TCO

In Karlos news, he's super talkative and laughy lately. When you say "yay!" he claps and laughs. I'm watching him do it right now. The cuteness factor is way off the charts. Videos to follow.

It's been raining a lot lately, which has put a damper on my bike riding. I decided to do some cost comparisons, because science compels me to actually measure, rather than assuming that I'm saving money on a bike. Plus I'm a nerd that way.

So to start off, how much energy is in a gallon of gas? About 31000 Kcals - which we think of as "Calories." I think this is because if they called them KiloCalories, people would feel way fatter.

Now we just need to figure out how efficient I am on a bicycle. After some wikipedia clicking today, I figure I burn about 10-20 extra calories per minute - lets say 1000 calories per hour. At this rate I average maybe 15 mph on a good day. So in order to burn off 31000 Calories I would ride for 31 hours, which is 465 miles per gallon. While this is wayyy better than any car you could buy, it's not apples to apples, because I don't run on unleaded petroleum gasoline with 87% octane hydrocarbons.

Instead I run on milk! As many know, I have an affinity for milk, so it's easy enough to assume this for this thought experiment. At 3$ a gallon, 1% milk contains 110 calories per serving - 16 servings total - or 1760 Calories per gallon. This means there's almost 18 gallons of milk energy in a gallon of gasoline energy. So on an equivalent amount of energy, I'm spending 18 times as much (gas and milk are both about 3$ nowadays).

How does this compare? It turns out, not as well as you would have thought. Since I get 465mpg on a bike, I need to divide that by 17.6, which is 26.42 the equivalent milage a car would need to be more cost effective than me! This is dismal indeed; it's sort of weird to think that this was the last mpg I calculated for the old Echo before it died (I do a lot of city driving to commute). Of course, I don't produce other things like sulfur, mercury, nitrise oxide, or carbon monoxide, and I make about 18 times less carbon emissions, which is really nothing to sneeze at.

The other part of this equation that isn't apples to apples is the capital cost of a car vs a bike, and the opportunity cost of a bike vs a car. I figure that a car costs a minimum of 2000$ a year to own and operate. A bike: maybe 50$ is the minimum - depending on how much the bike cost. I could also expense out a gym membership to make this look even better.

Things become murkier with respect to opportunity costs. Whenever I've interviewed for a job they've asked me about transportation. Also with a bike you have to live closer to work, which could mean paying a lot more for housing - depending on your area. You could easily add 10,000$ a year to the cost of only having a bike given these factors.

Lastly there's days like today, where I bummed a ride home from work due to the rain. While its' unclear from a purely economic perspective if riding a bike is "better" I'm also deriving a psychological benefit, which is priceless.

Fun Facts:

Cutting one pound off of a 15 pound bicycle is the equivalent of getting rid of an aerodynamic drag the size of a pencil.

The "draisine" was invented by Karl Drais. It was the first thing you might consider to look like a bicycle. He was from the same town as Karl Benz, the inventor of the car. The town was called Karlsruhe.

Charlie is another name for Charles, which is an anglicization of Karl. Charlie likes to run alongside us on our bikes for exercise. Karl rides in a trailer.

Fairfax County apparently requires cyclists to have a bell on their bikes!

Where is Karl?

Karl is growing so fast and getting into things left and right. With his walking comes new confidence which often ends in crashes and crying.

Last week I heard Karl talking, but could not find him anywhere. Suddenly, I discovered him hanging out 'hammock style' in his folded up stroller.

Then he somehow managed to get stuck in between the body of the stroller and the canopy that shades him from the sun.




After pulling him up and out numerous times, Karl decided it was probably just best to stand in the stroller.



Since Saturday he hasn't been seen much in the stroller, which had been Karl's favorite spot mulitple times a day. Mom & Dad brought up a plastic green children's chair on Saturday that we find Karl sitting in whenever we are on the first floor.

Velocipedes, or how I learned to stop worrying, and love my job

This velocipede is the DiamondBack Kalamar LX 7 speed, my new ride into the office - 8-12 miles of biking every weekday. The story of how this came to be starts when Claire and I figured out how to make ridiculously good pizza a few weeks ago: pictured here:

One of the first things you realize when you try to do this is that you need a way to get the pizza into the oven without smushing up the pizza into a big ball of goey ingredients. Our first pizza "peel" as they call them, was a red-baron pizza box. This is not really a permanent solution so I went to check out a restaurant supply store after work. I was turned away by the owner, who had just had his showroom floor painted. Dejected, I turned towards home, and was smashed into by a Chevy. My 10 year old Toyota Echo was totaled.

We have two other cars, a Prius and an old Ford Ranger, so we decided to bank the settlement for savings and buy new bikes, since we're going to need a way to work off this pizza. Google maps now has a feature that allows you to select a bicycle instead of a car for directions, and it takes into account different bike trails, which is pretty cool. It takes about 30 minutes each way.

This has a lot of positive repercussions, one of which is mental. As anyone in the field of software development knows, there are often clashes of personality and culture between the "hackers" and the "suits" as I call them. This can be especially frustrating as a project grows in scope and success. Riding to work, I find that I just don't get as worked up about it all, no matter how dumb the suits are, even if they don't bother reading my emails. It's a zen thing.

But the story doesn't quite end there. Today I rode my new, previously unused, 1977 Miyata Frontier 10 speed into work. My kalomar was defective, and the pedals kept getting loose causing the chain to come off the gears. I probably put the chain back on a dozen times since getting it. Since Dick's sporting goods are jerks about taking back a bike that's been "ridden around" they said I'd have to leave it with them to fix it, FOR A WEEK. That meant driving to work again during the nicest time of the year, just when I gotten into riding.

Craigslist to the rescue, with a vintage bike that had been in a guy's basement for the last 30+ years, when he bought it, and hung it there by a hook. He had the bike tuned up a few days ago, and like new it got me to and from work today. It really felt a lot like the Kalomar, except that it's a racing bike, and the seat is harder.

On the off chance anyone out there knows anything about this bike, let me know. I know very little beyond the Miyata bicycle page on wikipedia, but apparently their bikes are somewhat prized by collectors/enthusiasts, and this thing is mint-condish. Anyway when the week is up, I plan to try to sell it. :)

Karl- 11 months! (almost)

Only about a month left until Karl turns one! He is growing like a weed and keeping all of us on our toes. He is such a happy kid and we feel very blessed. Next month we'll have a really big post with a look back on Karl through the year :)

1- Karl is loving his new walking ability. In the past few days he has chosen walking over crawling more often than not. I would estimate that he spends only 20% of his time on his hands and knees. This makes me slightly sad as it means my little baby is turning into a toddler. Erik and I decided that we should probably get him some shoes and of course Sheila was there with bells on hopping to go shoe shopping! We headed over to 'Stride Rite' and bought Karl his first pair of shoes. They are really soft soled and perfect for a new walker. Karl was a size 5 for his first shoes! Even the saleswoman commented on his cute chubby feet and toes. We expect him to outgrow them in the next 3 to 4 months.

Thanks for the shoes, Nana! (Here he is walking with Aunt Lele and Cousin Hannah)

2- Food, glorious food! Karl still doesn't like to be fed by spoon, but is happy as a clam to feed himself. This afternoon he chowed down and ate 1/2 an apple. Karl is pretty much eating any thing these days- though we won't try peanut butter or honey until he's older.

Here is a picture of Karl after enjoying some homemade stuffed shells. He couldn't quite figure out what to do with the ricotta cheese. He treated it like he does most fruit- by squeezing it all over his hand an then taking a tentative bite.

3- Karl is a mischief maker. I can't tell you how many times we've found him taunting the dog with a piece of food or hiding underneath the kitchen table. He loves going through cupboards and discovering what the doors are hiding. Karl has also been known to take our cell phones and hide them. One can only hope they are charged and will ring when called to be located.

In this picture he is discovering what lies beneath the carpet in the Monterey cottage.

Here Aunt Lele stopped him from going through the trash can:

4- Climbing is one of Karl's favorite things to do. It doesn't matter whether it's stairs or in and out of laundry bins or boxes. Last week a friend commented "wow, how did he get in there?" and lo and behold he was sitting in the middle of his toy bin. It has a pretty big lip, so I'm not sure how he got in it!

5- In the past few weeks I've noticed that Karl is really interested in other children. Especially those his own age. I still babysit on Tuesdays and Karl really likes having another playmate to get into trouble with.

This is one of their favorite spots. They love crawling through the door frames (we're installing french doors on the first floor) and under the table.

6- Karl is starting to love Daddy just as much as Mommy. The other day Karl bonked his head and when he began to cry he went over to Erik! You can imagine my shock (and a bit of jealousy) when that happened. He also allowed Erik to put him back to sleep early one morning when I was downstairs. What a lucky baby to have such a good Daddy.

7- Karl is going to be a talker. Almost every one that has met him has said so. He loves to jabber on and on through out the day. Karl certainly has his own thoughts and makes them known through all sorts of sounds.

8- Whining and crying when things don't go his way continue. Karl is excellent at giving a heart wrenching wail after we close the door to the bathroom or the hallway- which he is always trying to get to. It is very difficult to say no to this little face.

9- Karl is definitely not people shy. He doesn't mind being passed around and takes easily to others. This weekend he became very attached to Grandma and his cousins Hannah and Adam. It was pretty great having lots of hands to play with Karl.



10- We have such a nice happy and sweet boy.