Hybrid Battery

I have a Honda Insight.  A first generation Insight.  It's a small 2 seater and is 13 years old now.  It is a wonderful car for me. I get 80 mpg on the highway if I drive 55mph, and about 65 in town.  This, of course, is without air conditioning.  AC costs about 9 mpg.  My battery started going downhill about 4 years ago.  With help from the Insight community and installing a battery grid charger, I have been able to maintain it reasonably well.  A couple months ago, I ordered a new battery from Hybrid Battery Repair and paid a $1000 deposit. At that time, they were the only company who built new battery packs from you old case. Less than 2 weeks later they said they couldn't get batteries anymore and were closing.  No notification, no money returned, nothing.  In my research, I discovered that they had scammed over $60,000 from people like me, and even collected deposits on the day they cut off their phone and website.
It appears they were spending money faster than it was coming in and quit paying the battery manufacturer which was why they couldn't get batteries anymore.
I wish I had paid with a credit card instead of using my debit card as I had recently deposited my tax refund.
My bank says they can't get it back, but are trying to back charge their account.
Ron and Diane Hansen of Staten Island New York are the crooks that stole my money.  IC3, the FBI Internet fruad division, has been notified, but since HBR was a corporation, they can't do a whole lot.  I thought the Insight community would rally together and we could do something as a group, but nobody wants to throw money away on a lawyer who probably can't do much either.
So, my $2,000 battery is now up to $3,000 as a reputable company from Denver is now making the battery packs from the same source as HBR did.
At least I will be able to drive my car another 200,000 miles or so.

No one will believe this, but I still have the original brake discs, and pads with 224,000 miles on my car! Regenerative braking and a lot of coasting between lights has been aggravating to people behind me or my passenger on occasion, but I and my brakes like it.

December 25th 2011

That was the day my mother died. I was not as upset as I was when my dad died, as his was unexpected. Mom lasted several years longer than I thought she would. I still feel guilty for not spending more time with her or talking on the phone, but she was in California, and I ame here in South Carolina. I did see her and talk to her before she went to the nursing home, but the last 8 months or so, she didn't know who I was.
I still feel guilty, however.

I remember

These two images are of the Tear-Drop monument donated to the United States by Russia after the attacks on 9-11. The names of the victims are inscribed on the base. For some reason, it did not seem to be publicized readily. It was not until I was looking for images of the twin towers that I found it.

I still have trouble seeing videos and images of that day. RIP Everyone, especially Lisa Anne Frost, one of my Cousin's daughters.

Oshkosh 2011!!!!!

This Friday I will depart at daybreak (weather permitting) and flying to Oshkosh Wisconsin for Airventure. This is the largest fly-in in the world! There will be 12,000 - 15,000 airplanes show up for this event.

My little Green Hornet will be one of them. It is almost ready to go and looks AWESOME!!

I will leave Spartanburg, SC and fly to Frankfort KY for a fuel stop and potty break, then on to Joliet, IL for same and then on to Wittman Field at Oshkosh, WI. It is about 750 miles and will take a touch over 5 hours flying time.

There will be 100,000-150,000 people there each day and although I'm not a fan of big crowds, I think my Sonex is just about perfect. I am going to have it judged and hopefully they will think it is about perfect too! If not, then at least I will have the disappointment over with. I will be in the Experimental Amateur Built - Plans category. Any homebuilt airplane is an Experimental and since I am not a manufacturer of airplanes (such as Cessna, Piper, Champion, etc.) it is considered Amateur Built and I didn't build it from a kit, therefore it is plans built. I got to make all the pieces myself. We shall see how it compares. I have to cut the trip short as a new work committment requires me to be at a conference in Greensboro, NC on the following Wednesday.

So if the weather is decent, I'll head back home on Tuesday.

There is no smell sweeter than that of diesel exhaust of the school busses going up the hill on the last day of school!

513 lunches down, 0 to go

At the beginning of the year, we serve approximately 650 kids over 3 lunches. We do that over the school year with 3 lunches per day. Not counting the 3 half days or lunches during exams (only one per day) that comes up to 513 lunch periods. All in all, we serve about 300,000 lunches per year.
That blows my mind.

Today is the last exam, and tomorrow is graduation where we will give a diploma to about 176 students. I am relieved this year is over.

Now we can get the teacher evaluation crap together and send it off as well as fixing the student handbooks for next year, scheduling 750 kids and the list goes on.
Still, it is nice to have some time where you aren't dealing with some jerk who is ruining it for the rest of the kids in the class.

Plus, I will get to fly my plane more.

The Sun-N-Fun Fly-in was not.

Working at a school where Spring break never coincides with Sun-N-Fun in Lakeland, FL, I have only been able to attend once.

In this country it is the second largest gathering of homebuilt airplanes, certified airplanes and a fabulous airshow that goes on for days.

This year was tragic for many people. A tornado, microburst or something with incredible winds tore through the airport one afternoon, destroying planes, displays, buildings but hopefully not dreams.

My good friend lost his airplane when it pulled the tie downs out of the ground and flipped it over on top of another plane. My girlfriend said that if that ever happened to me, I would probably never recover emotionally. She is probably right. Another friend agreed and said anyone who can tell you how many rivets are in their airplane has more than a casual bond with it. ( I honestly don't know exactly how many rivets are in my plane, but there are over 9,000, and 278 hand driven rivets in each wing spar).

Blue skies Tony. I know the replacement plane you said you were going to buy is not the same quality as the one you just lost. I also know that it will be up to par soon.

Bad Weather

Here it is after the first of the year, and we can't seem to be able to finish this semester.
Bad weather has knocked exams back a week. So far, we have been able to keep Spring Break intact, but we would be in great shape if the stat legislature of North Carolina did not have their collective heads up their collective asses.
They changed the school calendar in order to appease some of the businesses on the coast to have cheap labor for restaurants and hotels towards the end of summer.
Don't know about you, but having gone to the beach at different times over the last few years, I have not seen many high school students working at restaurants and motels.
So, we go to school and have Christmas (I'm sorry, holiday) break for 2 weeks, then come back to school for a week and then start final exams. We used to finish the semester before Christmas.
So here we are in exams, and it looks like more snow Thursday and Friday. Since we are graded by how the students do on these exams, it is frustrating to have our test scores sabotaged by the legislature.
They say it's up to us to motivate the students. I say what about accepting responsibilty by the parents and students as well?
I should have been a pharmacist, but I have too much time in education and feel I am too old to start over again.
Stupid me.