It has been an interesting month since my last post.
Tesla decided to give each Tesla owner a 30 day trial of the latest “Full Self Drive” features. When I bought the car not quite four years ago, I got the “Advanced Autopilot” feature set that was designed to work primarily on limited access highways. I have likened it to being like a 15 year old with a brand new learners permit. It did fine right up until it tried to kill you. “Rough” would be an understatement. Fortunately, the car has been a joy to drive by hand.
“Full Self Drive” adds to the Advanced Autopilot base the ability to deal with traffic lights and stop signs. I liken the latest FSD version to a 16 year old who has a full drivers license and a fair amount of time behind the wheel. It doesn’t drive as well as I do, but it is quite a bit better than any number of drivers I see on a daily basis. That includes the driver of the lawn service truck that made a right turn into the WaWa parking lot at Ridge and Little earlier this week from the far left lane. Needless to say, the truck was clearly out of blinker fluid too…
Even in “chill” mode, the car accelerates faster than I would and waits far later than I would before starting to slow down for a traffic light. As the car accelerates away from a light, you can feel the pauses as the car in front of you shifts gears. If Tesla rolls out a “super chill” mode and figures out how to make the system hands free, then they will have something worth buying or subscribing to. For now, I can safely assure you that I will have to disengage the system at least once on any given trip when I let the car drive.
I hope they get FSD perfected before it is time for me to turn in my car keys in 15 or 20 years. This technology has the promise of keeping our senior citizens safely mobile and involved in our community. Far too many of our older residents become prisoners of their own homes when they lose the ability to drive.
When we purchased our new home, the previous owner was surprised at the report from the four point inspection. He assured us that the house had been built to code, including proper attachments as part of the most recent re-roofing. We recently got an experienced inspector to do a new four point inspection. We now have pictures clearly showing roofing attachments that the first inspector couldn’t see. The second inspector told me that our mistake the first time around was hiring Stevie Wonder to do a visual inspection… Based on the new inspection, our insurance premium dropped by over $800. The moral of the story is to seek a second opinion if the first inspection seems off.
Working from my home office at the new place is working out quite well. I’ve been able to get several projects completed and some new ones underway. Most recently, we’ve added Security Awareness Training to our suite of offerings and we’ve upgraded the anti-malware packages we offer to our clients. While the Security Awareness Training is designed for companies, we are offering it to individuals as well. You can get more information by visiting our website.
One of the boxes I have already moved over to the new house had a lot of scout pictures from the 70’s through the 90’s. One of the pictures was from the mid-90’s, when my son’s troop was doing some sort of service project downtown. The picture shows the New Port Richey City Hall. Can you see anything different from the way it looks today?
Peter Altman and the rest of the city council back then made a decision to make downtown New Port Richey a LOT nicer and you can see the result by looking at this picture and comparing it with what you see when you drive past City Hall today.
I’m looking forward to taking my beautiful bride out to dinner to celebrate our 49th anniversary. I haven’t decided which restaurant we will go to, but I will ask Carolyn where she wants to go. After 49 years, I have learned a few things.
The title of this note “The Home Stretch” is a reference to how close we are to finally moving into our new home. We are checking the last of the pre-move items off our list and we should be ready to get movers lined up shortly.
Rob