Monthly Archives: July 2008

Aptera electric car update…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI2iCE51R9U&hl=en&fs=1]

Not sure if you’ve seen this video, but thought it provided a convenient means to mention that Aptera’s just received $24M in funding. We hear they’re expecting to begin production release of the Type-1 (pure electric) cars in December of this year… which probably means Q1 of next year 🙂 Based on their press release, they’ve got orders for >3,000 of them and we’re #475, so I’m betting we’ll see ours sometime mid-year next, 2009.

Looks like the car is currently “supposed” to get ~120 miles from a single charge and that charge should cost ~$3 based on today’s PGE rates. Those figures are even better than I originally believed… how shocking 😉

Thx for stopping by, don’t forget to write when you get work.
hal
btw, Pan’s doing much – much(!) – better… she’s getting some of the spring in her step back again.

Two Big Cats present…

Bee My Honey



Coupla things about this video:

* Raw footage, absolutely zero production qualities to it.
* The excessive smoking of the hive is not entirely what it appears to be: The excessive working of the smoker in the early segments are because I hadn’t used enough materials, so they burned out quickly… I had to replenish, then light new materials. Having said that, in reviewing the footage, it looks like I used enough smoke to make a pound of two of lox, doesn’t it?

Live and learn.

Joanne’s latest carving – Big Horn Sheep




Joanne completed her Big Horn Sheep carving this past week, just in time to send up for dad’s 83rd birthday.

She began working on it in 2006 and several months ago decided to complete the carving, then burn the hair, then send to pop for his birthday. She estimates that she’s got at least 40+ hours of carving and at least 40+ hours of burning the hair / horn elements. If you’re the type that likes real details, then you may be interested in knowing there are ~300 burn strokes per sq in and there are ~20 sq in of burn area… that’salotta detail work, isn’t it?

Great job, luv, dad will love it!

Pan’s doing well, thanks for asking :)

Pan’s surgery went well on Thursday night, so she was able to come home on Friday, mid-day. Turns out she had another the size of my fist in her gut, blocking her intestines. (They showed me the hairball and darned if it wasn’t bigger than the one they took out last time… in only 5ish weeks.) Dr. Ueno said if we didn’t shave her down completely, she’d not survive much longer – her stomach lacks the peristaltic motion to process the hair through her intestines or allow her to cough it back up. So, Pan’s gone summer buzz-cut full time, year round. (She looks a bit funny, but we just give her lots of hugs and encouragement, then tell her she’s as gorgeous as ever 🙂

The good news is this should take care of the massive hairball-thing. She’s lost a lot of weight, again, so we’ve got to find a way to beef her up beginning in a week or two when her gut’s recovered from surgery. In the meantime it’s antibiotics, wet cat food (moisture is good for her) and an extra spoon of Pavel’s Russian Yogurt each morning. She’s doing great, lots of energy & chipperness… much more vocal than usual, though. (What’s cat for “you’re a knothead for leaving me at the Dr’s – do you see what they keep doing to my tummy?!) Last evening I was in the garage working on the Bridgestone and she wouldn’t quit calling across the patio to come out, so I bundled her up in a fleece jacket and put her in her chair in the garage next to my work area… After supervising me for a few minutes, she curled in to a deep sleep.

And the world keeps turning….

Thx for stopping by, be well and don’t forget to write when you get work.
hal

Pan has surgery, (yes, again)

Seems like it was about a month ago that Pan had surgery on her stomach to remove a hairball that was the size of a very large mouse. Since bringing her home from that – her 3rd stomach surgery in as many years – Joanne trimmed her fur down to a “summer cut” and i’ve groomed her every day… + given her mineral oil several times a week.

Although she made a wonderfully quick recovery from her last surgery, over the last week we’ve noticed that she’s become somewhat lethargic (except when I’m outside working and she needed to vocalize her wish to be next to me while I worked) and wasn’t eating normally. And it also seemed as though she was losing weight.

I called Doc Ueno’s this morning and made an appointment for him to see her this afternoon at 4. Pan and I got there in one piece, but during her exam he found a firm mass in her abdominal area. Xray time… and the Xray showed basically the same as previously – hairball – but this time it had expanded in to her intestines… she had a blockage.

Since we’d been through the same thing about a month ago, Doc Ueno was almost apologetic about needing to operate again so soon. So I headed home, wondering if she would make it through another surgery of this type so soon after her last procedure. Doc U. thought she would… apparently cats handle this type of gut surgery fairly well, and Pan has recovered quickly in the past.

He called a few minutes ago to say she had made it through just fine, was resting very comfortably and could come home tomorrow.

We love Panny dearly and are thrilled she made it through surgery again, but at 12 years of age (she turned 12 last month), we’re afraid she’s using up her Nine Lives at an all-too-quickly accelerating pace.

I’ll write more and maybe post a pic of her tomorrow.
hal