Mazda 5: Getting an average combined mileage of 22-25 mpg. If this keeps up, the fuel cost for the Mazda will be around $1100 a year (with gas at $4 a gallon) less than the Windstar. Most excellent!
Prius: Getting average combined mileage of 40-43mpg. A bit dissapointed that after a "required" fuel system cleaning (20,000 miles) the mileage actually went DOWN. We were getting 43-47mpg before the cleaning. Toyota "claims" the computer has to learn the new fuel air mix after the cleaning and that it should be back to "normal" soon (it is recently on the upswing). Installed a hitch on the Prius for vacation and took the bikes with. Took down the mileage a bit, but still gas cost for the whole vacation was under $60, if we had taken the Windstar, it would have easily been triple that.
Musical Funk broken: By "The Very Best of Elvis Costello" songbook Sis-in-law got me.
Daughter #1: Swim dropped, replaced by dance, Golf, and maybe soccer later.
Daughter #2: Swim dropped, replaced by Cheerleading (a first in my family), bowling, and volleyball. Piano is still going strong. Now she also wants to play... the drums?!
Work: My dept Manager retired with a salaried employee incentive ($20K). "The City" once again was looking to outsource our department, but since that came back too expensive; they now want to reclassify us from "A" card electricians to "C" card electricians (an $8 pay cut). I think what will happen is, that everyone who is an "A" will remain an "A", but new hires will be "C" cards.
What "The City" doesn't realize though is if they did succeed in making us "C" cards, is that they would then have to give us several additional holidays and more importantly; sick days, something they do NOT have to provide "A" card electricians. The current contract gives "C" cards 15 sick days a year, which comes out to around $4000 is sick time they currently do not have to pay, it won't save them as much as they think to cut our pay. Currently since "A" cards have to take vacation or unpaid days for sick time, we have the lowest number of called in "sick" days of any city labor department because of that.... which would obviously change if they made us "C"' cards. Only 5 sick days a year can be banked, they have to be taken or they are payed out at years end ("The City" has to pay them no matter what). As far as I'm concerned, it's like having another 15 vacation days that you don't have to schedule. If you didn't use them, it would be like having a $6/hour paycut instead of $8/hour. Either way it sucks. I'm hoping our union (Local 134) will actually stand up for us in this matter instead of rolling over like every other time "The City" asks them to.
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