So I was tired of the hand me down 2013 Subaru. I sold it and looked for another vehicle. I ended up buying a 2022 Chevy Bolt EUV, a small SUV that is fully electric. What I learned was that when you tell your friends that you bought a fully electric car they all become electrical engineers with their diploma from Facebook U. Everyone is an expert in something they know nothing about.
For instance. Everyone claims that it is expensive to replace the battery, which is true, but that is not the entire story. The battery is warranted for 100,000 miles or 8 years which ever comes first. The batteries are lasting well over 200,000 miles. At that mileage most people will end up selling their cars anyway. The cost of the batteries are coming down quickly. If you lost an ICE (internal combustion engine) it will cost about the same amount as a new battery but the cost of new or refurbished batteries are becoming affordable. That is if you intend to drive the damn car over 200,000 miles.
Everyone says you have to charge the car on long trip. And/Or DUH! You have to put gas in your car on long trips also. The fast chargers can give you about 100 miles every 30 minutes of charging. I have a charger that can charge with a common 110 plug or a 220 volt plug. At 110 I can get about 70 miles over night. I have free nights for 10 hours so my charging is free. At 220 I can get a full 300 mile charge over night. I have had the car for 2 months now and I have not needed a fast charge yet. I get free fast charging at the movies so I charge when I am there.
Look, an EV isn’t for everyone. For me, it is perfect. I can drive to my cabin without charging. I can drive to Houston and Galveston and back without charging. I use my car for local travel mostly with a daily trip to the dog park. It’s a perfect size for my dog and it is a nice car with leather seats, sunroof, and kick ass radio! It is a perfect car for me and it is a different way of driving. If you want to carry plywood or building materials you might want a different vehicle.
So far I have driven for over 2 months on free electricity!
Ok. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect but this was a great religious/horror movie. Hugh Grant was particularly creepy. The two young, women, Mormon missionaries spreading the word of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints play their parts very well. From Rotten Tomatoes:
Two young missionaries are forced to prove their faith when they knock on the wrong door and are greeted by a diabolical Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant), becoming ensnared in his deadly game of cat-and-mouse.
This is a 2 hour movie which means at least 1 restroom break but I didn’t want to break away. It was just that good. The movie discusses religion, not specifically Mormonism. It questions the origin of religion something I find interesting. Along with this discussion they mix an intense horror aspect to it.
This is a great movie. It is being show on Standard Format, not in BIG SCREEN or IMAX. It is just a standard movie format and a great horror flick. Watch it!
Ever wonder how to hire a day worker in League City? Well I’m here to enlighten!
Have you ever had the need for non salaried labor? Maybe you need a fence built or cars washed or maybe you own a restaurant that needs a couple of extra hands for cooking. Where would you find a place for day labor? You could go to the Texas Workforce Commission but that might require a load of paperwork. Or you can visit the many sites in League City that offer services that you need.
For instance at the corner of Main Street and Texas Avenue, right across the street from Red River Barbecue, you can find day labor. This is on the side of Lone Star Title Loans. I don’t know what the going rate is for day laborers or how you would verify citizenship, but they are there every morning waiting to provide their much needed services to restaurants, homebuilders, and citizens looking for help.
There are a number of places throughout League City that provide access to day laborers. Many workers hang around Home Depot and Lowes as well as other supply stores. (They have in the past) Maybe you know of other placed that business owners can visit to hire labor. If so, email me and I will post!
This should be Clint Eastwood’s last film. Mercifully. If you have ever served on a jury or have anything to do with a trial do yourself a favor and don’t watch this. It is insulting to the process much like Gravity was to NASA. It’s just not how things work in a jury. Gravity isnt how it works with NASA either.
But if you go in with the ability to put aside the inaccuracies, errors, and misconceptions in the process it is just a so-so movie. Simmons has an easy and quick out almost close to just a cameo. I love Toni Collette but she is better than this. It is almost as if she was suffering through the entire movie. Messina has a so-so performance.
The story doesn’t flow. It is choppy even though it is 2 hours long. It is crammed adding to the choppiness. At times I wondered if I had slept through a part waking up asking “What did I miss?”. (I think I actually did snooze off for a bit. It is that bad.)
I’m not sure what everyone else was thinking when reviewing this movie. Maybe they never served on a jury. Or maybe they have seen too many crime movies and series thinking they know everything about our judicial system after graduating from Facebook law school.
See it? Rent it? Skip it? Skip it.
At least I got a free charge for my Chevy Bolt at the charging station.
From 1995 to 2010 I was a self proclaimed consumer activist focusing on helping new homeowners with construction defects. I spent many days in Austin talking with our elected officials, attending hearings, and advocating for homeowners. I have come out of “retirement” to address another problem affecting homeowners, business owners, realtors, insurance agents, and taxpayers; the rising cost of insurance.
I have lived in Bay Knoll for over 35 years and have witnessed massive insurance reforms in 2003 and the affects on our community. If you have recently renewed your insurance policy it is clear these reforms did not work. The insurance industry has millions of dollars to spend lobbying our elected officials. They are blaming everything on inflation, cost of goods, supply chain, and lawsuits. These have contributed to the rise in insurance but it hasn’t contributed to premiums doubling and deductibles going through the roof. There is much more to this issue and personally I am just tired of the excuses. I want solutions.
If you are concerned about this issue I ask that you join my newsletter and keep informed of how you can participation. I am currently working on a meeting with our elected officials. State Representative Dennis Paul sits on the Insurance Committee and our Senator Mayes Middleton sits on the Business and Commerce Committee. Both of these committees will be addressing this issue in 2005.
Megan Kimble of the Austin division of the Houston Chronicle is working on an investigative report on the insurance crisis in Texas. She would like to talk to home and business owners in the Bay Area. This is a GREAT opportunity to put pressure on our elected officials to do something to resolve this problem. She wrote:
“It’d be great if you might share my contact information with your listserv. I’m interested to talk to homeowners who have seen their home insurance premiums increase significantly, as well as those who have opted to drop coverage altogether because of the cost. Anyone who is interested to speak with me can reach out directly.”
Spread the word As of today we have about 600 individuals who have signed up for my newsletter addressing the rising cost of home insurance. Please spread the word and invited your friends to join the list at tinyurl.com/BayAreaHouston. Also you can post this information on your social media platforms including Facebook and Nextdoor.
How can you help? Forward the link to sign up for updates and recruit your friends and neighbors. The link is: www.tinyurl.com/BayAreaHouston.
Thank you for your interest in this issue!
John Cobarruvias john.cobarruvias@gmail.com 281-536-2457
The Federal Government is bailing out Texas, again, this time to help connect Texas to the Southeast grids. So much for “Texas Strong” but in the end we will get a more fortified grid when we need it. According to Electrek:
The US Department of Energy (DOE) announces $1.5B for four transmission projects – including connecting the Texas grid to the Southeast grids for the first time ever.
The projects, spanning multiple states, will add nearly 1,000 miles of new transmission lines and increase grid capacity by 7,100 megawatts (MW). They’ll boost grid reliability, lower energy costs, and support the clean energy transition.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott was seen at the border with his hand out begging for help. Of this $1.5 B about $350 Million will be allocated to Texas. Texas grid was wrecked back in 2021 leaving millions without power during a heavy freeze for 4 days. Hundreds died. Insurance claims for ruptured pipes and damage to the homes skyrocketed. Yet Abbott did nothing. He passed the cost of these repairs to the grid on to the consumers.
With a $350 M donation to Texas will fund the Southern Spirit:
Southern Spirit (Texas to Mississippi): This is a REALLY. BIG. DEAL. Spanning 320 miles, this HVDC line will link Texas’ isolated ERCOT grid with the Southeast grids for the first time, adding 3,000 MW of bidirectional capacity across Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. It’s designed to prevent outages like the ones during Winter Storm Uri that hit Texas hard in 2021. It’s expected to create 850 construction jobs and 305 permanent jobs.
If the accommodations had had larger coffee cups this vacation would have been perfect! (but it really was perfect!)
Access2Tanzania.com We spent 11 days visiting Tarangire National Park, the Ngorongoro Crater, and the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania which the locals pronounce Tan-Zan-ee-uh not Tan-za-nee-uh. We booked with Access2Tanzania almost a year in advance and they did not disappoint. From the time they picked us up at the Kilimanjaro Airport till the time they dropped us off 11 days later they took care of us, kept us safe, and made our trip absolutely perfect! They provided guidelines and timelines to make sure we had all necessary vaccines, documents, VISAs and more. The food and drinks at every accomodation was all safe to eat and drink. It was worry free. They really took care of us!
Danny Danny was our guide. You can read his bio and reviews here. He made our trip absolutely perfect. He has hawk eyes and could spot animals in the distant where we needed binoculars. As an example while other tours were viewing a nearby lion Danny noticed strange movements by a number of hyenas which led us to a lion eating a fresh kill. The hyenas eventually surrounded the lion wanting to steal her kill. (video here) This was just one of the many times Danny found different animals to view and we saw many including the Big 5, the Rhino, Lion, Leopard, Elephant, and the Cape buffalo. We spent 11 days with Danny and we enjoyed every bit of it! He was friendly, knowledgeable and just fun to be around. It was a very emotional event when he dropped us off at the airport.
Accommodations We spent 2 nights at the Rivertree resort in Arusha after landing at Kilimanjaro Airport. This gave us time to adjust to the time change, grab some local currency, visit the city, and shop. Rivertree was awesome! Food was provided at all of our locations as well as safe water to drink and a fully stocked bar! We had a 6 hour wait for our flight to go home. They gave us a room for a few hours so we could take a quick nap, shower, eat, and get ready for the long trip. It was very nice!
We then spent a couple of nights in Tarangire National Park in tents. (clamping) it was a very comfortable large tent with a king sized bed, bathroom, and shower. Showers had to be completed prior to 6 PM since the workers could not safely fill up the water bag at night. We could not leave the tent without calling for an escort due to the animals being close by. In the morning we would look for tracks. At night we heard lions and hyenas.
We spent another 2 nights at the Lions Paw in the Ngorongoro Crater. The rooms were again in very nice tents and were as nice as many fancy hotels I have stayed at. The main area had a beautiful restaurant and a large outdoor viewing area with campfires and a bar.
The rest of the time we were in the Serengeti National Park, again in large tents. The staff at every location were friendly and very helpful. They all were very helpful and waited on us. If we needed anything they were there to help. As an example we thought our last place had laundry service and were confused when the clothes were not taken. The next day they had our clothes cleaned and folded!
The Safari Each day Danny would pick us up in a Toyota Range Rover. It had a top that could be pushed up so we could stand and view. We were told that the ride would be bumpy and dusty but all very well worth it. They were right! We bought scarfs to protect us from the dust. All of the seats had extra padding. Danny would find the animals and position us to the best viewing area. A hot lunch was provided sometimes at a picnic location or in the middle of no where. It was local food cooked by the chef at the camping ground. On a couple of days we left early in the morning and had breakfast and lunch in the field.
The Villages We visited a couple of villages and met with the locals. They cooked a great lunch providing different samples of local foods. They gave us a tour of the banana plantations and shared some banana beer with us. Banana beer is a social drink that is always shared with others. We met some kids, age 12 and 14, who walked 7 miles each morning to take their 75 goats to a grazing pasture and back home in the evening. We were taken on a canoe ride on the lake. Everyone was very nice and in good spirits.
I’ll post some pics of the animals we saw in the next post. If you are interested in an Africa Safari consider Access2Tanzania as your tour company. You will have a vacation of a lifetime!
The relatively small, weak Beryl and Francine Hurricanes remind us how much worse a large storm’s flooding and wind damage will be.
You’re invited to attend the important 2024 Bay Area Flood Protection Public Forum event Wed. Sept. 25 at 6:30 pm to learn more about major flood protection programs, plans, and proposals.Get direct briefings and answers from leaders including Kelly Burks-Copes of Army Corps of Engineers, Jim Blackburn of Rice U. SSPEED Center, and Thomas Morrow of Clear Lake City Water Authority
Get current information about the Coastal Protection Project, Galveston Bay Protection Park Plan and Exploration Green flood detention nature park.
This event will be like town hall meetings we organized several years ago concerning flooding and mitigation strategies/programs and Bay Area pollution and impacts.
In 2002 the top insurance companies in Texas formed the Texas Coalition for Affordable Insurance Solutions (TCAIS) in preparation for massive insurance reform in the 2003 legislature session. They are not registered with the Texas Ethics Commission so we cannot see how much money these companies have poured into this organization. In 2003 they successfully lobbied against consumers resulting in major changes to insurance laws. Twenty years later the insurance industry is in disarray with consumers paying the price. Now they are at it again.
TCAIS is composed of 6 of the largest insurance companies in Texas, Allstate, Farmers, Farmers Bureau, USAA, Nationwide, and State Farm. Of these only USAA will offer policies in the Bay Area and their rates are ridiculous. USAA quoted me $15,000/year with a $13,000 deductible. The others would not offer a policy.
TCAIS is lobbying our elected officials already. They have been invited to speak at every insurance meeting to date. Floyd Beaman, their spokesman, was recently on KPRC making excuses for the insurance industry and telling us to “shop around” as if that was some kind of new thing to do. In a hearing last month they used the word “unsustainable” something we have been saying for 10 years now.
So if you want to have any say in how insurance will be reformed you need to contact the State Affairs Committee and demand reforms that will lower your premiums and set deductibles at a reasonable rate. You can do that here.
Posted by johncoby 
Bay Area Houston 