zero becomes one
reckless energy springs forth
a force in the world
our time here is short
we all want to feel alive
while there is still light
then we stop breathing
all at once or bit by bit
one becomes zero
Archive for the 'Energy' Category
Having a Prius seems to be affecting my thought processes concerning energy conservation.
This past weekend (Memorial Day weekend) I did a fair amount of yard work. Mowing, weeding, trimming, weedwacking and “cultivating,” for lack of a better term (installing iron trellises for our three productive yet unweidly rosebushes and our two baby climbing vines). My upper forearms are sore from repeated attempts at starting the weedwacker, because the gas inside it had become stale. My lower back is sore from all of the combined efforts of carrying, bending, and pulling.
I got to thinking about whether it would be easier and more efficient to use electric tools. One of my neighbors has an electric mower. I just can’t visualize lugging an extension cord around the entire yard while mowing or weedwacking. I also can’t imagine that these electric tools have the same horsepower as their ozone-depleting, smog-emitting, carbon-eating equivalents. Is there such a thing as a 6HP electric mower that will kick the ass of giant two-foot clumps of grass that I’ve neglected?
Then, I came home with a flat last night. The Prius was kind enough to tell me about it on the dashboard indicator. The light looks something like this: (_!_) — which is one of the symbols used to indicate an ASS in chat for old-school net junkies like myself. As in, “Look, ASS, I’m not going to go much further unless you put some air in your tires.” I pulled into a gas station in stafford, and it was completely flat. Odd. I filled it to 33, the recommended pressure, and the indicator didn’t go away.
I drove the rest of the way home, it still looked fine, then I went hunting for my portable compressor/inflator, which seems to have disappeared. Ran down to Wally World to pick up a new one for $30, and it’s CORDLESS. Meaning, you can either run it off the 12V DC power supply in the vehicle (it used to be called a cigarette lighter port, but now that smoking is less cool, vehicles are no longer built standard with ashtrays — you have to pay EXTRA for the “Smoker’s Package”) or you can charge it in your garage and use it cordlessly, which will come in REALLY handy for vacations when I have to blow up all of the pool toys on day 0.
