Five

 RMS lost his wife GS just before Christmas - AE and I have been keeping in touch and visited him last month and plan another visit in early May.

JN lost her aunt in March and we were supporting her as we could (see previous entries "A funeral for someone I never met").

My aunt DC, also 99, just passed away on Easter Sunday.  AE and myself got to see her one last time a few weeks ago (during one of the weeks supporting JN).

Less than one day after my aunt passed away, AE's uncle ES in England suddenly passed away.  He was in the hospital for an operation, but unfortunately got an infection he wasn't able to fight off.

Finally, my cousin CDB in Victoria is at home basically waiting to die from terminal cancer.  I talked to her on the phone a few weeks ago and briefly just today.

About 20 years ago I realized that I was going have to say good bye to my aunts and uncles, in possibly quick succession, by about this time.  Not that I was able to plan emotionally for multiple deaths, but I really did not expect to also be hit by the additional good byes.  Young people (well, my age anyway) shouldn't leave this earth.  But they do.

But it doesn't matter how old someone is either.  Aunt DC has been in pain from a deteriorated hip for years - at the end, she was almost constantly sedated.  That is no quality of life, but death is final.

I just realized that as it stands, we'll be visiting RMS on the same day that we're picking up hanging baskets from my cousin DW - the sister to CDB.  Both DW and CDB lost their oldest brother (and my cousin) DanD only a few years ago.  And just before Covid, we lost cousin DavidD (actually their "double cousin" as my mother's three brothers married three sisters).

Connections.  They're everywhere.

How to reduce the cost of a tank of gas

 Easy, quit idling your vehicle.

Math follows.  Skip to the end if you are prone to having your eyes glaze over.

We'll start with some simple math and some (obvious) assumptions.

Fuel economy of a V8 engine (typical in a large pickup truck - often used in company fleets) is about 10 litres per 100 kilometers.  Which is also one litre per 10km (just drop a decimal point from each side of the equation).

At 60 km/hour, one covers one kilometre in one minute.  Which is also ten kilometers in ten minutes (just add that decimal point back).  60 km/hour is a fairly average speed in suburban areas.

This implies that at 60 km/hour, that pickup truck uses a litre of fuel every ten minutes.

A litre of fuel is used whether that vehicle is in motion or is in fact stopped (i.e. "idling").

Somewhat better fuel economy means it will take a bit longer than ten minutes to burn that litre of fuel (gas or diesel).  My little four banger five speed uses about 6 litres per 100 km - so it takes about 17 to 18 minutes to burn a litre of gas (moving or not).

Look at todays price of a litre of gas.

Is that the price of a cup of coffee?  By idling your vehicle at Tim Hortons for 10 minutes, you spent twice as much for that cup of coffee.

Do you idle your vehicle waiting for someone at the bank?  Better take out a bit more money to cover the cost of idling.

Were you waiting at that train crossing for half an hour?  Were you idling that whole time?

Were you idling waiting for your turn at a gas pump?  Is there something else besides your vehicle that is not in gear?

Many new vehicles automatically shut off the engines if they are not in motion.  Just like automatic parallel parking, this is a feature that is more clever than most operators.

HERE IS THE END if you skipped the math.

Idling your vehicle costs money.

If you're a fleet owner, this wastage affects the bottom line.  Multiply this bad habit by every vehicle you have in your fleet and quarterly profits are going to take a hit.