It was a very full meeting with lots of interesting stuff. To ease the keyboard pain I’ll do the first part in point form.
Burlington Music Festival needs financial help. Either Scholarship prizes - $100 would be good, OR sponsorship cash to support the operating costs of the event. See website,
www.rotarymusicfest.org
Poinsettias. Sales in November can generate a lot of cash for the club. They are a small ticket item and sell themselves. Use the order form and promotional flyer on our website or available from Andrew Gaydon.
Dominican Republic hurricane relief. Members donated $2183, club matches $1500. Total to Samaritan Foundation = $3683.
No regular club meeting November 9th. There will be a special all-clubs Remembrance Day meeting elsewhere. Details to follow.
Nominations for the Board. If interested or have ideas contact Mike Molloy.
Abraham. Point form just can’t do him justice. Abraham reported at length on his attendance at Karmel’s daughter’s wedding last weekend. Well he tried his best with limited vocabulary but, bolstered by unsolicited and graphic details from the father of the bride, we got the picture. Abraham until very recently had strayed little from the world of his island community on Lake Titicaca (About two-thirds the size of Lake Ontario) (Abraham is Peruvian but the lake straddles the border with Bolivia). Suddenly he found himself at Tip-Top being fitted up in a suit, white shirt and bow-tie.
Fast-forward to the wedding reception and Abraham was mobbed by pretty girls, some young (his age more or less) others no so. The impression was, as someone quipped, a little Mrs. Robinson-esque. You know the tune, here’s a snippit,. “ Heaven holds a place for those who prey. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey”
Then, as if Karmel’s idea of a good time at a wedding wasn’t enough cultural whiplash he has, in the last few days, watched 3D TV in which “the animals were in my room”.
Karmel got on such a roll bolstering Abraham’s account of the wedding extravaganza that he stayed on his feet to recount a slapstick comedy revolving around Albert Schmid and driving directions gone wrong. I can only say that you had to be there for the retelling, which had Karmel gasping and choking on his own tears of hilarity.
Well our guest speaker Tim Burrows spoke to us about electric cars (EVs). I suspect most of us view electric cars as a nice idea if it works and something to consider later, much later. One of those, Let’s see how it goes ideas – and besides aren’t they expensive? decisions.
Well Tim is an enthusiast. He said he was on no-one’s payroll but you could easily think he was a Tesla plant. Indeed his website
www.timtalkstesla.com could lead you to think that way. But he’s just completely and utterly sold on electric cars; to the point that he can hardly understand why we’d waste our time on anything else.
He started by stating his belief that EVs will replace ALL gas and diesel internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles and will do so sooner than most people realize. (Provincial treasurers pay attention – there’s a lot of revenue gushing out of gasoline pumps.)
The writing is on the wall, it’s not just a nerdy dream. Britain, France, Germany, California, India and China have all set sunset dates on the sale of ICE cars, some within twelve years.
More nuggets:
There are four EV manufacturers currently: Kia, BMW, GM/Chevrolet and Tesla; not a huge choice but it will change quickly.
Tim has a Tesla’s SUV Model X which has a range of 475 Km on a full charge, he has driven to Florida and the east coast without a problem. The network of charging stations is large and growing.
Battery life is 8 years after which battery starts to incrementally lose range.
The electric motor has one moving part as against anyone’s guess on an ICE. No oil, belts, transmission, radiator. Just plug it in when you get home and it’s full after 20 minutes.
AND…. Tim’s belief in driverless cars is such that – A child born today will likely never learn to drive.
(Does that mean… today’s 60 year old may not need to have a driving test at 80? )
P. Scribe
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