back from the end of the Blogosphere

I have NOT fallen off the face of the earth. I have simply been busy. “Too busy to blog? Even just a little bit??” Yes, too busy to blog even just a little bit. However, things are moving such that the urge to blog cannot be ignored any longer, thus I will offer up an apologetic and nugget-filled update. (Note that I’m not going as far as promising more regular updates…)

1) The Job: It is GOOD. I like my boss, I’m getting along very well with my co-workers, the company is great, and most importantly, the work is stimulating, engaging, interesting… many adjectives I’ve been looking for. There is excellent long-term potential here, and I intend to use it. Huzzah! So there you go, it only took me seven years to get out of my career slump. Whee!

2) New Baby: Our 3rd child was born on February 12th of this year. His name is Carter, and he came into the world at home and drug free, despite being a whopping 10lbs 10oz! Yes, my wife is SuperWoman. (I should just call her “Stretch”… but not if I like sex. Which I do.) He is now wearing 6-12 month outfits and is showering us with equal amounts of smiles and butter (what I’ve taken to calling spit-up).

3) Things Vehicular: Now a year into TDI ownership, I’m still getting great fuel economy – the last two times I filled up I had a tank average of 4.8L/100km (about 48 mpgUS). Good thing, too… diesel has shot up in price a LOT. Last summer I was filling up at $0.95/L, and this past fill cost me $1.469/L. OUCH. I only fill up every two weeks, however, so it’s not too painful. I have no idea how the guys who commute to work in full size Dodge Rams can afford to run them.

Great economy notwithstanding, I’m not satisfied. (Big surprise, huh?) I’m still using a petroleum distillate, I’m still bleching carbon dioxide, and now on top of it all I’m emitting diesel particulate soot. I’ve realized that there is no vehicle worth getting that is more efficient, as I’d be way past the point of diminishing returns for any hydrocarbon-fuelled vehicle. Thus, I’m looking to drive with electricity.

Things are going to get interesting soon. 2010 looks to be the start of the dawn of the modern electric vehicle. Nissan is getting into the action, with retail sales of battery electric vehicles by 2012. ZENN Motors (a Canadian company) is already in the game, but with a low-speed offering. They’ll be adding in a highway-capable model within a year that is not powered by batteries, but highly advanced capacitors that will allow the car to fully charge in FIVE minutes. How cool is that?!? There are others out there as well, but until I start seeing some real movement in terms of retail sales in Canada, I’m going to start researching building my own battery electric vehicle. I’ve already done the most important part – chosen my licence plate. No, I’m not going to tell you – it would ruin the surprise!

4) Housing: This is a big one. As you may recall, I founded a cohousing project just under two years ago. We’ve made excellent progress, but I recently hit a personal stumbling block. Despite my involvement, I didn’t realize that my wife (of all people) wasn’t getting it the way I was. In fact, her ideals were drastically different than what I had been envisioning.

Meanwhile, we’d been doing battle with our home. A couple of months ago we had some ladies in to help us bust our clutter and purge a bunch of stuff. We got rid of TONS of stuff (lots of recycling, lots of stuff to give away, some stuff to consign or sell, some stuff went to the dump) and are better off for it (if a bit poorer). However, our living room set-up was being troublesome. Last weekend I figured out a different set-up that should work, so I took everything apart, moved it all (including the piano), put it all back together… and Jannette didn’t like it. At that point we realized that there were a bunch of small issues with this house that, when taken together, pointed to a need to move. Sooner than later.

Long story short – we saw an open house this past weekend, loved the place, but an offer went in on it. We thought it was gone, and started combing the resale market, and even looking at building new again. Nothing was comparable. Then just this morning, word came that the first offer fell through. Thus, tonight we put in an offer. Yes, we may be moving – before September! It’s not far… literally a two minute drive away, but it may as well be Toronto for the amount of packing, sorting, and purging we’re going to have to do (not to mention house prep to sell). We’ll know by 10am tomorrow if our offer is accepted, and have a week to get financing in place.

So, while moving to a bigger, nicer home will be great, it kind of kills the whole premise of being involved in cohousing. We’re not going to move in and move out again in three years… at least, I doubt Jannette would want to. So I’ll have to figure out how to be a neighbourhood communitarian. Maybe I’ll throw a block BBQ when I move in or something. We’ll see.

So, there you go – my life in a nutshell for the past few months. Allow me to PROFUSELY apologize to the few of you that read that wondered where the hell I’d gotten off to, but hey, that’s life. I got busy, suck it up.

I’ll TRY to keep y’all updated as things progress, but no promises. If I do start building an electric vehicle, however, you’ll bet that I’ll be documenting things, either here or in a standalone blog. First I’ll buy a house and indebt myself, then we’ll see about electrifying a motor vehicle.