Dec 12 - one more day

Somehow as it gets closer to leaving everything seems different. I had a hard time riding today -- not physically but mentally. I need a goal to ride on a cool, windy day. I really didn't have a goal because it was going to be my last ride for more than a month and there was no way that riding yesterday made a darn bit of difference from a staying-in-shape point of view. Until I was thirty miles out all I could think of was turning around and making the ride shorter. Once I got 30 miles out, however, the last 5 is a quick countdown. With a strong WNW wind the ride back was quick and painless.

Had there been one excuse materialize I never would have gotten out to ride. I toyed with the idea of riding Saturday instead of Friday but knew for certain that there would be all sorts of excuses on the actual last day ... so I went.

Sandy finished up some Christmas shopping, going to BBB (Bed, Bath and Beyond) and continued to write Christmas cards. She finished and mailed all of the U.S. and U.K. ones plus the one to Mexico. She also mailed off the Christmas package to Arlene containing gifts and Dad's videos and the box to Sue also containing videos. She will likely finish the Canadian ones today and then drop them in the mail when we cross the border. She hates this task -- she does a lot more than I would -- she writes small notes in most of them and handwrites the return address because she doesn't like my self-inking stamp because it's not pretty enough. Now if I had this task I'd get a stamp made with our signatures and start banging them all out. I might also write (type) a generic what-we-did-in-2008 note and stick it in all cards. I'm a boring person.

As most of you know, I can also be an annoying person. OK, no comments required. While she's in Toronto Sandy is going to rent a car. That seemed like the most effective way of dealing with the timing conflicts that arose when thinking about borrowing Stef's car. On the 18th, instead of me driving to Toronto to pick her up she will drive to Parry Sound and meet me there. Parry Sound is as far as she can get to the drop-off point without paying a drop-off charge. That works for me -- it's only a one hour trip to Parry Sound. It's also cheaper since we're only paying gas for one way and wear and tear ... and this is where I get annoying.

Sandy asked me what it costs to drive to/from Toronto. My rule-of-thumb these days is 50 cents per mile. That makes a to/from Toronto trip roughly $250, since it's 250 miles each way. She doesn't like that number because it represents more than the cost of gas ... ok.

Here's how I figure it -- and I'm only talking the variable cost of operation.

-- gas, that's easy, except of course the price varies. Last year, taking what we spent on gas for the SUV and dividing by the number of miles that came to $0.41 per mile

-- maintenance, a little trickier, but again, routine maintenance includes tires, service at the dealer -- what we spent divided by the number of miles came to $0.10 per mile. The way we drive we need a new set of tires each year. I could buy tires that have longer tread life but they cost more -- it all works out in the end. Last year we had to pay for a full inspection service -- that will happen again this year. If something major goes wrong, which it didn't last year, maintenance could be higher, much higher

-- depreciation is somewhat arguable, since a car does depreciate just sitting. The SUV, however, does not sit. It will go from purchase value to zero in roughly 4 years, the way that we drive. I'm assuming in my calculation that purchase value is net of trade-in and that any residual trade-in value after 4 years will net the next car value -- you get the idea. So ... the purchase price, divided by 150,000 miles (I'm assuming that we'll sell it at 150,000 miles -- gives $0.25.

That takes us to $0.76 per mile -- 76 cents per mile -- actually more than I had quoted to her. Yes, gas is cheaper now than it was during the summer, but the 41 cents is an actual average over the last 12 months. Perhaps it's high ... but not hugely so. Maintenance could be higher or lower; depreciation, for a heavily used vehicle, could be less if we push the vehicle out to more miles.

I'm not counting standing costs like insurance and license. I suppose that I could subtract the amount that the vehicle depreciates in 4 years if it just sat as standing costs. However you cut this though, it's at least 50 cents per mile.

I'm sure that the next time this issue arises I'll get the same reaction. Ah well, she gets annoyed because I'm such a pain; I get annoyed that she refuses to look at the facts; life goes on -- it's not a big deal; we drink our wine, we take Abby for a walk, we eat our fresh flounder on the barbie. Life's good. It was a cool walk though -- 52 or some-such-temperature -- and a brisk wind. I wore my shorts anyway. After all, I'm in Florida. I did wear a coat !

Today ... haircut ... change oil in SUV (maybe) ... pack car ... boat is already covered and tied-down ... Mass late afternoon ... dinner at the Sushi place ... I could probably write today's blog right now, but I won't.