Attempts at remediation, Power restored, M Day

Friday was a busy day for the Tesla.  It was picked up in the morning by a remote tech to be taken to an alignment shop to address the misaligned steering wheel.  When I got the car back the wheel no longer had a slight right orientation when going straight, it had an even slighter left orientation when going straight.  I was frustrated that I am going to have to contact them again but I sort of insist that my 45k+ brand new vehicle has a straight steering wheel.  I know, I am a prick.

Then late afternoon I had an appointment at the only local Tesla certified body shop to look at the run in the paint.  They have done a lot of work on Teslas but the estimator said he had not seen a flaw like mine to date.  He said they would try to sand/buff out the problem but his paint guy said the bubbles in the clear coat may mean that area might need to be repainted, so he is submitting it to Tesla that way so they authorize the expense if need be.  The downside is if it does need to be painted the car needs to be there three to four days.  At this point I just want to get these two issues behind me so I can drive/enjoy the car without future service appointments overhead.

On Saturday my main intent was to get my external power restored to the coop/RV.   When I dug up the wire splice I had at the shed I verified I had power to that point so it meant the connection just deteriorated/broke.   I decided to reconnect things in a different manner.  Instead of having three sets of wires spliced together  I instead only did one splice, putting a plug end for the connection to the coop.  I then used a a heavy duty triple tap inside the shed to join everything back together.  Power again flowed to all destinations when I was done.

I also did some more construction in the coop, building a secondary stand for a second battery for the solar system.  Until I get a proper solar battery I put my emergency power center out there.  The hope I have is I can expand the battery capacity of the coop with an external battery connected to the Yeti to give some slack with no sun run times.  The thing is I might need more solar panels in order to create enough juice to feed it all.

Later in the day I went on a drive in the Tesla to pick up a few things.  I talked about my remediation attempts, more of my discoveries and did a real world 0-60 timed attempt.

Saturday night we watched Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, an odd title for a movie.  I guess it won several awards.  I had no idea what it was about.  The cast was very strong and the story was rather bizarre but compelling at the same time.  Even though the movie was not my selection, I’d give it an A-.

Sunday was Mother’s Day. Cindy and soon to be mother Katie both wanted to go out for breakfast.  We went to Skillets, a place I have patronized before however it all looked new to me.  The reason was the only times I have gone there we have had the dogs along so we ate outside.  I had never set foot inside the place.  It was very crowded but we only had to wait 10 minutes or less to get seated.  Everyone enjoyed their big breakfast.  Going out for breakfast was never anything that appealed to me but Cindy is a big fan.  Mother’s Day is about whatever she wants so I was more than happy to step out of my norm.

Shortly after we got back we headed back out to North Collier Park, again with the kids.  Daniel and I rode various PEVs around while Katie and Cindy hung out in one of the common areas.  One of the devices I rode was my original Ninebot One, the wheel I learned on.  I had given it to Daniel years ago.  I recently got it back but had to rip it apart to properly reseat the tube which had shifted after being rode on at a low PSI.  I was pleasantly surprised that despite a life of pretty substantial abuse, the wheel still rode great.  It felt awesome to ride around again on it.

Late Sunday afternoon I decided to wash both the Tesla and the Tacoma.  The Tesla requires more time than a normal car of comparable size because of the all glass roof.  It requires meticulous drying to avoid spotting on the glass.  I don’t mind washing the car of course and the Tacoma needed a bath as well since we are in the middle of love bug season.

So obviously Katie did not have her baby yet over the weekend but it literally could be any day now.  Like most things I look forward to it getting here so we can move on with the next phase of life.

I can’t wait to watch last night’s GOT episode on the DVR tonight…..