A Tire Key?!?

Being the responsible car owner I took my car to a local garage to have the oil changed and tires rotated. As I'm sitting in the waiting area, flipping through pages of Sports Illustrated, a mechanic comes over and asks me for the tire key. Since my car was already on the rack it was obvious that he hadn't mispoke in an effort to obtain the ignition key so I politely asked him to repeat the question. A tire key? In front of all the other - I'm sure much more knowledgeable - car owners I confessed that I'd never heard of such an item, nor did I have the slightest idea where one would be in relation to my car. At this point, fortunately for me, the mechanic started talking slowly using short words. He explained that the tires on Volkswagen vehicles are protected from theft by a lock on the tires lug nuts and each car comes equipped with a unique key that will allow the tires to be removed and in my case rotated as requested. Seizing the learning opportunity, he showed me a similar tire key for another automobile and even took me into the bay where he demonstrated how such a key is used to unlock the lug nuts. Since the grease tank for our car is situated where a spare tire would normally be I assume that the tire key along with all the other extra fixings were removed during the conversion and are probably covered with spider webs taking up space in our basement. The mechanic kindly explains to me why this is a bad idea (he would obviously never allow his tire key to be subjected to hairy spiders) and encourages me to locate the vital key, come back to the garage, and have my tires rotated. As you might guess, as soon as I leave the facility I call Craig to see if he knows about our special super locked tires and am comforted by his similar confusion (a what?!?). Once he arrives home the tire key (and jack and other assorted tools) is quickly retrieved from our basement.

35 Gallons of Oil

We have OIL!!! The restaurant that decided to change to non-hydrogenated oil so we could recycle their waste generously provided us with 20 gallons of free fuel. It just so happens that today being Tuesday we also received 15 gallons of WVO from our Mexican restaurant so Craig is in the process of filtering 35 gallons of oil in the garage while I take photos.

Fuel Efficient Cars

I was reading my favorite blog earlier and came across a diary about current CAFE standards in the United States. Since DailyKos' membership is international, there were several comments from individuals living in other countries with access to vehicles with greater fuel efficiency. Vehicles I have never heard of. Vehicles that are not advertised on my cable stations. Vehicles that I can't purchase unless I leave the USA. Why doesn't my local VW dealership sell the Polo? What's preventing the Nissan showroom from featuring a Micra? And why can I buy a Smart car in Canada but not in America? Earlier this spring while searching for a new car one of my requirements was a vehicle obtaining 40mpg or better which severely limited our options - of course the silver lining in all of this is that the dearth of fuel efficient vehicles led to our grease mobile.

Buisness Cards

Now that I've started back to work and am driving all over the city we need to establish some additional contacts for fuel. Our Mexican connection consistently provides us with 10 gallons of oil each week but we need about 20 gallons so we've been eating out at various restaurants and requesting WVO along with our check. Craig created business cards for us to hand out to interested individuals with our contact information (which I intentionally smudged for the blog).

In other news, we've been contacted by a reporter for a local paper who wants to write an article about our experience. I suspect the paper's subscription base is rather small but in my fantasy world I dream that the report is picked up by more prominent media sources - in particular Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert.

McDonald's

So McDonald's - in the UK - is going to convert the WVO produced by Happy Meals into fuel for their fleet of 155 trucks.

Columbus

I drove to Columbus (458 miles round trip) today for my follow up exam with the ophthalmologist at Bloomberg Eye Center. Before I left, Craig kindly filled the grease mobile with oil and loaded an extra 5 gallons plus the funnel into the back of the wagon. Although I stopped several times for food and drinks, the Jetta made the entire trip on free WVO. After my doctor's appointment, it was necessary for me to refill the tank with extra oil and the whole process from opening the trunk to washing my hands in the restroom (note to self: purchase baby wipes for car) took approximately 10 minutes. It's the first time I've filled the car on my own and although the container was rather heavy and I spilled a bit of oil, there was a sense of accomplishment when I finished and it was definitely worth the $15 I saved by not purchasing fuel from a gas station.

Green Cities

My brother-in-law sent me the following link which explains how the city of Rialto, CA - a suburb of Los Angeles - in partnership with Chevron built a wastewater treatment system which converts WVO into electricity. In addition to significantly reducing carbon dioxide emissions, and curtailing landfill waste, the city (population 100,000) is projecting an annual savings of $800,000. Millbrae, located about 15 miles outside of San Francisco, has a similar system operating at their wastewater treatment facility which converts 3,000 gallons of WVO into renewable, clean power each day.

Obviously, if municipalities start collecting and converting WVO there will be little if any fuel available for our personal grease mobile but I'm not too concerned. As a resident of the midwest I know from experience that it takes many years - and sometimes decades - for California trends to reach us out here in the heartland. I don't expect the Jetta to last indefinitely, and my desire is for new technologies and options to be available when the grease mobile expires and we purchase another vehicle. Maybe in another 5-10 years the price of a Tesla will decrease enough to make it financially viable for our household.

The other perspective is that I look forward to the possibility of living in a community that is more environmentally responsible. Imagine the impact to the city's air quality if 11 million pounds of carbon dioxide were removed from the atmosphere annually - that's equivalent to eliminating 1080 vehicles and their emissions from our roads. Although each of us can and should do our part, the potential for great change rests with the larger systems in our communities.