Damage control

The weekend, with the splashdown of Artemis II characterized by precision, elegance and perfection, had started well. Beyond that moving Friday evening though, that was an entirely different story. The weather conditions seemed to have mirrored the teen drama I had to deal with, so stressful that I had severe acid reflux, supra-ventricular extra-systoles (heart skipping beats) and what not. Probably more grey hair too.

I spent too much time on the slippery, rainy roads on Saturday. Way more than I had anticipated. It was quite surreal to be driving on an ocean of rain, seeing just a grey cloud ahead of the furiously-waving wipers, amidst a pour of... hail ! To make matters worse for our situation (and my EV range anxiety), I had only a few percents left between the last stop and home. I was already all soaked (and cold) in the dark evening trying to find a compatible charger for my incompatible car. The problem with EV is that either they don't have the type of charger you need, or if they do, the charge doesn't work... I have become so discouraged by this that I have mostly relied on my slow charger at home each night. Except that with the extra trip (for a total of 1.5 h I had not budgeted in my schedule and car battery) I had to take on a short notice on Saturday night, I didn't have 2 minutes to charge. So here we were, my son and I, in my car of indetectable, below zero percent charge (as indicated by ''---'' instead of 0 !). I decided that we needed to fill up our stomachs (it was later than 7 pm, I was expecting guests: my boyfriend and his niece, but they had stayed in town given the horrible driving conditions). My son got a burrito, I got a quesadilla, we had horchatas (it was a Mexican place he had begged me to go to the week before and where we used to take him and his brothers when they were kids).

Usually, I feel nervous with a remaining charge of 10% when I need to get home from my former zip code... I decided to live dangerously (as always) and thought if my car died, I'd just call Uber. But if I left it there and didn't take the risk, I wouldn't know what it is still capable of doing...

I live in semi-altitude so that at Bass Lake Road exit, our eardrums generally start to pop. The next exit is mine. I was just focused on that next step, ignoring the ''battery is low, go charge your car now'' that had been in the dashboard since Folsom. Before getting there though, I felt my car slowing down... Oh-oh... I was fantasizing that if I could only make it to the exit, maybe we could push it from there... Ridiculous, I know... I was too emotionally collapsed to be rational. I had an incredibly stressful day, after another demanding week... 

I felt like the elements had declared war to us. The pressure in my tires started dropping due to the cold. There was one disaster unfolding after the other.

But believe it or not, we made it home ! Wait... Not yet... I have a steep and awkward driveway. Ok, wow, yes, we made it ! As we arrive on the ''summit'', I open the garage door and... darn, this is where the car stopped completely. I couldn't make it in the garage, and this is where I need to go to charge my car ! Thankfully, the cord was just long enough... But later that evening, I made the mistake of trying to bring the car in the garage so I could close the door (it was pouring). In doing so, because it was not sufficiently charged, it wouldn't move from neutral, and since apparently I have a mini incline, gravity wanted to tease me a little... so the car backed up instead of moving forward ! At that point, the cord was no longer enough. I was stuck (and too pissed at myself for not having waited long enough to charge it to even consider another electric outlet to try until my chum came the next morning after I had told him I'd need help to push my car into the garage). I was also exhausted but had to drain a section because of excessive water that can cause leaks... It hailed again and even in the dark, I could see all the fallen branches on my deck.

In the morning, it took forever to charge it even to 6% once I tried the outlet outside.

I was about to kick this annoying car down a bridge when Ken found a fast charging station nearby, at Burke Junction. When I got home, this is when I saw not 2 but 3 signals with exclamation points ! The dashboard of my electronic medical records ! Help ! Thankfully the car one got away when I used my car later.

Exclamation points on any dashboard (my car, my electronic medical records and its folders that
multiply like fungi) tend to activate my stress response systems.

Saturday was about damage control, and also drama control... as a result, I felt so demoralized, as if something had died in me... that I even considered not writing my blog or doing my YouTube channel anymore. My distress was that profound.

Sunday was about putting the pieces of my life back together, just like I was gathering twigs around my property while burning some in a fire that gave me a sense of peace. Despite not having had an arrival as elegant as the triple parachute opening of the capsule last Friday, the feeling that I want to keep from that weekend is the gratitude for making it home safely. Being used to driving in impossible weather conditions in the Québécois winter, the hailstorms and freeway floodings on Saturday were something else. Yes, we have been lucky.

Interesting synchronicity: last Friday evening, I find a very fitting cork out of a bag a friend put aside for me.
I glued it on my wall that same night to memorialize the impeccable splashdown on the coast of the state where we live.