Infrastructure - shminsfrastructure!

Guest post from Linda Swyderski, who shot the great & late lamented video of the 2010 Macungie EV-ent ... sniffle ... and has made up for the fact that it's missing in action still with this awesome little guide to zeroing in on plug-in opportunities through plugshare:

Browse to http://www.plugshare.com/ and create an account

 What looks to be informational keys at the bottom left are actually buttons, so the “Home Chargers” and “Public Charging Stations” are buttons that you can click on.
When you hover over them, your cursor changes to show they are selectable. This maps works as a standard Google map.

So, if I ZOOM into southeastern Pennsylvania, let’s assume for a second that every Nissan dealer has a Level 2 charger by now, but look at all the residences!

Okay, yeah, a lot of them are 120V, but there are some Level 2’s out there.
Let’s ZOOM in a little closer. Now, do you see us?

No? Well, here we are!
How cool is that!?!?

Thanks Linda -- and thanks to Matt for this great Leaf review:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-thielen/nissan-leaf_b_1287195.html

Thank You Mr/Ms Anonymous

I tried three times to post a reply to your comment on my 10/23 post, and every time Blogger ate it whole instead of publishing it, which made me remember how lovely it is to be on  infuriating-interface-hiatus!  But it was so nice of you to drop by and wish me well that I have persisted and will now reconstruct what was meant to be a brief reply (but of course wasn't) as an actual post, the publishing of which historically works like it is supposed to.

Dear Reader(s?), all is well and I am very happy running Secret Garden Montessori.  In the absence of EV responsibilities or blog-tending I've had time to read (The Information by James Gleick, awesome, and also the extraordinary online comic 2dgoggles), go to poetry readings (Ethel Rackin & James Richardson, also awesome), and deal with my house (which is very much still in progress but I am sure will be awesome some day).  I also recently had an essay published on my CSA's blog The Blooming Glen Beet where you will notice I plugged Bucks County Renewables despite officially being on hiatus.

Furthermore, I have stirred out of EV-hibernation to travel up to Princeton to sit in a Tesla Model S -- yes, if I had gotten to drive it I would have posted! -- and to attend the Jan 31 MAREA public meeting, a very informative talk about battery back-up for grid-tied PV systems which drew a sizable crowd AND was live-streamed for the first time.  If you live out of range of these great monthly talks take note of the procedures on the website for accessing them online. 

Looking forward to the spring, have no fear -- Bucks County Renewables is merely slumbering underground for the season, not gone from the EV scene forever.  You can be sure that in a few weeks I'll be trundling out of my groundhog burrow and blinking around in the sunlight, ready to start promoting the 2012 EV-ent in Macungie: Special No-Stress Picnic Edition, slated for late April or early May!  So hang tight -- soon there will be details, truly.

In the meantime, Mr/Ms Anonymous, thanks for the nice note, especially the mention that you're still waiting for the promised, olympically relevant, but alas! so far mythical Occupy-Wall-Street-and-EV's post; if it emerges it will be less ebullient, more bittersweet, but never defeated.