Lexus es300h update
June 11, 2019
As I drive the car repeatedly over routine round trips, I am gradually forming some conclusions about its mileage performance.
1. Mileage is lousy when it is cold. Until it gets three miles from home, it uses from a bit over 9.0 L/100 km to as high as 12.0. A trip to Newboro to bail out the fishing boat, for example, starts at 9.1 and over the 14 mile round trip gradually reduces to an average while coming in the driveway of 5.8 L/100 km. That’s 48.7 Imperial miles per gallon, 41 U.S.
2. Starting while warm, the car maintained that same 5.8 L/100 km average throughout a trip to Kingston for shopping and back today, about 100 miles of heavily travelled two lane and a bit of four-lane highway and assorted city streets and parking lots.
3. From a cold start the trip to Rosebridge Manor in Easton’s Corners, a sixty-eight mile expedition over little-travelled roads and frequent hamlets with speed limits and stop signs, the average steadily decreases from a bit over 9 to a final average as I use battery power through Forfar, up Young’s Hill Road, and in our long driveway, of 5.1 L/100 km. Usually traffic allows me to poke along at 80 km/hr on this stretch, again with frequent coasts through villages on electric. That’s 55 miles per Imperial gallon, 46 U.S.
Driving to Mosport
May 31, 2019
Our son decided that today would be the day to take his parents for rides around the track at the Canadian Tire Motorsports Park near Bowmanville. Members of the Porsche Club of Canada annually participate in a Drives for Smiles event where they invite the parents of children suffering from Down’s syndrome to the track for rides in racing cars, complete with pit crews and safety harness, but not helmets. This year PCC considered the seven-year history of the event, but ruled that there would be no passing, so the tours went in parade formation, but the cars still moved quickly around the tight track. Occasional family members and guests of the volunteer drivers did find their way into the cars along with the six hundred kids who attended.
I had only worked on Charlie’s BMW at the shop, and had never encountered it at speed. It’s the real deal on a track like Mosport. The engine is strong and the car is very light. It turns in eagerly, slides the tail out in a very controllable manner, and chases down much more powerful cars in tight corners.
Charlie responded to my comment about plotting a line through a corner before you can actually see it. “It’s more a trajectory you plan.”
We had left the dog with a sitter in Westport and hit the road in the 2014 Lexus es300h. Earlier in the week on a round trip to Westport the car’s computer recorded 4.8 L/100 km. That’s 58 miles per Imperial gallon, but on a limited sample size.
Today’s run up the 401 for four hours at 120 km was likely to show much higher fuel consumption than the slow wander on County Road 42. The readout hovered at 6.0, but slowly dropped to 5.9L/100 km for the duration of the trip. 5.9 is 48 miles per imperial gallon of regular gasoline. I think it’s 39 miles per U.S. gal. My new VW Beetle gave us excellent gas mileage in 1973. It got up as high as 32 miles per gallon.
They’re not making cars the way they used to. This Lexus hybrid weighs twice what the Beetle weighed, offers climate control and luxurious seating for five, yet uses substantially less fuel than the ’70s mileage icon.
Jody Wilson-Baybould and Jane Phillpot announce their plan to run as independents in the federal election.
May 28, 2019
These dissident Liberals should have paid attention to the historical origins of democracy before blasting their powder half-cocked. The idea of democracy emerged in the 18th century concurrently with the development of science and the invention of the pocket watch.
The opposing-spring principle was the revolutionary idea that an object could be held in place indefinitely by opposing forces such as a pair of springs. It was not a difficult jump to the assumption that an idea could find balance between a number of conflicting points of view.
Jody, Jane, this is what politics in a liberal democracy is. That partisanship which we all dislike is the concrete on which our society is built. It’s not pretty, but without it, structures lose their durability. Why do you think JT put an end to democratic reform? He wanted to end the honeymoon with voters? No. He realized that the way things were going, Canada would end up atomized politically by extreme fragmentation until the only ones able to exercise political will would be the theocrats, anti-abortionists, and animal rights groups, or a dictator emerged.
Government must attract idealists for their ideas and energy, but it is essential that it govern. Trudeau has said that no society would leave billions of dollars worth of oil in the ground, and an issue involving 9000 jobs in a province is a big deal to politicians, regardless of the messy reputation of the corporation.
Jody Wilson-Raybould had a fine run at her portrayal of Antigone, but it’s Justin Trudeau’s Creon who is still obliged to restore order for the good of society following the disruption. Jane Philpott seems to have fallen into the role of Haemon, Creon’s son and Antigone’s fiancee, who insists upon entombing himself with Antigone when Creon is forced by his role to execute her for her repeated threats to his rule.
And now the tragedy has played itself out. Canadians have been morally uplifted and edified. We are better than we were before this spectacle of wasted greatness. But now it’s time that they leave the stage, not end up a burlesque footnote to one of Canada’s most striking political dramas.
Morels are up.
May 27, 2019
The last time I walked the property I came home with three small dog ticks, so my wife suggested pointedly that I cut down on the bringing home of arachnid pets if I wished to continue to eat as well as exercise.
To that end, today I mowed a one-mile path, 5′ wide, on a route which by and large avoided overhanging pine trees. Then I walked same route, only to discover a location where I had run over an entire patch of white morels.
Driving a hybrid: first impressions
May 18, 2019
Yesterday I picked up a 2014 Lexus es300h in Hamilton and drove it 375 km home through holiday-weekend traffic. Then my wife and I returned to Kingston this morning to collect my Porsche Cayenne from the train terminal. The shock was in starting Ruby up. My faithful companion for the last three years had suddenly become a creaky old car.
Driving the hybrid is an entirely different mechanical/gaming experience than I’ve had before. It’s quite interesting on several levels, and promotes a whole new set of bad behaviours. For example this morning I cruised up the hill through Morton at 100 km in a 60 zone so I didn’t have to get out of “eco” and re-accelerate. On the 401 yesterday I tended to hesitate a bit too long when overtaking to avoid getting out of cruise control for the same reason. The car has lots of zip in sport mode, but that lowers your score on the efficiency graph. 120 km/hr remained the optimal pace for travel on the busy road, but slower traffic brought its own rewards in a higher mileage score.
Virgin owes me $503.28.
May 5, 2019
An item on my news feed today led to a morning of interaction with Virgin Mobility, culminating in a reduced monthly rate for our two cell phones.
Global News led with an article explaining how the CRTC deliberated, and then allowed mobile phone network providers in Canada to fail to notify subscribers of the expiration of their sales contracts at the end of twenty-four months, for example, and the subsequent reduction to which the customers are entitled at that time. In our case the monthly add-on amount for my wife’s new iPhone was $29. and change. The contract to pay that portion expired in November of 2017.
In the interim until Global informed me about the potential class action lawsuit against the Big Three, the Bell subsidiary Virgin has overcharged me $503.28. When confronted with this information a nervous woman put me on hold a couple of times, but eventually offered a new “loyalty” plan for $35 per phone per month with unlimited minutes. This is effective on the next billing, though I have no written information yet on the unadvertised plan, and Virgin’s most recent mail communication with me was in French. When I asked for an English version, the operator promised to send it right away, but that was months ago.
The writing of this was just interrupted by a series of texts from the Virgin computer asking for feedback. In summary, I wrote that I might recommend the phone service to a friend, though anyone who successfully cons me out of $500 had better be either a relative or a Member of Parliament, and Virgin is neither of these.
We’ll see how that class-action suit goes.
Canadians can pay off their mobile phones, but their bills might not drop. Here’s why
UPDATE: 23 September, 2019
Virgin owes me another 79.10. A problem with Virgin’s billing system is that they send an email early in the month identifying the amount the account holder owes. A paper bill appears much later, though they try to push one to pay online by logging into their website. I can’t do that. I have never done it, and I don’t remember the password. I just pay through my bank.
They also send a due notice to my wife. We share the account.
Anyway, a demand for payment in August caused me to pay 79.10 on August 6th. My bank record shows that I had made a payment to Virgin on July 25th, and another on August 26th. There are no identifiers on the requests for payment I receive by email. How do I convince the friendly lamebrains at Virgin that I have overpaid once again?
Don’t trust these guys. If they can get you to overpay, they’ll take the money and run.
Fiery Cross Reef in the South China Sea
April 24, 2019
Years ago I used to play video games in the SIM series where one methodically built homesteads or cities, or even whole civilizations. A look at Fiery Cross Reef, South China Sea, on Google Earth shows the ultimate SIM game: build a whole city, including a 2-mile airport runway system, on a sand bar in the middle of the South China Sea. Memories of SIM Civilization quickly morph into the recollections of the obsessions of various Bond villains over the years. And Google Earth brings it all to the screen of your laptop, whenever you want to look at it.
It’s not live, though. The version I saw was filmed in 2014. Four-storey buildings seem complete. Others are under construction. I’d love to see updates. It would be like looking at a time-lapse ant farm.
I realize that the construction of this project is a major disruptor in world politics, but my first reaction to a look at it was fascination at the detail that I could see in the satellite photos, and admiration for the organization which could mount such a massive project in the middle of nowhere.
Ice-out 2019
April 20, 2019
I just read on Facebook that the ice cleared Newboro Lake on April 18, 2019. Bill Curwood of Ebb Island is the winner of this year’s ice-out contest. My map indicates that Ebb Island lies just north of Brothers Island and east of the channel marker in that area.
the Walnut Diary 