I refuelled the car

As I think I have indicated before, when it comes to the matter of global warming and/or climate change, I am an agnostic. A seeker after the truth. But perhaps that implies too active a role, whereas I;m completely passive, just sitting back and letting each side talk without taking any active steps myself to look into the matter. Maybe I should adopt the terminology of the opinion pollsters and declare myself as one of the great unwashed, that (usually) large minority known as the Don't Knows.

So yesterday I refuelled the car. And what, you might ask, is so remarkable about that? And what does it have to do with the previous paragraph? Good questions, both of them, and I will do my best to answer reasonably succinctly.

What is remarkable about it is that this is the first time I have put fuel in the car since 14 December, which, by my calendar, is a stretch of eight weeks less one day. I would generally fill up once or twice a month, so to go eight weeks without doing so is quite an achievement and remarkable for that very fact. Of course, the fact that I know exactly when I refuelled, and at exactly what mileage and how much it cost, shows that I am a bit of a nerd as far as keeping a record of the fuel consumption of the car is concerned. I really do it because I once read somewhere that an otherwise unexplained increase in fuel consumption is often the first indication that Something is Going Wrong or about to Go Wrong. And anyway, I like to know.

And what does the refuelling have to do with the first paragraph? Well, I have decided that it would be no bad thing to reduce my carbon footprint (I think that's the current jargon) and use the car less. I therefore declare the occasional day a "no car day" and refuse to drive the 4- or 5-mile round trip to walk the dog in Stanmer. I have been helped, of course, by the fact that I couldn't drive the car for a week while we were snowed in. But I am making a genuine effort. For a little while.