So I’m not convinced that Palin is the timid one here. I think the McCain campaign knows her inexperience shows and wants to keep it hidden as long as possible. I hope the media figures this out sooner or later and starts to whine louder than the McCain campaign does about people actually wanting to ask Palin tough questions. The McCain campaign is about the most hypocritical political campaign I have seen in years.
So Sharyn’s Jeep stopped working last week. I finished purchasing the Honda last Friday and we drove to my Dad’s that Saturday. We took the Isuzu there since it was getting old (91 Isuzu Rodeo with 250k miles). We left the Isuzu.
On the way back, the Honda died a little over 100 miles from Home. I got the car worked on today. Turns out the Distributer cap had some issues and was arching — so it burned itself out.
So a current cost breakdown of the car:
- $2500 - car
- $60 - smog
- $10 - gas cap (because it wouldn’t pass the smog)
- $40 - car-dolly rental
- $60 - gas to power borrowed truck to tow car back
- $282 - parts and labor to replace distributor cap and a bunch of other parts
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- $2952 total - and I still have to register it, pay taxes on it to the state, and get some insurrance.
Ouch.
Did you miss the irony in the above story - where we had dropped off the fully functional if a bit old Isuzu at my Dad’s and ended up getting home with two broken cars?
Well I just finished my first two-hour long class from the Pacific Energy Center. I took a class title “Solar Basic for Residential Customers” and taught by Pete Shoemaker. This was my first time doing an over-the-internet class. I listened to audio on my cell phone and chatted and watched the slides via the web on my computer.
It allowed me to chat with some of the other web-based people and I ended up coming away with a few e-mail addresses. Some useful links I acquired while in the class:
A map of solar activity around San Francisco: http://sf.solarmap.org/
A site connecting consumers to renewable energy professionals: http://findsolar.com/
Enphase Energy - Micro-inverters: http://www.enphaseenergy.com/
When Pete installed his home solar system, he got together with neighbors and they saved money by bulk-buying their system components. I am hoping to do some energy designs for relatives (hint hint family!).