Judebert.com

Don't freak out, he's okay.

But yes, I did run over Neppy. Or at least, I ran into him.

I was backing Silent E out of the garage. I had just seen the cat, so I was moving slow and using a light throttle so the car made its Pedestrian Warning Noise. He's so dumb he didn't even care! Just as I'm figuring he must have moved, the whole car grinds to a halt and I hear this terrible "MRROWWRRR!".

I pulled forward quickly, seeing Neppy slink away in the rear-view mirror. When I went to fetch the idiot, I found a big hunk of his hair in the driveway.

Since I've only been driving Silent E for a week, I've kept Ao-kun (my Civic Hatchback) as a safety net just in case I have problems.

I knew yesterday's trip to Goodwill would probably be out of Silent E's range, so on Monday I drove her batteries down to 118V, then set her up with a very slow charge (1A) to try and get the batteries equalized.

Ao-kun did fine on the way to work. There was an emergency afterwards, though, and I had to take kids home.

Things got worse from there. I got a flat, couldn't inflate it with Fix-a-Flat, couldn't inflate it from the gas station pump, destroyed the valve, overheated the engine, and generally pushed the car beyond any reasonable limits to pick up my kids and get them home.

Ao-kun needs two new tires before he moves again. Until then, Silent E is running without a net as my only daily driver.

I'm only a little worried. I think I'll just sell Ao-kun as is, let somebody else handle the tires, and put all that expense into tools and upgrades for Silent E.

In the latest round of daily range extension (good grief, that sounds like spam!) I took my wife and youngest daughter to a friend's party. The longest single contiguous trip we've taken: 8 miles. And with a heavier load than usual.

Near the end, she wasn't accelerating so well. But we got there without damaging anything. We charged for about 4 hours at the party, then drove home. I took a different, slightly faster route, and we seemed to do fine. People who passed me seemed to look over more than usual, and I think someone even waved (I was too busy watching the road).

Except for the stop light where I couldn't get into gear, and some ... driver honked at me. I was sitting there thinking, "Yeah, make your own electric car and see how well it does!"

Big

I am pleased to announce the entry of my electric vehicle, Silent E, to the ranks of daily drivers. We've driven to work two days in a row.

Today I went to get a new license plate decal, because I lost the old one. $17, including the $1 credit card fee (I always thought that was illegal). Since I was out in such ideal light, I took pictures!