Prius Accessory Tray, Floor Mats, and Seat Covers

Time for more reviews. This concerns three items I have added to my 2012 Prius that seem to have made a difference to me.

An insert for the accessory tray, heavy duty floor mats, and seat covers.

Early in my ownership of this Prius, I purchased an insert for the lower front center console. I didn't like just having the open space for things to roll about in down there. So I ordered this:

It is pretty simple and provides two cup holders and a storage bin. Now, there is little space over the tray to place a beverage in the cup holder, but the cup pockets are fine for collecting small items or coins that you may want to contain and easily find at a later time. I have a cleaned out "Go Cup" from KFC that fits perfectly in one of the holders and I keep a small pocket knife, gum, OBD-II Bluetooth connector, moist towelettes, etc. in there. The other side can easily hold a cup-holder sized 12 volt "two-fer" and USB charger or a power inverter if you so desire.
The main portion is sized for holding items such as my hairbrush, a can of Ozium, and such. On the side of the tray, I have found the slight space good for accommodating membership and club cards at the ready so that I don't have to keep them all in my wallet.

Another purchase was a set of heavy duty floor mats.

We purchased a second Prius recently, a better runaround for my wife than the minivan when she didn't need to be hauling around all of the grand-kids. It did not have the floor mats when we purchased it so I ordered these and split them between the two cars. I gave her the factory front mats from mine, and the heavy duty mats for the back. Where I put the heavy duty mats in the front of my car and left the original in the back, as I don't usually carry people in the back and she does. The all weather mats are Toyota factory produced and retain the proper mounting holes for the driver's side mat to prevent slippage and have the Prius branding. The all weather mats are holding up very well and showing no signs of wear after 4 months of daily use. I am no longer worried about wearing out the carpet of the original mats or the floor carpet of the car.

Finally seat covers:

I am a person of generous size, an understatement to say the least, and I know I put a lot of wear on the upholstery in my vehicles. So I picked up these seat covers for the Prius as well.
They are easy to fit and it took me only about 5 minutes each with no tools. The main advantage to having a seat cover for me is that it is much easier to replace when it starts showing wear than the seat itself. When the cover wears through, I replace it, instead of adding the cover to a worn out seat. A preemptive strike you could say. Being black, I know that they will be hot when I get into the car, but they cool quickly enough for me in the summer. I no longer have to be concerned with a spill staining the seat or my wearing through the seat back on the left side as I get into the car two or more times a day. The seating surface is the "wetsuit" material whereas the sides and back are a much lighter weight spandex. The back of the cover is open and does not prevent using the pockets on the back of the seats.
The fit is a little sloppy, as they are generic covers, but it really doesn't look that bad once he adjustment straps are in. due to the molding on the bottom of the seats, you have to put one of the bottom straps below the slider rail, and the forward strap will be in front of the slider rail. I expect that they will not last more than a year with my daily use, but that would be acceptable for me.

Cleaning Up

I have a hopeless garage. We have never put a car in it for the last 20+ years. It is provisionally a "Workshop", but there is too much of my stuff in there for it to function as such.

I had a little space at one point, then a table was put in for "Temporary" storage. it is now about a foot deep in stuff.

That's it. I am doing something about it this next week.
My order of operations are:

• Toss broken stuff and "future fixes". 
• I know it is in there, but I haven't done it yet and likely will not.
• Toss "Spare Parts"
• It is easier to pick up the right bolt/screw/nut from Tacoma Screw or Home Depot than to find it in this mess.
• I will keep a small collection of screws and such, but not nearly of the scale I have in there now.
• Toss "Home Repair Supplies"
• Same thing, easier to buy than find. 
• I do intend on keeping a small amount of wire nuts and some such, but not much.
• Possibly toss the oversize vice I have mounted on the end of my workbench. 
• It must weigh at least 50 pounds. 
• I have never used it except to hold another, smaller, vice.
• My brother gave it to me when he moved.
• The scrap yard will pay me for it.
• Remove old shelving from the North wall.
• It is decent stuff, just not suited to my storage needs.
• Replacement shelving will be open below for parking roll carts.
• I may just remove the bottom 3 shelves, leaving a single shelf across the top for now.
• Build a roll cart for some parts bins I have but cannot use well as they are long and bulky. 
• They do stack, but are not easy to access.
• A simple rolling cart will do to store them as drawers.

• Build flipper roll carts for bench-top tools that I don't use much.
• These are a great idea, as they take up the same space they would if they were sitting on a shelf, but are much easier to pull out and use.
• Scroll saw, Planer, Band Saw, etc.
• They can park under the new shelves that I will be placing on the North Wall.
• If I have an odd number of these, I will leave one table empty.
• Clear out the area under the main workbench for more rolling storage.
• Currently there is a shelf under there built from an old door that is not that useful.
• Rolling carts would be better for access, the back of the cart could be used for less often accessed tools.

• Remove the pegboard from over the main workbench.
• To me pegboard is not that useful.
• Perhaps replace it with a french cleat system, they appeal to me. And you can make the bins to fit what you need.

If I can manage the first 5 points on this list before my weekend is over, I will call it a victory. 

I have nearly a week off with my brother in law hanging out with a need to do something. I think he would like to help with this job. We have a couple of other small projects to do as well. He runs on beer and loves to do small (or large) projects when he comes out. A couple of summers ago he helped me replace our back deck with composite decking.

I am, bravely, including a couple of before photos. It shouldn't be hard to improve on this.

Road Food and a Diet

I know, they really don't go together. It is always better to shop and make your food from scratch, as you can get a better price and better nutrition.

Nonetheless sometimes you just want something "bad".

I fit these into my diet plan and do appreciate stopping for a Fresco Chicken Soft Taco at Taco Bell, or a breakfast burrito at McDonald's. There are a couple of tricks to keeping your calorie count low when you make these stops.

The main one for me is to have a ready choice when you arrive. Where I live, menu boards have to have the calorie count posted if a restaurant is of a certain size, if it not, you have to go by an educated guess, so sometimes larger chains are easier. I created a small spreadsheet of common fast food joints and their low calorie options, linked below. It is by no means complete, as I did not include much over 300 calories and nothing I don't care for.
Please note, there are no fast food salads worth mentioning. Either they are too high in calories, or will be once you put anything on them. If I wanted rabbit food, I would get a bag and packet of dressing at the supermarket for far less than the cost of a fast food salad. I really like the single serving packets of dressing you can find at WinCo and I will add a Carl Budding 100 calorie turkey package to make it more interesting.

My favorite fast food go to is the McDonalds Sausage Breakfast Burrito. For only a buck, you get a decent amount of food and only 300 calories. (If you are counting where the calories are coming from, forget fast food anyway.)

Here is the result of my short research:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Oh1ukF4mSpqHtyjZb4W3XoUJUhdoddJJBqqABDWIk6Q/edit?usp=sharing

Most of the data was gleaned from https://fastfoodnutrition.org/.
What they did not have I used the company web site.

Other great resources are Calorie King and Eat This, Not That. (Both are also available in book form.)

On a related note, I suggest keeping a calorie log. There are apps for them out there, I use the one that is part of my FitBit app. But I have used My Fitness Pal in the past.

How Am I Feeling?

Pretty good, thank you for asking.

I am optimistic about actually getting to my long term goal. Here are the facts:

• I started this diet on the 12th of June.
• My long term goal is to make it to a 22% body fat measurement.
• For me, as currently calculated, that would be a weight of 208 lbs.
• I am 22% towards that goal.
• I have been loosing 5.5 lbs per week average since starting this.
• That puts my long term goal projected date before the end of the year.
• An interim goal for me is getting to 280 lbs.
• This is half way to the finish line. 
• I should hit that in mid September, based on my average weight loss numbers.
• My other goal is to get below 250 lbs before our big trip in late October. 
• That puts be below a BMI of 35. I will still be fat.
• It will be close, based on projections. But I can try.
• I know that I will gain a couple on the trip, but I will do my best not to.

I was thinking that, once I make it to my long term goal, I will re-create this photo.
Yes, that is Penn Jillette, before his big weight loss.

A Couple of Days Into the New Plan.

Well, I have gone for two days, now into the third, on my lower calorie plan.

There is always the low level hunger. But I can deal with it. Tuesday, my first day was basically an oatmeal breakfast, some catfish for lunch and a couple of meal replacement drinks throughout the day for a total of just under 1,000 calories. Wednesday, It was the oatmeal, a couple of meal replacement drinks and a large salad with a grilled pork chop for about 1,300 calories. I did fill up on salad, but I did not feel well after eating so much.

Today the plan is oatmeal, meal replacement drink, salad, another meal replacement drink, and some ham. This should put me just under 1,000 calories. There is plenty of wiggle room at this calorie level. I could splurge and get a small hamburger if I need it this evening, but it would be better if I did not.

Temptation is always around. Today a co-worker is retiring, so there is cake. It is far enough away that I won't be tempted too much.

I have noticed that I am not as easily sleeping since dropping the calorie count so far, But I expect that will pass.

QI Charging and You.

I am a techie.

My current personal phone is a Samsung Galaxy S5. A good phone when I bought it, just as the 6 was released, and I am not about to splurge on another one just yet. I use the Rokform mount system in my car, and love the security and versatility of it. This is relevant to this post.

A year ago my employer issued us Galaxy S7 phones. These are equipped with a Qi wireless charging interface. At the time I jumped into it head first. My first purchase was a Belkin Boost Up QI charging pad and a Qi Wireless Charging Receiver Card for the S5, which does not include a wireless charging interface as delivered.

The S7 was easy to drop and charge on the Belkin pad. The S5 with the receiver card had it's difficulties, as I had added a Rokform universal mount to my existing case and the added thickness made the wireless charging very picky about placement. I cannot recommend the custom Rokform case more, as now there is no added thickness to the case and with the magnet removed the wireless charging is perfect and it it now truly drop and charge. It appears that the S5 case is much more difficult to find now.

A note on both charging pads, they are limited to a 1 amp charging rate. This will be slower than plugging directly into the cable, but for a charging opportunity it is sufficient.

The QI Wireless Charging Card for the S5 is very easy to install, but there are a couple of issues.

• First, you will loose the NFC functionality from your phone. This will not affect most users, but you must know that it will happen.
• Secondly, it does add a little thickness to the phone that MAY compromise it's waterproof seal. This doesn't affect me much as I only have to deal with rain and am not likely to immerse the phone. 

It is a great solution for easy charging and saving wear and tear on the charging port on your S5 with the above caveats.
For phones that don't have a custom method for adding a Qi receiver there are generic options that plug into your USB port, but I have no experience with them so have no recommendations.

This year I decided that I needed a second charging pad as the first one is now in regular use at my home desk. The new one would be a shared use pad for my workstation. I found the Yootech Qi Wireless Charging Pad at Amazon and decided that it was worth the small investment. It works as well as the Belkin for a third of the price. Neither charging pad included the power supply, the best recommendation is to use the factory included charger for your phone which will supply the 2 amps that the pad requires for charging your phone at 1 amp.

In summary:

• Qi charging is a great thing for ease of use, but it is slower than plugging the charging cable into the phone. 
• A case may interfere with the drop and charge functionality of wireless charging. 
• Upgrades are available for older phones, but may degrade the phone's integrity and other features.

It is a neat add on if your phone comes with the option. If you have to add the functionality to your phone, I would recommend against it.

Items reviewed in this post:

Minimalist Front Pocket Wallet

I would like to introduce to you my wallet for the last several years:

A photo taken early in my years of using it, and here it is now. Notice how little wear is noticeable after five and a half years.

This is a HuMn Mini minimalist wallet. Just larger than a credit card in size and as thin or thick as you need it to be. As you see it here, I have 7 cards and 10 bills in it and it is about 1/2 inch thick. The standard ones come with 2 plates, but I have added a third as in internal divider. I chose the aluminum plates for the outer shell for the RFID protection and durability, the internal plate is plastic and serves to divide my credit cards from my ID. The whole conglomeration is held together with a strong elastic strap. I originally purchased it in 2012 and my first strap lasted for about 4 years. They changed the design of the strap when I replaced it, so I now have the newer version that seems to work better than the original.

I front pocket carry my wallet so the size is important to me. It sits very flat and slides easily into my pocket. When I am travelling I remove a couple of the cards, but this is basically what I carry all of the time.

Accessing the cards is done by wedging the case open from the top and selecting the card you want. Since you can open it from either of the long edges there is no up or down. Nothing will slide out of it. Here is the manufacturer's video on it's use.

They can be purchased from Amazon and from the manufacturer.


The orange sticker in the older photo is a dosimeter tag that I decided to put on it, it has expired since then. I cannot seem to find the sticker versions now, but there is a card version available.