Posted inHome life

Toyota and GM side with Trump on mileage standards. Bad move, carmakers.

Thanks for nothing, Toyota and GM. It's deeply irritating that you've chosen to join with the Trump administration in challenging the longstanding federal law that has allowed California and 12 other states to require stricter auto emissions than the national standard. A LA Times opinion piece, "By siding with Trump on emissions, GM, Chrysler and Toyota are asking for industry chaos," describes what's at stake here. General Motors, Fiat Chrysler and Toyota say the reason they’re backing the Trump administration in its assault on California’s decades-old campaign to reduce auto emissions is to avoid fragmenting the industry in search of…
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Posted inHome life Sustainability

Volkswagen, please sell a plug-in hybrid Mk8 Golf in the U.S.

I'm conflicted. I love my 2017 VW GTI. Yet I also love our one and only planet Earth and want to do my part to reduce the carbon emissions that are fueling dangerous global warming. Last Thursday I avidly watched streaming video of the rollout of the eighth generation Golf in Wolfsburg, Germany. Externally it looks pleasingly like the seventh generation Golf, with the same clean lines. But there are lots of improvements that sound really cool. A VW media release provides details. What got my environmental juices flowing was this section of the release. Five hybrid drives for the…
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Posted inSalem Sustainability

Electric vehicles are the future in Oregon

I walked into today's Salem City Club program, "Charging Ahead: Is Oregon Ready for Electric Vehicles?," feeling positive about electric cars. I walked out feeling super excited about them.  Which made me pleased that I'd put down a $2,500 deposit on the upcoming Tesla Model Y, a hatchback version of the popular Model 3 that I'm seeing a lot of here in Salem.  Jessica Reichers got my enthusiasm ramped up with her kick-off presentation. She's with the Oregon Department of Energy.  She noted that there's a lot of jargon associated with electric vehicles, EVs. ZEVs are zero emission vehicles. They…
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Posted inDogs Home life

It was a good day for our dog to die

Don't get me wrong. I didn't want our beloved older dog, ZuZu, to die. But she did last night, put out of her misery by a dose of morphine at Salem's emergency vet clinic. What made it a good day -- and now the tears are coming, as I figured they would when I set out to compose this blog post -- was how ZuZu and I got to have a pleasant day together yesterday, since she went downhill really fast, as I'll describe later on. Monday ZuZu and I had come back from central Oregon a day before my…
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Posted inBlack Butte Ranch Home life

My new favorite jacket: John Aranda’s custom fleece

My wife, Laurel, and I love the Harvest Faire in Sisters, Oregon, an annual October delight that we've gone to for many years. When we co-owned a cabin in Camp Sherman we made sure to schedule the weekend of the Harvest Faire, and we're still doing this now that we co-own a house in nearby Black Butte Ranch. This year I went to the Harvest Faire on both Saturday and Sunday, while Laurel went only on Saturday. Good decision on my part, since walking by the booths today with our older dog, ZuZu, I took a longer look at John…
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Posted inFamily

AncestryDNA results have me speaking with a Lithuanian accent

After listening to countless (almost) ads for Ancestry.com on the radio, a few weeks ago I decided to take a plunge into the waters of my DNA. Well, let's make that watery spit, since my saliva is what got sent off for testing. I don't know what took me so long to learn what countries my recent ancestors likely came from. Procrastination, I guess, since my rather unusual family history seemingly would make me a natural for an AncestryDNA report. I know quite a bit about my mother's side of the family. I know almost nothing about my father's side,…
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Posted inHome life

Here’s what a 71 year old guy does on his birthday

I have an easy answer to the title of this blog post: almost exactly what I do on any other day. After all, I'm 71,  not seven. A birthday party of any sort was the farthest thing from my mind. I enjoy my usual Monday routine. So I followed it, with a few exceptions. Reading and meditation in the morning -- check. Grocery shopping in early afternoon-- check. Tai Chi class in late afternoon -- check. Dog walk in early evening -- check. The big surprise of my birthday came when I unlocked our mailbox. There it was, a birthday…
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