Desert storm: Part 1

Great weekend, went to Vegas for a bachelor party with some old friends from Bstable. It was an epic weekend and I will have to write it out and bind it. So much happened that the new stories and memories will probably keep coming for a while.
Two of us took the bus up to Boston on Wednesday night to stay with a friend who lives in the north end. Our flight was leaving at 7:10 am on Thursday, so we played it safe and stayed in the city. Unfortunately, our North End friend couldn't make it to Vegas, but we did throw back some beers at a wharf bar to catch up on old times.
We took a cab to Logan and waited for the Bachelor, who was driving in from the North Shore. We got to the airport with plenty of time, and called "the engaged" to see if he was en-route. He said he would be there in 1/2 hour. I thought that might be cutting it a little close, but figured we would make it. When he finally arrived we were strapped for time so we checked his bag and ran for the terminal, literally. The line wasn't bad, but I got held up for a bag search and all three of us narrowly avoided missing the flight, which would have sucked, because with the holiday weekend, there was a chance we wouldn't fly out for a while. I ran for the gate and saw my cohorts waving me into the tunnel. We're waiting for you", the mother hen flight attendant at the front of the plane reminded us.
We proceeded to the runway only to sent back to the gate to reset a switch. "Who are we waiting for now" I thought. We arrived at the Long Beach Airport at around 11:30 am local time and were met by a lunatic, one of the funniest people to roam the earth. We're flying into the LBC because two of the crew live in LA, and we decided to hang out there till Friday till one of them got out of work.
Let me disclose there are five of us in all, including myself and I can say that these guys are some of the funniest people i've met. These guys are hillarious and certifiably nuts. We have all known each other since we were kids and have a gang of stories. I knew it was going to be a laugh factory all weekend long. The attendees will remain nameless.


More to come.

Coast to coast

In a discussion with a fellow diesel enthusiast, I asked, why would Ford and Chevy would use a V-8 diesel engine in their light-duty trucks? http://www.gm.com/automotive/gmpowertrain/engines/duramax/index.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Power_Stroke_engine
The wikipedia article says, the (Navistar International built) Powerstroke engine is based off a gas V-8 engine design, but if you look at International's Class 8 truck engines, you will see they are inline 6 cylinder. http://129.33.208.100/maxxforce/products/class.aspx?classid=3

In fact, most, if not all 18 wheelers use inline 6 architecture. http://ohe.cat.com/cda/layout?m=85523&x=7 http://www.detroitdiesel.com/engines/series60/specs.aspx
Now, if Caterpillar and Detroit Diesel use an I-6 for a 600 hp tractor engine, why would you put a V-8 in a 250 hp pickup?

Dodge, has, for generations used the Cummins 5.9 liter I-6, with mind numbing results.

The reason the topic of Diesel engines even came up, was, the fuel efficiency of the Cummins powered Dodge trucks, as opposed to the Ford and GM diesels. Two of my friends have recently bought Dodge diesel trucks and during a trip to Worcester on Friday we were getting from 17-18 mpg in a 2007 Ram 3500 crew cab, short bed (automatic) - towing a 3000 pound trailer, going 75-80 mph. Dodge also offers a 6 speed manual transmission which offers even better fuel economy-upwards of 25 mpg, i'm told.


Here is an article about "The Most powerful Diesel Engine in the World", pretty interesting.
http://people.bath.ac.uk/ccsshb/12cyl/

new website

I have bought the domain name www.wastedog.org. My motive for the website is to help reduce waste. I am eccentric about waste and I am obsessed about efficiency and I am always ranting and raving about conservation and recycling, so here is my new outlet, instead of just talking about it, I'll publish my findings. I'm talking about all sorts of waste; from the four police officers I saw today, doing a traffic detail on a closed road, to the the fact that America uses 22 million barrels (roughly 900 million gallons) of oil every day.

Two proverbs sum up the ethos of the website and the organization:
-Waste not, want not.
-One man's trash is another man's treasure

The picture is an advertisement I saw in Montreal last year. Sloche is a brand of frozen drinks that are available at convenience stores. Although the poster is in French, you don't need to parlee to get the gist.