The Absentee Gas Station

I haven’t been to a gas station in almost a year.   I haven’t had to insert my credit card into the card reader, type in my zip code, select the type of fuel and insert the nozzle into the gas tank spout.    I haven’t smelled the smell of gasoline.   I’ve not spilt a single drop of gas on the car and had to get one of those completely non-absorptive blue towels from the perpetually dirty windshield washing area to try and wipe up the gas, hoping it won’t scratch the paint in the process.    In short, it’s been a good year.

There’s not a single thing I miss about using fossil fuels to power our car.   It’s nice coming in at the end of the day, grabbing the charging cord and sticking it into the port on the side of the car.   It doesn’t take five minutes to complete and I don’t have to stand out in the cold, rain or wind to complete the job.    And every morning I leave the house with the equivalent of a full tank of gas—in this case a fully charged electric car.

My husband, children and I love the electric cars.   Our children know people sometimes ask about our cars and they wait patiently while we explain.   Sometimes people don’t know what kind of car it is but are intrigued when they see the falcon wing doors open upwards.  When they ask what car it is I say, “it’s a Tesla; it’s a completely electric car”.  This statement is commonly followed by the question, “who makes it?”  Other times people know exactly what the car is and haven’t seen one in person and want to ask questions about how much we like the car and how far can it go on a charge and wow, that touch screen is seriously big.

We have a single battery in the glove box of each car that shows what type of batteries are in the undercarriage.  I’ll pull it out and say, “there are over seven thousand of these in the car.”   It’s a powerful visual explanation.    Sometimes people want to take pictures of the car and have many questions.   Other times they’re just curious what it is and move along quickly.   As long as we’re not in a hurry, my husband and I don’t mind talking about the cars because we are big advocates of Tesla and electric cars in general.

I’ve been asked about our cars in all different locations, but the one place I don’t ever expect to encounter curious questions is at a gas station—because we’re never there.

The Big Boy Update:  My son answered his doctor’s question the other day with the answer, “a yiddle bit”.  I looked at his doctor and said, “he means ‘little’” to which my son loudly replied, “a LITTLE!”  He’s been saying the word incorrectly for a long time but I think he’s got the pronunciation right going forward.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter came downstairs in the middle of the night with slightly wet pants.   We got her some new pajama bottoms on and as she was about to walk back upstairs with dad I heard her ask, “could you find me the lemur?”   She was wanting the lemur stuffed animal as a comfort because my husband had told her the other day how the lemur wasn’t afraid of the dark.