The Ultimate Impulse, Not fun or funny, 50 more watts, Easy Easter

So as I mentioned late last week, all of a sudden the idea of buying a new Tesla now rather than later was becoming more and more tangible.  I had checked with insurance and already got a pre-approval on a loan just in case the idea actually came to fruition.  After doing stuff around the house Saturday morning, Cindy and I headed to the local Tesla store at Waterside shops.  I had never seen the store although it has been there since 2016.  It gives you an idea of how infrequently I go to Waterside, the epitome of luxury 1% shopping.

I had already made email contact with two sales guys at the store but we were greeted by another sales guy.  Within seconds he pointed to my World of Warcraft t-shirt and recognized the Alliance logo.  He was a former WoW player which instantly gave us common ground.  When Tim, the guy I was referred to by my buddy Matt came out I found out that he too was a fellow WoW geek, awesome.  Tim and I hit it off immediately although technically he wasn’t our official salesman, he passed to a guy named Chris.  Saturday ironically was Tim’s last day at Tesla.  He had been there since the store opened.  It sounds like he has liked the job but it also sort of consumed his life for the last few years.  He was moving into property management, a job with a big demand in SW Florida.

So in the showroom they had a Model X, Y and 3.  Of the five color choices I preferred the Midnight Silver and the Pearl White.  But since Cindy is a big Pearl White fan I was going to get that color.  Well the Model X was the white and the S was the Midnight Silver, the Model 3 was red.  Surprisingly Cindy said she liked the Midnight Silver more which I didn’t expect.  We both sat in the Model 3 and were impressed with the stark difference to any other car we ever sat in.  The lack of buttons, dials, gauges, and vents is so different.  It’s all concentrated on the massive 15 inch screen in the center of the console. The car feels big compared the 2007 Prius I have been daily driving for a couple years.

So anyway, without much suspense I said I wanted to go ahead with the purchase.  All Chris did was go through the website like anyone else could, picking the options I selected.  Ironically, if I went with the white instead of the grey I could have had the car in a couple days as there were some with my spec readily available in Florida.  However Cindy encouraged me again to get the grey since it was my first choice.  The website said around two weeks for delivery which was fine for me.  I had no pressing need for the car and I needed to make arrangements to have a NEMA 15-40 outlet installed to charge the car.

The buying process was so simple, laid back, and quick.  Cindy and I both enjoyed it, which is something you rarely hear about with car buying experiences.  I went with the black interior, standard wheels, 240 mile range battery, but splurged for the Full Self Drive option that becomes available later this year.  It is an expensive 5K option but I figured if I am going to geek out in a Tesla, I am going to go full geek.   It felt a little surreal on the drive home.  Buying the car now instead of waiting till the Tacoma is paid off means I have about a year where my discretionary income spending needs to be curtailed down from the levels it has been at since I got into the PEV and 3D printing hobbies.

I am not trading in the Prius on this deal as it isn’t worth all that much despite being a very reliable and economical vehicle.  We are instead gifting the car to Katie.  She daily drives her old huge Dodge Ram truck which gets horrid mileage.  The Prius will likely save her a couple hundred bucks a month in gas cost.  Katie is excited by the prospect.

Saturday afternoon I dug into my major project of the weekend, installing a smaller 50 watt panel on the roof of the coop.  I have multiple power inputs on my Yeti Solar Generator and I had left over cabling from the original install because I underestimated the length I needed.  I figured throwing a third panel into the system allows me to pull in more juice in less time which is always a good thing.

The install went pretty smoothly once I came up with a plan of action to get it mounted to the coop run.  I ran the wires into the coop vent and had it hooked up after maybe 90 minutes of work.  Really the main bottleneck in my system is the internal 1000WH battery which is not big enough to support the full load overnight.  I am looking at ways to possibly increase that capacity externally in the future.  I think the install looks decent.  I get a little injection of pride each time I look out there and see the panels silently doing their job.

I did a video outlining how the solar install has been performing.

Saturday night we watched out latest rental, Black Klansman.  When Cindy and I added it to our queue we both thought the movie was a comedy.  While the movie, which is actually based on a true story, had funny moments in it, it definitely was not a comedy.  It gets down and dirty with the deep seated racism during the 70’s.  It just disgusts me.  Repeatedly during the movie I said that if this was present day, all of these people would absolutely be Trump voters.  Ironically at the end of the movie they showed clips of some of the racial violence in Virginia in 2017.  Yep our president definitely has reignited racism, hate, and discrimination while being damn proud of it.  Only liberal losers tolerate the non-white race after all.  So anyway, yea the movie was kind of depressing but I’ll give it a B.

Easter Sunday morning Cindy I decided to just park at DD and ride from there.  The weather was fantastic and we had an enjoyable time.  During the video I talked more about the recent Tesla purchase.

Our Easter, which is never a big celebratory holiday for me, was even less so this time.  Yes I gave Cindy an Easter card and oversized coffee mug with candy but other than that not much else happened.  We didn’t even do an extended family dinner this year.  Instead Cindy, Katie and I went to Pelican Larry’s and enjoyed fish tacos and wings. The lack of traditional family celebration is ok with me but it did feel a little awkward none the less.

This week I need to get my ducks lined up in a row for the Tesla purchase.  The main priority is getting a NEMA 15-40 plug installed in the garage so I can charge the car at a realistic pace.  After that is done I just need to call my insurance company and remember to bring my “check” from the credit union.  There is one more oddity about the Tesla purchase, they don’t deliver the car to your local store, you need to go get it at whatever the closest delivery point is.  In my case that is Dania Beach on the east coast.  The delivery is scheduled for 2PM on Saturday, an even quicker turnaround than the two week window that was mentioned on the web site.

Last night I had another PEV live stream.  There was a LOT of Tesla talk as you can imagine.