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Tom's Tidbits


Welcome to the new newsletter!



If you're a regular reader of our newsletter then I'm sure you'll notice lots of changes this summer. We're changing our format, content, and features, all trying to make this weird little rag a little more useful and entertaining. I'd like to take this month's "Tidbits" section to explain a few of these changes and tell you what to look for in the future.

The biggest change is to our format. Each quarter we print and mail over 3000 copies of this newsletter with the associated costs of paper, printing, envelopes, postage, and labor. That's a lot of trees and a lot of money, so to reduce both we're shifting to an all-electronic version. It will have all the coupons and headlines you're used to, but with links to our website so you can read the more in-depth articles. We'll still print copies for give-aways here at the shop and for our clients without email, but from now on we'll be emailing exclusively unless you request a printed version.

That brings up another advantage of electronic-based publishing... more content. Printed media restricts the length and number of articles to what fits on a page. This is particularly important on a technical-type article when cutting length may mean cutting critical information. We might have to limit an article to a hundred printed words, but if it's stored on our website we can make it as long as necessary to bring you all the details.

More space also means the possibility of new columns and features, like our new Community Events calendar or cartoon. Possibilities for the future include adding more feature articles about our clients, a "Tech Tips" section, or an on-going column about alternative energies and the future of cars. And, of course, the web means pictures! Lots of pictures! We'll try to accompany each article with at least one photo that helps you understand or enjoy the story even more, and maybe give you a chuckle too.

Finally, we'd like to make the newsletter much more interactive, so we want to hear from you. If you have any events you'd like to see promoted in our "Community Calendar" like birthdays, school or church functions, athletic activities, political events, or anything else, just drop us a line. If you have ideas for new sections, features, or articles you'd like to see, please tell us! Or better yet, just send us your own stories, questions, rants, artwork, or feedback of any kind. We'll include everything we can, and we'll see you in cyberspace!

Make a great day,
Tom

 

Local Mechanic Brews Alcohol in Backyard


Dwyer, Unrepentant, Swears "I'll Do It Again!"



No, this isn't a story about Tom Dwyer being carted off to jail for moonshining. Two years ago, he was looking into the possibility of having our shop do conversions on cars to make them flex-fueled or even totally alcohol-fueled vehicles. Aside from any mechanical questions, the first problem to crop up was obtaining fuel-grade alcohol for testing. The minimum amount available for purchase was a 10,000-gallon railroad tanker car, far beyond anything testing might require. Undeterred, Tom decided that if he needed alcohol he would make it himself.

The first step was obtaining the ATF license necessary to produce fuel grade ethanol. Watching David Blume's video "Alcohol Can Be a Gas" gave him the basics of alcohol production, and a web search for still producers yielded a local manufacturer. Tom quickly put down a deposit on a 50-gallon model but 18 months later, still with no still, he started making calls. Pieces began trickling in in March, more came in April, and the final shipment arrived in May. Meanwhile, Tom made arrangements with his neighbor, Scott Hanson, to work together to build the system in Scott's barn. In June, after assembling the pieces, buying gauges to replace the ones that never arrived, and fixing 9 leaks, Tom and Scott were able to step back and look at their creation. Six hundred-gallon barrels (1 cooling tank and 5 fermenting tanks) stood on a rack next to the nine-foot tall still. The equipment itself was ready, but now they needed something to go in it

The wort for a still (the material to be fermented and distilled) is made up of feedstock (base material like corn or sugar), yeast, and water. The first candidate for the feedstock was tainted high-fructose corn syrup, which is about 70% sugar and an ideal medium for the yeast to ferment. While Tom was considering the corn syrup, a chance contact put him in touch with someone who had 850 pounds of water-damaged "sugar-in-the-raw" he was willing to donate to the project. Employing the "free is good" philosophy, Tom quickly and wisely switched to pure sugar for the test run. With a yield of about 1 gallon of ethanol for every 12 pounds of sugar this was enough to make about 70 gallons of alcohol. Only the yeast remained, but the yeast to create fuel alcohol no ordinary yeast- it's a special strain bred for high temperature resistance and high alcohol tolerance. While household yeast dies at 6% alcohol and brewer's can survive about 18%, fuel yeast makes it to 20%. Similarly, while household yeast dies at 80 degrees and brewer's at 90, fuel yeast can stand temperatures up to 100 degrees. Tom finally found a company that sold fuel yeast and that was willing to sell a small amount to a private individual. Armed with all the basics, he dumped the sugar, yeast, and water (from his own well) into the fermentation tanks where for the next three days Tom's 3 trillion new "co-workers" went to work.

When the fermentation was complete, the mash (fermented liquid) was pumped from the fermenting tanks into the still. It was then heated to about 200 degrees, which is hot enough to turn the alcohol in the mash to steam while leaving behind the water and solids. The alcohol steam rose into the 9' tall tube of the still's column, where it condensed back into a liquid and drained into the cooling tank. A still with a 3" diameter column like Tom's can produce about 2 gallons of 90%-pure alcohol per hour. (Back in the day, the old moonshine stills produced alcohol that was about 70% pure. They would put the alcohol through the still again to make it stronger, and would put an "X" on the jug for each time it went through. This explains the "XXXX" on the jugs of cartoon moonshiners- the shine had been distilled 4 times!)

Drops began falling from the column, the drops became a dribble, and the dribble soon turned into a stream of crystal clear, 190-proof, independently produced replacement for fossil fuel. Tom brought a sample to the shop for show-and-tell, where one of our less intelligent employees tried a drop on his tongue. "I was numb for 10 minutes", he sputtered. "I can see how this stuff can power a car!" Tom's first run wasn't cheap (he had waited more than 2 years and paid over $750 per gallon for his initial fill-up), but he had proven that the concept worked. When the bugs are completely worked out, this home-brewed fuel will be a reliable and inexpensive fuel source for the Tom Dwyer fleet. "This will let us run our Courtesy Shuttles on pure alcohol instead of the E85 (15% gas, 85% alcohol) they currently use. It won't make a dent in the country's gas prices, but it's inexpensive, comes from renewable stock, is almost totally clean for the environment, and doesn't depend on a huge conglomerate for production and transport," Tom said. "It's a small step, but each small step makes a difference." Drops become dribbles become streams...

 

What Does It Mean To Step Lightly?


Understanding your carbon footprint



We hear constantly about the threat of global warming, and the possible threats to our coastlines, food production, and even the continuation of life on Earth. We are told that to prevent global warming we have to reduce the carbon output of our society, but while politicians squabble about how to do it many people and companies have gotten tired of waiting and are looking for ways to help. But what to do? Few people buy boxes of carbon or dump bags of it at the landfill, so it's hard to understand how to go about cutting back. The first step to reducing our individual, corporate, or societal carbon output is understanding our carbon footprint.

A "carbon footprint" is the measure of net environmental carbon contribution of any activity or combination of activities. This footprint is large (positive) if it adds carbon or small (negative) if it absorbs carbon. For instance, driving your car to work adds to your carbon footprint because you are emitting carbon from combustion. Building a solar plant reduces a carbon footprint because the clean solar power replaces polluting sources such as coal or gas. Trees absorb carbon from the air, so planting a tree is carbon-negative but cutting down a tree is carbon-positive. It's more complicated than that though, because it's difficult to measure where an "activity" begins or ends. It's easy to see that carbon is produced when you drive, but it's also produced when your car is built, shipped to you, and disposed of when it finally dies. So, is the carbon footprint of your car the amount of carbon it uses when you drive, or the amount of carbon produced during the car's life cycle? It can be either depending on how you choose to measure it. Because almost every human activity produces some quantity of carbon it's almost impossible to reduce individual or point-source carbon production to zero, but we can be cut our total carbon output to zero (become carbon neutral) by balancing total carbon production with reductions in other areas.

"Carbon credits" and "carbon offsets" are two closely related concepts that started as an argument between two philosophies. One said that government should set limits on individual carbon producers and fine them if they went over their limits. This didn't play well with businesses, who didn't want to be subject to onerous or arbitrary regulations. The businesses proposed a self-policing policy and voluntary reductions but that didn't play well with environmentalists, who didn't trust the businesses to police themselves or set aggressive reduction targets. The two sides eventually came up with a creative new solution that combined both approaches- the "cap and trade" system. The government would determine the total amount of carbon currently being produced, estimate what contribution each carbon producer made to the total, and cap the total production at that amount. Then over time, this cap would be lowered at a pre-determined rate. Companies that reduced their carbon output (through conservation, technology updates, or other means) faster than the law required would gain "carbon credits" for their extra reductions. Companies that didn't meet the goals would either pay a tax on their overage or buy carbon credits from the greener companies to bring their production within limits. This gave the environmentalists the assurance that total carbon production would actually be reduced, while businesses had the freedom to determine how they would meet the goal.

As people realized that it wasn't just companies that polluted, they began to look for ways to reduce their individual outputs. The cap and trade system offered a model to help. Just as a company can buy carbon credits to offset their pollution, an individual can buy "carbon offsets" to make up for the carbon production they can't cut. The funds from the sale of these offsets goes to fund projects that reduce carbon output, such as tree planting, greener construction, or alternative power. (Totally coincidentally, Tom Dwyer Automotive has partnered with Bonneville Environmental Foundation to offer just this opportunity through their Green Tags program, which has already offset over a million pounds of carbon.)

Of course, the carbon offsets are only as effective as the companies backing them, and the value of carbon programs can differ drastically. Some companies transfer a high percentage of the cost to the offset projects and only take a small percentage for overhead. Others programs send smaller percentages to the target projects, fund ineffective projects, or are outright scams. The effectiveness of the programs can also vary depending on where the money is spent. Since carbon knows no borders it is just as important to reduce carbon sources halfway around the world as here in America, and your money may go farther overseas as well. For instance, it may cost $75 to remove one ton of carbon domestically, but the same $75 might remove 37.5 tons in China. This cost difference is one of the reasons that 85% of all carbon reduction projects today are in developing countries. Finally, conservation projects may be a perfectly viable carbon reduction method. It's wonderful to replant trees, but conserving a rainforest is much better than replanting it. Algae in the oceans are responsible for half of all carbon-reducing photosynthesis worldwide, so preserving ocean the environments that make algae growth possible can be a critical carbon reduction project.

Carbon offsets have been likened to kicking a person but paying for hospitals while you do it. This may be a little cynical, but it brings up a good point. The purpose of carbon offsets is to reduce our overall carbon footprint, not to make us feel better about polluting. The most effective, cheapest, quickest way to eliminate carbon is to quit producing it. Carbon offsets are only helpful in mitigating the carbon we can't eliminate, not the carbon we are unwilling to eliminate. No matter what, the first step to reducing our carbon output is to understand what makes up our carbon footprint. Only by understanding what our impact is can we make any rational steps to changing it.

 

Dumping the Guzzler


The trade-offs on your trade-ins



As we go to press with this newsletter the national average gas price for regular unleaded gasoline is $4.00 per gallon, down from $4.12 a couple weeks ago. Folks who squirmed a little as they drove their Hummers or Suburbans a year ago are screaming and thrashing now. Everyone's thinking about dumping their guzzler and jumping into a pocket rocket, but does it really make sense to trade in your 6 MPG monster for a 60 MPG squeaker? Wait, is this Tom Dwyer talking? Ecological, socially conscious Tom? Yes it is, because although as a society we obviously need to reduce our consumption of fossil fuels, it may not make sense on a purely individual basis. Just as it wouldn't be wise to refinance a house if you don't plan to be there long enough to wipe out the closing costs, it might not make financial sense to trade in Carzilla if you expect to cover the change through fuel savings alone. It's important to consider all the reasons and costs involved with a trade-in, and put pencil to paper before making any commitment.

Painful as it is to pay for the gas, there may be reasons to avoid the cost and hassle of trading in. If you mainly use your beast for runs to the neighborhood grocery store then you might not register enough miles for fuel efficiency to be a problem. Other drivers might actually need the room of a large car because of a large family or for business reasons. Still others need powerful engines, rear-wheel drive, or 4-wheel drive for towing or recreational reasons. If none of these apply to you and the only reason for you have for owning your gigantomobile is style, then there still might be reasons to avoid the car lots.

Until recently, if you wanted to move from a large SUV to a smaller car you might have the trade-in value to cover the cost of the new car, but increasingly that's not the case. Other people have noticed the high price of gas too, and it's affecting their buying decisions. Demand for big cars is plummeting and their prices are falling as well. In the first quarter of 2008, SUV sales dropped 28% but sales of subcompact cars rose 32%. SUV owners have experienced an 8% depreciation in just the past six months (a drop that usually takes a year), while hybrids buyers are paying premium prices and waiting months for their cars. This imbalance means rock-bottom prices for SUVs, which is great if you want to buy but horrible if you want to sell. You might be shocked at what your trade-in is worth, even if it is newer and in good condition. For example, a 2005 Hummer H2 sold for $55,735 new but the current Blue Book value is $19,440, a drop of over $36,000. If your car isn't paid off you might even be "upside down" on your current auto loan, owing more than it's worth. If that's the case then you'll be covering the difference in your current loan plus the cost of the new car; an expensive proposition.

Here's some numbers for an example. A big SUV like a Ford Explorer gets about 16 miles per gallon, while a hybrid like a Toyota Prius averages about 47mpg. Drivers average 15,000 miles per year nationally, so assuming $4.25 gas an Explorer costs about $3,984 per year for fuel while a Prius costs about $1,356. A $2,628 fuel cost difference looks pretty attractive, but it's only part of the story. If a 2005 Explorer has a resale value of $9,831 and a 2008 Prius has a cost of $23,589, then it will take 63 months to pay back the difference through gas savings alone. If you'd like to run the guzzler/sipper comparison between your own car and one you're considering, you can go to http://www.edmunds.com/calculators/gas-guzzler.html to see a caluclator that will help.

Finally, there's the opportunity cost of the money. Today's average car payment is about $400 per month for 5 years. Remember that $2,628 fuel cost difference between the Explorer and the Prius? It adds up to a savings of $13,140 over 5 years. Nothing to sneeze at, but if you take that $400 per month and invest it at 6.5% compounded monthly for the same 5 years you would have $28,269.59, which would buy an awful lot of gas.

Unless there is a huge mileage difference between the cars you're considering, or if you have a large trade-in value in the car you're driving, or if you were about ready to change cars anyway, it probably makes the most sense to sit tight in the car you have for now. If you drive a mechanically sound car and maintain it well, it should respond with reasonable mileage and minimal environmental impact. If you can make it last until the next-generation full-electric vehicles come out, that would probably be the time to change. Just as SUV owners are getting stuck with their gas hogs now, you don't want to be stuck trying to sell a Prius with $10,000 of payments left on it when everyone else wants electrics!

 

Technician Spotlight


Chris Waterbury


Although there aren't any gearheads in his family of artists and engineers, Chris Waterbury, 35, has been taking things like lawnmowers apart since he was a baby so working on cars comes naturally to him. Studying video production in Phoenix, Arizona taught him about the low pay and long hours of videographers so he quickly switched to auto technology and earned his associate's degree. He moved on to a Master Mechanic certification with an L1 Advanced Engine rating, which requires constant upkeep and re-certification testing every 5 years.

His professional experience has ranged from his first job at a Quicky-Lube to Pep Boys to a 76 gas station to his most recent job for the past 9 years with Tom Dwyer Automotive. Instead of specializing on a single type of car he has spent his career so far as a master diagnostician, solving the tough problems on a wide range of cars. "I like working at Tom Dwyer because it's always something different", Chris says. "You never know what type of car you'll be working on, or what problem will crop up. I'd go crazy working at a dealership on the same make of car every time. I like thinking on the fly, and dealerships are too much like assembly lines." He's worked on high-end cars including Rolls Royces, Porsches, and the strangest car he's ever worked on, a 1976 Bricklin (a gull-wing, mostly Ford product brought to us by the same fine people that brought us the Yugo).

Chris spends his spare time hiking, camping, and travelling the West Coast with his wife Melanie, son Zo, and daughter Maya. He and Melanie are avid collectors of toys, art (by their friends), vintage clothing (they used to own vintage clothing stores in LA and Sellwood), records, and movies.

 

Client Profile - Mark Haffey


"Details by Mark" -- (503) 231-4945 -- 1613 SE 6th Avenue, Portland, OR -- 97214



Fanatical. Obsessive. Compulsive. These are the qualities to look for in an auto detailer, and they're the qualities that perfectly describe Mark Haffey of "Details by Mark". A Portland native, Mark has been in the business for 24 years and owned his own shop for 10, but his roots go back even further. "I like the feel of a clean car, and started out cleaning my parent's cars at age 6." Years later he offered to clean the cars of two counselors in exchange for their services. He did a great job, word-of-mouth created buzz, and he was off.

Mark and his team consider themselves craftsmen and artists. "98% of the companies in this field are fly-by-night production shops, employing cut-rate labor and cranking out cars as fast as they can," but Mark's 3,000 square foot shop concentrates on quality, delivering only 2 cars a day on average. He was recently faced with redoing a car that had been worked on by a production shop, and it took 7 ½ hours just to polish out the swirls in the paint before he even started removing the wax on the rubber and gaskets. "You'll spend money, but it's worth it," he says. "Quality service maintains the quality of your vehicle."

Detailing means more than just a really good car wash. For a typical car, Mark's team starts on the interior by cleaning the door jambs, trunk jambs, and seatbelts. Then they completely remove the seats, center console, and sill plates for more thorough cleaning and easier access to the carpet. The carpet and upholstery are cleaned with an extractor (Mark's is one of the only shops in Portland that has one) that actually pulls the dirt from the material. They remove and clean the spare tire, and clean the headliner, dashboard, and doors using non-toxic, non-corrosive cleaners throughout. "Not only does this not leave a smell, but petroleum-based cleaners can leave a film on the car's glass as they evaporate" Mark says. They then make sure the car is completely dry and aired out. Moving to the exterior, they clean the engine (using a power washer and toothbrush), wheel wells, wheels, and gaskets. They remove and clean the license plate, windshield squirters, wiper arms, and as many trim pieces as possible. They take care to mask every bit of rubber, plastic, and non-removable trim left on the car, a process which can take over an hour by itself. Finally, they polish and buff the exterior to a mirror-like finish before reinstalling all the parts and returning the car.

Mark's team concentrates on restoring and rejuvenating a car, returning it to its original showroom finish. They make sure that the plastic, cloth, or leather are cleaned perfectly, and not "dressed up" with extra chemicals to make them look clean. "There are several reasons," says Mark. "Those kinds of dressings pollute the car and detract from the original look, in fact most of the newer materials are supposed to look matte instead of shiny so the dressings make no sense anyway. They attract dust and look blotchy. Finally, some dressings can penetrate plastic surfaces and actually damage the foam structure underneath. Our greatest compliments are when a client says their car 'doesn't look detailed' or it 'looks honest', meaning it looks clean instead of made-up."

Many people think of auto detailing as a luxury service, and Mark does indeed work on cars ranging from a $180,000 Mercedes to a rare Italian Facel Vega. But he says "you can't pre-judge who wants detailing services based on the price of the car. Our bread-and-butter work is the more basic cars- Toyotas, Subarus, and Volkswagens, average cars that people want to take care of. Someone once spent $3,200 with us on body work and detailing for a 1999 Subaru to meet German import qualifications." Interestingly, though, Mark has only done 1 Hyundai in his career.

Some of the services Details by Mark provides are mold and mildew repair from water damage, vintage and specialty car detailing, paintless dent removal, windshield repair, upholstery and leather repair/replacement, and timely body & paint repair. "Many of our clients have their cars detailed prior to selling them. This is less extreme than our top-of-the-line service, but it only costs a little over $300 for an average car and can add between $1000 and $1500 to the final sale price."

When asked for the biggest tip he could give clients to make their detailing experiences better, Mark said "Bring the car to us empty! We've found stuff like dog poop, bags of rotten food, a 9mm pistol, even $200 in quarters dumped loose in a center console. Things like that can really slow down our service or even be embarrassing to the client." They returned the quarters, by the way. In very clean bags.

 

CNP Update


Passing the million-pound milestone



We are proud to announce that our Tom Dwyer Automotive Services Carbon Neutral Program broke the "million pound mark" on May 20th as it helped prevent 1,005,900 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering our atmosphere. This is the same amount of carbon that would be produced in one year by approximately 75 average homes in the Pacific Northwest.

"This is a very exciting milestone for us", says Tom. "We hoped to make a difference when we started the CNP, but this is a much bigger difference happening much sooner than we could have expected." Asked to explain the success of the program, Tom answered "The Green Tags are essentially free to people who sign up for the Carbon Neutral Program because of all the discounts we provide to members. Since we promote Green Tags in our marketing, an expanding group of people is constantly exposed to the idea. We benefit because the people who care about Green Tags are the kind of people who appreciate our company and the service we provide. It also just feels good to be helping such a critical cause."

If you're not currently a member of our Carbon Neutral Program, it's never too late. Go to https://www.greentagsusa.org/greentags/landing/tdasi/ to signup, or check out the Bonneville Environmental Foundation's website at www.b-e-f.org to find more ways to reduce your carbon footprint.

 

Drew's Kitchen


Summertime Pasta Salad



INGREDIENTS
12 oz Rotini Pasta
12 oz Spinach Tortellini
2 doz Grape Tomatoes, sliced in half
1 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
10 oz Cheddar Cheese, shredded
3 tbsp Olive Oil
¼ cup Olives, chopped
1 tbsp Fresh Dill, finely chopped

1) In a large saucepan, cook the rotini and tortellini for 10 minutes, or until desired tenderness. Drain noodles.
2) In a small bowl, toss the sliced tomatoes with the salt and pepper. While the pasta is still warm, toss it with the tomatoes, cheese, olive oil, olives, and dill. Serve warm.
3) Serves 6. Each serving has about 610 calories.

 

Sellwood Bridge Update




Although it is getting nearer, the impending closure of the Sellwood Bridge won’t be affecting us anytime soon. The draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) has just been finished, and was submitted to ODOT and the Federal Highway Administration in June. No date is set yet for their reply. More information about the Sellwood Bridge Project can be found at http://www.sellwoodbridge.org, and you can see some of the bridge designs being considered at www.tomdwyer.com.

 

Quarterly Coupons


Hurry on down to Wacky Tom's House of Automotive Gooditude! Get on in here before these hot, hot deals are GONE! Check out THESE sizzling summer savings...

$20 off-  3,000-Mile Interval Service with Tire Rotation and Balancing
Normally $89.95.  For domestic & Japanese passenger vehicles.  5 quarts standard oil, additional charge for synthetic oil.  Coupon must be presented at time of appointment, not combinable with other offers.  Coupon Code 1-SUM08 $40 off-  Fuel Injector and Throttle Body Service
Normally $225.  Coupon must be presented at time of appointment, not combinable with other offers.  Coupon Code 2-SUM08
$20 off-  Tire Alignment
Normally $97.35.  Coupon must be presented at time of appointment, not combinable with other offers.  Coupon Code 3-SUM08
$30 Off-  Set of 4 Shocks or Struts Installed
Coupon must be presented at time of appointment, not combinable with other offers.  Coupon Code 4-SUM08
$25 Off FREE 1-Day Car Rental 
With minimum purchase of $275 service.   Must schedule in advance.  Coupon must be presented at time of appointment, not combinable with other offers. Coupon Code 6-SUM08

Free - Car Wash

Our on-going fight against summer dust and grime continues as we give coupons for environmentally conscious car washes at Washman or Kaady Car Washes with qualifying purchases.

There are just a couple things to remember- • Car Wash Coupon Season lasts until September 15. • Coupons are only given with services that exceed $100. They are not given for oil changes or other minor services. Sorry!

 

Community Events Calendar


Happenin's 'Round Town



Just like every other business, we are in business to make money. However, we strongly believe that there should be more to a company than money alone. Companies, like individuals, can make the choice to be good neighbors and vital parts of the communities they serve. We're starting this community events calendar to tell you about some of the activities we're a part of and encourage you to take part yourself. If you have any events you'd like to tell your neighbors about, please tell us! We'll gladly post your announcement on this calendar, and we'll look forward to seeing you at at least one of these events...

Sellwood Park Concerts - http://www.portlandonline.com/parks/index.cfm?c=42670- Mondays in July starting July 7th, 6:30pm each night. Brought to you in part by Tom Dwyer Automotive, this family-friendly event offers a variety of music in a beautiful setting. The music begins at 6:30pm with art for the kids at 6:00pm, all in the Sellwood Riverfront Park at SE Spokane Street on the Willamette River.

Sellwood Farmer's Market - www.SellwoodWestmoreland.com - Every other Wednesday until September, 3:30pm to 7:30pm. A vibrant selection of local merchants, products, services, and residents are on parade for your enjoyment. Shop, talk, eat, and people watch to your hearts content. Located in the parking lot across from Wilhelm's Funeral Home where SE Bybee and 14th Street meet.

Sellwood Junior Baseball - www.SellwoodBaseball.com - Since 2005 we've sponsored the Sellwood Cyclones in the Sellwood Junior Baseball League. This important opportunity for our kids to experience sports thrives on the support of the community, and makes a great inexpensive outing for the family. Complete schedule is available online.

Phame Academy - www.PhameAcademy.org - Phame Academy offers theatre, music, and art programs for people with developmental disabilities in the Portland area. Although they are closed for the summer break, you can see the choir at events throughout the city this summer. Classes will begin again in September as they prepare for an upcoming show in New York.

Sustainable Business Network of Portland - www.sbnportland.org - An organization dedicated to increasing the vitality of the local economy and supporting local independent businesses. Events are on-going, and include lectures, networking events, and others. Check the website for the latest opportunities to get involved.

 

Ian's Car Care Corner


Bird Bomb Triage



With summer here you're probably looking for ways to keep your car looking shiny and new, but you know the deal... minutes after you leave the carwash a bird offers his aerial opinion of your sparkling paint. We all hate it, but what to do? It's a little difficult to carry a bucket and sponge in your car, but a bottle of non-salted carbonated water can be a formidable weapon. Simply remove the cap and pretend it's graduation or a wedding. Apply your thumb firmly, shake and spray. The carbonation acts like a jet which blasts away the bird droppings. It also neutralizes the acids left behind and sprays away the micro gravel which can leave swirls marks and scratches in your paint. You'll still have to do the major clean up when you get home, but you'll have made the job a little easier and reduced the potential damage that the #(%*@ bird could have done.

 

Summer Cartoon


See You In The Funny Pages



 

Websurfing With Tom


Our picks of the web



Just like everyone else in the world, we at Tom Dwyer Automotive spend way too much time surfing the Internet. To turn what could be wasted time into productive effort, we decided to start this new section of the newsletter devoted to sharing our websurfing results with you. We'll be posting links to stories, pictures, and videos on a variety of subjects that spark our interest from cutting-edge automotive technology to fuzzy kitten videos and everything in between. (Send us links to things you like, and we'll post those too.) You'll see descriptions of some of these links, but others are surprises. We can't guarantee that everything will be interesting to you, but we can guarantee that it was all interesting to us, and that we looked at each link personally and none of them were pornographic at the time of posting.

Alcohol Fuel - http://www.alcoholcanbeagas.com
Fuel Efficiency - http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91703607
Fuel Efficiency - http://www.fueleconomy.gov/
Fuel Efficiency - http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=91742292&m=91742286
Solar Energy - http://www.nanosolar.com/
Floating Windmill - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24775419/
Hybrids Compete With Detroit - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24763128/
Compressed Air Cars - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmqpGZv0YT4
(Highly Recommended) Compressed Air Cars - http://www.gizmag.com/go/7000/
Compressed Air Cars - http://www.cyber-media.com/aircar/
Compressed Air Cars - http://www.theaircar.com/
Electric Motorcycle - http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/video.php
Electric Motorcycle - http://www.enertiabike.com/component/option,com_contentform/Itemid,27/
Electric Motorcycle - http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/automotive_news/4216271.html
Electric Motorcycle - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrFPMLAfs3s
Electric Motorcycle - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUXhJZZRUIg
Electric Motorcycle - http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/04/04/how-to-build-your-own-electric-kawsaki/
Electric Car - http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91646154
Electric Car - http://www.zapworld.com/
Gas Guzzler Trade-In Calculator - http://www.edmunds.com/calculators/gas-guzzler.html
Optical Illustions - http://www.620kpoj.com/cc-common/gallery/display.html?album_id=75151
Peak Oil - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mRLGtTzd8E
Peak Oil - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHKp5vF_VoE&feature=related
Peak Oil - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhYoXG9Mnmk&NR=1
Motor Vac - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4bbMCOZ9aw
Home Gas Pump - http://www.efuel100.com/
Gas Guzzler - Grease Parody - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wub7keZo0nw
David Letterman - Top 10 Bush Moments- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8px_KyIFyo Letterman top10 bush moments
Net-Energy Biofuel Facts - http://klprocess.com/facts_legends/metrics.pdf
Large Scale Ethanol Production - http://www.klprocess.com/
Cellulosic Ethanol - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITuesHeKjcM&feature=related
Story on Switchgrass - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4dkkZAX76M&feature=related
Free Carbon Offsets (Parody) - http://www.freecarbonoffsets.com/home.do;jsessionid=C1CD0DBDBA3A943CFA5B5D6BD138B8B4
Carbon Credits - http://www.grist.org/advice/ask/2008/06/30/?source=ask
News and Politics - http://www.buzzflash.com
News and Politics - http://thousandreasons.net/index.php
Politics (Progressive) - http://www.commondreams.org
Politics (Progressive) - http://www.democracynow.org
Politics (Progressive) - http://www.rightwingwatch.org/groups/discovery_insti/index.html
Politics (Progressive) - http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/
Politics (Progressive) - http://www.americanprogress.org/
Politics (Conservative) - http://www.thepaytons.org/essays/
Philosophy - http://www.aynrand.org
Carbon Footprint Calculator - http://www.greentagsusa.org/greentags/calculator/
Dramatic Lemur - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkqqMPPg2VI
Independent Business - "World without independent business" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oE4cwCaIyAg&NR=1
Step-by-Step Video Advice on Anything - http://www.videojug.com
"How to fold a shirt in 2 seconds" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An0mFZ3enhM
Teeny, Tiny, Real Cars - http://microcarmuseum.com/index.html
David Blume's Book on Alcohol Fuels - http://www.alcoholcanbeagas.com/


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