OT: times are a changing, Electric Dingy

[Bruce EVangel Parmenter <brucedp@yahoo.com>]

{OT: personal status}
Soon, I'll be turning my new RV in to have the twin beds
changed to handle my tall frame (Yes, my feet are still going to
hang over).

Since the time is growing near, the priority to shed items has 
gone to the top. This weekend I recycled a van load of stuff, but
still have more to go. I am going to be down to about what fits 
in a couple of suit cases.

I hope to sell some of the donated PC items to the next San Jose
EAA meeting (ISA & PCI cards, speakers, etc.) so that the Chapter 
can get the money out of them (rather than just recycling them). 
They have to go because once I move out of my expensive $2k/mo apt,
I will not have room for them. I have built the last 'cheap PC' out
of these donated parts. It sold quickly at the Silicon Valley EAA
meeting, because although it had $1000 of my time in it, I priced
the 486/66 1 GB SE SCSI disk, 32mb ram, win 95 w/ internal modem 
PC for $40. I price things cheap so they move very fast.

Each EAA Chapter has a treasury. They are to use the money for
promoting EAA goals (showing EVs are a public transportation 
choice). I want to take this money and 'put in' a local public 
EV charging spot (imagine if each Chapter regularly did this).
We can buy the AVCON power pak for the host willing to install
it.

...
So, I am wading through all my junk, and I come across EV newspaper 
items from the 1990's, when EVS were in the media. I gave them to
the EAA Historian to keep. But this made me check if all my items
had been backed up up onto the net. 

NBCI swallowed Xoom, now NBCI wants to back peddle. My 
http://members.nbci.com/brucedp/ account is read only (they turned 
write access off). There is a page that states you need to move 
your files off before you lose them. [Another dead.com on its way?]

So, I stopped my wading to find a large enough web site to hold 
all the images and pages I have documented (there's a lot there).

I am uploading what newswire POSTs I have archived to one of my 
sites. My files start in 1997, but I know I have been doing this 
since about 1990.

Most of the early stuff was in the myriad of discussion areas in
aol and later on each newspaper that offered discussion areas. Many 
of my daily personal EV experiences were there.

I did a web search, only to find much of what was 'out there' has 
been removed. But then again, those were 'old news'. It does not 
do anyone any good if the information is dated. But it is good to
reflect on how much work and for how long I have been putting 
effort into the EV cause.

...
Once I have moved into my new shell, my rent will be be more 
manageable. But anyone who has seen the announcements from my 
hp.com CEO knows I could be 'CUT' anytime. Also, my 'turf' has
changed from doing large system installations in the Silicon
Valley area to all of Northern CA (ouch). Another reason to 
change my living accommodations: I will be spending less time
at home, and more on the road in the company ICE.

Optimistically (if get to keep my job), my EV will now become 
my Electric Dingy (in RV terms, a dingy is the vehicle you tow 
behind your RV  http://rvtravel.about.com/bldictionary.htm  ).

I still have not made the choice yet, but I am leaning toward a 
tow bar rather than a dolly for my 5000 lb EV Blazer
http://brucedp.www6.50megs.com/blazer/  it will be easier to 
stow it away.

It will be fun to see how well I tow and charge my EV. With
an on-board 4kw LP powered genset, I can charge while driving.
The RV is a 26ft '92 Safari Trek pathfinder model. 
[Similar to http://www.rvsalesusa.com/zakha.html ] It gets 14mpg
on diesel (when not towing). It will be interesting to fill the 
tank with bio-diesel and see what the performance is to the NEDRA
races  http://www.nedra.com/upcoming.html
(to attend, not race the blazer).

The EVents comming up
August 25th - Woodburn Dragstrip - Woodburn, OR  

September 29th - Sacramento Raceway - Sacramento, CA 
are up on there site.

...
OK, the neighbor is loudly playing with his extremely loud car 
alarm (damn Silicon Valley Geek), and I am need to grab dinner.


afk, ttfn
[PS: bluelight.com dropped their free lunch ISP ]


=====
BruceDP@yahoo.com http://geocities.com/brucedp
EV List & Renewable Energy Editor http://geocities.com/ev_list/
hybrid & fcv newsitems http://egroups.com/group/hydrogenpower

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