¶We tuned her up a bit today and she’s already running better, although there’s still room for improvement. It’s nice having both cars sitting side-by-side, too, as it lets you quickly look back and forth at things.
Stream
photo published in
/2024/07/13 on July 14, 2024 at 3:00 PM
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¶I’ve finally squirreled away a little bit of time to work on the Spitfire today. I’m taking it over to my father-in-law’s this afternoon so we can start inspecting, tuning, and cleaning. I’ll take plenty of pictures and video, too.
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/2024/07/13 at 12:41 PM
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¶Startups in the U.K. raised $6.7 billion in funding during the first half of 2024, helping dethrone China and propelling the U.K. to second place globally for funds raised, according to a new report.
¶First place for the first half of 2024? The United States, “with a combined $54.8 billion raised across some 2,654 funding rounds in the first half of the year.”
¶That’s an 8x multiple.
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/2024/07/07 at 11:59 PM
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(espn.com)
¶Police said Hazel was driving a Dodge Charger with Jackson in the passenger seat when their car was struck by an Infiniti Q50 attempting to change lanes at a high speed. The Charger left the road and struck multiple tree stumps....Neither the driver of the Infiniti Q50 nor her two passengers…was injured. Investigators believe alcohol may have played a role in the crash, police said, adding that charges are pending.
¶It’s hard to tell what happened here, and I suspect two points from that story – the 3:14 AM time of accident and the statement that “alcohol is believed to have been a factor” – leave the impression that the athletes were drinking and caused the accident. After our drive yesterday, I wonder if they were innocent victims of racing on the highway. After all, their car “was struck by an Infiniti Q50 attempting to change lanes at a high speed.”
¶Twice yesterday, in separate incidents with different cars, a pair of cars rushed past us, weaving in and out of lanes without signals and, seemingly, without care or concern. Both pairs were clearly racing and, by my estimation, were traveling at 90+ miles per hour while the fastest of the normal traffic was doing 75 (five miles over the limit). In the moment, this was more maddening than frightening – where are the cops when you need them? – but, after reading this story and that detail about the Infiniti “attempting to change lanes at a high rate of speed,” I now appreciate the danger those racers created.
¶Turning back to the Jackson story, everyone in the Inifiniti was unscathed, of course. “[C]harges are pending,” though, so there’s that.
¶If this was caused by racing, I hope it brings some much-needed attention to this problem.
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/2024/07/07 at 4:01 PM
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¶We pulled into the driveway this morning at about 12:30 AM, completing The Drive in nineteen hours and forty-five minutes, give or take. It certainly took longer than our runs in a gas-powered car. I think our record “from the old days” is just under 18 hours, but that only happened once that I remember and had to be under ideal conditions. We certainly had those conditions yesterday, with zero rain, normal traffic, no backups, and an easy passage through Atlanta, providing the basis for a best-to-best comparison for The Drive with an EV versus a gas car. We did make use of the Express Lane south of Atlanta, mostly because it was open to us and, well, why not (it never seems to be open to us and we’ve always wanted to see what it was all about). Some quick math on the trip computer in the car told me, at the time, that it saved us about twelve minutes, so, to be fair, we likely need to add that to yesterday’s time when making any comparisons, putting our final time at just under 20 hours.
¶So, under ideal conditions, taking the Tesla adds about two hours to The Drive.
¶Not bad.
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/2024/07/07 at 2:20 PM
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¶Heading home today. Beautiful day for a drive.
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/2024/07/06 at 12:58 PM
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¶I just watched Jake take off at BG on my phone..in a Publix on the beach. Technology is amazing.
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/2024/07/05 at 10:11 PM
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¶This is the first time we’re spending the 4th of July at the beach. I think we’ll have a good view of the St. Pete Beach fireworks from our balcony but don’t know for sure. I’ll set up for photos and cross my fingers. We do have a great view of all the people coming to the beach and looking for parking, which is quite entertaining in a Rear Window sort of way.
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/2024/07/04 at 1:18 PM
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¶Keeping the Rays won’t be cheap. Losing them, though, would cost St. Petersburg and Tampa Bay even more. The time has come to tie the Rays to the city for decades. It’s time to say yes to this deal.
¶I’ve watched the Rays stadium saga for literally decades. It’s been a slog, full of ups and downs and plenty of dramas. It finally feels like there’s real momentum for keeping the team in St. Pete and building a new stadium. I’ve got my fingers crossed.
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/2024/07/03 at 11:36 PM
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¶A drive to Treasure Island for dinner tonight took us right pass the awesomeness of the sign at the Thunderbird hotel. I need to get a pic of it lit up one night.
photo published in
/2024/07/03 at 11:20 PM
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¶Great game today — Rays won 5-0. A few home runs, a fantastic pitching performance by the Rays starter, Taj Bradley, and Rays first baseman Isaac Paredes was a single shy of the cycle. He went about it backwards, too, getting the home run, triple, and double in that order. Having the hard work done (the triple!), he only needed a single during his last at bat in the eighth inning. It wasn’t meant to be though, as he hit a can of corn to center field to end his offensive day. Still, fun to see.
photo published in
/2024/06/30 at 9:35 PM
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¶Oh, yes, and I have to charge the car. I love our Teslas, but sometimes the need to plan for charging is a bit of a hassle, particularly when I forget to plan for it.
photo published in
/2024/06/30 at 1:44 PM
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¶I’m sorry, but that thing is truly ridiculous.
photo published in
/2024/06/30 on July 3, 2024 at 12:48 PM
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¶We’ve got a busy day today, for a weekend/vacation day. We went for our walk first thing this morning. We’re headed to the farmer’s market at 10, and then to the Rays game this afternoon (first pitch at 1:40). Looking forward to a great day.
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/2024/06/30 at 12:36 PM
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¶I can’t think of a better way to end a day than ice cream. This was our first ice cream outing of the trip, and it was great. We opted for Sprinkles instead of Larry’s, which would have been a blasphemous idea just a few years ago. Larry’s grip on our ice cream dollar is weakening, though, evidenced by Renee complaining about the lack of flavor in the vanilla at Larry’s (which, frankly, I don’t understand or appreciate because, well, it’s vanilla). We took Teddy with us and he was great. Great end to a great day.
photo published in
/2024/06/29 on June 30, 2024 at 3:06 PM
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¶Jake kept me updated throughout the entire delivery, which took less than an hour. He sent photos when the truck arrived and then FaceTimed me after the car was tucked away in the garage. I basically watched the whole thing from the pool. I was worried about it being delivered while Renee and I were out of town, but, as things go, it worked out perfectly. Another point in my ongoing life lesson that I don’t need to control every aspect of everything. Things generally tend to work out ok.
photo published in
/2024/06/29 on June 30, 2024 at 2:57 PM
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¶We came home from our morning walk to find this slight, but full, rainbow over the beach. What a great way to start the day. And it should be a great preview of things to come today…the Spitfire is on the way!
photo published in
/2024/06/29 at 12:09 PM
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¶It’s delivery day! Our 1968 Triumph Spitfire Mark III arrived today, fresh from Wisconsin. We won’t be home for a week so all I can do is continue to admire it from afar for now. Great to see it in the garage, ready and waiting for us when we get home, though.
photo published in
/2024/06/29 on June 30, 2024 at 2:23 AM
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¶Jake sent this photo after they landed at Toledo Executive. I love the shadows of him and his instructor. Jake called us shortly after this and was just beaming with excitement. He had a lot of firsts as a pilot today - first flight in a turboprop, first with retractable landing gear, first time entering Class A airspace as a pilot, and many others. My favorite might be one Jake mentioned to us on the phone afterwards. His instructor told him it was the first flight for those two with him in the left seat and Jake in the right. Awww.
photo published in
/2024/06/28 on June 29, 2024 at 1:38 PM
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¶Of course I didn’t have my phone with me so I couldn’t take a picture of Teddy sitting on the steps of City Hall in the pouring rain. I’ll have to commit that image to memory.
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/2024/06/28 at 1:08 PM
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¶Renee and I got caught in a sudden downpour on our walk with Teddy this morning. We camped out on the steps of the St. Pete Beach City Hall and eventually called Jake to pick us up. Quite the adventure!
post published in
/2024/06/28 at 1:06 PM
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¶Jake sent us a few shots from the flight. I totally get what he loves about flying and planes. Beautiful!
photo published in
/2024/06/28 on June 29, 2024 at 12:41 PM
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¶I love this shot of Jake, as copilot. He gave us a quick wave right after this and then they taxied out to the runway.
photo published in
/2024/06/28 on June 29, 2024 at 12:37 PM
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¶Jake had an amazing day today. Yesterday, his former flight instructor texted him, knowing we were here in Florida, and asked if he’d want to copilot a Pilatus PC-12 back to Toledo with him. Jake would never turn down that opportunity (and of course we wouldn’t want him to), so Renee and I drove him down to Page Field in Fort Myers. This photo shows Jake and his instructor going through their pre-flight checklist. He told us shortly after they finished pre-flight that his instructor told Jake that he would be doing all the radio work. Always the teacher! Jake was a bit nervous about that, but excited, too. A few minutes later they were wheels up to Toledo, with a quick stop in Columbus.
photo published in
/2024/06/28 on June 29, 2024 at 12:27 PM
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¶We noticed a couple new murals at the airport, too. This one is on the outside of a hangar that faces the parking lot for the restaurant. It’s big and bold, and quite impressive! I noticed Jonathan noticing it as we headed to the car after breakfast. I love this photo.
photo published in
/2024/06/27 at 7:10 PM
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