Journaling -- May 18, 2024

Locator: 47114EVS.

EVs, rambling: I don't drive much any more. In fact, if I didn't have Sophia to chauffeur to friends' parties; jiu-jitsu; or, soccer, I could probably give up my car completely. My own cars I only drive locally. If I take a road trip, I always rent from Enterprise -- they have a site about four minutes from where we live.

When I do drive, and this has been the way it's been since I got my first car -- a 1948 Willys jeep -- back in high school,  when I get home, I don't think about the car. I drive up to the house, park the car and get out. I don't think about the car until the next time I go out to drive it. No fuss, no muss, with the car on most days.  Annual maintenance, oil change, state inspection and registration, new tires every so often, and a new battery every so often. And that's it.

I don't think about gassing up -- re-fueling -- whatever. On the way home, I take a glance at the gauge, and if I need gasoline, I stop at one of any number of gas stations along the way, almost no matter when I am. The stop takes five minutes and I'm good-to-go for the next week or so, unless traveling cross-country.

“Along the way.” I don’t need an app to find a gas station.

But my perspective with regard to EVs. Just the opposite. Tethered. Always thinking about the battery. On the drive home -- every day -- every time I'm driving -- I would be checking the battery gauge. It's no different than looking at my battery every so often when I'm on the laptop. When will I need to plug it in? Will I be going somewhere later today where I will need to have a fully charged computer? Same with an EV. Not only every time I get into the car, but throughout the trip, I would be looking at the battery gauge. 

And, then, before calling it a day, I need to decide whether I need to charge the car overnight, either in the garage (and worry about an in-garage battery fire) or at a public charging station -- where the next one might be; will there be a charger available; will the charger work; how long will I need to charge the EV? Is it safe to leave the car unattended overnight in some dark parking lot on the edge of town?

Tethered to a battery.

It’s no longer about the car. It’s no longer about range, per se. It’s about the battery. Everything wrapped up in the battery.

I think about that almost every day, trying to understand  why EVSRNFM, and then I saw this in the news feed this morning:

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Journaling

I've kept journals since middle school. My longest continuous journal went from summer between my junior year and senior year in high school to medical school graduation, 1968 - 1977. About nine years.

In addition, a lot of my journaling was in the form of letters sent from college and graduate school to my parents. My mom kept all those letters, kept them organized, and are safely stored in the bat cave. 

Then in the USAF for 30 years plus a day, I kept multiple journals, covering different activities, permanent duty stations and temporary duty locations.

Then with the grandchildren, any number of photo albums for each. 

I continue to journal but it's a bit different now that I blog.

Anyway, here's a few of my journals and photo albums down in the bat cave.

This is my most treasured journal for form and function, and detail. It was one of many kept at the time. First entry, San Antonio, January 23, 2006; final entry, August 6, 2006. I would have had two or three other journals covering specific subjects running concurrently.

Here's a sample of what the journal looks like on the inside. I opened the journal and randomly came to the entry for May 2, 2026. We were stationed in San Antonio, TX, with just a bit more than one full year yet to serve, before retiring. I was surprised by the entry; it could have been written today, LOL:

• depressed over some family news
  
• Hamas
• Puerto Rico
• investing
• oil prices
• the Fed and inflation concerns.