TrickyBuddha Studios

RE: I’m a Convert

I wouldn’t even know where to begin to scientifically defend the move, but it looks like it has been a winner of a choice. I filled up with 93 octane gas back in early June and promptly scored my lowest recent mileage — 23.6 mpg. Since then, I’ve switched to 87 octane and have scored about a mpg (or two) better each fill-up: 24.7, 24.5, 25.9, and 25.2 in order. In fact, these are my highest mpg totals since 2007. Could be anything, but whatever. I’ll take the improved mileage.

In other gas-related news…

(The needle is now below “E”. Rick is looking at it)

RICK: Is it just the angle I’m looking from?
KRAMER: No, Sir. We are down there.
RICK: Oh, this is amazing! Oh, I’ve never felt so alive!

That fill-up back in June was also notable because I hit 575 km on a tank of gas, a personal best. But instead of satisfying me, it made me want more; I wanted to see if I could hit 600 km. I missed bettering my score on the next attempt, but the try after that I hit 585 km. Closer! Another miss on the next try, but then I hit 598 km! So close!

Finally, today, with no looking back, I aimed for 600 — and did it. I pulled into the gas station at 600.9. Fantastic. Maybe it’s a little less impressive when you convert to miles (373.4) but I’ll take it.

One more side note — on the costs of driving, per mile — I’ve mentioned before that my only fill-ups over 9 cents came in the summer. That trend has continued. My last 5 fill-ups, all this summer, have gone over 9 cents: 10.3, 11.2, 10.8, 9.2, and 9.9 cents per mile, respectively.

Yesterday we:

Drove into the city, listening to Earth to the Dandy Warhols all along the way. We went to Chicago to see It Might Get Loud and, despite crazy 3:30pm traffic, got there literally as the movie was starting.

The movie was great. It’s a documentary that looks at the playing and sound of three guitarists: Jack White (White Stripes), Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), and The Edge (U2).

Jimmy has a crazy history with music, playing since he was 5, playing professionally doing jingles and what-not. Then moving on to playing in bands, playing a style of rock that was not really known or popular at the time. They showed a clip of him surrounded by a collection of CDs and records and he said he would pour over them to pick up new sounds and techniques.

Jack started out focused on drums but switched to guitar for an early band, The Upholsterers. He mentioned that when he tried to find his sound, when he tried to dig deeper into guitar, it led him to the blues — how it was all minor chords and anti-establishment. He also said he likes to struggle. He wants his guitar out of tune, he wants to have to battle against it.

The Edge seemed to have stumbled across playing guitar and seemed more interested in the sounds he could make with it than anything else. He was big on effects and computers, and the documentary spent time with his guitar tech — talking about the knobs and fiddles he uses. The Edge said he liked to simplify and strip down to get at his sound, too.

The three of them talked a bit in a room, together, as well as jammed a bit on one another’s songs, when they weren’t individually discussing their playing and showing how they got where they are now. It was definitely a good documentary, entertaining and educational about a chapter of music.

After we finished, we walked around for an hour or two and then had dinner at the Counter. I went for the grilled chicken this time and have to admit it was much better than the burgers I had previously. Mmm…

From there, we hit Border’s and Starbucks to waste a little time, then went to the Empty Bottle to see Autloux — with Ken and Mychelle, and Tif and Brian and Bowser. I was so excited to see the band as I had never caught them in concert before and they are one of my favorites. The last show we went to at this spot was so loud that this time we bought ear plugs, so for me this was my first show with ear plugs in. They were a little weird to wear but my ears felt completely fine afterward. As for the show, Autolux was great. They played a dozen songs — and even played one of their songs twice. A string had snapped on a guitar and the band went on to finish the song while Greg fixed his string. Then someone in the crowd shouted out that the band should play it again with Greg this time, so they did. Haha. The band was somewhat smiley through the show and seemed to be having a good time.

After the show, Candice and I bought band tee shirts from Carla, the drummer, while Eugene, the singer and a guitar player, played Galaga next to us. Haha. It was a cute scene. And it’s always neat to stand around with the musicians you love who just put on a great show.

We capped off the night with a trip to Lazo’s Tacos with Ken and Mychelle where I got a delicious Mexican sausage and scrambled egg sandwich. Mmm…

I’m officially as hooked as hooked can be on iced green tea.

But about a week ago, I had a glass and got a stomach ache. I wasn’t sure if it was from the tea or not but a second glass and a second stomach ache proved to me that it was the tea. So I dumped that jug down the drain and got a glass from our second pitcher and — another stomach ache.

I tell you, brothers and sisters, that I have never been quite so distraught as at that moment. I just don’t dig coffee as much as I once did (though the occasional cup still calls to me), and I don’t drink soda/pop (too much sugar or aspartame, depending). And without the caffeine, it’s headache city. Sure, I could heat up some tea each day since that didn’t seem to bother my stomach, and that’s basically what I did during my crisis, but I really like a nice, refreshing glass (or two) of iced green tea each day. Our iced tea maker was just so damned convenient.

Fortunately, Candice mentioned that the last glass she had was pretty sweet and suggested maybe it was a result of too much honey. So I tried making another pitcher with just the tiniest bit of honey in it this time and — success. No headache from my green-tea yumminess. I’m back on the bandwagon. Whew.

You may now continue on with your day.