partial_accumen

The rate isn’t too bad actually, but when your household is a larger consumer anyway and you’re charging 2 EVs consumption gets up there. We have also switched to an induction stove, heat pump water heater, added a heat pump dryer, and just recently had our gas furnace ripped out and a cold climate heat pump put in for the HVAC.

With all of that the electricity usage the bill goes up, but we can wipe it out with solar and now we don’t have natural gas bills or gasoline costs for transportation. The up front costs can be high with this approach, but the monthly bills are nearly non-existent.

The rate around here is now down to $0.22/kWh. We were occasionally getting electricity bills around $400/month at worst, but we haven’t had an electrical bill since April of this year with our solar panels on the roof now.

Immortality

Immortality seems like a good idea, but there’s going to be a LONG time from when the last living thing dies out to the heat death of the universe where you’ll finally join non-existance. EONs of nothing to do likely floating in a vacuum or being trapped on all sides by rock/debris. No thanks.

Sorry for the long story, just sitting here late in bed not knowing what I should do.

First, don’t put much weight in what me, as an internet stranger, is saying.

I do see a psychiatrist

That’s a much better source of advice.

However, if it were me, I would not have him in my life. You have your own family and likely career. Imagine what he might do to both of those things. You said he has accused you of physically abusing him. Could you imagine him showing up at your employer saying those things and how that would affect your life? From what you’re describing he hasn’t changed a bit over all of these years. If you feel absolutely driven to do something for him, offer to pay for him to see a therapist. However, I don’t recommend even this. I’m reminded of the quote:

“When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” - Maya Angelou

He’s chosen his path in life. Don’t let his poor choices negatively affect your life and your wife.

On multi-lane merge ramps is the guy in the right lane signalling his left blinker because his steering wheel is turned or is he planning to dive into your lane before the merge?

Just Lemmy. Wait, Kbin too, but via federation.

Google an ad company are killing ab blockers Chrome browsers. Yeah, that sounds right.

FTFY

Am I the only one who thinks this is complete overkill?

You might be the only one that thinks this is overkill.

49/52 weeks a year, I never use more than 15% of my battery on any given day. I don’t need 600 miles of range

Then this doesn’t sound like you fit the use case, which is fine of course, but there are many that do.

• Delivery drivers that may have to go to far places without consistent EV charging
• Winter battery penalty. That 600 miles may be 400ish in extreme cold which many people on the planet live in for at least part of the year.
• Heavy loads vehicles. The 600 mile number is used for the basis of comparison to today’s passenger sedan EVs. When putting these in heavy trucks, that 600 mile number may be cut down to 300 or even 200 miles, which opened up new avenues for EV heavy goods deliveries.

In short. Its not just about you.

The weight matters too. EVs are notoriously heavy.

This is a regular argument against EVs but its a weak argument in the real world application in the USA at least.

• The most popular EV by sales in the USA is the Tesla Model Y with a curb weight of about 4200 lbs.

• The most popular vehicle in the USA is (and has been for quite awhile) the Ford F150 Pickup which a curb weight of 4400lbs.

Yes, many of those F150 trucks are used in commercial or heavy duty applications legitimately, However, many are not. The F150 outsold the Tesla model Y by more than 50%. Why is the argument of curb weight only leveled against EVs, the recent addition to the roads, and not giant pickup trucks and SUVs that regularly weigh much more?

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Looks like Sony only bought them in 2022 source

I believe it’s peer pressure once you have that kind of money. They are so far from reality they just don’t think about it. All their cocaine-buddies ramble about how they “deserve it” to throw money out of the window, they worked so hard yadda-yadda.

There was a fantastic write up on Reddit 6 or 7 years ago where a person that rubbed shoulders with the rich explained the drastic differences in behavior between different strata of the rich. He cited there are absolutely those that spend excessively to try to appear more rich than they are. I think the net worth of this category was between $20 million and $200 million (those numbers are from memory). Above that those rich largely don’t do that anymore, and are surprisingly more practical. If someone has a link to that, I’d love a re-read of it. It was very eye opening.

Not having control of a vehicle in a life or death situation is terrifying to me.

Are you terrified of riding on trains or flying in planes? You don’t have control of the vehicle in those cases either and those are both considered far FAR safer than you driving a car.

I guess I grew up with a lot of automated things, but I feel like driving is something that people should be able to do for safety reasons.

Have you not met “people”? People drive like absolute idiots. I had to emergency brake just yesterday because the woman driving the car to my right was drifting into my lane at highway speeds while she negotiated a large 24oz can of some beverage in her left driving hand while simultaneously holding a cigarette. Her right hand and both eyes were busy doing something on her cell phone.

There is very little safe about people driving.

Even if location services are disabled?

But how can they _assumef that I can even afford a cab, well Uber these days, when I’m about to have them hundreds of dollars getting my busted-ass, POS car fixed?

Because they’re not your parents, and its not their job to be responsible for you between the time you give them your car and when they contact you to tell you its ready for you.

The shop’s statement of “you can come back in 3 hours to pick up your car” isn’t saying “we know you have other resources for transportation during the time when we’re working on your car” its the shop using a social shortcut to say “your car is unavailable to you for 3 hours while we work on it, and we have no need of you until then. You can go away for 3 hours and it won’t interfere with our work”.

This is called Voluntary Nystagmus.

• Your body is now “out of warranty”. When it breaks in a significant way, it may never get fully better. Don’t do stupid stuff that will break it in those ways.
• If you haven’t figured out yet that you can’t drink, party, or skip sleep like you did earlier in life, learn it quick. Each of these will have a much larger impact on you.
• If you don’t have your retirement savings on track now, you have a VERY VERY short window to correct that. Its going to be much harder now to put the money aside than it would have earlier in life, but you’re in the prime earning years of your life. I would think you will earn more now in the next 10-12 years or so than you will/would have in any 10-12 years of your life.
• Hopefully you’ve learned by now to be comfortable with yourself in your own skin. This means not doing things/buying things to impress other people. You are who you are. This doesn’t mean stop learning or improving yourself, but nobody is going to be impressed with a 40+ year old driving an amazing car. It doesn’t matter how amazing the car is.
• Support younger people. You didn’t get where you are on your own. You had help, advice, and your mistakes were forgiven by those older than you because of your youth. Now its your turn to do that for the younger people. You grew up seeing heroes around you. You are now the hero in a younger person’s eyes. Hold that duty sacred. Be their hero in how you act.
• Embrace change! No, things aren’t like they used to be. No, they shouldn’t necessarily go back to those things just to make you comfortable. Its not our world anymore, it belongs to the younger generations. Understand your ways could be out-of-date or backwards. Your old ways worked for you in that old world. That old world is gone. Be part of the new. You’ll have to do this two or three more times before you die if you live into your 80s or 90s.
• Stay fit. That doesn’t mean body builder or supermodel. It means be moderately active so that picking something up doesn’t cause a strain injury that will take you 6 months to a year to recover from. You shouldn’t be out of breath walking up stairs. If you are, make changes. You’re likely already seeing the difference in your peers with those that stayed fit vs those that didn’t. Be part of the first group, not the second. If you are in the second group, you can change to the first by taking care of your body and eating properly.
• Make a will. You will die and there is nothing you can do to stop it. Dying without having a will makes some of your assets evaporate in probate and may mean your money/assets go to people you may not want.
• Go to the goddamn doctor for wellness checkups! You’re entering the time of life where conditions found early are treatable. Don’t dying/become disabled because you were too lazy or afraid to go. Yes, some of the things are going to be uncomfortable, but I can tell you its much more comfortable than debilitating pain or death.

You might look at the list above and think it negative for you now. Its not at all. This is the prize for living to this age. You likely have some friend or family that died before 40. You are here to see this part of your life. Make sure you’re still here to see 50, 60, 70, with as much of your body and mind as you can.

Good luck!