Growing up and living life as a baby boomer is and has been an exciting and fun roller coaster life.
Sunday, September 20, 2015
I May Have A Problem
I have two sons, Wes age 45 and Wally age 41, who both decided this year that maybe they should have listened when I told them to go to college on Mom and Dad's money before they had the responsibilities of wives and children. They both went, quit, went back, then gave up. Wisdom finally set in and they are both back in school. I could not be happier but it is a real challenge for both boys. I can fully relate as I did the same thing but I could not be more proud of either of them.
Wally is a Music Performance major and he told me the other day that if he could prove that he did indeed do a Senior Recital in 1998 that he would not have to do another one. Being a good Mother that saves programs of important events I decided to look and see if I could find one. So far no luck, but I must say it was amazing what I did find.
Doesn't everyone need to keep a box of their high school and college term papers? Especially the one that made a A? The totally made up story titled "My Conflict" about how I was adopted. Wonder if that teacher just felt sorry for me and thankfully she never talked to my parents. That goes for the rest of the two file cabinet drawers of class notes. Who knows when I might need to do some calculus computations or know how to run a color TV camera?
Can you really just throw away ticket stubs to Eric Clapton, Leon Russell or Tommy Emmanuel? Or programs from the 1964 Beach Boys or Herman's Hermits concerts? Or the letters you wrote to your parents from Girl Scout Camp?
How could I not keep the skate boots that I won as Queen of the Stardust Skating Rink in 1961 (complete with pom poms)? Or my felt cowgirl outfit I wore every Saturday morning when I was five years old so I could look like Dale Evans? Then there are all the roller skating, ice skating and dancing costumes from recitals and shows. Plus the junior high cheerleader outfit that goes to all my class reunions.
Then there are drag racing team uniforms and forty years of ticket stubs. Five hundred vinyl records and a complete sound system and microphones I cannot part with. File drawers full of sewing patterns, newsletters I wrote and how-to-do pages from building renovation to running festivals and events. Never can tell when I might need all this stuff.
The only thing that saves me from being on an episode of "The Hoarders" is that I am OCD when it comes to clean, neat and tidy. I do throw garbage away, clean out the refrigerator every day or two and put stuff back in its place. Normally I can find anything is a few minutes of needing it. Maybe even faster at finding things I don't need at the moment or at all.
A counselor would probably ask me why I have this compulsion to keep things. Why not? If I have to pack an extra U-Haul with this stuff when I move that is okay with me. Truthfully my Mother did not keep anything that was not useful at the moment. If I did not wear a piece of clothing for two weeks it went to some poor child who needed clothes. Once she read a letter. looked at a birthday card or a picture of a grandchild it was gone. Guess I have rebelled by doing the opposite.
The thought does cross my mind sometimes as to what Wes and Wally are going to do with all this stuff when I go off to the Happy Hunting Ground. They could probably open their own vintage store but hopefully as college graduates they will be too busy.
I am quite sure I am not the only one in this predicament. Perhaps we could form a National Pack Rat Museum or The Museum of Obscure Crazy People? In my spare time I will work on this. Until then I will keep looking for a Senior Recital Program from 1998.
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Cleaning Out the Storage Building Causes More Work
When we moved here and started on the building eleven years ago we had eight storage units. Finally about four years ago we got down to just one. You have to have at least one so that when you find that thing-a-ma-jig you did not know you needed you have someplace to put it. It is time to get rid of the storage unit when there is no room anywhere to put stuff and stop collecting, going to garage sales and trash picking.
Half of what was in the unit became items we had no use for what so ever. Out to the dumpster or out to the street for someone else to trash pick. Part of the other half found a new home with our sons, the rest that needed to be restored, repainted or redone into something else was put in Marshell's garage with a life span of only four weeks, two days and nine hours.
My prized EASY Wringer Washer rolled out of the unit. Hmm......what was I going to do with that? I remember falling in love with the color of the porcelain tub. Do not have a place for it in the house and no cool garden to put it in. Going to have to be a Landmark. If you are coming to my house just look for the building on the corner with the Easy Wringer Washer out front.
Of course, it took two days of cleaning all the grease and oil off the bottom half. The motor must have exploded at least twenty years ago as it was a little crusty. A couple of coats of good old gloss black Rustoleum paint made it look pretty good.
Since the washer looked so good it made the mailbox stand and the water pump look shabby. The mailbox stand is actually a smudge pot. Smudge pots are used in orchards to keep the fruit from freezing. They are usually filled with diesel fuel and lit when the temperature is expected to drop. This one came from California when Marshell and I got married. Our wedding and reception were outdoors in December and they were on hand in case it got cold. Naturally we could not live without one.
A new color of paint certainly makes it stand out. Maybe the bright color will ward off bills and political announcements.
In case you have a pile of old wood frame windows you do not know what to do with here are a few ideas. These all came from the downstairs of our building when we gutted it. There was this wacky structure which was sort of an office with counters and these windows. Of course I couldn't throw perfectly good windows away.
Three became the cover up for a window that had been taken out in the upstairs bath by the previous owner. Halite blocks did not look very attractive so Marshell made a fake window with three of them. I painted an outdoor scene on the wall to hide the blocks and the center window panes were replaced with mirrored glass. Solved the problem with the wall and gave us a mirror for over the sink.
Another one of the windows became a mirror in the downstairs bath. It was amazing how much larger the room appeared after it's installation. Of course, I did do a little decorative painting on it which adds to the look.
Monday, September 7, 2015
The Future is Now
In the 1970's I was intrigued by the huge black solar panels on roofs of houses. In the 1980's I was very impressed with a NASA installed wind turbine that provided power to Block Island, Rhode Island's fifty winter residents. I was astounded in the late 1980's when my eighth grade son's teacher told me to buy an Apple computer that covered the entire desk and was slightly expensive. When I first met Marshell in the 1990's he carried around a huge box that contained a cell phone that only made phone calls.
Technology has come a long way. Just as we have embraced the computer and the cell phone you can now slip into your pocket, it is time to embrace the technology of the wind turbines and the solar industry. It is all too common that people repeat the catch phrases that changing to renewable energy is too expensive, inefficient and will not supply the world's needs. Let's take away the terms "global warming" and "climate change". Let's try to ignore the politics and greed that dominate the fossil fuel industry. Why not think in terms that the future of energy production is here now and it is time to use it? Why not think of it as clean, renewable and sustainable and it is time to make the transition now?
As all of us trudge thru our busy lives there is so much information that we do not see, hear or read. Did you know that the top cities in the United States who use 100% green energy are Washington, D.C. and Aspen, Colorado with Austin, Texas coming in at 99%? When the discussion of job creation comes up do you ever hear that world wide green energy employs 7.7 million people with 724,00 of those jobs in the United States?
The United States currently supplies 13% of our energy needs with green energy. Iceland is at 100%, Albania 85%, Paraguay 90% and Germany, Norway, Denmark, Spain, India, Brazil, France, Japan, Bangladesh and Indonesia are moving to be 100% green in the next five to fifteen years. These countries are shutting down there nuclear and fossil fuel plants and turning to green energy due to the cost of fossil fuels. They need the job creation for their growing populations. It helps governments quell social discontent, reduces the need for war over energy needs and provides sustainable energy at a much cheaper cost.
Solar energy has come a long way since the 1970's. The panels are small and much more efficient. In the last three years the cost of solar has dropped by 75% with another 50% decrease expected in the next three years. More than 500,000 solar PV systems are currently installed in the U.S. with enough power being produced to supply 5 million homes with all their energy needs. Battery storage systems have gotten much more efficient to provide power 24 hours a day. Solar jobs alone are expected to increase in the next year by 25% creating 24,000 new jobs.
The United States Navy is currently building the largest solar field in the world 60 miles west of Phoenix to provide power to fourteen of its bases. This will save $90 million dollars in power costs over the next 25 years and reduce the need for fossil fuels. Saudi Arabia has been building solar fields for the last few years to sell power to European countries. By the end of this decade the cost of solar will become cheaper than conventional electricity.
Currently in the United States there are 49,000 wind turbines in 39 states. There are over 500 wind manufacturing facilities spread across 43 states and a wind farm of 50mg can be completed in less than a year at a far cheaper cost than that of a conventional power plant. New technology is developing every day. Norway is working on a direct drive system that will do away with the need for the transformer itself. The first offshore wind farm in the US is currently under construction off the coast of Rhode Island and wave action turbines are being installed in other places in the world.
Hawaii has to import all the fossils fuels for their power needs which has become too expensive. Their first thought was to switch to LNG as a transition phase to renewable energy but decided instead to just make the move to switch to clean energy. Their first grid tied wave driven turbine is expected to go online in the next few months. They have also launched a thermal energy conversion project (OTEC) that uses the temperature difference in the ocean water to generate electricity. Not only does the OTEC project create electricity it also desalinates the ocean water at the same time. This desalinated water can be used on the islands or put back into the ocean close to shore to grow schools of fish and kale. Hawaii plans to be 100% renewable energy by 2045 and it is the most aggressive project in the US.
China, in 2007 was opening a new coal fired plant every week and has the highest amount of air pollution in the world. Their current slow down in production and financial situation is due to the fact that in 2014 they began weaning off of fossil fuels. They have shut down steel, iron and cement sectors even at the cost of temporary job losses to switch to wind, solar and hydro electric forms of energy. The unbearable air quality has been the catalyst for the beginning of this fundamental change. Four nuclear plants are currently under construction as well as wind and solar installations. Actually by the time the nuclear plants are up and running in six to ten years they expect to already have enough power from wind and solar to provide their energy needs. They are leading the world in the investment in green energy far outstripping the United States.
Which of these two pictures look better for the landscape?
As a science major in college I always think of the scientific fact the "for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction". Fossil fuels and water are finite resources. There will always be a use for fossils fuels but if we don't think and plan ahead what happens when they are gone?
Can we really continue to drill holes in the earth making it look like a pin cushion without some consequence? Can we afford to inject millions of gallons of water back into the earth that can never be used again?
Having always been a Michael Jackson fan one of my favorite songs has the lyrics " If you want to make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself and then make the change
I'm starting with the man in the mirror
I'm asking him to make the change"
It is past time we should have been embracing the green technology and moving toward a clean sustainable future.
Tuesday, September 1, 2015
I started writing blogs back in April when we took our first Tesla road trip. A college friend encouraged me to do it as she does all her trips to exotic places in the world. I don't want to go back and reread them as I am sure the grammar and spelling was awful. Starting the blog on the trip and not knowing what I was doing was a real challenge.
We took our Tesla named Elizabeth in for her first yearly check-up a few weeks ago. Thought this might be a good time to dash off a few notes on how much we love the automobile and how much fun it has been.
We were long overdue for another car in January of 2013. Our fifteen year old minivan had stacked up over 200,000 miles and was getting to the point where relatively minor fixes were adding up. The car actually ran great but we started looking around and decided an electric car was really the way to go.
The big problem was that none of them had enough range for us to get to Oklahoma City or to Dallas and back. Living in the middle of Oklahoma in a small rural town required travel for some of the necessities of life. The Tesla had the range but at that time we had just finished a complete gutting and renovation of our 1896 bank building/home. The price sounded a little steep. A chance of fate in the form of a ride in a Tesla made up our minds to the fact we had to have one somehow.
The next eighteen months we got into a thrifty mode, caught up some bills and paid off our house. There was a time when Marshell was sort of wondering if we were doing the right thing. I booked a test drive for him and then there was no looking back.
Our beautiful black Model S with an 85kw battery arrived in early June of 2014. There was quite a commotion in town when it arrived by car hauler. To this day we look at it and still cannot believe it is our car. We have always had new cars but the Tesla is something really different.
The first thing you have to learn about the Tesla is that there is no end to being asked questions about it and I think almost everyone in town has had a ride. When you drive down the highway, especially in Oklahoma where there are not many of them, people pull up along side, look it over and take pictures. I don't know how many times we have been asked what kind of a car it is, who makes it and they can't believe it is total electric. As a Tesla owner you have to realize that you are also a sales person but that is part of the fun.
When we became a Tesla owner there were no Superchargers in Oklahoma. The nearest one was in Corsicanna, Texas 238 miles away. We purchased a charger for our garage but for long trips that wasn't enough.
So we became very creative and learned to charge at RV parks and hotels. Our frunk carried two lawn chairs, a sleeping bag and a tent just in case we had to camp for the night to charge up. PlugShare, which is a listing of places all over the world where you can charge, was a help and we even made our garage a member so anyone in need can come and charge here for free. Best thing to remember is that years ago there were not gas stations on every corner and you had to plan ahead.
The Tesla Road Trip "Reach the Beach" to Ocean City, Maryland in April taught us all about the Supercharger Network. Tesla has a map of all the Supercharges where you can fully charge in 30 to 45 minutes and we planned our trip based on their location. Our only glitch was in Missouri but Columbia, Missouri has a destination charger at a hotel. It is really for guests only but we talked them into letting us charge with out being a guest. Actually since the hotel and the charger were fairly new the charger had never been used. We taught them how to use it and traveled on to the next Supercharger. In all, we traveled 4,700 miles for free. Not bad.
We have driven Elizabeth now for a year, 27,000 miles. There is basically no maintenance and an eight year unlimited warranty on the motor and battery pack. We did have a female person, can't call her a lady, back into us but with some ado her insurance paid for the repairs. The yearly checkup consisted of Tesla service going over the entire car, recharging the air conditioner, checking the wheel alignment, checking the wear on the tires and the computer. It was as close to perfect as it could get. If you have a problem on the road you just call Tesla and they will either see if they can fix it in the computer or come and rescue you and provide you with a loaner.
Everyone we have come in contact with from Tesla has been very nice to work with. Every owner we have met has been as nice as they could be. We travel with our dog and he loves it. He actually wants to sleep in it when we are home. Guess he is always ready when we say "Road Trip".
There are more models of the Tesla now than when we purchased ours. I know that if some rich unknown relative left us a large sum of money Marshell would want a P85D or P90D that has four wheel drive and flies down the road. Soon there will be an SUV and in a year or two a less expensive model as well built with a range of about 200 miles on a charge. But we are perfectly happy with ours and will be for years to come.
My outlook on the Tesla is that you can't afford not to purchase one. There is something very cool about jumping in the Tesla to run up and down the back roads in Oklahoma looking old buildings or dashing thirty-eight miles to go to Starbucks without a thought of buying gas.
If you have any questions or comments there is a place at the end of my story to put them or shoot me an email. Please feel free to share this with friends you think might wonder about the best automobile ever built.
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