Home  >> Stories  >> The Tale Spinner #2018-38

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IN THIS ISSUE

• In this Heroic Story, Aliza Garofalo of New York writes about friendship
• Carol Hansen forwards an article about the feasibility of electric cars
• Pat Moore describes what happens in mid-life years
• Catherine Nesbitt shares some clever signs
• Irene Harvalias suggests two interesting sites

Aliza Garofalo of New York writes about

A LANGUAGE OF THEIR OWN

My eight-year-old daughter Briana and I try to visit my mother in Florida every summer for at least a week, even though it´s hotter there than where we live in New York. That´s where we were in August of 2004.

My mom´s condo has a huge pool framed with palm trees on the Intracoastal waterway, so of course there are always a few children splashing around in it. Briana always looks forward to making new friends down at the pool while we are there.

The first day we were there, Briana and I walked to the pool hand in hand. I picked a lounge chair that had a full view of the pool and sat myself down to read a magazine and sun myself. I watched out of the corner of my eye as Briana, an excellent swimmer, swam around by herself.

Then at one point, I looked up and saw her gesturing to another little girl around her age. As they played together in the pool, diving under the water and laughing, I saw them gesturing to each other again and again. I assumed the girl was deaf.

Soon the girl offered a bag of potato chips for Briana to share. Briana then motioned to her to follow her to the drinking fountain. The whole afternoon was spent with the two girls gesturing and laughing together.

Even though other families had come to the pool with children near eight years of age, the other kids had all stayed in the shallow end. Because Briana´s new friend was also a very good swimmer, they were able to swim together from one end of the pool to the other.

I smiled to myself that my daughter always found it so easy to make friends, no matter where we were or what the circumstances. They played with each other and with the girl´s brother all afternoon in the hot Florida sun.

When the sun began to set, families began to leave the pool area. As we got ready to go and Briana was drying off, I asked her if the girl was, in fact, deaf. She replied, "No." The girl was on vacation from Russia and didn´t speak any English.

The two girls played together the whole week we were there, laughing and gesturing and making themselves understood. I was so proud of my daughter, and thought how the world of adults might imitate their example. Instead of letting a little thing like language keep them from making a friend, Briana and this girl enjoyed a week together by making up a "language" they could both understand.

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Carol Hansen forwards this article from the Pinehurst Press:

INTERESTING TAKE ON ELECTRIC CARS

This is a look at what it actually costs to drive (and charge) an electric car.

As an engineer, I love the electric vehicle technology.However, I have been troubled for a long time by the fact that the electrical energy to keep the batteries charged has to come from the grid, and that means more power generation and a huge increase in the distribution infrastructure. Whether generated from coal, gas, oil, wind, or sun, installed generation capacity is limited. A friend sent me the following that says it very well. You should take a look at this short article.

One other question: if electric cars do not use gasoline, they will not participate in paying a gasoline tax on every gallon that is sold for automobiles, which was enacted some years ago to help to maintain our roads and bridges. They will use the roads, but will not pay for their maintenance.

Ever since the advent of electric cars, the REAL cost per mile of those things has never been discussed. All you ever heard was the mpg in terms of gasoline, with nary a mention of the cost of electricity to run it. This is the first article I´ve ever seen about this, and it tells the story pretty much as I expected it to. Electricity has to be one of the least efficient ways to power things, yet they´re being shoved down our throats. I´m glad somebody finally put engineering and math to paper.

At a neighbourhood BBQ I was talking to a neighbour, a BC Hydro executive. I asked him how that renewable thing was doing. He laughed, then got serious. If you really intend to adopt electric vehicles, he pointed out, you had to face certain realities. For example, a home-charging system for a Tesla requires 75 amp service. The average house is equipped with 100 amp service. On our small street (approximately 25 homes), the electrical infrastructure would be unable to carry more than three houses with a single Tesla each.

For even half the homes to have electric vehicles, the system would be wildly over-loaded. This is the elephant in the room with electric vehicles. Our residential infrastructure cannot bear the load. So as our elected officials promote this nonsense, not only are we being urged to buy these things and replace our reliable, cheap generating systems with expensive new windmills and solar cells, but we will also have to renovate our entire delivery system! This latter "investment" will not be revealed until we´re so far down this dead end road that it will be presented with an "OOPS" and a shrug.

If you want to argue with a green person over cars that are eco-friendly, just read the following. If you ARE a green person, read it anyway. It´s enlightening. Eric test drove the Chevy Volt at the invitation of General Motors and he writes, "For four days in a row, the fully-charged battery lasted only 25 miles before the Volt switched to the reserve gasoline engine." Eric calculated the car got 30 mpg, including the 25 miles it ran on the battery. So the range, including the nine-gallon gas tank and the 16 kwh battery is approximately 270 miles.

It will take you 4.5 hours to drive 270 miles at 60 mph. Then add 10 hours to charge the battery and you have a total trip time of 14.5 hours. In a typical road trip your average speed (including charging time) would be 20 mph.

According to General Motors, the Volt battery holds 16 kwh of electricity. It takes a full 10 hours to charge a drained battery. The cost for the electricity to charge the Volt is never mentioned, so I looked up what I pay for electricity. I pay approximately (it varies with amount used and the seasons) $1.16 per kwh. Sixteen kwh x $1.16 per kwh = $18.56 to charge the battery. $18.56 per charge, divided by 25 miles = $0.74 per mile to operate the Volt using the battery. Compare this to a similar size car with a gasoline engine that gets only 32 mpg. $3.19 per gallon divided by 32 mpg = $0.10 per mile.

The gasoline-powered small car costs about $20,000+ while the Volt costs $46,000+. So the American Government wants loyal Americans not to do the math, but simply pay over twice as much for a car, that costs more than seven times as much to run, and takes three times longer to drive across the country.

Pat Moore sends these thoughts about

MID-LIFE

No matter what your age - whether you are pushing 60, 70, or 80, (or maybe even just pushing your luck) you´ll probably relate.

In women - we no longer have upper arms, we have wingspans. We are no longer women in sleeveless shirts; we are flying squirrels in drag.

Mid-life is when you can stand naked in front of a mirror and you can see your rear without turning around.

Mid-life is when you go for a mammogram and you realize that this is the only time someone will ask you to appear topless.

Mid-life is when you want to grab every firm young lovely in a tube top and scream, "Listen honey, even the Roman empire fell, and those will too."

Mid-life brings wisdom to know that life throws us curves, and we´re sitting on our biggest ones.

In mid-life your memory starts to go. In fact the only thing we can retain is water.

Mid-life means that you become more reflective. You start pondering the "big" questions. What is life? Why am I here? How much Healthy Choice ice cream can I eat before it´s no longer a healthy choice?

But mid-life also brings with it an appreciation for what is important.

You realize that bodies sag, hips expand, and chins double, but our loved ones make the journey worthwhile. Would any of you trade the knowledge that you have now for the body you had way back when?

Maybe our bodies simply have to expand to hold all the wisdom and love we´ve acquired.

That´s my philosophy and I´m sticking to it!

Catherine Nesbitt forwards these

CLEVER SIGNS

A sign in a Shoe Repair store in Vancouver: "We will heel you. We will save your sole. We will even dye for you."

A sign on a Blinds and Curtains truck: "Blind man driving."

Sign over a Gynecologist´s Office: "Dr. Jones, at your cervix."

In a Podiatrist´s office: "Time wounds all heels."

On a Septic Tank Truck: "Yesterday´s Meals on Wheels."

At an Optometrist´s Office: "If you don´t see what you´re looking for, you´ve come to the right place."

On a Plumber´s truck: "We repair what your husband fixed."

On another Plumber´s truck: "Don´t sleep with a drip. Call your plumber."

At a Tire Shop in Milwaukee: "Invite us to your next blowout."

On an Electrician´s truck: "Let us remove your shorts."

In a Non-smoking Area: "If we see smoke, we will assume you are on fire and will take appropriate action."

On a Maternity Room door: "Push. Push. Push."

At a Car Dealership: "The best way to get back on your feet - miss a car payment."

Outside a Muffler Shop: "No appointment necessary. We hear you coming."

In a Veterinarian´s waiting room: "Be back in five minutes. Sit! Stay!"

At the Electric Company: "We would be delighted if you send in your payment on time. However, if you don´t, YOU will be de-lighted."

In a Restaurant window: "Don´t stand there and be hungry; come on in and get fed up."

In the front yard of a Funeral Home: "Drive carefully. We´ll wait."

At a Propane Filling Station: "Thank Heaven for little grills."

In a Chicago Radiator Shop: "Best place in town to take a leak."

And the best one for last:

Sign on the back of another Septic Tank Truck: "Caution - This Truck is full of Political Promises"

SUGGESTED SITES

Irene Harvalias forwards this link to a video she received from a cousin in Greece. The first woman singing is one of her cousins. Watch the children´s faces:

Irene also shares this video which she posted on Facebook of a three-year-old girl playing a Beethoven sonata:

Through a grant, the Literacy Network of Greater Cincinnati just received 50 Little Free Libraries, which encourage the free exchange of books through easily accessible, mounted boxes in neighbourhoods:

In this TED talk, Maria Spivak tells us why bees are disappearing, and why this is so important:

This woman discovered pulsars, but a man got her Nobel Prize for her discovery. Now, 44 years later, she is awarded the Breakthrough Physics Prize and three million dollars:

From The Seattle Times: A truck driver rescues 64 dogs and cats from floods caused by Hurricane Florence: