The commute is about equal to the average MPG that my car gets in morning traffic, so I knew I could estimate it at 2 gallons a day. I Googled for a figure on the emissions from a gallon of gas and found the official EPA estimates. I was shocked, because they said each 8-pound gallon of gasoline burned creates 19.4 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO₂).

I couldn't wrap my mind around this initially. How could 8 pounds of gas produce 19.4 pounds of CO₂? Then it hit me. Burning gasoline breaks the bonds between the gasoline's hydrogen and carbon atoms, then binds one atmospheric oxygen molecule (O₂) to each carbon atom to create one CO₂ molecule. And while the atomic weight of carbon is 12, once you add two oxygen atoms, the resulting CO₂ molecule has an atomic weight of 44.

So when you factor that the 8 pounds of gasoline contains 5.33 pounds of carbon, and around 99% of that 5.33 pounds gets turned into CO₂ which weighs around 3.7 times as much, 19.4 pounds is no longer so mind-boggling.

So now we can look at my commute. Each day, I would put 38.4 pounds of CO₂ into the air, with around 10.5 pounds of that being carbon. If I were able to telecommute 1 day a week, meaning that was 52 days a year less that I drove, I'd save 104 gallons, or 2017 pounds of CO₂, or around 549 pounds of carbon. So for each day per week I was able to telecommute, on average, I'd put one less ton of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

So if you're trying to jockey for some telecommuting priveleges at work, that's a relatively compelling number. If your commute burns a gallon each way, each day per week you can telecommute adds up to saving a ton of CO₂ emissions over the course of a year.

I haven't been in Pierce County in years, I've NEVER been to the specific part of Pierce County where the picture was snapped (Tacoma Narrows Bridge - the violation was a failure to pay the bridge toll), and the car in the traffic camera photo is one I sold to a Honda dealer 6 months ago as the trade in on my CR-V.

My name and address should not be coming up when they queried the ownership of the vehicle. I immediately fired off an e-mail to the dealership, and one of the sales managers looked up my phone number and called me within about an hour to personally let me know that they had filed all the papers, and they did a title check just to make sure that the car was not in my name anymore.

I've fired off a letter to the court, stating the facts and stating that I wanted to dispute the ticket by mail. I really don't think I need to burn a day going down to Tacoma to challenge this in person. But you never know. This could snowball into a bureaucratic clusterfunk. I'll be sure to complain very publicly if it does.

"Come watch one of the best car chases ever filmed."

He came, sat down on the couch, and I unpaused the movie. "It's 106 miles to Chicago. We've got a full tank of gas, a half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses." And the fun began.

I have no idea how many cars got smashed in the process of making that sequence. I could probably look it up on IMDb, but I'm too lazy. "A lot" is an exact enough number for me. I also got to see the falling/flying station wagon. And I got to share it all with my son.

That was a good Sunday.

Last week, there was a Shelby Cobra, red with white rally stripes, in the parking lot at the supermarket. My 3-and-a-half-year-old was mesmerized. He spotted it the moment we pulled into the lot and said "Daddy, I want the red car." I could only second the emotion.

I'm turning 40 in a few weeks, have another kid due a few weeks after that, and I'm trading in my Elantra GT (which I bought because it looked like a Saab 9³) on a CR-V LX with AWD today.

Instead of getting a Corvette and a pretty new wife with even newer breasts, I'm buying a sensible car and sticking with the gal what brung me to the dance. Best I can do is get it in red and put side steps on it (mostly to help pregnant wives and small children get in and out of the car, but with a bonus of them looking sort of cool).

Is the CR-V really a "mom car" as I saw someone call it on one forum when I was Googling to see what people had done with their V's?

Has anyone done any interesting paint, lowered one, jacked one up, put rally stripes on one? I'd love to see one with rally stripes.

Has anyone strapped on a turbo charger, run a dyno after putting on a CAI, anything?

When I was thinking about the Mazda5, I could find lots of discussions on performance and appearance mods. But for the CR-V... not much.

Help!! Aside from an Obama bumper sticker (he's popular with the young folks, I hear), what can I do to make it look cooler? Do you have URLs for sites where there are pictures of pimped CR-Vs that I can use for inspiration.

Help!

The manager on the position was cool with me taking some time off around when the baby is born, so we're going to be all set. Now all I have to do is get the baby's room ready this weekend (move back in all the furniture I moved out when painting, plus assemble the crib) and we'll be 98% ready for the baby to come home.

I've been trying to teach our three-year-old to do more for himself. Last night, at bath time, he washed his hair mostly by himself for the first time. The arrival of the new baby is going to require him to become a bit more self-sufficient in terms of bath time, handling buttons/buttonholes on his clothes, getting settled into his car seat, etc. Badsically places/times where we're not going to have as many free hands as we used to, he's going to have to step up. And he's excited about it because it's all part of being a big brother.

And now that I'm going to be employed, I can finally trade in my Hyundai hatchback and get my "family car". Right now I'm trying to decide between a Mazda5 mini-mini-van and a Honda CR-V crossover SUV.

Moneywise, the Mazda would cost about $3,000 less, but would only cost about $7.28 less a month for gas since the Mazda only gets about 1 MPG more. If you want to compare the monthly gas costs for two cars, check out the calculator below from my article at Rough Equivalents, "Do Hybrids Equal Savings". You can set the mileage of two cars, a per-gallon gas price, and the amount you drive every year. Every figure is controlled with sliders, so you can see how two cars compare at various gas prices and annual driving levels.

more calculators

If I figure 70% highway driving and 30% city driving, the Honda gets 24.2 MPG combined and the Mazda gets 25.2 MPG combined. At $3.55 a gallon and 15,000 miles a year (1250 miles a month), the Honda costs $7.28 more a month.

The other advantages to the Mazda are about 9 more cubic feet in the back (about the size of a large cooler), sliding doors (WAY easier to get the kids in and out, especially in tight parking lots or the garage), captains chairs in the 2nd row, 3rd row seats (although they're a little cramped), and really car-like handling with a turning circle only 5 inches wider than that of a 2008 Porsche Boxter convertible (the CR-V's turning circle is 17 inches wider than the Boxter while a Dodge Caravan would be 36 inches wider).

The advantages to the Honda CR-V are that it's got stability control and all wheel drive, so it's going to be a bit more surefooted in slippery conditions and emergency swerves (thought the Mazda might be more nimble in less slippery conditions), plus it has a slightly better resale value. And, of course, it's a Honda, so you have one of the world's best reputations for reliability.

Basically, if you take the money out of the consideration, the advantage to the Mazda is sliding doors, easier-to-access rear seats, and the carlike handling. The advantage to the Honda is better traction and a smidge less worry that it'll break down at an inconvenient time. But I'll get better traction in the Mazda than my Hyundai, just due to sheer weight and anti-lock brakes, and I haven't had any traction-related accidents in the Hyundai in 7 years. So the Mazda is currently leading.

I'm going to go drive both next week while I have those first couple of days of the week off, but I'll probably go buy the winning car in November unless one of them runs a huge cashback promo this month.