Today I had an opportunity to drive a Tesla electric car. It is incredibly beautiful, can go 250 miles on a charge. This car is changing the worlds attitude on the future of electric cars.

The interior and features are amazing. It has a 17” display in the center console to monitor all function of the car.

I really enjoyed the experience. I found the car to have terrific acceleration, really quiet but with just a slight whine. Overall, a nice experience.

I told the sales lady I wanted to buy one (the current price is about $110,000). She got really excited and asked me when I would like to pick it up. I said, “in about 10-15 years”. She wasn’t as excited then…

A new Tesla is unaffordable for me, and I can’t justify the price when my current car gets 41 mph on the highway. The payback period would be …well, I couldn’t live that long. I love my Benz, it is almost as quite, and has lots more features then the Tesla. I would still give the Benz up if it was a smart move, but alas it is not.

My plan is to wait 10-15 years and when the battery pack wears out on a nice car, buy it then. No one with the resources to buy a new Tesla would every replace the battery pack of a 10 year old car to get another 10 years of driving out of it. THey would just buy a new one and sell the car.

I’ll be able to buy a used one one very cheaply, replace the battery pack myself (about $10-14,000) and get the car of my dreams at a price I can live with.

I sure would look good in one, but now now!

Today the pool decking was completed. I really like the look of it the deck and how well it fits together. For some reason the spacing just worked out perfectly.

Next is the interior steel for the sides. AS you can see there is lots of insulations (3” of it) on the sides and it needs to be covered for the liner to be installed.

I am using what remains of the old round steel pool I salvaged gosh, it must have been 12 years ago (kept it for a future project). I hate throwing useful stuff away when I might need it someday. Well the someday has come.

A friend of mine invited me to take photographs of the Family Circle cup Tennis Tournament. Although I am not really into tennis I thought it would be fun to take pictures with an expert and learn the best way to photograph a tennis event. This was the last day of the tournament and finals for doubles and singles.

The woman’s finals came down to

Jelena Jankovic

My favorite action shot of her…

and Serena Williams. Serena had beaten her sister Venus the day yesterday.

This is my favorite picture of Serena

Her award cup.

The mayor of Charleston, Joseph Riley.

What a great time taking pictures today. I really enjoyed the experience.

If you are ever board in Charleston, it is because you want to be. Take for example this weekend. There is a choice of:

The Cooper River Bridge Run …estimated 39,000 people running/walking

The Lowcountry Cajun Festival …. Zydeco music and Cajun/Creole Foods

The Flowertown Festival in Summerville …arts and crafts
The Family Circle Cup …Women’s Tennis Association Tournament
Wings and Wheels … A car show/air show in Walterboro

Hum, what to do. I wish I could do everything, but will go with the air show, Flowertown and tennis.

Today started with a 8 min flight to Walterboro with Frank a C-17 pilot and a good friend to check out Wings and Wheels.

This is a most unusual color for a Velocity XL. The owner had flown from Jacksonville FL to attend the show.

I would guess maybe 50 planes showed up. Frank and I stayed for about 2 hours and we left just before the airshow started as they close the field and I didn’t want to get stuck there for a few hours.

After flying around Charleston for about 1.5 hrs working on my IFR recertification, we had lunch and headed up to the Flowertown Festival.

What a crowd! I heard 200,000 people attend the festival over it’s 3 day run.

We spent a few hours there checking out the music and stuff the artisans were selling and headed home.

Today was a big day for me. My arm is feeling somewhat better and I have gotten back to work on the pool. The decking has begun.

Naturally being paranoid of future wood rot, I am using Aluminum flashing to under the plastic deck boards for further protection to ensure no water contacts the wood. All the fasteners is 304 stainless steel.

I am sure this is overkill, but this is the last time I ever want to mess with the pool structure.

I spent a bit of time today making jigs to ensure all the screws and wood is perfectly straight, and figuring out how the best and most efficient way to put the deck down SO todays efforts only resulted in 3 board being installed.

Tomorrow, I am going to rock and roll on the deck and should get just about everything done. It is supposed to rain which may slow me down but should be able to get some work done.

Today was a first for me.

While bike riding in my neighborhood, I had a somewhat minor crash, but the end result was a non-displaced radial bone head fracture. Shit this really affects a lot of things in the near future.

The area which is circled is where the fracture is located. I couldn’t see it myself until the doctor pointed it out.

I ended up going to the emergency room, wearing a splint on sunday, and going to the orthopedic doctor today.

The good new is he said “if you had to have a broken bone, this is the one to get”. Yeah!!

I don’t have to wear a cast, nor go through physical therapy, just a sling around the house and he wants me to keep it moving to prevent it from getting stiff. I’ll take at easy for a while, but I am anxious to get back to work on the pool.

I ended up canceling my trip to the Bahamas, but will still go to Sun-N-Fun next week and expect to fly there.

I’ll just wait until the weekend to try flying again when my wing is a little less stiff….

The old skimmer box with the flexible hose was replaced by hard pipe which was buried underground. Not only does it look much better, but the flex hose tends to leak after a few years from the pool

chemicals.

The pool heater outlet was rebuilt It gets very hot in this area, so I had to be sure the wood wouldn’t catch on fire.

The skimmer is done. A steel beam was placed above and below the box to keep the sides properly in place.

I also added a steel stiffener on the outer wall to ensure the 12’ long piece of wood would be stable and not bend or warp forever.

The sidewall was cut out for the pool skimmer

The sides were clamped together and then long screws were inserted into the joice hangers to hold the side together.

Everything was given a second coat of paint. I want to make sure I have no wood rot in the future.

The pool skimmer transition piece is finally done.

It has 2 layers of BID on each side, plus and epoxy coating to ensure it is completely waterproof.

Now I have to cut out part of the sidewalls for the installation.

The pump and pool heater used to set on some crappy pads of brick and I wanted to ensure the were properly installed.

Forms were fabricated

The old mixer was put together to pour 4 bags of concrete. I love that stuff

done!