Thursday, June 19, 2014

Ten Thousand Miles

The odometer in the Fiat just passed 10,000 miles so I thought I would take some time to show you the anal-retentive way I keep track of my mileage since Day 1.  First a little background.

When I rolled off the lot in my Fiat 500 it had 73 miles on it.  It was given to me with a full tank so for the purpose of this exercise we can consider 73 = 0 in counting the miles I have driven.  Here is the first chart I would like to share showing mpg for each the 33 tanks of gas that I have used…

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The Fiat 500 was listed as 34 mpg in town and 40 mpg on the highway.  Most my driving is in town so I was a bit disappointed with the initial mpg that I was getting.  I was hoping things would improve as the car was broken in and the trend line would indicate that it is. I have hit 35 mpg on 3 occasions.

Almost as important to me is the cost per mile which can be seen below for each tank…

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This is a bit deceptive since not only mileage affects this but also the price per gallon…

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So, as my miles / gallon increase, unfortunately so has the price / gallon.  This does allows for a steady price / mile cost though.

Some other information that may only be important to me is the cost per day.  I have spend $1,016 so far on gas over 289 days for a price / day of $3.52.  My car payment originally was $8.83 per day (I have since then moved my loan to my credit union for a lower interest rate and shorter term making it $9.70 per day now).  I will not bore you (further) with my insurance costs.  I have only had the maintenance costs of an oil change and that sums up my costs.  I am on pace to drive 12,700 miles for the first 12 months though that will go up as the son and I are heading to Indiana with a brief stop in Tennessee on the way.  That should add close to 2,000 miles.

If you want a copy of my super duper spreadsheet that allows me to track all these things just leave me a comment.

Jon

Friday, June 13, 2014

The Listening Project–Supplemental Blog 11

So I picked up a few CDs recently from GoHastings.  I went way over my average $1 of spend per CD (probably averaged $4 each with shipping) but I was rewarding myself for finally starting to lose some weight.  I have been walking quite a bit and I needed some new tunes for my mp3 player to motivate me.

# Artist Album Date Listened Again?

1190

Chevelle

Sci-Fi Crimes

3/28/2014

Yes

1191

Chevelle

Vena Sera

3/31/2014

Yes

1192

Megadeth

Youthanasia

4/10/2014

Yes

1193

Megadeth

Risk

4/11/2014

Yes

1194

Megadeth

The World Needs a Hero

4/14/2014

Yes

1195

Megadeth

The System Has Failed

5/2/2014

Yes

1196

Megadeth

United Abominations

5/5/2014

Yes

1197

Megadeth

Endgame

5/6/2014

Yes

1198

Megadeth

TH1RT3EN

5/7/2014

Yes

1199

Megadeth

Super Collider

5/9/2014

Yes

1200

Pillar

For The Love Of The Game

5/19/2014

Yes

1201

Randy Stonehill

Paradise Sky

5/20/2014

Yes

1202

Stone Temple Pilots

Tiny Music…

5/21/2014

Yes

1203

Yes

90125

6/9/2014

Yes

  • Chevelle “Sci-Fi Crimes” & “Vena Sera”:  Don’t you hate it when bands change their sound from album to album?  Well, with Chevelle you don’t have that problem.
  • Megadeth (all CDs above): I probably should not have bought all of these at the same time but rather just a few at a time over a period of months.  Being angry and singing / screaming about it seems more believable from a 25 year old Dave Mustaine than a 45 year old Dave Mustaine.   All in all though I like all of these CDs.  I am only missing their first 2 releases to have their complete catalog of studio releases.  I did not care much for their sound before their 4th album anyway so I have all that I want.
  • Randy Stonehill “Paradise Sky”: I was very shocked to find this on the $1 rack at Half Priced Books but there it was.  This is Randy re-recording stuff from this first few releases (circa 1970 through 1981).  The front cover of the CD says “Official Soundtrack to the movie FALLEN ANGEL” which I have never heard of but appears to be a documentary about Larry Norman (who produced 2 of Randy’s early LPs).  There is a long and possibly sordid tale about a great fallout between Randy and Larry.
  • Yes “90125”: Buying this broke a rule for me.  It was a whopping $5 (at Amazon) but I used it as a filler item in my cart to get to the limit of free shipping.  This is the deluxe re-issue that contains my favorite version of “Leave It” (the a cappella
    version).

So I shot past 1200 CDs without blinking.  I will admit also to ordering (3) LPs recently but this blog is specific to CDs so I will likely not blog about them.  The LPs (from Bourgeios Tagg and The Call) were never released on CD that I could find.

Jon