Bruce, Bruce, Bruce, "(isn't it funny how an affluent fellow would be concerned about paying for a charge)."
I'm surprised that someone as worldly-wise as you would write such a thing. He is obviously affluent *because* his is concerned about paying for a charge - if the alternative is not having to pay for one! MW On 6 Mar 2013, at 21:13, Bruce EVangel Parmenter wrote: > [Painting the scene ... ] > I decided to visit a grocery store on the affluent northern border of > Silicon Valley (Menlo Park and Atherton). This is the largest store in > their chain which caters to its more affluent Latino community patrons > and the gringos that are happy with this medium-sized store that do not > want to fight traffic to go the big-box Safeway. It is a pleasurable > environment, despite being one of the few gringos in the busy store (and > I really stood-out being the only big & tall one). > > I was in a jovial mood as this store is always a good place to lift my > spirits. I was able to crack a smile on a fellow shopper's face with a > few humorous compliments on how nice every thing was (I broke the ice > with is guy - not that I had plans to Evangelize EVs with him). When my > shopping was done, as it sometimes happens, he was behind me in the > check out line, and he was enjoying the pleasantries I was sharing with > the young cashier. > > As I hobbled my way out the door (at a slow, old-man with stiff joints > pace) heading toward the parking lot, he later followed at a younger > brisker pace. I noticed a Leaf EV parked in and amongst all the huge > family-sized SUVs and large work-trucks most of the Latino patrons had > driven-in. > > It turned out my guy went to the Leaf. And before he could dart away, I > said from a couple of spaces over in a loud (but not yelling) voice, > "Ahh, another Leaf'r ...". He looked up at me, and after he recognized I > was that friendly fellow, he smiled like 'this guy knows EVs (?)' ... > Now that I had something to work with, I could do my EVangelizing > schtick. > > It turns out he just bought his 2012 Leaf EV. He did have his > Chargepoint and Blink cards, but never heard of recargo.com , > carstations.com , or plugshare.com to look up all the EVSE in the area. > I let him know that the Chargepoint and Blink charging maps are > incomplete and focused on their brand of EVSE. Whereas the > aforementioned EV Charging finder app/sites listed all the brands (you > get the whole enchilada). > > I knew I had a limited time chatting with him as he was likely ready to > leave, so I got in only a couple more crucial points to hopefully > enlighten this new driver. > > He didn't know that his 2012 Leaf had a half-power 3kW charger, and if > he had waited for the new 2013 model coming, he could get a Leaf with a > full-power 6kW on-board charger. He said he usually just charged at home > (I could see that if he did not explore his public EVSE options he would > not utilize the Leaf's full potential). I said that is fine, but you > ought to know how to find and use what is out there, encase ... > > I laid out the scenario of what if he had visiting friends or family > that decided quickly that they wanted to go to San Francisco (a 75+ mile > round-trip, his max range). What are you going to say to them, no ... > (?) He had that epiphany look on his face. I said you know there is > level-3 charging, so you can easily show off your EV by driving to SF in > it (that put more of a smile on his face). > > He said when you say level-3, is that the 220 Volt? ... (Wow, this guy > bought an EV and has a ways to go to know all the fun bits/details of > his EV). I explained the different levels to him. I told him right now > there is free level-3 EVSE so it would be wise to know how to use those > tools to find them. > > He then mentioned that he had used a quick charger at Stanford Shopping > Center > http://www.recargo.com/sites/1565 > but it was not free. I explained, that one was not free, but there are > still many other L3 nearby that are (isn't it funny how an affluent > fellow would be concerned about paying for a charge). I confirmed that > he is familiar with the Leaf forum, so he knows to tap-into/network with > them. > > With our conversation coming to an end, we said our goodbyes. I hope I > had conveyed is that this new driver needs to explore all the free tools > available to him which will let him enjoy EV driving fun even more. > > On the way home, I remembered to stop by a different store for the items > I had forgotten to buy at the first. When inside, I did a quick chat > with an elderly gal (~10+ years my senior, bent over, yet muddling her > way through what time she has left). Again as it turned out, we were in > the same checkout line, but I was behind her this time. As we both > hobbled our way toward the door, and pausing to let large families go > through the exit door first, and let the impatient rude ones by-pass us > old&slow-folk (like the way people drive only with their feet), I paused > as the elderly woman unloaded her cart. > > I left her with knowing some other stores nearby she might enjoy > shopping at. But she does not go far in her fairly new ice, nor have > (nor likely want) a computer to know of these places. I left her with, > "You know, at that different store I mentioned, I saw a new Electric car > made by Nissan" (I figured she would likely not even acknowledge an > interest in such things and I would let it go). But to my surprise, she > stopped and turned to me, and said "An Electric car?" I gently chided > her before leaving, that if she were part of the computer age, she could > find out more. We smiled at our parting. > > I thought as I headed toward my ride, changing over to drive an EV is so > much less work for an older person to have to deal with (you know the > drill: no oil changes, no smogging, no this or that). As I age (I am > getting up there), you need less complication in your life. What tasks > seemed so simple to remember, are easily forgotten. An EV would reduce > the amount of grief owning an ice causes. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20130307/c68d9959/attachment.htm> _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
