in December or January.

Anyway, it feels good to finish again.