Jane’s sister passed away unexpectedly. We left the kitties in the capable care of good friends and took out for Chicagoland by car…Jane had always promised her sister that should anything happen to her, she would take care of her two kitties, elderly fellows, both, not the sort who could find other homes, for sure. So we drove it in 3 days—1785 miles. Jane is doing well: the time spent in driving and talking was a benefit; and we were able, in a handful of days, to take care of what had to be taken care of, including legal matters, calm two very upset kitties, and pack up or ship those things that are family stuff, including the two kitties (who had never been further than the vet by car)—and who were troopers on the trip back. Very gentle, very nice kitties, and they are now living in our basement library until we can gradually introduce them to our two far more territorial lads.
It was a very hard couple of weeks, physically. We would work ourselves to exhaustion, reach the hotel, fall asleep when we got there, rise at 6 and go do it all again. We took one additional day to rest up (and locate the kitties: one is an absolute master of escape and hiding.) And then we drove 3 days back, trading off at the wheel. We got home about 2:00 pm yesterday, had lunch at our local pub, went home and made contact with our own kitties, and collapsed about 6 pm and slept until 6 AM.
We are up and functional. Our kitties were glad to see us and only hissed a bit at the ‘other cat’ smell about us. I have a dental appointment Monday—and that’s kind of an important one. The Prius is packed literally to the overhead with boxes and items—we could not fit in so much as a hairbrush, with the job Jane did in packing it, and it managed the trip through a major winter storm we were timing-it trying to Not Get Caught In. We made it first to Oacoma SD, to a hotel we know. We came into our next stop at Livingston MT with snow flying sideways and wind gusts rocking the car, after a dicey afternoon drive through the mountains with a lowered cloud deck and rain, meaning foggy conditions, and made it by 6 (we’d booked a room by phone in Livingston MT, halfway between Billings and Butte, and a good thing we had, because storms fill up hotels.) We made it in with snow going sideways and wind gusts rocking the car, got up to drive on through snow and chain-up for trucks through Bozeman Pass, then had much easier time on toward home. Tired. Definitely. Today we start unpacking the car. I just saw Jane out there starting that job, and have to get at it.
My sincere condolences to Jane on her loss. I’m also very glad that her sister’s kitties will be taken care of and loved, with people they know. Change like that is rough, more so when one gets up there in years. Their remaining years deserve to be happy ones!
The Prius is a nice car, but when it comes to acceleration, a Tesla Model S P100D (in “ludicrous mode”) is more like a jet than a car 🙂 Accleration is about 3x to 4x as strong as the Prius, and on par with high-end sports cars, for a fraction of the price. “Ludicrous mode” is famous enough that quite a few people have made vids showing people’s reactions experiencing it for the first time. Do a search on “tesla acceleration video reaction” if you happen to be curious.
I’ll let the other science guy, David Pogue, introduce you to Portland’s “White Zombie”, a 2-door Datsun 1200.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apoeGMWF17c
Very few people actually need that kind of acceleration in everyday driving. And my 02 Prius has enough for that purpose (I have beaten luxury cars across intersections).
That’s fine…..personal preference… I want a new car with a turbo engine….and yes, I’m going to get it this summer….I can afford it, I’ve wanted one for a while, and this is the perfect opportunity. My 2005 Civic has over 223,500 miles on it, and it’s time to retire.
Of course not! It’s a dragster, albeit a “street-legal” one. But what’s being learned with it will feed back to electric vehicle development.
One of my friends died suddenly on April 6. He had 10 cats in his house, all well cared for, and they’ve been rehomed. They seem to be getting along with the cats in the new home, although some of the “resident” cats are going to be transferred to a farm about 25 miles away, working in a heated dairy barn. (I need to remind the person who has these cats to let the new owner know not to overfeed the cats, or they’ll probably not go looking for mice.)