The carbon footprint and annual energy consumption of POW blockchains like Bitcoin are huge points of contention for oppositions of cryptocurrency. For some reason these issues never seem to be a consideration to them when looking at traditional finance.
A study completed in 2021 by Galaxy Digital found that the banking sector itself consumed nearly twice the amount of energy annually as Bitcoin.
In this post I am going to take a look at the annual energy consumption of Bitcoin vs. the annual energy consumption of bank employees in the USA driving to and from work.
This is all very "back of the napkin" math and is probably wildly inaccurate, but its fun to look at nonetheless.

The Math

According to Google, the Bitcoin POS blockchain consumes approximately 120 to 240 BILLION kWh annually. Now that is an extremely wide estimation, so we will split it down the middle and call it a nice round 180,000,000,000.
The average commute for someone in the USA is 41 miles per day
The average mileage for a car in the USA is 24.7 MPG
This means the average consumption is 1.66 gallons of gasoline per day
1 Gallon of gas contains 33.7 kWh of energy
Therefore the average bank employee uses 55.942 kWh per day commuting to and from work.
I looked as hard as I could (for about 2 minutes) and I could not come up with any firm numbers on the number of people employed in the banking sector in the USA. A little bit of searching shows that Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America employ approximately 650,000 people between them. According to Statista there were 72,534 branches of FDIC-insured commercial banks in the United States in 2021. With all of this in mind if we throw a random number of say 10 employees as the average per bank branch, we can whip up some numbers.
72,534 bank branches x 10 employees per branch = 725,340 employees
725,340 employees x 55.942 kW per commute = 40,576,970.28 kWh daily
252 working days in a year x 40,576,970.28 = 10,225,396,510 kWh Annually

The Conclusion

By my [very rough] calculations, the employees of the US banking sector use approximately 5.7% of Bitcoins annual energy consumption, on their daily commute to and from work.
Edit: Fixed some fudged up numbers.

Toyota Corolla XSE '19.
Basically: How many miles are needed for the EVAP monitor to record data? ( I know it's like 50-100 miles, but does anyone know the exact for my cars standards ) I'm an amateur car enthusiast so please don't flame me, trying to learn.
if you want the story: I'm so smart I went to get my smog check on a new battery. and guess who didn't pass! LOL, now I have to reschedule, but they won't approve me until I pass on the OBD to go in for a new appointment... thank you

Must: 2018+, Wagon or hatch, manual, fwd or awd, reliable, cheap to maintain, 30 mpg+, -$25k Want: Four door, American or Japanese
I drive 30k+ miles per year and get paid government rate. Need a car.
Options? Impreza, Corolla? What else?

n its Fuel Economy Guide for 2016 model vehicles, the Environmental Protection Agency gives data on 11701170 vehicles. There are a number of high outliers, mainly hybrid gas‑electric vehicles. If we ignore the vehicles identified as outliers, however, the combined city and highway gas mileage of the other 11461146 vehicles is approximately Normal with mean 23.023.0 miles per gallon (mpg) and standard deviation 4.94.9 mpg.
The quintiles of any distribution are the values with cumulative proportions 0.200.20 , 0.400.40 , 0.600.60 , and 0.800.80 . What are the quintiles of the distribution of gas mileage?
Use Table A to find the first quintile of the distribution of gas mileage. (Enter your answer rounded to three decimal places.)
first quintile:mpgUse Table A to find the second quintile of the distribution of gas mileage. (Enter your answer rounded to three decimal places.)second quintile:mpgUse Table A to find the third quintile of the distribution of gas mileage. (Enter your answer rounded to three decimal places.)third quintile:mpgUse Table A to find the fourth quintile of the distribution of gas mileage. (Enter your answer rounded to three decimal places.)fourth quintile:mpg

n its Fuel Economy Guide for 2016 model vehicles, the Environmental Protection Agency gives data on 11701170 vehicles. There are a number of high outliers, mainly hybrid gas‑electric vehicles. If we ignore the vehicles identified as outliers, however, the combined city and highway gas mileage of the other 11461146 vehicles is approximately Normal with mean 23.023.0 miles per gallon (mpg) and standard deviation 4.94.9 mpg.
The quintiles of any distribution are the values with cumulative proportions 0.200.20 , 0.400.40 , 0.600.60 , and 0.800.80 . What are the quintiles of the distribution of gas mileage?
Use Table A to find the first quintile of the distribution of gas mileage. (Enter your answer rounded to three decimal places.)
first quintile:mpgUse Table A to find the second quintile of the distribution of gas mileage. (Enter your answer rounded to three decimal places.)second quintile:mpgUse Table A to find the third quintile of the distribution of gas mileage. (Enter your answer rounded to three decimal places.)third quintile:mpgUse Table A to find the fourth quintile of the distribution of gas mileage. (Enter your answer rounded to three decimal places.)fourth quintile:mpg

I am considering upgrading from a 2020 eco boost to a 2022 GT. What is the difference in the fuel economy? What is the average miles per gallon you get on a GT with manual transmission?

We had been checking weather reports tirelessly for two weeks, until we finally found our spot. The following week should be nothing but sun and smooth winds, so we tentatively decided that to be our slot. Our small crew consisted of me and my friends Josie and Frank. Josie’s dad owned the boat (and he still needed to sign off on our plan), so we had to reserve it ahead of time, and make sure that we got it back in pristine condition, on the dot, and preferably with a nice coating of wax or whatever they use to make boats shine like candied apples.
Monday arrived and the weather was still solid, and Josie’s dad had reluctantly signed off on our plan, so we decided not to wait any longer and take it out the next day. The idea was to have a two day mini-cruise; just us hanging out on the boat and maybe docking it for the night at a nearby town. Although Josie’s dad was a hardass, he had taught her how to drive and maintain the boat since she was a kid, so really, the worst thing that could happen is that we wouldn’t have enough snacks.
Me and Frank met at the parking lot, and saw Josie standing on the boat at the end of the dock. Her dad was with her, lecturing her about some winch or other, Josie rolling her eyes next to him, barely maintaining her attention.
“He really can’t leave her alone even for a couple days, can he?” Frank asked, keeping his voice low as we stepped on the long dock.
“Josie or the boat?”
Frank chuckled, then quickly returned his resting poker face as we reached the boat, Josie’s dad turning around as he heard the planks creaking under our feet.
Before he could say anything, Josie ran up from behind him and said “Hi boys! You brought the food and snacks and the five gallons of vodka, I assume?”
“Aye aye, Captain!” we replied in unison. It was Josie’s dad’s turn to roll his eyes.
“Well, I’ll leave you to it,” he said to Josie, starting to walk down the small ramp down to the dock. “And remember, two days, no more. I expect you to bring her back in one piece.”
“Sure thing, dad!” That was Josie’s way of saying yes, yes, yes, I get it already.
Josie’s dad gave us a stern look followed by a slight nod as he walked past us. He never really liked me or Franki, a bunch of hooligans, as he’d once called us when we were kids. For the record, me and Franki didn’t like the guy either, so at least the feeling was mutual.
After her dad was out of earshot, Josie yelled “Are you ready kids?!” putting on her damndest pirate voice.
“Aye Aye Cap-TAIN!” we screamed and sprinted up the ramp and into the boat.
After an exchange of hugs we unloaded our groceries into the mini-fridge below deck, then met up with Josie, who was already sitting inside the helm. “Ready to leave, crew?” she asked. “Let’s rock this boat,” Frank replied. The amount of bad jokes this early in the morning was surely a great indication for what the rest of the day held.
It wasn’t long until the shore behind us was gone, the tranquil open sea spreading out in all directions. Josie seemed to know where we were going, but at that point I could no longer discern what direction we had even come from.
Me and Frank sunbathed and joked around on the deck until Josie emerged from her cocoon-like cockpit. “Sorry to interrupt your hi-LARIOUS hijinks, but I’d propose we have some lunch soon.”
Like destiny, the word lunch produced a unified grumble from both me and Frank’s stomachs - the universal horn of yes please, food please, now please.
“We can stay here for a while, then we could start heading towards the town,” Josie said.
Feeling bad that she was doing all the heavy lifting, I asked her “You need any help? It’s your boat, and us your honored guests, so don’t be afraid to command us, cap’n!”
“Please,” Josie replied, “when I get a chance to drive this boat, I take it. Dad’s been hogging it like crazy all summer. Besides, it’s not like you guys even know what half of the things on this boat are called, let alone what they’re used for.”
“Well, that’s the driver’s seat,” Frank said, pointing at the helm.
“That’s called a helm, my dear. Frank - you just earned yourself the honorary job of heating up our lunch.”
“This ain’t no Ford Prius, I see,” he replied as he got up and started to take lazy strides towards below deck.
“Toyota,” I said.
“What?”
“Prius is Toyota. Not Ford. Come one, let’s go make lunch for the captain.” I got up to follow Frank, nodding approvingly to Josie.
We had cheap microwave meals for lunch, seeing as the boat didn’t have a stovetop or an oven. For some reason - maybe it was the soothing sounds of the ocean lazily slapping the boat, or the warm afternoon sun - the food defied its low expectations and tasted great.
Afterwards we had a little siesta where I almost fell asleep until Josie said “Shall I take course towards the town, then?”
Through a straw hat laid across his face, Frank mumbled “Aye aye.”
“You sure you don’t need any help?” I asked Josie once again, but she was already jumping into the helm, excited to get back at it. “You guys just take a chill, I’ll get us where we need to.”
As the motor’s soothing hum returned, I got myself a bag of chips and sat on the deck, watching the horizon. Frank still had the hat on his face, which either meant that he didn’t want to be bothered, or that he’d fallen asleep. Either way, I was happy to just sit under the sun as the boat slowly rolled towards our destination, cutting a line into the flaccid water behind us.
“Shit, Shit SHIT!” Josie screamed. I must’ve fallen asleep, and as I got up the half eaten bag of chips crushed under my foot.
“What, Josie? What’s wrong?”
“What’s going on?” Frank parroted as he stood up, the hat falling beside him.
“There’s a fucking storm coming,” Josie said as she frantically pressed buttons, her eyes darting across the dashboard of the helm.
I turned around and looked at the horizon. Dread filled me as I saw an infinitely wide wall of dark clouds spread across the sky, making contact with the water in a misty gray curtain. I noticed that the ocean was no longer level, for it was rippled with small waves that thumped the sides of the boat in eager anticipation.
“I thought it was supposed to be nothing but clear skies,” Frank said. He’d walked beside me, taking in the horror beyond the horizon.
“Ex-fucking-actly, Sherlock. It came out of fucking nowhere,” Josie snapped, holding the wheel tightly in her right hand as she fiddled something with her left.
“Okay, Josie, I know this might sound stupid, but bear with. Why are we going towards the storm?” I asked, trying to not seem disingenuous as I turned around to face her.
She gave a sigh, stopping what she was doing and looked me in the eyes. “That’s where the town is. It’s the closest place to dock right now, and the storm’s moving faster than any I’ve ever seen. If we go back it’ll catch up to us and we’re fucked. If we go through it, we’ll spend the least amount of time inside it, giving us at least a chance.”
“A chance at what?” Frankie asked.
“A chance at getting out of here.”
“Any port in a storm, I guess,” I said, trying to lighten the mood, to which Frank gave me a concerned look.
The air had turned cool, so I went and changed to warmer clothing, Frank doing the same. Coming back up to the deck, I saw that the storm had moved closer. A lot closer. Josie instructed us to put on life jackets and to stay below deck, not to come out unless she asked us to. We put on the puffy orange jackets and promptly hunkered down below deck. The increasing waves were already rocking the boat uneasily.
“Are we gonna die?” Frank asked, his voice whimpering as he looked up at me from the opposite bench.
Although the question had already burrowed itself into my mind as well, I replied “No, NO, man, we’re not gonna die. Like Josie said, it’s just a quick ride through and then we’re back on dry land,” hoping that my words held even a sliver of truth.
In a matter of minutes, the sky turned dark and the boat started jumping on waves, like a rollercoaster rapidly going up and down and up and down. The rain tore into the boat like a machine gun as thunder sounded from across the way, lightning flashing the sky white erratically. Frank’s lunch quickly escaped his stomach, coming out in an arc of brownish green vomit that splattered across my legs and the floor. I was too scared to care, and he was too frightened to apologize.
The storm kept getting worse, the waves becoming larger as evidenced by the deeper dives and longer ascensions. Water was constantly slamming the deck, some of it trickling down to our feet. Through the two small windows the cabin had, it was near impossible to know whether we were on top of the water or under it, or which way was up or down. Although the storm was loud, I could still hear Josie cursing and screaming as she battled the waves and tried to keep us afloat, which was the only indication that she hadn’t been swallowed into the depths below. Frank was sweating bullets, his face a pale white. I wasn’t doing much better either, the words it’s gonna be ok it’s gonna be ok repeating in my mind.
Slowly the storm started to ease up, the waves thinning out and the rain becoming only a slight patter. Neither Frank or me said anything, though, not wanting to jinx it before we were safely back on land. Soon, the boat’s rocking lessened severely, and I could see sunshine coming through the windows.
“Hey guys, you okay? You can come up now,” Josie yelled, her inflection hesitant but calm.
Frankie apologized for the vomit as we got up and made our way up the steps. Josie was standing at the front of the deck, tumbling through her soaking wet hair with her fingers.
“Ho-lee shit, did we just survive the fucking apocalypse?” Frank asked rhetorically, his eyes darting between me and Josie.
“Josie! You okay?” I asked.
“Yeah, yeah… I’m fine,” she replied, waving her hand like nothing abnormal had happened at all.
I walked up next to her and said “We got through it, didn’t we? Now just let’s get ourselves back on land, eh?”
“Yeah, well, that’s the problem.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, look,” she said, holding her hand out at the pale horizon, like she was presenting it on an invisible platter. “Where’s the town?”
“What do you mean where’s the town? We got through the storm, so shouldn’t we be able to get through to it now?”
“That’s the thing. It should be right in front of us.”
“Where’s the storm?” Frankie yelled from the back of the boat.
“What do you mean ‘where’s the storm?’ We just went through it” Josie yelled in annoyance, still peering at the horizon.
“For fuck’s sake, come here,” Frank replied.
Josie looked at me and rolled her eyes, then started walking towards Frank as she gave a long sigh. I followed tepidly behind her.
As we reached the back of the boat, I realized what Frank had meant. There was no storm, nor clouds, or even residual waves. “What the fuck,” I exclaimed under my breath, right as Josie started sprinting around the boat, looking in all directions, her head swiveling in frantic motions, her hair throwing beads of water around like a dog drying up after a swim. A minute later she joined us, panting, and said “It’s all just water. There’s nothing on any side. We’re in the middle of the fucking ocean, the storm’s gone, there’s nothing.”
“Shit, shit, shit…” Frank muttered as he started to tap his foot on the deck, holding himself in a tight hug as he shivered in his wet clothes.
I turned to Josie. “Well we shouldn’t be far off from something, right? It’s still day, and even with the storm we couldn’t have gone too far.”
I could see that Josie was tired. She looked like she had aged about ten years in the last twenty minutes. “Okay, okay, you’re right. Let me just check some things and figure out where to go.”
Josie left for the helm, leaving me and Frank to stare in silent horror at the lazy, blue ocean that seemed to stretch infinitely in all directions.
After a long minute Josie called to us “Guys… you better come check this out.”
She was staring intensely at the dashboard of the helm as we arrived.
“Okay, so good and bad news. Which first?”
“Good, please.” Frank replied, recovered from the worst of the shivers.
“Okay, so the good news is, uhh,” she began, still fiddling with controls as if to double check her suspicions “the boat seems to be in running condition. There’s no damage to anything that would prevent us from going forward.”
“So what’s the problem then?” I asked.
“Check your phones.”
“What?” me and Frank said in unison.
“Check if you have a signal, internet, anything.”
“Shit,” Frank said. “Yeah, mine too,” I replied as I looked at my phone and saw that there was absolutely no signal or internet.
“Yeah, I don’t have a signal either - just had to check. And it doesn’t stop there,” Josie said, “compasses, readings, all of that - it’s shot. I can’t navigate us anywhere, and I have no idea where we are.”
Frank started to freak out and walked towards the front of the boat, his wet shoes squishing as he stomped angrily. “Fuck, fuck, FUCK. What the fuck do we do?”
“Well, as I said, we can still move. The only question is where. I have a faint idea of where the sun was when we first headed out, and I suggest we try to mimic its movement back to the dock,” Josie said to me while keeping her eye on Frank.
Frank was now squatting on the deck, his hands gripping his neck as he stared down at his feet.
“That sounds smart. Then if we see the storm again, we can recalibrate. We should probably be hitting land at some point, right?” I said to Josie.
“That’s my logic, at least.”
“You with us Frank?” I asked, turning to him.
“Yeah, yeah. I guess that sounds smart,” he replied in a solemn voice under his breath.
“Need any help?” I asked Josie.
“Take care of Frank,” she said quietly. “The best thing we can do is stay calm.”
Josie revved up the engine and turned the boat around carefully as she mapped out our approximate direction, and then we left towards a horizon that was no different from the others, guided only by the sun’s approximate movements.
As Josie manned the wheel, me and Frank cleaned up below deck and dried our clothes. As we were finishing up, he said he’d stay below deck, as he needed some time to think.
Looking at the sun, the day was slowly turning to evening. It was summer, so we still had daylight for a few more hours. I went up to Josie to see how she was doing.
“Frank’s below. Said he needed some time to think. I don’t blame him - this is indeed a bit fucked up, isn’t it?”
“Logically, we should hit land at some point,” she replied, her eyes fixed on the horizon, her presence distant.
“How are you doing, Josie? You just pulled us through hell. I know you don’t need help with the boat, but I’m just saying -- I’m here if you wanna talk.”
Josie sighed and turned to me. “Thanks. I think right now what I need is to get us safely back home. Once we’re back you can buy me a beer and then we can talk.”
I nodded, and then turned my head to look at the horizon. Noticing something in the distance, I said “Josie, uhh, what’s that?”
She turned her head back to survey the ocean.
In the distance there were small, dark peaks rising from the ocean, like the tips of underwater mountains rising above the water. They’d appeared seemingly out of nowhere.
“I -- I don’t know. But I think we’re gonna see soon enough.”
I stayed with Josie as we approached the peaks. As we got closer, it was obvious that there was no land between them. Instead, they shot up from the water in thick spirals that tapered off the higher they reached. As we got closer we could finally realize their true size. Although some were smaller than others, most were the equivalent of tall office buildings, some reaching even higher. They spiraled and twisted in the air, arcing like blades of grass in the wind, and it seemed like they could fall down at any moment, but they did not move or shake in the slightest. There must have been twenty or so, and they all looked similar despite their differences in size; dark, mostly smooth yet also scratched, like charred meat on a grill.
“You have any idea what these are? They look like… trees or something, except they don’t have leaves or branches,” I said to Josie.
“Never seen anything like it. Must be some rock formations or something. Maybe there’s an underwater volcano that bursted lava out and it solidified -- I really don’t know. But those should only happen deeper in the ocean, far away from land.”
I heard Frank coming up the stairs. He looked better than he had before, his step lighter. Although I’d been afraid he’d been brooding, I guess having some time to think really did help.
As he saw the spiraling towers, his face turned into a twisted and confused half-frown as he said “What the fuck are those?”
“We don’t know,” I replied, “but it’s the only thing we’ve seen so far.”
Soon the closest spiral towered just a mere two hundred yards away, its wide shade casting upon the boat. From a distance it had been hard to decipher the dark structures, but upon closer inspection, it was clear that their anatomy was… abnormal. Stretches of surface material were mostly smooth, but all of the spirals seemed to have slight craters that were formed above the rest of the exterior. It looked like they had been bombarded by meteors of differing sizes, although even if this had been the case, how had they not been immediately broken, I do not know. They were beyond any logic I could muster.
“So, anyone know what we’re looking at?” Josie askied, surprising both me and Frank - she was usually the one to know things, us just tagging along for the ride.
“No clue, captain,” replied Frank as he stared upwards in dismay at the towering spiral.
“Still no,” I said.
Suddenly the boat’s end shot up, followed by the front, ascending us a good ten yards in mere seconds. Frank and I were knocked down on the deck, but Josie managed to hold onto the walls surrounding the helm. The boat kept rocking as waves hit us from behind. I slowly stood up with my knees bent for support, and went to help out Frank who was still laying on the deck, his eyes wide in panic.
Once I’d gotten Frank up, Josie had already managed to make her way to the back of the boat. We held onto the railings along the boat’s edge and walked as fast as we could through the oceanic turbulence to catch up with her. Once I saw what had produced those waves, I wanted to get back to land more than I ever had before.
In the distance tens more of the spirals had emerged from the ocean, some even larger than the ones we’d seen. They dripped with water, and some were covered in green algae. Somehow they’d been quiet, merely disturbing the water as they’d shot up.
“We need to move! One of those things could shoot up under the boat and sink the whole fucking thing!” Josie screamed, running back inside the helm as the waves slowly calmed down and became smaller. I leaned on the railing to see if there was something underneath us - not that there was much I could do, even if I saw a gigantic spiral shooting up from the depths.
The water beneath the surface was unmoving, holding an abyssal darkness. It seemed as if the light penetrated less than it had before, and what was deep below was nothing but pitch black shadowlands.
Just as I was about to disembark and head towards Josie, something moved in the water. I craned my neck farther over the railing to get a better look. It looked like two large masses were separating from each other, unearthing a ravine.
Josie had gotten the boat moving, and we were starting to turn towards an opening between two of the spirals. As the boat circled, I got a better view of what lay below. The ravine widened, and inside it I could see a dark, whitish yellow mass peeking through. As Josie cranked us up to speed the yellow mass had opened up into a large, oval shape that seemed to span across the ocean floor. Its center held a deep, dark circle that sucked in light as if it were a black hole, twisting all things inside of it.
Then it closed up. I sighed in relief, hoping that no more spirals would emerge.
Suddenly it opened up again in a furious motion, wider than before, into a perfect circle. Then it hit me - it was an eye, larger than anything I could think of. Although we were moving at full speed, it was so gargantuan that we weren’t making any headway.
It had blinked.
“Josie? Frank?” I screamed as I turned around and saw Frank on the opposite railing looking down at the water, witnessing the same thing I was seeing.
Frank turned to me, his face a washed white, and his mouth slightly agape. “They’re tentacles. They’re fucking tentacles, look!” he pointed at one of the bigger spirals. “They have fucking suction cups and all! Shit, SHIT!”
As if on cue, the tentacles started to return to the water, splashing as they did so, producing strong currents in the water. The boat was immediately caught up in the chaos, going up and around huge waves and being dragged by the water’s shifting volume. Frank sprang below deck, and I followed him. From the small round windows I could see one of the gargantuan tentacles dropping back into the water, the boat just barely missing its tip and almost sunk by the shifting ocean.
Josie ran inside with us and exclaimed “The storm is back! It’s fucking back! I can’t maneuver the boat worth shit!”
As she closed the door behind her, we were flung to the side, my ribs hitting one of the cabinets, producing a painful crack. I could hear the rain start to scratch at the boat, and soon we were engulfed in darkness, the rain gunning down on us through the waves. The boat rocked and swayed worse than it had before, and at some points I was sure we’d gone under, buried into the deep sea, never to see the sun again. We held on to whatever we could as water trickled through the sealed door and started pooling up on the floor.
Slowly, but steadily, the storm started to pass, the boat regaining its level status along the water. The darkness outside faded into a dark red. Once it was possible to stand with relative ease, we emerged from the cabin and walked up to the deck.
“Everyone okay?” Josie asked.
“I think I’m gonna --,” Frank replied, and promptly ran to grab the edge of the railing and vomited yellow bile into the water, his stomach empty of food from before.
“My ribs got a beating, but I don’t think anything’s broken, “ I said. “What about you?”
“I’m fine. Just some bruises. Look,” Josie said, walking to the other side of the boat.
On the horizon, we saw the evening sun illuminating a crimson glow behind a small town some 500 yards away.
“Frank?” Josie called out.
“Yeah?” he replied through thick phlegm that sounded like it was stuck to his throat and running down his nostrils.
“We made it.”
We docked at the unfamiliar town and found a small hotel - probably the only one there - just a quick walking distance away. Once we got our phones dried off, Josie’s seemed to be the only one that still worked. As she looked up our location she nearly dropped the phone on the ground.
“I -- I don’t know how, but we’re quite far from home,” she said, her voice produced in quick breaths.
“How far?” Frank asked.
“Some 480 miles away.”
We checked and double checked her phone, but she was right: somehow we’d ended up nearly 500 miles down the coast into a small fishing town.
We were so tired that we decided to get some sleep before giving the bad news to Josie’s dad. The next morning Josie called him up and explained the situation, giving him the simple version: a storm had hit us, and after we got out we’d arrived here. I could hear the screams he gave her through the phone - apparently he was sure we’d driven the boat all the way to this ghost town in the middle of nowhere and docked it here, just to spite him. Josie didn’t respond to him much, only apologizing and telling him to come pick us up.
A day later he arrived, furious with us - and especially Josie. Once we showed him the boat I thought he was going to burst into a thousand tiny pieces, for I’d never seen a man so angry before. Although I think he overreacted, it was true that the boat was in shambles. There was water damage throughout the interiors, most of the equipment was shot, and large scratches were present along the exterior’s white paint.
Josie begged him not to drive the boat back home, but he insisted, not hearing a word her daughter was saying. We drove his car and arrived home that night.
As promised, me and Josie went out for a beer a few weeks later after her dad had settled down enough to let her out of the house. We went through the events of the trip in great detail, confirming to each other that it really did happen - although we disagreed on one thing.
Josie still thought that the spirals were just magma turned rock, and the whole thing was just extremely bad luck. According to her, we got held up by a superstorm or hurricane that moved our boat on top of an active underwater volcano, and then got hit by that same storm later as it moved across the ocean at miraculous speeds. Her theory was that the storm moved us along with it, making it possible to traverse such tremendous lengths with ease.
But Josie didn’t see what had been underneath us. Her theory was that the ‘eye’ I saw was simply lava cooling down as it emerged from the ocean bed. But she hadn’t seen it blink.
Frank of course seen it as well, but I haven’t heard from him much after the incident. According to his mom, he’s been cooped up in his room, drawing yellow circles on black pages. He’d told her that he needed some time to think.

Do you guys feel like plugging in is saving you any money? My electric bill went up by roughly $100 a month since I started charging at home. I figured I get about 500 EV miles from charging 12 times at home per month, so that's 5 miles per dollar. I get 45-60 mpg, depending, in HV, at $3 a gallon. Anyone else experiencing this?

This was incredibly hard for me to write and admit., I'm sure I have forgotten important information and have errors.
DEEP IN DEBT DIARY TEMPLATE
Title: I am 33 years old, making $80,000 salary ( just started new job ) plus $21,300. Spouse ( 39 )makes $40 per hour plus $14,200, and we have $77,313 debt not including our mortgage.
SECTION ONE: Background
Job: Project Analyst ( new job ) & GIS Analyst
Industry: Finance
Location - MCOL, rural Texas
Context - I have worked for my MIL since 2015 with no benefits. My husband has worked for her since 2013 with no benefits. We were led to believe we would take over the business and have a really good secure income. Instead, we have made less than others in our same careers or near the same, but with no benefits, no paid holidays etc. We attempted to get the plan of action for us to take over starting in 2017, but were met with aggression and personality issues each time. It’s been a long mentally exhausting 5+ years. I have finally broken away.
SECTION TWO: Current Debt and Assets
Credit card debt: Total Credit Card Debt $31,606.30. Breakdown: Card 1 ($10,799.30 out of $14,500) Card 2 ( $17,002.84 out of $18,000 ) Card 3 ( $0 out $0 ) Card 4 ( $3,805 out of $5,000)
Personal loans: $0
Medical debt: $0 paid down from $18,000
Student loan debt (for what degree). $12,534.18 Bachelors in Engineering Technology. Already paid off over $15,000. His grandparents and parents paid for his undergrad; he saved up ( before we met ) and paid for his master's.
Remaining mortgage balance if you’re a homeowner. $298,000 remaining. Originally 318,000 at 4.84%. Yearly Dividends are around $3,500-$3,800.
Auto loans: Truck $19,781.71 u/2.25%, small SUV $13,390.64 @ 2.25%
Any other type of debt and how you accumulated it (e.g., payday loans, title loans). N/a
Retirement balance (and how you got there). Around $5000-$6,000 for both of us. This was from putting some into accounts we opened a few years ago.
Equity $502,000
Our first house was purchased for $82,000 in December 2010 with low interest. We sold it 2016 for $115,000 to buy our land.
To buy our land, we put some of the equity towards credit card debt and the rest towards purchasing the land for $150,000 at a 15 yr fixed rate of around 5% interest rate. We “rebuilt” our house starting Nov 2019 with a refinance and construction loan in one. We didn’t put any down, it was 90% loan to value. The house we built made the value ( once complete ) more than the loan. Currently, the estimated appraisal is around $800,000 leaving $498,000 in equity. We didn’t purchase and build in a typical way. We bought the 45 acres for 150k 4% or so15 year loan 3 years before refinancing with a construction loan. We did put down $15,000 to purchase the land originally.
Savings account balance: $200
Checking account balance: averages $4000-$5000 to cover all bills etc.
Any other assets that are applicable to you.
SECTION THREE: Income
Main Job Monthly Take Home aka Net Pay I just started my new job so I don’t know what the health insurance etc will look like. My salary is $80,000. My insurance is 80% covered. My husband makes $40/hour with no benefits besides two weeks of paid vacation.
Side Gig Monthly Take Home
We have owned a business for 10 years. It is a contract that has been $30,000 per year until this year; it is now $35,500. This is very part-time, part of the year. We have always worked on this in our free time, until 2021 when I did work it as my main job for that year and a half. We have had our real estate licenses since 2016; we didn’t make any money until 2019. It ranged from $15,000-$30,000, was in 2021. He is quitting real estate and I recently also quit.
Any Other Monthly Income Here
N/A
SECTION FOUR: Monthly Expenses
Mortgage $1676
Home insurance Annually $3,000
Property Taxes Annually $3,300
Private Health Insurance $580
Additional Retirement contribution N/A
Savings contribution N/A
Investment contribution N/A
Private School $350 plus $100 for aftercare
Trash Pickup $89/quarter
Husbands Life Insurance $51 monthly
My Life Insurance Annually $180
Debt payments We put extra money towards debt and get out of credit card debt most years, then go back into it. We paid the minimum from when I quit working full time for MIL until now.
Donations (please estimate monthly) I donate a lot; I’ve been on a minimalist journey for years and donate nearly everything. I used to also donate to St Jude's $25 a month.
Electricity averages $200-$275.
Water Averages $45-50
Sewage on a septic system
Internet $71 it will go up to $97 soon.
Cellphone $240 per quarter Mint
Subscriptions Apple TV $6.99, Apple Care $10.81, Discovery+ $6, Hulu Disney Bundle $5.39, Amazon $8 ( sister is taking over ), Netflix another sister usually pays for this,
Pet expenses Approximately $50
Car payment / insurance small SUV $317, truck $526. Yearly auto-ins. $1,000 for the truck, $600 suv
Parking/toll/gas/other transportation costs. $500-$700 we live out of town. It’s a 45-mile drive one way to go to a decent grocery store or to buy most things. Our town only has a tiny walmart ( limited options and bad produce ) and a very expensive small grocery store. He does get paid mileage but also has to have a 4x4 truck for work; although he doesn't work in the woods most days.
Regular therapy/other routine healthcare or wellness treatments. No insurance to cover it, but grandfathered in at $75 when I go. I/we used to go once or twice a month for years on and off. Our daughter did see a therapist last summer. She was $125 every two weeks for a couple of months.
Beauty/grooming not enough, honest. I may get a haircut twice a year and he gets his cut maybe once every few months. This will become more scheduled.
Paid hobbies nodda
Food/Drink Average $800 a month on groceries but during the worst times for us, $2000. I want to get this lower; we don’t buy meat so I feel like we need to do better planning.
Fun / Entertainment $0
Random House/Property stuff Averages $200 a month +
Clothes $0. Our daughter has a uniform for school; I tend to buy when on clearance. I’ve rarely bought anything since quitting MIL.
Any other expense that's relevant to you.
SECTION FIVE: [Write your Deep in Debt Diary here]
Please provide a detailed history of your debt accumulation and payments, including your pay at the time, any strategies you used to target your debt, and anecdotes about your experience. Example:
2010-2014 Worked as a draftsman while getting my associates in drafting. I was honest with them from the beginning about going back for a bachelor's. The most I made was $15/ hour with benefits only in the last year of employment. We started our contract work in 2013 at $25,000 per year.
2014 went back to college for a bachelor's degree and got my first real credit card. I don’t recall my balance when I started working on it but I would say it was over 3k. I also learned he had over 5k in cc debt when we started talking about combining our finances and working on debt. He was making $33 per hour with no benefits. Our contract was $25,000 per year which was broken up into equal payments over the year.
2016 - 2019 We combined out income and I took over finances completely with no help. I agreed to join the family business after finishing my degree in May 2016 and also got my real estate license ( boss MIL was also a broker). Worked full time from May until end of November when our child was born. I made $15-$25 in that time. We paid $800 per month for private insurance and had a traumatic delivery that came to another $18,000 after insurance coverage. I was scared of being one alone with my child; I had postpartum but didn’t tell anyone nor fully wanted to admit it to myself. Our daughter wasn’t easy going even as a baby, she had to be on my body at all times to be happy. She still gets bored easily. We spent a lot of money on stuff to entertain her at home; she never liked anything, not even a swing. We hired a nanny to be at our office with us full time from age 1 month to 3. We paid her $10 per hour in cash. Our daughter started pre-k at a private school at 3. $350 a month. Debt varied as always. I was at the office 40-45 hours but my boss used me to do real estate stuff she didn’t want to do which cut my hours to 30-32 per week hourly; I was never compensated for all of the real estate admin and website building. We both had our real estate licenses but never made anything until 2019-2022. It took up 8+ hours or so of my weekly hours then a lot of our weekends. In 2016, our contract work increased to $30,000 and payments changed to larger payments during our busy time of the year. I feel like that was when we started relying on that income to bail us out of debt.
Nov 2019-April 2020. Refinanced our land and did a construction loan to rebuild our house. Our daughter was out of school and at home with me working which was very hard. Our house was finished April 2020 two weeks before everything started shutting down further it seems. Debt was maybe around 10k because we forgot to plan for the carport that still doesn’t have a slab. It’s just dirt.
2020-2021 We told our boss MIL we were leaving the business. We were tired of the stress and chaos with her and low wages with no benefits. We were given raises ( $33 and $40 per hour ) to keep us there. I told her several months later in a formal notice I was quitting. I was guilt tripped and manipulated to stay; she stated we would make the changes necessary and I would start taking over her job. Of course nothing at all changed. I was a wreck and quit without notice 6 months later after trying again 2 months before because I was a serious mess. This hurt us financially because I wasn’t taking care of our finances and was too upset. I did take over our business contract work so we didn’t have to work on that during our free time. My husband was also a mess on and off, so we kept an emergency fund to support him quitting and finding a job. He told her twice he was quitting but could never follow through. We used up our emergency fund because we weren’t paying attention. Somehow spending 2k a month on groceries for several months. I hate that I have no clue how it happened and how much food waste we had.
2021-2023 I didn’t work for MIL from May 2021-October 2021 when I went back but only 10 hours per week. I went back because we needed the income. I typically worked 12 hours a week until leaving recently. We decided to move to Michigan; I feel like i sacrificed a lot staying in Texas ( I never wanted to ) and putting up with everything working for his mother and all the chaos and control that came with that. We will be moving end of May beginning on June. He still works for her and doesn’t have a set plan.
Reflection
I feel like our lives have been a wreck the last 3-6 years and I refuse to fall back into it. I feel like not having benefits has hurt us more than we ever imagined it would. Just this year so far we’ve paid $2400 for his emergency root canal and crown. $400 for a consultation and CT scan for my nose for sinus issues. $3500 for a new fence for our dogs. It seems to never end.
I was upset with myself for awhile; I am trying hard to focus on the future. We need to learn to plan and save for large expenses. I am highly considering separating our finances and splitting everything proportionally. He has yet to actually help me with managing our finances although I have mentioned and asked numerous times. He is also supposed to be evaluated for ADHD. He does try and he’s a great partner besides his mom problems and not helping with finances. He thinks just not spending money is enough for our finances. Our therapist thinks us getting away ( even if it is only part of the year ) will change my husband and his dynamic with his mother. I hope he will fall in love with where we are moving, and agree to stay there permanently and sell our home/property in Texas.
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The above template was modified, with permission, from MoneyDiariesACTIVE.

2010 Corolla LE with 97,600 miles being sold private party for $9,900.
Single owner, meticulously maintained with extensive service history, primarily done at Toyota dealership. Has the 1.8L 2AR-FE, not the 2.4L 2AZ-FE which is known to have problems.
I will get a PPI if I decide to move forward. If the PPI doesn’t turn up anything bad, is this a good deal? Am I wrong in thinking I could get another 100k miles out of this car as long as I stay on top of maintenance?

A whistle blower from the FBI has come forward and accused director wray of using his jet to circumvent his 30 mile drive.
This comes after he admitted taking the jet to his vacation home.
Records show the jet has made the roughly 15-minute flight between its base at Manassas Regional Airport in Virginia and Washington, D.C., area airports 140 times since 2020.
The private sector cost to fly the jet ranges between $7,000 to $11,000 per hour, including fuel, landing fees, and other costs. Gulfstream G550 jet fuel tanks hold about 6,000 gallons and the aircraft burns roughly 500 gallons per hour, most fuel is burned at takeoff and landing. The shorter the flight, the less cost-effective.
For context president Clinton fired someone for the exact same reason.
IF true; does this not outrage some of the more climate conscious folks from the liberal side? Or is it okay because he's special?

I have a 2010 Camry that has been eating back breaks since noon. I bought it with roughly 30,000 miles on it in 2010 and it now has about 220,000 miles on it. Have probably put on four sets of back brakes. I’ve replaced the caliper twice, and I put on the updated bracket from Toyota for the recall on this purpose.
Last night, my daughters and I did them again. Right rear was worn through the pad, left rear had about 50% life left. The caliper slides were rough, but I lubed them up and put them back on.
I thought about replacing the hose just in case, but I really hate to start throwing parts at it. Every time I do them I tell myself I’m not going to own the car in another 40,000 miles of a difference does it make? Then here I am a few years later still doing the same thing over and over. Ideas?

I was t-boned and my car has been totaled. I wasn’t at fault. The amount they want to pay out for my 2013 Toyota Corolla with 118,000 miles is $10,700. I’m in Indiana if that is relevant.
When I look at cars for sale in my area, there are none with similar milage and the same year.
I’ve started a dispute by sending in screenshots of similar cars for sale, but this is my first time in a car accident and the whole thing is a lot to think through, especially with a concussion.
What matters more, year or milage? I’ve found a 2011 with fewer miles (108,000) for $13,000 and a 2014 with more miles (126,000) for about $13,000. There are more examples, but all are older with fewer or newer with more, all for more than they want to pay.
Does this seem like they have undervalued my car? Can someone with more experience tell me if I’m being dramatic?
I’m also sad that it was paid off and used car loans are averaging interest rates of 8%. I don’t want to put up a fuss if my expectations are too high.
Thanks for any help!

Hey all!
I'm currently looking for a replacement after my car (2010 Toyota Rav4 V6) got totaled in an accident. I'm hoping to get a replacement that's similar to what I had. I don't need a brand new car but would like something newer. Unfortunately the used car market still sucks in my area.
I stumbled across a 2018 GMC Terrain Denali for $25k, 65k miles that seems to have everything I'm looking for and more in addition to being in the price range of what I'm looking to spend. Would this be a good car to consider? How is the Terrains reliability?
TIA 🙂

I’m currently looking at a 2017 Toyota Corolla LE with 19k miles. It’s listed at $20,998. It feels like a good choice, but then I wonder should I go newer with more miles for the updated safety sense? I don’t know. I’m in a state that adds 500 dollars in dealer fees, btw. We also considered a 2022 Kia Soul, but the Toyota feels more long term dependable. Anything you have to offer is appreciated!

So I have a 99 Corolla (141k miles) I have done two ATF changes, one at 110k miles and one at 130k miles. The reason they're so close together is because at 110k miles I only did a partial change, as I was informed I should do that because of the car age and that it hadn't had a ATF change yet.
Now my main question is, what kind of ATF does this car actually take. For those two fluid changes I used the Valvoline "Dexron VI, Dex/Merc," the kind that claims to be backwards compatible with cars that use Dexron III. However I recently found out that Aisin specifically recommends you DO NOT put Dexron III in an 8th corolla (or a A245E transmission or anything that has T-IV specifications). I've also read older forums on Toyota Nation, that when people use Dexron VI their 8th gen Corolla (with and A246E) runs worse.
What ATF should I use, are these transmissions doomed? lol
Also if I can where the hell could I purchase authentic T-IV ATF?