I own a 1988 Mazda B2200 pickup truck. I bought it from my girlfriend’s dad in 1992 for $3,800, with about 80,000 miles on it. It wasn’t a great deal—that was the Blue Book value at the time—but I knew it was a good vehicle because I’d been driving it for six months. As I write, it’s at 243,112 miles and 69,403 miles into its second engine. It gets between 15 (around town) and 27 (on the highway, 350 miles with no stops, down hill, with a tail wind) miles per gallon. I’ve been debating whether this page belongs with my In or Out category—resources in, or pollution out? I’ve decided on Out, for now. At its last smog check, in 2001 because Oregon does not require them, it blew 17 parts per million hydrocarbons (of 120 allowable and 30 average), and something less than .01% carbon monoxide (of 1% allowable and .1% average) at an idle, 792 RPM. At 2,453 RMP it blew 35 ppm HCs and still less than .01% CO.
I haven’t been driving much for a couple years. Living in Eugene is great for that—plenty of bike and bus action. “Driving Year 38” is a tally of all my driving between my birthdays, September 29, 2008 to 2009. It doesn’t include the several rides I caught from friends and family, or the one or two times I borrowed a car while visiting my family in southern California or while attempting to pick up a friend from the Amtrak station while my truck was in the shop. Those totally count as driving, but it wasn’t on my odometer so I didn’t keep track.
Keeping that much track of my driving was a lot of work. For year 39, I’m just keeping track of my miles, not what I did. (Though about 2,200 of these miles are a trip to Joshua Tree with Reanna.) I am keeping track of miles I drove in other people’s cars, though, and also the number of gallons of gas I bought.
Nathen's Miraculous Escape 
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