Talk teetering on action, Mueller, Making the News, More Solar

So somehow my writing about the Tesla yesterday grew into more action researching the feasibility of doing it NOW, instead of later.  Surprisingly or not so surprisingly if you know me, I was able to come up with a plan of action that makes it doable.  I am working on a pre-approval from the credit union,  my insurance would only go up about $360 a year and the pinch of a second monthly payment would only be felt for about a year until the Tacoma is paid off in full. I then furthered my internal justification through self talk, pointing out that my monthly YouTube revenue would already pay for almost half of the payment.  A Tesla would also open up an entirely new river of content for the channel which is always a good thing.

There are some annoying things with the Tesla experience.  For example the only paint color that doesn’t cost extra is black.  Sure it is normal for there to be a couple premium colors but this is the first time I ever saw a color choice only the Amish would be excited about being the only no extra cost option.  Interior color choices are very black and white, literally.  Black is included in price, white is extra.  My choice would likely be the Pearl White exterior as Cindy is a big fan of that color and white is always a good choice to reflect some of the brutal Florida heat.

Of course it is also annoying that there is no negotiation on pricing although to some that may be seen as a positive as car dealership interactions can be annoying, frustrating, and stressful.  Still it would be nice to be able to haggle a better deal if you had the fortitude to do so.

I would only need the “Standard Range Plus” which is 240 miles.  If you want an extra 70 miles of range that costs a very steep 10k extra.  With a 50 mile round trip each day I think I will be fine.  The one ridiculous thing I would splurge for is the “Full Self Drive” feature which is supposed to go live later this year.   All Model 3’s now come with “Auto Pilot” which allows for pretty much hands off driving in many situations.  FSD takes it to a new level where it reacts to stop signs and traffic lights.  It is almost fully autonomous driving.

So no deposits have been made, no documents have been signed but I am thinking about this possibility a lot more seriously.  The one other factor is being able to at least take advantage of the remaining federal tax credit on the vehicle which is going to be eliminated sooner rather than later.  I am hoping Cindy and I get a chance to stop by the local Tesla store this weekend to take a closer look.

So I downloaded and read some of the Mueller report.  I didn’t have the time or patience to digest all 440+ pages but what I did read, compiled with other stories about it made it pretty clear just how f’d up the Trump administration is.  It doubled down on how daily lying is a required skill to be in the inner circle of the president.  It also left no doubt that despite staunch denials, Trump did try to end/influence the investigation, he wanted Mueller fired. The only thing that prevented that was certain members of his staff outright denying Trump’s marching orders because they actually had a modicum of common sense and intelligence.  The biggest thing I took away from the report was Mueller basically said there is smoke, a lot of smoke but only Congress is allowed to put out the fire.

To be honest, to consume two years of time to come to this conclusion, which we all already knew to only say that now Congress needs to step in, is frustrating.  With as slowly as the wheels of justice turn in Washington, Trump’s four year term will be basically over before any action would be taken.  At this point I can only hope it seals the deal that this era of idiocracy can mercifully come to a close in 2020.   For those out there that remain staunch and zealous Trump supporters,  I would ask one simple question.  How do you feel knowing that the candidate that Russia was pushing, illegally influencing, and hacking for, won the election?  I would hope for an honest answer but would be surprised to get one.  After all, Trump has taught America that bad behavior is rewarding, if you aren’t cheating you aren’t a winner, and being respectful, thoughtful, and kind are traits of losers.

Oh I forgot to mention the other day I was contacted by a reporter from a Wyoming news station, KBZK, regarding my Yellowstone drone video.  Recently a drone company named Skydio shot footage at Yellowstone of some guy skating on a boardwalk in a geyser area.  The drone flight and skating on the boardwalk are both banned activities in the park.  Well the story they are doing ties into the the NPS drone ban and I guess they stumbled across my video from 2015 in the process as it now has over 60,000 views and over 1000 comments.

The reporter asked for permission to use portions of my video in the story.  Before granting permission I asked what the angle of the story was, as I didn’t want it to be “look at the dumb ass that got fined via a YouTube video”  He said the focus was awareness of the ban as evidently people are still flying drones in YellowStone pretty regularly.  I gave my permission to use my video.  The piece is supposed to be finished up and run next week.  I only asked that they send me a link to the finished story.

This weekend my small 50 watt panel is supposed to show up.  I hope to get it installed, which should be a much less involved project than the two big panels.  Outside of that I hope to have a less labor heavy experience than the last couple weekends.