My middle daughter turned 10 today! We started the day with a mini-party: the living room was all decorated and her presents were waiting for her. She loved her Play-Doh Littlest Pet Shop from Kayla, her latch hook project from Tatiana, and her Erector set from us.

Eri brought her whole class donuts at snack time. Then Tatiana called me from school: she was sick. I took off the rest of the day to take care of her.

Everything was much better by the time Eri got home. I made lasagna while Melissa was at gymnastics class; when she got home, we had her favorite meal, finished with cheesecake with perpetual candles. We watched I Dream of Jeannie while we ate.

She said it was a fantastic day. Happy Birthday, Melissa!

Nathan arrived, as promised, at 8AM to help out with the EV. I had made much less progress than I hoped; I had planned to lower the motor and start drilling the new brush holes. I actually got as far as mangling the passenger side axle nut.

Nathan pronounced my mangling job professional and declared that we would need to let the pros take off the nut, probably using propane torches. I asked if it would be safe to drive as-is.

He actually guffawed. He rolled his eyes at me and responded, "You'll be fine. That nut ain't goin' nowhere."

Continue reading "Judebert's EV Conversion Diary: BrushWhacked, part 2"

The plan was simple: remove the front and rear transmission mounts (leaving a single mount on the passenger's side), lower the transmission like a lever until the motor was accessible through the driver's side wheel well, drill four holes, and put it all back.

The process involved breaking a half-inch socket extension and a Craftsman half-inch breaker bar. The ref called the fight at 8:45 on account of not having seen me all day.

Continue reading "Judebert's EV Conversion Diary: BrushWhacked"

Not too long ago, my company decided it was going green. So I wrote a letter asking for an EV charging space. Before too long, they told me they were "looking into it".

I figured that was pretty good, as brush-offs go. At least they didn't jerk me around with nonsense like Lockheed did (they said, "We don't have enough voltage," which is immediately recognizable as bull to anyone familiar with electricity).

Today I got another email.

"We have installed outlets in the parking lot that will allow you to plug in your electric car for the purpose of charging the batteries. Can I request that you bring the car over ... to test out the jacks and so that i can get a picture of you utilizing the outlets to charge your car?"

Continue reading "The EV Deadline"

Besides the work deadline, I'm also working on a Serendipity thumbnailing modification. It's reasonably involved, since I have to ensure everything works in a way that will be backwards compatible.

I always hate returning to online life after a week. The forums are backed up, the email is voluminous, the blog needs attention... it's just so much. I wind up staying up late and getting sleep-deprived.

I'm going to start treating it like deep sea diving. If I come up too quickly, I'll get the bends. So, today: email, finish the s9y coding, and a quick explanatory blog post. Tomorrow: read the s9y forums, distribute the s9y patch, and consider geeking something for a nice blog post with pictures.