Walked to the bike store today to pickup my new bike, which I had them assemble. It took me 40 minutes to cover the 2.13 miles from home to the store, and my fitness app says I burned 231 calories doing so. The time includes waiting for stoplights and traffic, as will the biking time.
Rode the new bike from the bike store to work. 2.37 miles, done in 16 minutes, burning 106 calories.
That's 8.9mph average on the bike, vs a hair over 3mph walking. One reason the bike burned so few calories is that it's downhill, 131 feet from start to finish. It's 216 feet difference between home and work. I can really feel the difference on the bike, less so walking. On the other hand, I chose my walking route to have less uphill. Google said that the faster route was 2 minutes shorter, but why be more direct if there's more altitude change.
So, the new bike, with a new tail light, new bell, new riding gloves (was using weight lifting gloves), and a new headlight soon. The new bike is more upright, and therefore more comfortable and also less efficient as the forward lean allows me to use more? muscles (gluteus maximus). It will be interesting to see my return trip time tonight vs previous rides on my old bike. Without the headlight, I brought a headlamp with me to work. I also ordered a cheap flashlight handlebar mount, which arrives in two days. Tomorrow is my early day, so I'll be able to ride home in daylight.
Saturday, June 24, 2017
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
PicoBrew
I received my Pico Brew beer making system last Friday. I got it unpacked and setup over the weekend, and read through the instructions (and continue to reread them). The Pico Brew is pitched as the Keurig of beer. All the ingredients are pre-measured and are mainly contained in a grain pak and a hops pak. You put both paks in the machine, add water and let it go. However, unlike coffee, you don't drink the hot result, instead you then add the yeast and let it ferment for a week or two. After that you rack and carbonate it. Only after all that's done, do you have beer to serve.
I started my first beer Monday night, called Buffalo Sweat. It's a stout. I've done the brewing and hopping, and will be setting it up to ferment tonight.
I have a choice of standard fermentation or fast fermentation, and I've decided to go the standard route. It may take longer, but there's less chance of something going wrong.
Next, I have a choice of Forced Carbonation or Keg Conditioning carbonation. I'm not sure which way to go here. I think I'd like the beer better with Keg Conditioning, but it takes a LOT longer- 36 hours vs 3 weeks. I have more beer paks coming, so I may do this one with Forced Carbonation, and use my other serving keg with another beer to keg condition. I assumed that the beer would be in the fermenting keg for the whole time, and only transferred to the serving keg to drink. I have received an extra keg of both, so I think I'll be ok. My original idea was to have one beer being served while another was fermenting. That would work if I force carbonate, but not if I keg condition.
to be continued......
I started my first beer Monday night, called Buffalo Sweat. It's a stout. I've done the brewing and hopping, and will be setting it up to ferment tonight.
I have a choice of standard fermentation or fast fermentation, and I've decided to go the standard route. It may take longer, but there's less chance of something going wrong.
Next, I have a choice of Forced Carbonation or Keg Conditioning carbonation. I'm not sure which way to go here. I think I'd like the beer better with Keg Conditioning, but it takes a LOT longer- 36 hours vs 3 weeks. I have more beer paks coming, so I may do this one with Forced Carbonation, and use my other serving keg with another beer to keg condition. I assumed that the beer would be in the fermenting keg for the whole time, and only transferred to the serving keg to drink. I have received an extra keg of both, so I think I'll be ok. My original idea was to have one beer being served while another was fermenting. That would work if I force carbonate, but not if I keg condition.
to be continued......
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Vegas food intake
Just got back from a two day trip to Las Vegas. Trip was made to see Craig Ferguson, which was great. I scheduled a full day on either side, which turned out to be too long for us. We ran out of things to easily do on the second day early, and then had to waste time until the evening flight.
On this trip food was interesting and varied. I always try to avoid chains when I travel, but will visit ones that aren't local to me or those that I never visit. That said, here's two days of my eats:
Breakfast- only breakfast food place we could find open and not swarmed with people was Smashburger. I had a Egg, Bacon, and cheese sandwich. Very good, with a few kinds of cheese on it.
Lunch- I had made a reservation months ahead so we could eat a Gida's. I had the Turkey Panino, and their weird version of an Arnold Palmer. I had some marinaded olives as an appetizer, which were unique and very un-olive like. It was a good portion for two or three people to eat, too much for one. Loved the sandwich. The drink had muddled strawberries in it. OK, but would rather have had a simple AP, in a much larger portion. The windows were open, which let in a cool breeze, but also loud cars and emergency vehicle sirens.
Dinner- after the show I went to Pinks and grabbed a hot dog and then to the Earl of Sandwich where I got a tuna melt that I ate the next day for breakfast.
Day 2
Breakfast- as mentioned above, a tuna melt from earl of sandwich out of the fridge in the room. Love Earl's tuna melt, I get it almost every time I'm in Vegas
Lunch- Shake Shack. I wasn't too hungry yet, so had fries and a black and white malted shake. I prefer a vanilla shake with chocolate syrup added. Never knew there was a name for it. Good fries too.
Then I started drinking.
Mojito and a Cuba Libre at Casa Fuente
A Unita Dubhe Imperial Black IPA and a strawberry Moscow Mule with a plate of mini lobster tacos at Vice-Versa. Good sized chunks of lobster on the tacos. Not bad, but anytime lobster is mentioned, too expensive.
Shreaded pork nachos at some Mexican bar at the airport with a Crabbies original alcoholic ginger beer. Good pork and chips, cheese was really bad.
On this trip food was interesting and varied. I always try to avoid chains when I travel, but will visit ones that aren't local to me or those that I never visit. That said, here's two days of my eats:
Breakfast- only breakfast food place we could find open and not swarmed with people was Smashburger. I had a Egg, Bacon, and cheese sandwich. Very good, with a few kinds of cheese on it.
Lunch- I had made a reservation months ahead so we could eat a Gida's. I had the Turkey Panino, and their weird version of an Arnold Palmer. I had some marinaded olives as an appetizer, which were unique and very un-olive like. It was a good portion for two or three people to eat, too much for one. Loved the sandwich. The drink had muddled strawberries in it. OK, but would rather have had a simple AP, in a much larger portion. The windows were open, which let in a cool breeze, but also loud cars and emergency vehicle sirens.
Dinner- after the show I went to Pinks and grabbed a hot dog and then to the Earl of Sandwich where I got a tuna melt that I ate the next day for breakfast.
Day 2
Breakfast- as mentioned above, a tuna melt from earl of sandwich out of the fridge in the room. Love Earl's tuna melt, I get it almost every time I'm in Vegas
Lunch- Shake Shack. I wasn't too hungry yet, so had fries and a black and white malted shake. I prefer a vanilla shake with chocolate syrup added. Never knew there was a name for it. Good fries too.
Then I started drinking.
Mojito and a Cuba Libre at Casa Fuente
A Unita Dubhe Imperial Black IPA and a strawberry Moscow Mule with a plate of mini lobster tacos at Vice-Versa. Good sized chunks of lobster on the tacos. Not bad, but anytime lobster is mentioned, too expensive.
Shreaded pork nachos at some Mexican bar at the airport with a Crabbies original alcoholic ginger beer. Good pork and chips, cheese was really bad.
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Day trip part 2
I drove the trip from Northern Colorado to Colorado Springs and back.
60-65 degrees the whole time. I kept the car in Insane, and Range Mode.
No A/C or heat on the way down, had it on at 68 degrees on the way back.
As I left home, the car said I'd be at 40% when I got to my
destination, but it was at 45% when I arrived. I assume that extra 5% was due either
to me not using climate control or the car not being used to highway
travel. The estimate adjusts as you drive but I wasn't watching it.
With that extra charge, I decided to forgo charging in Springs or at Park Meadows and instead drove up to the Denver East Supercharger. No other Teslas there. I had 18% charge when I pulled in. Grabbed lunch at UNOs Chicago Pizza, and the car was at 97% when I returned.
I arrived home at 73%, 288 watts per mile for the whole trip of 274 miles. I never see under 300 watts per mile in my normal urban driving (so far). This bodes well for future trips.
I had range anxiety on the way down, but none on the way back to Denver. I regularly drive my ICE car with less than a quarter tank, but I think I'd be nervous about doing that with the Tesla. I think that's because a quarter of a 400 mile range car is 100 miles, while a quarter of 250 mile range Tesla is 62.5 miles. I assume the more types of driving I do, the more I'll begin to trust the computer GPS estimates on range. I'm driving to Las Vegas in late August, and wanted to get a 'long' trip under my belt before then.
One thing I think also kept the watts down was using the adaptive cruise control. In my old car I'd set it for, say, 75mph. If I wanted to keep it activated, I'd need to switch lanes to pass slower cars, and would still need to brake and resume when there was slow traffic in all the lanes. With TACC (traffic adaptive cruise control), I would set it and it would automatically go at the speed i set or slow down if a car in front of me was going slower. It allowed me to relax more while driving, and put me in a mood where I didn't need to be constantly jockeying for position.
With that extra charge, I decided to forgo charging in Springs or at Park Meadows and instead drove up to the Denver East Supercharger. No other Teslas there. I had 18% charge when I pulled in. Grabbed lunch at UNOs Chicago Pizza, and the car was at 97% when I returned.
I arrived home at 73%, 288 watts per mile for the whole trip of 274 miles. I never see under 300 watts per mile in my normal urban driving (so far). This bodes well for future trips.
I had range anxiety on the way down, but none on the way back to Denver. I regularly drive my ICE car with less than a quarter tank, but I think I'd be nervous about doing that with the Tesla. I think that's because a quarter of a 400 mile range car is 100 miles, while a quarter of 250 mile range Tesla is 62.5 miles. I assume the more types of driving I do, the more I'll begin to trust the computer GPS estimates on range. I'm driving to Las Vegas in late August, and wanted to get a 'long' trip under my belt before then.
One thing I think also kept the watts down was using the adaptive cruise control. In my old car I'd set it for, say, 75mph. If I wanted to keep it activated, I'd need to switch lanes to pass slower cars, and would still need to brake and resume when there was slow traffic in all the lanes. With TACC (traffic adaptive cruise control), I would set it and it would automatically go at the speed i set or slow down if a car in front of me was going slower. It allowed me to relax more while driving, and put me in a mood where I didn't need to be constantly jockeying for position.
Saturday, March 21, 2015
Day Trip pt1
Tomorrow I'm going on my first trip in the Tesla that's longer than the car's range. A drive down to Colorado Springs is 127 miles. EVTripPlanner.com says with hills and such, at legal speeds (no speeding), with my weight, on a 65 degree day, it will rated 137 miles of electricity. I can't do a round trip with that, having a range of about 250 miles total. The plan will be to drive down without stopping, a estimated 2 hours and 20 minutes. Have lunch, have the meeting, and drive back to Denver, stopping at Park Meadows to recharge at the Tesla Supercharger there. Go to the OTHER Denver Supercharger, meet a friend and grab dinner. Drive home and plug back in.
That total distance before recharging is 181.3 miles, with a rated distance of 184 miles. Should be no problem at all. Now, if I set cruise control at speed limit + 5 mph, the rated miles goes up to 201 miles of electricity used. Still shouldn't be a problem
If instead I drive back directly to the Denver East Supercharger, it's 199.3 miles, and a rated 193 miles. I am going to do this as it's still easily done given the nice weather expected tomorrow. If the weather had been cold, my mileage goes down, and I'd stop at the Park Meadows Supercharger. If estimates are off and I'm using more power than expected I can stop at Park Meadows.
No idea why EV Trip Planner says my rated miles would be less than the distance as I end up at the Charger as it's 500 ft higher than where I start.
Update after the trip.
That total distance before recharging is 181.3 miles, with a rated distance of 184 miles. Should be no problem at all. Now, if I set cruise control at speed limit + 5 mph, the rated miles goes up to 201 miles of electricity used. Still shouldn't be a problem
If instead I drive back directly to the Denver East Supercharger, it's 199.3 miles, and a rated 193 miles. I am going to do this as it's still easily done given the nice weather expected tomorrow. If the weather had been cold, my mileage goes down, and I'd stop at the Park Meadows Supercharger. If estimates are off and I'm using more power than expected I can stop at Park Meadows.
No idea why EV Trip Planner says my rated miles would be less than the distance as I end up at the Charger as it's 500 ft higher than where I start.
Update after the trip.
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Tesla, two weeks in
It's a car. It's my car. It's my daily use vehicle regardless of weather (OK, in warm weather I might ride a motorcycle or bicycle to work). I say this as the most asked question I'm asked about it is: "did you drive it today?"
As far as the vehicle itself: it's a car. That is, I'm not using it any differently than any other car I've owned. I don't expect it to be any different unless I plan on driving more than 200 miles before getting home.
As anything new, it has features that are new to me, and features missing from old vehicles I had.
I use two features more than any of the others, so far.
1- remote preconditioning. I can turn on the climate control for the car remotely from my iPhone. With a software update, I've activated smart preconditioning which is designed to learn my work schedule and automatically do the heat and cooling without me needing to anything. I wonder if my schedule, not being a single set of hours for the whole week (M, TU, TH 12-9; WE 12-5; FR, SA 12-10; SU 12-6), will confuse the system making it fail to work correctly.
2- bluetooth media streaming. It doesn't work as seamlessly as hooking my iPod up to my Dodge, but I don't need to constantly hook the iPod to a PC to download new podcasts or delete listened to podcasts. I'm carrying a iPhone charge cable in the car in case a long trip saps the phone's power, and there's 2 USB ports in the car.
As far as the vehicle itself: it's a car. That is, I'm not using it any differently than any other car I've owned. I don't expect it to be any different unless I plan on driving more than 200 miles before getting home.
As anything new, it has features that are new to me, and features missing from old vehicles I had.
I use two features more than any of the others, so far.
1- remote preconditioning. I can turn on the climate control for the car remotely from my iPhone. With a software update, I've activated smart preconditioning which is designed to learn my work schedule and automatically do the heat and cooling without me needing to anything. I wonder if my schedule, not being a single set of hours for the whole week (M, TU, TH 12-9; WE 12-5; FR, SA 12-10; SU 12-6), will confuse the system making it fail to work correctly.
2- bluetooth media streaming. It doesn't work as seamlessly as hooking my iPod up to my Dodge, but I don't need to constantly hook the iPod to a PC to download new podcasts or delete listened to podcasts. I'm carrying a iPhone charge cable in the car in case a long trip saps the phone's power, and there's 2 USB ports in the car.
Monday, January 05, 2015
Tesla trip planning, the new normal?
100 years ago, you needed to seriously plan a car trip, both because roads weren't in existence, and because the infrastructure of gas stations was sparse. Today, you follow the superslab interstate and there are gas stations every exit. With the Tesla, you still have the roads but need to seriously plan your trip based on chargers, and mainly, Tesla's Superchargers. These are placed so that travel is possible long distance, but because they're designed to handle the S60, they need to be placed closer together than needed for the S85.
Google says a car trip from Colorado to Vegas is 11:15 hrs, 800 miles.
EV Trip Planner says the same trip is 12 hrs 30 minutes.
This can't be right. 6 half hour stops vs 2 ten minute stops. I seem to remember doing it in 11hrs without the time change. If we assume both gas stops are 30 minutes (which they aren't, but it makes math easier), the Tesla should take 2 hours longer to make the trip. That would be 11hrs vs 13 hrs. If we assume 20 minute charging stops, that's an hour less time.
The lower half of the Tesla battery charges three times faster than the upper half.
The Tesla should stop 6 times, only skipping one charger (Glenwood Springs). It could stop less times, but because its batteries charge fastest when empty and slow down as they fill, it's actually faster to fill more times for less charge. However, if I'm stopping for lunch or any other longer break, I'll let it charge and take advantage of the longer range.
The ICE car will stop twice minimum, as range is not 400 miles. It will use 80 gallons of gas round trip, which will cost (at $3/gallon) $240.
It will be a few years until electrics are on par with gas cars in range and recharging rate, but until then this is the new normal for electric car owners.
Google says a car trip from Colorado to Vegas is 11:15 hrs, 800 miles.
EV Trip Planner says the same trip is 12 hrs 30 minutes.
This can't be right. 6 half hour stops vs 2 ten minute stops. I seem to remember doing it in 11hrs without the time change. If we assume both gas stops are 30 minutes (which they aren't, but it makes math easier), the Tesla should take 2 hours longer to make the trip. That would be 11hrs vs 13 hrs. If we assume 20 minute charging stops, that's an hour less time.
The lower half of the Tesla battery charges three times faster than the upper half.
The Tesla should stop 6 times, only skipping one charger (Glenwood Springs). It could stop less times, but because its batteries charge fastest when empty and slow down as they fill, it's actually faster to fill more times for less charge. However, if I'm stopping for lunch or any other longer break, I'll let it charge and take advantage of the longer range.
The ICE car will stop twice minimum, as range is not 400 miles. It will use 80 gallons of gas round trip, which will cost (at $3/gallon) $240.
It will be a few years until electrics are on par with gas cars in range and recharging rate, but until then this is the new normal for electric car owners.
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