Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Back at the show.

Sometimes I'm more distracted by other oddities I find at events - rather than the actual event. For instance, when I got to the orchid show this weekend - the first thing I saw was this ginormous truck. It caught my attention because there was a line of Prii next to it. Well, that and the side of the truck had a big graphic with the words "hybrid synergy". The truck was just sitting there idling. That gets my attention.

Normally it might not have struck me as odd. But lately - a lot of my contractors have been complaining about high diesel fuel prices. When I checked just now on Google - diesel is at 3.67 a gallon. So, the idling truck immediately caught my eye. This also made me want to go in and see what bullshittery green mantra they were selling.



First, I saw a truck full of slogans and signs like this one.



Of course my first question was - how much fuel does it waste having a diesel truck sit all day at an orchid show just idling. I even asked one of the guys working the truck if it ran on diesel. Which he confirmed it did. I was hoping he would give me the ethanol smack down. Or tell me the truck was using some combo of energy efficient diesel motor.



I know what your thinking. Those trucks are meant to idle. It's better to let them run than to shut them off. But.. as I went inside of the truck I soon saw why they were idling the truck. They needed to let the truck run so they could generate power to run all these monitors, kiosks, and lights. But the important thing is they had "green" slogans inside right?

With the size of the truck they could have put solar panels on top to offset some of the fuel use. Right? Unless solar isn't efficient enough to power a semi-truck full of monitors. Its just one truck. How many panels could it take?



Oh - and the best part is next. They were offering free gifts and prizes to get you in the door.

What was the free gift you ask? One of those shake up flash lights. And let me tell you - the old people almost peed their pants to get one. These people were so minimally mobile - that at one point I overheard the parking attendant say their were no more handicapped parking spots available. A bunch of them could barely walk, but they were going to use a shake up flashlight. But - it was free. Free I tell you.

Just ridiculous.

4 comments:

  1. I would love one of those shake up flashlights!

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  2. Serious!?

    To play with once or twice or to use it? Are you always searching for battteries? Because you have to shake those things for like 30 seconds. That would drive me crazy in 10 seconds flat.

    Plus - all I can think about is that MadTv skit:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=186ozANcm-s

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  3. I would give it to Piko. She is always stealing my bedside flashlight to play with in bed. Then she leaves it on and the battery dies. And I have no emergency flashlight. I think that she would actually enjoy the shake-a-shake-a.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh - yeah. That makes a lot of sense.

    ReplyDelete