Tesla Roadster

The second practical electric car is named after a famous Polack, Nikolai Tesla who discovered alternating current and electrified this nation. If we had to count on Thomas Edison we would have a power plant located on every block. Anyway, that's just some ethnic pride sneaking in. Back to the subject.

The new electric car: charges in 3.5 hours
has a carbon fiber body
zero to sixty in 4 seconds
top speed 130 mph
250 miles per charge
electric induction motor (no brushes)

This is way more advanced than the EV-1. It costs $ 89,000 but this is for a roadster. Tesla plans to build a cheaper four door sedan. I'm thinking my Honda Element may be the last internal combustion engine I buy. Between the Honda quality and the mild N.C. climate it may last me 10 more years. You can read about it at: http//www.popularmechanics.com/blog/automotive/3700136.html.

Let them Arabs drink their oil.

Fall in the Smokies

I was going to share some pictures with you since we are entering into the fall season. The temperature is in the 50's at night and the highs are in the low 70's. I went to download picures from my digi-cam when I discovered the USB cables for my camera and Palm-Pilot had the telltale chew marks of BO! I managed to salvage the thicker PalmOS cable, but the spindley Kodak cable was hanging together by a thread. So until the $30 USB cable arrives from Kodak (you can't get it on Shop-Zilla or Best Buy) all the fall photo's will remain on my memory card. Now Bo is not really indiscriminately destructive. It's just that every other week he finds something else to stealthfully destroy, so we can never totally relax our vigilance. The teeth marks on all our remote controls actually make them much easier to hold. So be content to see a picture of Bo's latest chicanary.

The League of Distinguished Gentleman

It seems like whenever I go out I attract all the fruits. Example:

I'm at a folk musical festival at the Carl Sandburg House in July and this young couple come up to see Bo . They had two small children about 2 and 4. Well, they ask if the older one can pet Bo and he came up to Bo and starts making all these strange noises and gestures like he's a monster. Now this scares Bo to death. Bo runs behind me shaking and then I hear them say to their little darling that's ignoring them: "first time obedience". Now this saying is from a Christian child rearing class Carol and I suffered through about 15 years ago. The little monster then starts screaming and the parents say to him "indoor voices". I found this funny because we were in a state park; you couldn't get more outdoors. Then the "Chruppies" (Christian Yuppies) keep staring at me. After a few minutes the man comes over to ask me if I'm Steven Spielberg; his wife is sure I am. Well I assure them they are mistaken.

A few months ago we are out with some friends from Maryland eating Mexican Food and some older women comes up to our table and with a schitzy smile on her face keeps repeating "I know you". She just stays at our table glaring at us and repeating herself while we look at each other thinking maybe the person knows her. Well we finally persuaded her to leave. She continued to repeat the same thing as she disappeared into the night. O.K.

Last night we are out to dinner with my sister and her husband. It was a long fancy dinner at a nice German restaurant. After desert we are having coffee and this nicely dressed older lady comes up to me and asks Carol "Pardon me is this man your husband? Carol replies yes. Then she says to me "I hope you didn't notice me staring at you all evening". I reply with a matter of fact "no". Then she proceeds to say "It's just that your beard is so nicely groomed, it's such a lovely white and matches your shirt perfectly, you looked so distinguished". We all look at each other and the lady says good night and puts her coat on and leaves the restaurant.

I guess I should feel flattered, but why do I attract all the crazies like a moth to a flame?

Covert C.I.A. Operative Outed

C.I.A. Operative known as "MP-3" was sighted shopping in Tehran today. This photo captures MP-3 checking her cell phone for a message from Dick Cheney about those shoes he wanted.

Psycho- Dog Caught on Camera

He is really getting a lot better. Bo is actually at the top of the class at Pets-Mart. Which really means he will do anything for FOOD! I was fortunate to catch his evening ADHD attack on camera.

Who Killed The Electric Car ?

We ventured into Asheville to the Artsy-Fartsy theatre to see "Who Killed The Electric Car". Now a lot of the movies at the Fine-Arts theatre are of the art and croissant, tree hugger, Nero jacket-wearing Gerry Garcia genre. This movie really surprised us. It was about how G.M. marketed an electric car in the 70's called the EV1. They were forced to do this by a California mandate to have at least 10% of the new cars sold there to be emission free. In a move reminiscent of Mel Brook's "The Producers" GM built an electric car car they thought would bomb, and people actually wanted it. It was a great car! The cars were able to go about 130 miles on a charge and could go 75 mph. When the car became a success they made it impossible to buy one. You could only lease it after a background check that was more stringent than what was needed to adopt a foster child. Corrupt politicians, big oil, and the big three carmakers all conspired to have all the electric cars confiscated and crushed. It was reminiscent of what G.M. did to all the electric trolleys in the 50's. G.M. replaced them all with Detroit Diesel smoke spewing buses.

Now the government is planning the next scam on the American people; the Hydrogen Fuel Cell vehicle. The government is poised to spent trillions on this sham technology and in 20 years we will filling up with Shell and Exxon hydrogen at a cost that would make burning Chanel#5 seem cheap. However, there is some hope. People in California are converting their Prius's to plug-in only. Of course this voids the warranty. Electric cars aren't for everyone. I can see not owning one in Montana. For 95% of the driving Americans an electric car with a 300 mile range would meet all their needs. Just rent a Hummer for that once a year cross country road trip. A hundred years ago 2/3 of the cars in America were electric, so where is the progress? As far as the Hydrogen Fuel Cell car that G.W. is promoting, I just keep seeing visions of the Graf Zeppilin Hindenburg. Except this time the flames will be fueled by are taxes and American blood spilled in the mid-east.