Judy Anderson
mastodon 4.7.3Programmer, been on the information superhighway since it was a goat track. Bicyclist, electric car owner, waterskier, board gamer, generic nerd. Cat lover, square dancer, parent, SFF reader.
Hadn't heard of "world bicycle day" before, so I took a photo of my bicycle with its pride safety flag after seeing the hashtag here.
I rode my bike 11 miles today, doing two errands which would otherwise have needed a car. (Which would've been an electric car, so it would be less of a problem, also considering it's very sunny and we have solar panels. Still.)
Today I stood on an overpass with about 10 other people (all older white women, it turned out) where there was a sign in three-foot-high letters saying "workers over ballrooms", waving American flags and collecting little honks of support from about every 10th car. It was a bit chilly, but this time I wore enough clothes. Last time I got really cold.
Explosions of yellow
Surprise to me that magnolias come in yellow!
Keeping watch.
My town had a chalk art festival in a municipal parking lot on Sunday. I went for the last 20 minutes to see what people had done. It was amazing! Some things I was like "how can you even do this with chalk". It was a bit of a headache to take pictures because I had to hold the phone up high and couldn't really see to frame the picture.
Bought a bit too much fruit at the big box warehouse store.
Are these cats happy playing, or angry fighting? Or something in between? Sometimes I break it up, especially when they have each other in a headlock. There's no hissing or growling.
I'm going to a rally to oppose MA legislators listening to utility companies lobbyists and pass a consumer-and-climate-friendly bill instead. Weds June 10, Boston, 1pm.
https://actionnetwork.org/events/people-over-utility-profits-boston-rally
I ordered something two weeks ago, and just got it today. It's been bouncing around the eastern seaboard of the United States. Sometimes going further away from the destination. Thanks, USPS.
Thanks to @yelof@hachyderm.io for mentioning the Thomas Dambo trolls last fall. I got around to actually visiting them Tuesday and wrote up a photo essay. Enjoy!
https://www.olum.org/yduj/trolls/
(Edit: I have now updated the page with alt text for photos.)
Today's activity was helping the daughter move apartments. I apparently tied the mattress down to the roof rack well enough, because it did not come off during the freeway drive. She had some things that we were supposed to bring home, and we forgot in the chaos of the end. It's all okay, they can ride around in her car for another few days still she next visits.
Well it's two-thirds of the way through May, and I mowed in the front because the grass was getting very very tall. A small number of little yellow blossoms were short enough to survive the scythe, and it looks like most of the dandelions had already seeded. Since I got two ticks in the past two weeks, I'm thinking maybe I'll get fewer if the grass is short. The garden is in the front and so I spend more time in the front.
I didn't mow in the back, because there are pretty purple flowers. It can be a meadow. The pollinators can go there. Hopefully I won't get ticks just walking across it to take the compost out.
Bah on more Trump attacks on university freedoms, demanding admissions data for 7 years. I signed this petition telling Stanford to stand strong.
Housemate is helping a friend build something (basically a deck, but not attached to a house). They had to drill holes in 25+ boards across 7 joists for the top decking making it about 400 holes.
After hearing about 400 holes, I've been having the Beatles "a day in the life" going through my head all day; finally actually listened to it and discovered it's 4000 holes in the song!
@jnl@hcommons.social
One thing you should watch out for when buying a used electric car is how the battery has been treated. Turns out it's not actually great to do fast charging all the time, so if you can find out how often it has been fast charged, that would be useful to know about its health. Most cars actually keep a history of their charging status, which can be got at by an OBD2 reader. It's possible a dealer would have found this information out for you, but it's also likely that the dealer would go nothing useful. Since you say you are rural-ish, I am assuming you will be able to charge at level 2 in your home for day-to-day use. That's the best for the battery.
If you are buying from a dealer, you should see how they are treating the cars on their lot. It's bad to be below 20% for long periods of time. One place we went to had let two of their cars get horribly discharged. One was at 3% and another was so badly charged that it let us roll down the windows but not roll them back up. Fortunately I did not intend to test drive either of these cars (I was just checking cargo capacities), and I ended up buying from a different dealer.
Dealers will only tell you about the individual charging company apps, like EVgo or Electrify America; but what you really want is the overview of all possible stations, so also get plugshare and "a better route planner" (ABRP). There aren't enough charging stations even in heavily populated areas for you to be brand loyal.
Good luck!