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Showing posts from May 10, 2015

The Nissan Leaf Gets a New Rear Axle

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Well, I finally have a salvage title for the 2013 Nissan LEAF (Actually I dont have the title yet, but I think they mail it to me. We are far from settled with the insurance company for sure. It has been six months since Angie was rear ended. The following chart shows a very sad and disturbing trend. Insurance companies aren't paying out. It should be criminal. I went shopping for a new rear axle so I can get the car driving again. The rear ended axle was so bent, the car couldn't move. The new one with no connecting bits was over a thousand dollars. The cheapest used ones I could find on ebay were over 500 dollars. I finally scored at a local used parts place for 95 dollars (removed) and with associated bits such as bearings, bushings, parts of the brakes. It took me a concentrated day with cancelled and moved meetings to get the axle replaced and the car running again. The accomplishment felt good. I am now configuring the car with tractor tires and other modifications t...
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I am back from San Francisco. I spoke at a conference. I like the public speaking and sharing. I also like the learning at conferences. It is pretty weird working for an Ag equipment manufacturer and being in the midst of mostly software and more information focused folks. It is particularly fun in some dimensions. In the last month I have been in Atlanta only a few days. On the plane on the way back this time I was working on my next speaking privilege in Florida in Sept. As a special treat, my two dearest friends from Antarctica met me for dinner. 12 seasons on the ice. Stars of documentaries. It was a great feeling to relive some of the experience I forgot. Even after all these years they said my experience was "charmed" because in just one season I had a combination of great experiences ranging from mountain tops, penguin camps, south pole, ships, whales and so on. I was reminded about how we jumped (no tethers, no photos) across ice boulders from the ice breaker to the s...