Last week I described my trip home with the few words “on Monday I drove home”; however, as I said in the previous sentence, I wrote that on Sunday night. As it turned out, the trip back was not so easy; when I tried to start my truck in Shreveport after returning the rental I had taken to New Orleans, it behaved as though it was out of gas despite having nearly a full tank. None of Grace’s suggestions resulted in any change, so I found a garage which was willing to take me immediately; unfortunately AAA took so long to arrive there was no way they could fix it that day, so I was stuck overnight. Needless to say, I was not happy; I get very upset when my plans are disrupted, especially by machines. I resolved to lessen the impact as much as possible by finding a new garage 100 miles closer to home and using my maximum towing allowance, so as to shorten my trip the next day; luckily, the tow truck driver and manager were both very sweet and helpful, and by the time we arrived I was in a much better mood than when we left. I also think my professionalism had a lot to do with it; long years in sex work trained me to bury bad moods instantly when in the presence of strangers, so that I can be a charming and interesting companion and conversationalist. Anyhow, the problem turned out to be a bad fuel pump (we had only changed it in September) and as soon as that was replaced, I was on my way and got home Tuesday afternoon. At some point that same day, this article by Nathan Goodman was published on the blog of the Center for a Stateless Society; it’ll give you an idea of what I spoke about in New Orleans and how it was received by the audience.
Anyhow, I spent the rest of the week trying to get ahead on my work, but unfortunately other concerns got in my way (losing a whole day didn’t help, either). One nice break from all that was the arrival of a birthday present from Kevin Wilson, namely a copy of Lewis Carroll’s “The Hunting of the Snark” with new illustrations by Mahendra Singh. Thank you, Kevin! Today I’m on my way to Kansas City, from which I’ll depart on a train tomorrow morning to speak at Loyola University in Chicago tomorrow night. Then Thursday afternoon I’ll be boarding another train which will take me to Seattle, where I’ll be appearing Sunday night at the Foundation for Sex-Positive Culture. I’ll tell you all about that next week!
Why did you pick up a rental in Shreveport when you had a truck? To save gas?
Also – if you replaced two fuel pumps in two months – something else is probably effing’ them. You’ll be replacing it again – unless you just got incredibly unlucky and got a bad one in September.
The amount of gas I saved round trip Shreveport-New Orleans was at least half the cost of the rental. New vehicles are also more dependable, and with a rental all I need to do if I develop trouble is find an office of the rental company and trade it for another one, then drive away. Rentals are also cleaner and more presentable than my truck. And yes, there is another problem: water is much more soluble in ethanol than gasoline, so ethanol-heavy fuels trap water, which in turn causes engine damage in older vehicles not designed to run fucking WATER through their fuel and ignition systems.
I’m beginning to think about buying an older (but still newer than my other vehicles, say ’99 or ’00) sedan for business trips. It’ll cost about $3000, though, so I’m loath to ask my readers for help with that just yet. Maybe in the spring.
Ethanol fucks you ten ways from Sunday.
Even buying non-ethanol gas isn’t a solution anymore. Why? Because the non-ethanol stations tend to be the older stations with older tanks – ergo, more shit in the tanks.
The non-eth also sits longer in the station tank soaking up nasty sediments – especially the premium grades. People will haul ass to get non-ethanol, but will BALK at paying up to $4 / gal for 93 Octane.
Also, according my brother, who works for a major oil company … it’s only the small refineries that can get away with producing non-ethanol – so I’m not sure of the quality you get from a “mom & pop” refinery. My brother thinks there will be a serious backlash against Ethanol – it’s been an utter and complete failure. I don’t know why we let a bunch of tenth graders talk us into that shit in the first place!
After some initial issues, it works pretty well in Europe. My guess is it is not the ethanol that is the problem, but some other thing related to its handling in the US or related to car maintenance. Of course, with the higher fuel prices here (about $6.20 for that gallon and that is not the high octane stuff), it pays off getting a newer car a lot earlier.
Petrol engined cars have make remarkable progress with fuel efficiency in the past 5 years or so. My 10 year old car does about 30 mpg; I’d expect a modern replacement to do between 45 and 60 mpg.
Diesel engined cars are very popular here, largely because of their fuel economy. However, in Ireland there is a large fuel laundering industry—removing the dyes from diesel which is rebated for farm use. While this fuel is cheap it also slowly destroys the engine—the lubricating properties of diesel are also laundered out.