From now on things are going to change around here...


For years Beth has been urging me to put my random annoying and only lightly edited thoughts immediately into the blog, but I have always chose instead only to upload the carefully honed and well picked over nuggets of only my most highly relished brain turds. Then I read the essay "Isn't It Romantic" in David Rakoff's new book, Half Empty. 


I do not say this out of pride or anger or bloated sense of self, but I could have written the entire essay - almost word for word - about fifteen years ago. Of course making a claim like that is ridiculous and unprovable, except if you're willing to believe Beth who could attest to having been made to listen to every annoying insight contained therein ad nauseum for almost the past fifteen years. However, as a wife cannot be compelled to testify by her spouse [or is that against her spouse], the only way to stop being unprovable and ridiculous is to step into the rush and the bother of the blogosphere, mind dump every day and force you to read it.


I shall hold my nose and jump in:


Half Empty?

It starts simply enough with an idea. The idea that cars should, at this point in their evolution, be able to tell us how much gas we have in our tanks. I do not mean a red needle pointing to a white lined fractional break down of the tank's contents splayed out like rays of the sun. I also do not mean an LED version of the same thing. I am not even content with those guesstimations of miles left in the tank before you need to fill up. I mean an honest to god reading of precisely or even not so precisely how many GALLONS are in my tank. 


How hard could it be? My car, a 2006 Subaru Outback, tells me so many things I do and do not want to know [I love knowing the outside temperature/do not need to know their highly suspect miles per gallon estimates: 22 mpg, no wait 9 mpg, no wait 37 mpg...]. My car is also very concerned that if the key is anywhere near the ignition, I damn well better be in the driver's seat and strapped down NO MATTER WHAT otherwise the perpetually intermittent binging ensues. Why can't my car also tell me that I have 2 gallons in my tank? Wouldn't that be a useful piece of information? Wouldn't it be nice to rent a car and not have to guess how many gallons are in that eighth of a tank you just used and not have to spend your entire driving time trying to triangulate your mileage, your best guess at mpg all while trying to remember precisely where the needle started its decline all so you don't end up buying too much or, even worse, too little gas for the car upon return. Perhaps this one little feature could re-start Chrysler?


It's not a big thing, but it's a beginning. We could probably have done it fifteen years or so ago, but we didn't, so we might as well do it now. Let us begin.