Man Made Catastrophic Climate Change and My Electric Car

First of all let me say that I don't believe in man made catastrophic climate change. I've never seen any convincing data that seems to prove it. I have seen the reports of computer models that indicate its probability, but I am more inclined to believe in the Easter bunny that lays Easter eggs than I am to believe in  computer models that tackle a problem as complex as the earths climate.  On the other hand I have seen lots of data compilations that indicate that CO2 has been a lot higher in the past and did not cause catastrophic climate change. You can do your own investigating and reach your own conclusions.

I am not writing this to try to convince any one about climate change one way or the other. What I am doing is explaining why I, a skeptic or denier would drive an electric car. After all I don't think more CO2 is gonna hurt anything. In fact I suspect that the overall effect on the earth would be positive. No I don't drive an electric car to reduce CO2. I drive an electric car because (1) it is economical and (2) I like it.

In all fairness mine would not be as economical as it is were it not for some subsidies that the US Government and the State of Georgia were dishing out a few years back. Thanks to the subsidies, a lot of people in Georgia leased electric cars. After 2 or 3 years, the leases ran out and the people leasing the cars turned them in. The initial cost of the electric vehicle, mine is a 2013 Nissan Leaf, was kind of pricey but thanks to the subsidies there was a bit of a surplus of these vehicles coming off lease in late 2015 and early 2016. I was in the market for a new-to-me vehicle at that time and the leaf represented a nice car, with not too high of mileage at a very attractive price.  I know, some of you are rolling your eyes and saying that I am a hypocrite as I am constantly bemoaning the fact that our government is always interfering in our economy but then I turn around and take advantage of one of their subsidies. Well first of all I did not get the subsidy myself, that went to the original lessee. I only benefited by paying a lower price for the used vehicle because of the glut that the original subsidy caused. And second, I pay money to the government in taxes every year and they waste lots of it, the least I can do is try to recover some of that wasted tax money whenever I get a chance.

In addition to getting a nice little slightly used car at a decent price, the thing is fun to drive and economical to operate. It averages 5.0 miles per kilowatt hour. My electricity costs about 11.8 cents per kilowatt hour which means my fuel cost is about 2.36 cents per mile. At the current cost of gasoline $2.099 (6may2017), I would have to get 88.9 mpg on an internal combustion powered car to have the same fuel cost per mile. Also I never have to change the oil because it does not have an engine with a crankcase. In a few years I will have to replace the traction battery and right now that would be very expensive but I am fairly confident that by the time I must replace mine the technology will have improved and the cost per kwh will have reduced.

So there you have it. I don't have any problem with CO2, in fact I think that additional CO2 is probably a good thing but I am not an ideologue,  I have no problem driving a vehicle with a zero emissions sticker on the side if it is fun to drive and saves me money.

Karma and Auburn Football

After Auburn's recent loss to Alabama in the Iron Bowl, my daughter, who is also an Auburn graduate, said somewhat tongue in cheek that she felt that the three Iron Bowl losses in a row might be Karma's way of balancing Alabama's grief from the Kick 6. She was of course referencing the pay for it after you do it kind of Karma as depicted in "My Name is Earl" and not the Hindu / Buddhist type.

As I said, she was making a joke but it got me to thinking. The greatest Auburn wins in the Iron Bowl in my memory are the 17-16 in 1972, the Camback in 2010 and of course the aforementioned Kick 6 in 2013. A quick check of Iron Bowl history indicates that it took Auburn 9 years to pay Karma back for the 17-16 and it took 2 years and 2 trees to pay back the Camback. Based on the fact that the mere mention of the Kick 6 still causes some Alabama fans to have their eyes  roll back in their head and they begin foaming at the mouth, it may take Auburn a hell of a long time to pay Karma back for that one.

Just something to think about :<)
War Eagle.

My roommate bought a Jimmy Hendrix album

Back when I was in school in Auburn I roomed for a few quarters with a friend from high school named Danny Cardwell. We had first met when his class at Hanover finished 8th grade and came to CCHS for the 9th through the 12th grade. Danny was the kind of guy that was impossible not to like. He and I had both attended Alex City State Jr. College after graduating from high school and transferred to Auburn in the fall of 1967.  The first few quarters we had other roommates at different places but by the spring of 1968 we were roommates at Neill House over on Gay Street.

Back then everybody bought records. There were no 8 tracks, no cassettes and certainly no Cds  or mp3. Everything was vinyl. 33 1/3 albums or 45 singles. One day I came in from class and there was Danny getting ready to play his new Jimmy Hendrix album. At the time I had never heard of Jimmy Hendrix and I asked him, Why Jimmy Hendrix? He said that he had been watching a news broadcast and that they had interviewed an older woman and asked her what she thought of Jimmy Hendrix. Evidently she gave a scathing review of not only his music but of him as a person. Danny said as he listened to her he realized that she was the type of person that represented everything he disliked in people. If she was that much against Hendrix, Danny felt that he would probably like him. I am pretty sure that the Hendrix album became one of his favorites.

I though of this story today when I was thinking about the current presidential election. I have never been a big fan of Donald Trump and when the nominations were all settled I went to isidewith.com and took the quiz and found out that Gary Johnson most closely represented my views. For the last few weeks I have been toggling back and forth between voting for Johnson or boycotting the election all together. Recently I have begun to realize that nearly all of the people that I find to be reprehensible are against Trump. McCain, Ryan, Rove, all the Bushes , most of the national democrats and virtually all of the mainstream media are disparaging him constantly. Anybody that has  those people against him is bound to make a better president than any we have had in a long time in this country. It is still 2 weeks until the election and I may change my mind again a few more times before it gets here but if I don't, I'll be marking my ballot for Donald Trump on Nov 8th and who knows, after I do I may just go out and buy myself a Jimmy Hendrix album.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Back on Tuesday, March 13, 2007 I did a post called "This News Report Reminds Me Of A Story." The link in the post is dead but the story in the post seems to fit the current election cycle exactly.

This is that post.

BOGO

Yesterday I was driving down the hill from Vestavia into Hoover and passed a business that had a BOGO sign out front. I am an engineer by training and trade so spelling and grammer are not my strong suits.  I pretty much don't worry  if something is ok or not but; BOGO kinda rubs me the wrong way. I know that it is shorthand for buy one get one free but it looks  to me like it is just saying buy one get one, In other words it is really describing  what all commerce is all about. You go in and buy one loaf of bread and you get that one loaf of bread, BOGO. Why isn't buy one get one free BOGOF?  Buy one get another for 1/2 price would be BOGAHP. Maybe the powers that be feel that the average person can't handle 5 or 6 letters. If that is the case then buy one get one free could be described as buy one get two, BOG2 or BOGT. I realize that this little peeve of mine is useless because BOGO is fairly ubiquitous but I am now at that age where my filters are not as strong as they once were and I pretty much say what I think.

A Quote from Ethel Barrett

We would worry less about what others think of us if we realized how seldom they do.

- Ethel Barrett

A Quote from Wayne Dyer

   “Stop acting as if life is a rehearsal. Live this day as if it were your last. The past is over and gone. The future is not guaranteed.”

― Wayne Dyer