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Forgot to Charge, Still OK

When I got into my car to run my weekly errands this morning, I was disappointed to see that my car was only at 34% charged. Usually, I charge to around 63% overnight, and use up about 20% charge while running errands, coming home with about 42% of my charge remaining. I’m not exactly sure how my routine got messed up this time. Although while thinking about it, it must have occurred on Saturday, since I do recall starting my drive to church on Sunday at a lower-than-usual charge. But then why didn’t I plug it on Sunday? I suppose I probably left it unplugged in the anticipation of going out later that day, and when I didn’t go out, I didn’t bother going back to the garage to plug it in later. I didn’t leave the house Monday. Wait, it’s Thursday now, this can’t be right. Let me step back— I had the usual charge when I took the kids to school on Tuesday. And then we had a play date that afternoon, which would account for the extra 10% charge used that day. OK. I didn’t leave the ho...
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My First Stop at a Supercharger

I've had my Tesla just shy of three months, and had my first stop at a supercharger last night. When I bought the car, I made sure to get a model that stored enough energy I could make it to my parents' house and back on one charge, they live about 72 miles away. My 100% range is in the neighborhood of 240 miles, so I have plenty of miles to spare. This was not my first time making this trip, and I have not had an issue before. But this time my siblings were all in town, and two of them wanted to drive the car. So I let them, and we took it out on the highway so they could try out the autopilot. The extra miles of driving we put on the car were enough to put me out of the comfort zone for getting home. I recall that I worked out that as long as I have 38% charge left in the car, I could make it to my parents' house in case of emergency, so I routinely set my charge schedule so that even at the end of a day of regular driving I still have 40% charge left in the car so ...
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Taking Delivery

I was scheduled to take delivery of my new car on the last day of the month, Saturday, September 30th. But I got a call on Tuesday of that week asking if I would prefer to pick it up on Thursday. Why, yes! Yes, I would! So I drove out to Glen Allen to get it. My mother dropped me off at the dealership, but not before sticking around to get the first look at the car. My eldest son came along, too, so he could also claim to be among the first to see it. I actually let him be the first to sit in the car. Then he left with his grandma while I filled out the paperwork and got my lesson in how to use the controls. I was disappointed that a feature I read about in the owners' manual was no longer a feature. The sales guy said ther was no work-around, it was just gone. Other than that, it was informative. Eventually, it was time to drive away in my new car! I rolled slowly and silently out of the showroom/garage, and was on my way. I didn't use any fancy features during the few mile...
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How I Came to Own a Tesla, Part II, The Miracle of Financing

With my sights firmly set on a Model S Tesla, I began looking for used cars.  There are few enough used Teslas for sale that most car search engines will let you look at the entire inventory across the country, and not limit you to what's available in your state.  There are so many variables to consider when looking at the used Teslas, it is a bit daunting. The company doesn't have model years since it is continuously changing options, what is available on a car built in February might be gone by June. It didn't take me long to find a 2016 in our price range with autopilot capability, but by the time I got in contact with the seller, it had been sold.  Before I moved on to my number two choice on the used car list, I had a delightfully fateful conversation with my husband. He is self-employed, and his income is variable. Highly variable. We went eight years without earned income after he sold his last company, then moved up to minimum wage with his new company only af...
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How I Came To Own A Tesla, Part I, The Decline of the Lexus

It all started years ago, when Tesla first announced that they were making a sedan. My husband and I briefly considered the Roaster even before that, but it was too expensive for us. But the year the Model S was deemed "the safest car ever tested" by the press, was the year I decided I wanted one, it was 2013. But I was not exactly in the market for a new car at the time, my Lexus ES 330 was only nine years old at the time, and under 100,000 miles. I had two car seats in the back with a four and two year old boys in them, generally making a great mess all over my back seat. I did not even want to get a new car until both were potty-trained. My affection for the Lexus gradually waned over the intervening years. When I hit 100k miles, I still liked the car. I had never put so many miles on one car before in my life, it was a milestone for me. But the fit and finish weren't what they used to be. After I'd had the car ten or eleven years I began longing for a quieter ...
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