Reduce gasoline consumption

I guess being sick is good for reducing gasoline consumption!

Instead I stayed at home working on clearing the deck and purging my files. There’s not a lot of visible progress yet, but I hope I can keep at it in the coming days.

I accepted an invitation to a friend’s place for dinner and used my car to get there and home as a reward at the end of the day. Maybe next time I can figure out a good end-of-day reward that doesn’t involve gasoline consumption.

It’s disturbing that I don’t get more done here at home when I do stay here, but I’m working on it.

I also received an e-mail about conserving gasoline by not filling up the gas tank in the heat of the day and not letting the gas tank get less than half full, because of the loss of gasoline due to evaporation. I’m trying to change my ways, but old bad habits die hard. Last night I was travelling home after dark when the temperatures were cool, and noticed my needle was below empty. I could easily have stopped for gas on the way, but I kept going because I was tired. I’ll keep trying, though.

...due to snow and ice and unsalted unplowed roads and inexperienced drivers. It’s safer to stay home if you don’t really have to go out, although I think I’m starting to come down with cabin fever.

It was a gloomy rainy day, and I ended up sleeping more than usual, but at least I was reducing my gasoline consumption.

I might recover from my cold faster, get some stuff done around the house, and save some gasoline too.

...and it worked out quite well, because my walking buddy happened to be shopping in my neighborhood, and so she came to my house to walk, and didn’t have to consume much extra gas to get here.

It’s really too bad that my walking buddy doesn’t live closer, and there’s something sad about driving my car most days in order to go walking together. I guess the good news is that I really do make an effort to combine my trips, so that most days I’m not driving just simply in order to walk with her.

...because of an existing commitment to do some pet-sitting for a neighbor, and a new commitment to make some sandwiches for a funeral reception tomorrow.

But I can combine my trips to my friend’s house and the grocery store today, and stay home the rest of the day.

Now if I can only use my time here at home wisely, instead of squandering it. That seems to be a constant battle for me. I guess it’s time to turn off the computer and turn my attention to one of my goals.

...by staying home and working on some of my other goals.

My initial goal was to stay home and not drive at all at least one day each week. Well, last Saturday I had a commitment to do meal deliveries, so I was out and about driving. I think I probably drove somewhere every single day of that week, so I failed to meet my goal.

This past Wednesday I decided to stay home all day, and I did. Unfortunately, it was not a very productive day here at home. Today I have a prior commitment to go to a meeting, but I’ll try to limit my driving to that one destination and back, so my driving is limited. And this week at least I’ve met my goal of 1 day without any driving.

Next week I’ve got the Saturday meal delivery, and it’s going to be tough to pick another day to stay home. Maybe I can do it, though.

Maybe I could also record my mileage on the same day each week, to track how I’m doing overall.