Myopic Bits and Pieces

A couple myopic observations:

•     Earlier this evening I had my weekly visit with my Medifast counselor and was told that I’m very healthy condition. I’m down about 45 pounds since I began the diet and have lowered my body fat to around 16 percent, a 50 percent decrease.  Now I’m currently working with a personal trainer to build more muscle and gain a couple pounds back in a healthy matter.  Like I said earlier, these are just a result of commitment to improve my health and the help of the Almighty.   Hopefully I’ll be able to maintain that commitment in the days ahead.

• I was preparing for a trip this weekend to Beloit, WI to attend a minor league baseball game when I contemplated the decision whether or not to rent a car for the trip or drive my Prius.  As I researched this issue, I ran across an old February 2011 Consumer Reports article that discussed the Prius’ performance after 200K.  Well, here are some excerpts of that article:

Hybrids like the Toyota Prius may save money on fuel, but car shoppers have long wondered how those batteries hold up over the long run. In fact, we’re often asked, “When do the batteries need to be replaced, and how much will they cost?” These questions are even more important now that the Prius has been on the market for 10 years--there are many used models on the market. But is it risky to buy a used hybrid?

Early adopters of the hybrids took a risk with the new technology. The lifetime of the batteries and the cost to replace them wasn’t clear. After all, when it comes to standard car batteries, most don’t last more than a few years. And anyone who has a laptop that is a few years old is most likely aware how significantly battery life can degrade with age.

Based on data from over 36,000 Toyota Prius hybrids in our annual survey, we find that the Prius has outstanding reliability and low ownership costs. But we wanted to know if the effectiveness of the battery degraded over the long run. So we hooked up a 2002 Toyota Prius with nearly 208,000 miles on the clock to our testing instruments and compared the results to the nearly identical 2001 Prius we tested 10 years ago.

Conclusion: We found very little difference in performance when we tested fuel economy and acceleration.

So apparently after 200K the Prius still runs like new.  As one who has a Prius with over 55K on it, that’s good to hear.

• Finally, I ran across this clip of the President recently:

I just have to say that folks like my father, who spent 80-90 hours a week running his own small businesses, would have had an interesting reaction to such a comment.  It's telling how life experiences shape an individual's views, isn't it?