Where Is the Engine?

(And other reasons why our new Tesla Model S is fabulous.)

We've had our new car for less than a week and I think it's fair to say we're in love.  This car is pretty much like a rocket ship made for streets, but without flames or rocket fuel.   It has the ability to go fast, but it's so confident in it's ability to answer your every driving need, both immediately and effortlessly, that you find yourself driving calmly and more slowly than you normally would.    You can't be sad riding in this thing, it gives off happy vibes.

Where is the Engine?
People want to see your Tesla Model S.  They've heard about the car because it's won awards and is somewhat of a novelty at this point as only forty-five thousand have been made world-wide.   We've shown it to many of our neighbors and we've even been stopped by strangers who were just interested in the car.  There are many Tesla's in California, but they're fairly uncommon where we live on the East Coast.

Someone who wants to see the car can get in, sit down and look at the big monitor that represents almost every control for the car other than the steering wheel and pedals.  It's neat, but we've all seen touch screen interfaces by now, so let's move on to the more dramatic things...like the frunk.

You pull out your key (which looks like a mini-version of your car) and double click in the front area.   People are interested in seeing this cool engine that runs this electric car.  The frunk (front trunk) opens and it's completely empty.  You can put children in this nicely carpeted place (I have, my two kids loved it).  "Where is the engine" they ask?   There is no engine.  Instead, there's a motor, and it's in the back.   There are no tubes and fans and belts and pipes and coolants and oils and all sorts of other things you have with your  ICE car (Internal Combustion Engine).

I downloaded a few pictures to my phone to show at this point, because it's much easier to explain that way:

Here's the motor, which lies between the wheels in the back.  That's it.  That drives the whole car.

The bottom of the car is seven-thousand battery cells.  It provides the energy for the motor and it's also the bottom of the car, protected with some armor-grade plating.

Here's the car. sitting on top with it's comfy leather seats and touch-screen controls.

So there's nothing to go in what typically was the engine compartment, so Tesla Motors turned it into a second trunk, as well as a huge crumple zone, thus increasing the car's overall safety rating (they got an unprecedented 5.5 out of 5.0).  You can see the front grill in the picture above.  Only, it's not a grill.   Cars with engines need ventilation to keep cool and the front vent helps in that process.  On the Tesla, it's just a stylish piece of plastic.

After showing the Frunk, it's fun to show the Trunk, which is huge and also has a lower-level second trunk for added bonus, extra storage.

What if you run out of energy?

Probably the next question you'll get is "what happens if you run out of charge?"   Concerns about range are probably the most common thing we hear.  It's true, no matter where you are, you can most likely fill your car up with gas any number of locations within a two-mile radius.  In fact, its 's easy to find a gas station that we don't even make a plan for refueling until we get close to empty.  Sometimes, people see just how far they can go on tank reserve before getting gas.   

The difference with an electric car is that every morning (and sometimes twice a day), we leave our house with a completely full charge.   It's not unlike stopping at the closest gas station by your house and topping off your tank after every time you go out.   Unless I planned on driving over a hundred-fifty miles to a second location that I planned to remain at overnight, I wouldn't even worry about what to do to recharge the car, because I'm going to be home before I run out of charge.

We've gotten a quick education on the number and availability of charging stations around our area.  We had no idea there were as many as there are.  There's a web browser in the car and one of our favorites is Plugshare.com.  There are over a hundred EV stations close to us.   We've looked at what's available in locations we visit regularly, and there are plenty of options.   And worst of worst cases, you can always plug your car into a wall outlet at someone's house.   It's not a fast charge, but it will charge your car.  

I Left My Car Running

I've read about people getting in their other car after driving their Tesla for a while and accidentally walking off with the key in the car and the car running.   I laughed when I read about it, but now I understand it.   There is no key hole to put your key in in the Tesla.  It knows you're there because a key approached the car.   It woke up, popped out the door handles so you could get inside, and when it registers you sitting in the seat it knew someone might start driving it.   The air-conditioning is running, the music is playing and the web page you were last on has refreshed.   The car is doing this to welcome you, but it's not actually "on" yet.   It turns on when you put your foot on the brake.  

After you silently drive out of your driveway and drive to your location, you don't turn off the car.  You can't.  Well, actually, I think there's a way, but it's not straightforward.  You don't turn the car off, it turns itself off when you're no longer there.  You put the car in park, open the door and get out.   When the door closes, the car notes that the key is no longer inside the car, so it turns off everything.   When you get about ten paces away from the car, it pulls in the door handles and locks itself up.  

After having a car take care of itself without your help, I can completely see myself walking away from the minivan one day with the keys in it still running.  

The Creep Consideration

When you're driving in an electric car, there is no idle happening in a combustion engine that needs to keep happening at a slow pace so that the engine doesn't stall and turn off.  That idle converts to a small force forward, known as "creep".   When you get to a stop light, unless you're on a hill, the car just stays there, not moving.  

Some owners wanted that "creep" feature and asked Tesla Motors if they could put in such a feature.   In one of their software patches (which your car downloads automatically while you sleep at night) this feature was added.  Now, you can change a setting on your car so it creeps forward when you're at a full stop.  So current owners got a new feature on their cars while it was in their garage.   Very nice.  

Did I Brake Today?

You consume energy when you press the acceleration pedal.  But you regain energy when you're not pressing the acceleration pedal while moving.  The car regains energy through regenerative braking. This is a great feature, and it will take you about twelve minutes to get used to it, and then you'll probably love it.  (I did.)  

You don't have to press the breaks to stop, you just have to stop accelerating.  The car slows down at a rate that would be about what you would do if you were coming up to a stop sign.  You might need to brake a bit if you want to come to a complete stop, but that's about it.   I don't know how long brake pads last on these cars, but I'd venture to guess a long time.  I expect there to be a lot less brake dust to clean off the wheels when I take it in to be cleaned.

Something Safe About It

I can't explain it, but feels like it's the safest car I've ever ridden in.  It has a very low center of gravity.  When the NHTSA was doing a roll test on the car for it's safety rating, it broke the machine.   They determined the roof of the car (which contains the biggest sunroof/glass port you've seen) could support the weight of another four Tesla Model S cars.  I can't say what it is about the car but I'd guess that it sways less than other cars do on their suspension.   There's something about it I can't pinpoint just yet.   

Name That Car

My husband and I talked about what to call the car.   He was considering a vanity plate, but we decided to skip that.   After driving it and seeing how fast it could be, I told my husband, "I'm naming the car Blackbolt, but I'm calling it the 'Temple of Zoom'".  Knowing me, I'll never get around to using the names, but they both feel appropriate for the car.   

The Big Boy Update:  My son got a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sleeper two days ago.  He didn't know what they were, but they looked cool.  Uncle Jonathan told him their names this morning and tonight, I asked him which one he wanted to be.   He says he's Donatello.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  She lost her lunch today.   She lost it by throwing it on the ground in the restaurant.  So she got no lunch.  Consequences are good lessons.   She threw a fit and I took her out of the restaurant.  She flung her body on the ground and cried out front and suddenly, with no warning, she stood up and said, "I hear a bird", followed by, "why does that cone have tape on it?"   She was intentionally throwing a tantrum and she could control it.   She came back inside with us and still got no lunch.   Tomorrow I hope she remembers the lesson.

Fitness Update:  115 burpees at the gym.  Each.  Amongst other things.   And it's only Monday. 

A Thousand Pounds of Sand...

...is heavy.

We have a play structure in our back yard with a square bottom.  We've debated filling in this area with sand for some time and yesterday I decided that's what I wanted to do for the afternoon.   I went and got thick black plastic and five-hundred pounds of sand from Lowes.

That might sound like a lot, but sand is heavy, so it fit in the back part of the minivan easily.  I got home, staked and then stapled the black plastic into the box and then we started hauling the sand around back with the children's wagon.  

The children had been excited about the stakes and black plastic, but when the sand started showing up, there was reason to celebrate they decided.   Ten bags later and I realized we weren't going to have enough to really fill the box so I sent my husband back to the store for ten more bags.

We put in nine-hundred pounds and saved out two bags for topping of later when the current sand gets dirty.   It was hard to put the sand in for the children in the way, but they helped where they could.

They love the new sand box.  My son told me as I put him to bed tonight that he wanted to go back tomorrow morning and play some more.

The Big Boy Update:  We had some peas at lunch from the salad bar before the main meal arrived.  I told my son he needed to eat some.   He told me, "foxes don't like peas".   (His middle name is Fox.)

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:   We had some window art put in that was done by a childhood friend of mine.   We had one panel made specifically for my daughter and one panel that represented my son.   The next morning, my daughter looked up at the other two panels and said, "that one's mommy's and that one's daddy's.  Where is Mimi and Gramp's window?"

Fitness Update:   We ran twelve miles today.  I don't think I ate enough the night before because I was very tired at the end.

The Four Second Demo

Our new car is different than your standard car.  Sure, it's got nice seats and there are new gadgets on it.  But that's not that different than what's been happening since the beginning of car ownership.   Newer year models have new features.  New features and upgrades are fun to have.  People want to see your new car and sit in it and say, "hey that's cool".

Our car has a lot of those new features.  It's fun to get into the car, sit in the garage and go nowhere from that, "new feature" perspective.   But that's not my favorite part of the car to demo.   After the sitting and the looking; the pointing and the discussing; it's time to go for a ride.   That's where it gets interesting.   

Because it's a fully electric car, it runs silently.  For owners of other electric cars, this is no surprise.  The Prius has been doing this for some time.  Even so, many people have never ridden in an electric car.  So it's a novel experience.   Right now it's the middle of summer.  Running silent in hot, humid weather is also not fun, so we turn on the air conditioning and the car sounds mostly like a very-quiet traditional car from then on.   

The best part of the car is the unexpected four seconds I'm about to throw at the unsuspecting passengers after we exit our neighborhood.   I turn onto the road and after I straighten the car out, I bring on the acceleration.   For about four seconds I do this and it's the craziest rush you've ever been in in a car.  If you don't believe me, come to visit and I'll show you. 

Here's what happens.  In those four seconds we go from about fifteen miles-per-hour to over sixty miles-per-hour.  So the car is fast, but it's different fast.  It's an electric engine, not a combustion engine so the torque and power is right there, immediately, instantaneously, when you press the accelerator.   An internal combustion engine has a bit of a lag that we're so accustom to we don't even notice it any more.   But this is fast, immediate and it feels totally different. 

Have you ever been on one of the newer roller coaster rides that use magnetic induction to launch-start the ride?  It's unexpected and it's one of the most exhilarating parts of the ride.   That's what it feels like, but in a car with cushy leather seats.

What's happened every time I've done this (and my husband's experienced the same thing) is that people get this really interesting look on their face.  It's a look of surprise but with a smile.   

It happens fast at only four seconds and at the end, we're not traveling at a high speed, we've just changed speeds very quickly.   I followed my husband in our minivan today as he gave a demo to his parents and watched it happen.  The car was in front of me, and then it was way in front of me.  

With all that speed you can easily get in the new car, my husband and I have both agreed that we've found ourselves going more slowly on roads than we would in our other car, because you feel like you're going fast, even when you're not.   I suppose that's a good thing. 

#tesla 

The Big Boy Update:  Prepare for TMI.   I sleep in a t-shrit and only a t-shirt.  (Sorry for that mental image, but it's germane, I swear.)  This morning my son came down to wake us up and I gave him a hug.  He got under the covers with us and then he said to me, "mommy, your night night's not long enough."   

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is a cry baby.  Her brother bothers her, yes, but she is working on milking it for the slightest of things.   We're working on responding appropriately.  Initially, she was much smaller and he would dominate her by sheer size and ability.  She's old enough to manage on her own now, so we're working on both our responses and her reactions.  Well, that and her brother as well, who still thinks it's okay to dominate her all the time so he can have his way.   She's started hitting, scratching and even biting him back if he's being a serious pest.   Aunt A, please let Aunt B know she doesn't put up with his crap anymore!

Shh, Don't Talk Loudly, It's the Grocery Store

I was in the grocery store in the soda aisle looking for the sale of the week so that I could message my husband and have him tell me if it was a good sale of the week.  This is because I don't pay attention to soda costs as I drink mostly tea and other non-carbonated things.  

So, anyway, while I was looking and taking pictures of sale tags, I needed to get around a Pepsi representative who was stocking the Pepsi products.  I asked him something (I don't remember what) and he answered me, in a whisper.  That part I remember.

I remembered it because I thought, "why is that man whispering to me?"  Oh, wait a minute, I think I whispered my question to him.   Interesting.

The man and I got to talking and he said he didn't know why, but people always talked to him in a whisper and he just started answering back in a whisper.

I don't know why we talk in a whisper in the grocery store when we're speaking to an unknown person, but thinking back on it, I can see it happening.  

How strange.

The Big Boy Update:  My son loves "Chocolate Nook" which means chocolate milk but he mispronounces it.  Today we were talking about going to a favorite restaurant of his and we asked him what he wanted to drink, expecting him to want chocolate milk.  He said he wanted juice.  His sister, being helpful, told him that no, he wanted chocolate milk.  He said that no, he wanted juice.  We said okay that was fine and kept driving.  A minuted later he said from the back seat, "don't forget the juice."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I got new hair clips and my daughter wanted all of them in her hair.   All sixteen of them.  After I put them everywhere, she went to look in the big mirror.  I brought the hand mirror and showed her how to look at the back of her head, which she thought was pretty neat.

Fitness Update:  We've been doing a new warmup at the gym that has been deceptively easy looking but much harder to actually do.   It's less cardiovascular but will help in other areas, building stabilizer muscles and adding flexibility.  Also, it's nice to do something new.

It's Electric!

Did you just say, "boogie woogie woogie"?  I know I did.  That song was infectious and contagious.  I've been thinking about that song for weeks now.   Let me explain...

My husband and I want to be better citizens of the planet.  We want to do, "that green thing" as I've heard it called.  But we don't want to go extreme.  It's like a diet, if you go too extreme, you're more likely to fail.   What I mean is that we want to reduce our carbon footprint and our overall consumption of fossil fuels, but we don't want to live in a house with all the blinds shut and lights out to save energy.  We don't want to live in eighty-degrees in the house in summer and sixty degrees in winter either.   What we'd like to do is consume less energy, but do so in a targeted way.

We had a three-fold plan.  First, we looked at swapping our light bulbs to LED versions.  Since up to 40% of a home's electric bill can be lights alone, we hope we can make a significant impact in our consumption there.   We're still swapping out light bulbs.  There are more bulbs in our house than we could have imagined.  We've hit the highest use ones so far and are incrementally doing the rest.

Secondly, we really wanted to add solar panels to the house.   Solar power is an excellent way to reduce your carbon footprint over time.   We had our house evaluated and from the initial evaluation we realized quickly that we weren't going to be able to get 100% efficiency due to the angle of the home, pitch of the roof and surrounding trees.   Regardless, we said, we still wanted to do it.  It was a good thing to do, even if the return on investment wasn't that great.   And then we got the numbers back.   And we were sad.  The numbers weren't great or good.  They were just bad.  Even the sales person said he wouldn't do it if it were his house.  So solar is on hold for now, but we haven't taken it off the table.

Lastly, we wanted to get an electric car.  My eight cylinder sports sedan was less than carbon-friendly, not to mention quite the consumer of expensive premium gasoline.  So we ordered an electric car some tine ago and today we got that car.  There are several fully electric cars but the one we went with had the best range and other merits that we felt made it the best choice for us.  We now have a black Tesla in the garage and a fancy outlet on the back wall for charging it.

We were hoping to have a solar solution so we could even charge our car with the sun, but that's not happening this year.   My children like the car.  They mostly like it because the center console is something like a big iPad that they can touch and do things to.  They also like it because they can sit in the front trunk, otherwise known as the "frunk".  They can do this safely in the garage, even if the car is on, because it doesn't belch toxic fumes.

We like the new car.  It's electric.  Boogie woogie woogie.

The Big Boy Update:  He has an, "I want" problem.  He gets into these situations where the only thing that comes out of his mouth are sentences that start with the two words, "I want".  When this happens, he's trying to control you, the situation, and everyone around him.   It's been a challenge to deal with him when he gets like this.   This morning (I won't give you the long story) I was counting sentences that started with those two words and he was well aware that if he hit ten, there would be consequences.  There were consequences.   He almost got to ten a second time, which would have been a "stop the car" type event.   He knew what he was doing because he stopped when he realized he wasn't going to get his I want way.  I walked him in to camp this morning and told his two very capable teachers that, "he was having some strong feelings and it had been a challenging morning."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter loves to go to the grocery store with me.  We went the other day and as we were walking down one aisle she looked over and said, "Ahh! It's oil."   She was right. It was a bottle of canola oil.   How did she...oh, because she cooks with daddy all the time.   Now I get it.

Keratin Time Again

It's that time again.  My hair is getting frizzy and unruly and I'm getting frustrated with having to do something to it to make it look (to me) presentable.  I'm sure it looks fine to everyone else, but it's bothersome to me.

Before Keratin Complex, I had hair I disliked.  Yes, it was curly, but it was frizzy and I never really liked it.  With Keratin Complex, my hair is easy and friendly and straight.  And I always wanted straight hair.

So today I spent time at the hair place and I now have this stuff on my hair that's been flat ironed into it at high temperatures so the new keratin will bond to the natural keratin that makes up close to 95% of each hair follicle.  This makes the cuticles nice and smooth and the hair lie down and behave like I've spent hours making it just so.  I don't like spending time on my hair, so that suits me just fine.

The "steeping time" is almost over and I'm about to go upstairs and wash all the product out and be amazed, yet again, when I wake up in the morning and it's back to being straight and manageable once again.

The Big Boy Update:  My son hears that things aren't "available" a lot.  He saw another child playing with a truck he wanted to play with.  This child was sitting on the truck and my son wanted it back.  He tried several things, eventually resorting to telling the child, "it's not sittable" in the hopes he would abandon the toy.  Although his extrapolation from available was impressive, the other child didn't care and kept sitting on the truck.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  "I got a boogum" my daughter told me tonight.  She held up the finger to prove it.

Fitness Update:  New warmup at the gym today.  It's less cardio, but more balance and full-body stretching.  I've seen some of the other people doing this warmup before, but I didn't appreciate the difficulty of doing it until I did the relatively simple looking things and found out they were actually hard to do.

The Too Tiny Changing Table

When you have a baby you can purchase this little block of foam that you put on your dresser to change your baby on.  There are fuzzy covers that feel nice to you and the baby and it's a fun spot to clean up pee and poo and tickle the toes of the little infant.

Later, the little tyke learns to roll over and you're glad for the raised foam sides.   Soon enough you decide you'd better use the latching strap so that miss or mister squirmy doesn't fall off while you grab the new container of wipes three feet to the left.

It's not long after that that they can get out of the strap through sheer force and determination and it becomes more of a hazard than a help, so you cut them off.   Next, they children are able to slide off the dresser and get themselves down if they don't feel like staying.  

By now, their legs are so long that they hang well over the end of the changing pad.   So why haven't I gotten rid of it, you ask?  I'd love to, but I'm holding out in the hopes they will tolerate it for just a little longer so I don't have to get up and down from the floor to help them with their clothes.

I can run a marathon, but getting down to their level and then getting back up again is just not fun with my spine.   So for now, the changing pad stays.   It's still foamy, even though the foam wasn't designed for three-year-olds.   It's still fuzzy, but the fuzz has been matted down a good bit by now.   And it's definitely more comfortable than changing the children on the floor.

The Big Boy Update:  This past weekend we were having pancakes.  I asked my son what shape he wanted, expecting him to say, "Mickey Mouse!" but was surprised to hear that what he really wanted was a triangle-shaped pancake.   They must have tasted okay because his next request was for a rectangle-shaped pancake.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  "Poopy goes in the potty."  My daughter is getting better at toileting lately.  This afternoon after school she was in the kitchen playing with some of her kitchen toys when I saw her stand up and say to herself, "poopy goes in the potty".  I think she just got the, "I need to go right now" message.  I said, "quick, go to the potty" but she was already scampering off in that direction.