Month: June 2017

Electric Car Diaries: My Lease Is Up

On By angeliquejamailIn Electric Car Diaries, EVs9 Comments

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know that three years ago I leased a Nissan Leaf, which is a fully electric vehicle. You probably also know from my six previous Electric Car Diary Episodes that I’ve really liked my little Red Ninja.

Well, my three-year lease ended this month, and it was time to turn it in and get a new vehicle, or purchase the thing. It didn’t take too long to decide to purchase it, and that is what I have done.

I’ve kept up regular maintenance on the car and have really enjoyed how very little it has cost me to do so. Yes, I still have to take it into the dealership now and then (once a year at most?) for routine scheduled maintenance. It’s still a very inexpensive car to operate, too, since there’s no gas tank to fill or oil to change or spark plugs to wear out or transmission to flush. This week I replaced all four tires, because the car has about 29,000 miles on it, and these original tires were only just barely able to pass inspection this month. I got the alignment done on them, too, because it was part of the package, although strictly speaking, I’m not sure that was necessary. (But I thought it couldn’t hurt.)

The most expensive regular maintenance on this car, honestly, is keeping it clean. Houston has pollen and dust, my upholstery is light gray (and velvety soft), and I have two wonderful kids in middle school who are like little entropy machines.

Initially, I’d gone for a three-year lease because I wasn’t sure how the battery technology would wear over that time, but I’m pleased to report that everything is still going strong. The car continues to perform at the same level as it did when I bought it, and as it did when I first moved back into town from the suburbs.

In fact, the only complaint I have about this car remains that I can’t take it on a road trip, because we just don’t have the electric charging infrastructure in this country to support that.

But that technology is progressing nicely, too, and I’m guessing it’s just a matter of time before more than just Tesla can make a road-trip-worthy EV. Not only that, but my understanding is that the new Leaf coming out in a year or two is going to have much fancier battery technology that will allow for those extra-long ranges.

If you want to hear something that makes me feel a little old, note that The Red Ninja is probably going to be my daughter’s first car. That’s a stunning thing to me. It’s likely to — I hope! — still be going strong in four years when she’s ready for her own car. (I know I’m likely to still be paying it off, since I purchased it on a five-year note — for a much lower payment than the lease was, too, I might gleefully add.)

So my endorsement of the Nissan Leaf continues heartily! I love mine. Let the electric car revolution take root!

***

To read the previous Electric Car Diaries, in which you can experience vicariously the sometimes astounding and sometimes entertaining story of how I ended up with this car in the first place, what its features are (from a practical standpoint), and what it’s like to drive it, please click on the links below.

Episode 1: Putting My Money Where My Mouth Is

Episode 2: It’s Been A Week

Episode 3: Fingernails That Shine Like Justice

Episode 4: My Other Car Is A Valkyrie

Episode 5: No News Is Good News

Episode 6: The Inspection

 

Monday Earworm: Ed Sheeran

On By angeliquejamailIn "Wild Mountain Thyme", Ed Sheeran, folk music, Moss Wood Retreat, Scotland2 Comments

No, no, hear me out.

I’m not a huge fan of Ed Sheeran’s work in general. I admit that I know only what gets played on the radio, and I admit also that I find some of his songs catchy and fun to sing along with in the car or exercise class.

However, I’m in no way a fan of hook-up culture, which I dislike with an intensity that one might fairly describe as rabid. This prevents me from enjoying his work too much.

This video of him singing “Wild Mountain Thyme,” though, kind of classes up his career more than a little.

(Even if one could argue that he’s still singing, at least a little, about the same old thing. But whatever.)

I was reminded of this Scottish folk song, which I rather like, yesterday during the closing conversations of the Moss Wood Retreat, an excellent writing retreat I attended last week and which I will give you more details about soon. (So stay tuned.)

In the meantime, do enjoy this.

 

Monday Earworm: Toto Meets Metal

On By angeliquejamailIn "Africa", metal, Monday earworm, Toto Meets Metal3 Comments

When I was in college, my freshman year, I put the song “She’s Always a Woman” by Billy Joel on repeat on my CD player for eighteen hours straight. It was a weekend night, and I loved that song, and I was probably thinking about my boyfriend being eighteen hundred miles away at a different school and just got sentimental. Something like that. I no longer remember what truly motivated me to listen to that song nonstop for so long, but I can tell you how much it annoyed everyone in my dorm who was around that weekend. By about hour fifteen, the walls of the building were vibrating with Billy Joel’s piano and vocals.

I didn’t get tired of the song that night, either, if you can believe it. But I didn’t pull that stunt again.

Last night my daughter did. She played “Africa” by Toto on repeat on her iPod all night long. So this morning, I went searching for that video to post here, but the video is such a prime specimen of everything that was clunky and goofy about ’80’s music videos, I’m going to post this one instead. Please enjoy.

 

Whom I’ve Been Reading: Marcus Sedgwick

On By angeliquejamailIn book review, books, fiction, literature, magic realism, Marcus Sedgwick, MIDWINTERBLOOD, Whom I've Been Reading, YA3 Comments

Although my favorite thing to read is a novel, I also love linked collections of short stories. The forgiving nature of a series of discrete narratives doesn’t make me feel guilty when my schoolwork prevents me from reading a novel straight through.

Sometimes these collections are linked by place; there are many of these. Others are linked by characters, such as Justin Cronin’s Mary and O’Neill. By an object: Susan Vreeland’s Girl in Hyacinth Blue. Some by concept: Her Infinite Variety by Pamela Rafael Berkman. Sometimes by theme: Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by Z.Z. Packer.

And sometimes a collection is linked by all of these.

Printz Award-winning Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick contains seven linked stories which travel backward in time on a remote and unusual island near the top of the world. They explore the themes of love and sacrifice in the myriad ways that love and sacrifice impress themselves on our lives, sometimes obvious and sometimes not. But the writing is never obvious, never predictable. Sedgwick’s work is often, I think, categorized as YA, but even if you don’t usually read in that category, give this one a try.

Eric and Merle are two characters who orbit each other in time, meeting each other in different ways. Sometimes in love, sometimes bound by a family relationship, sometimes tossed together by external forces, their interactions show the breadth of love and sacrifice. The writing is lush without overpowering the reader. The stories are based on an actual historical painting, Midvinterblot, but everything else in the novel comes from Sedgwick’s own imagination.

Honestly, I don’t know what else to say about this book that won’t give too much of the story away. Aside from the writing being enjoyable even down to the level of the sentence, I love the structure, how each story is illuminated by a subsequent one, how the orbit comes around in such a satisfying way, how the island itself is a character, how the names of the characters evolve, how the dragon flowers on the island and the image of the hare anchor the narrative. There is a hint of the fantastical in this book, but I wouldn’t call it fantasy; magic realism is more its purview.

This novel-in-stories accomplishes what the 1994 film Being Human tried to do but couldn’t. Midwinterblood captures two important facets of the immensity of human experience with crystalline clarity. And like a faceted prism, this story reveals a depth of possibility in every interaction, that we are part of something larger than ourselves. That love and sacrifice cannot be contained. It asks the question, is life truly this rich?

And so, it is.