June 2021 – Willem's Planet

Wednesday/ Washington State ‘reopens’

Tuesday/ at the Tesla Service Center

Monday/ the climax of the heat wave

Day of the Sun/ 104 °F | 40 °C in Seattle

Saturday/ the heat is on

Friday/ it’s Gay Pride weekend

Thursday/ supercharging the supercar

Wednesday/ I have my electric car

Tuesday/ the heat is coming

Monday/ and now it’s summer

Fathers Day

Juneteenth: now a federal holiday

Friday/ waiting for my VIN

Thursday/ tennis weather

Wednesday/ inflation now at 5%

Tuesday/ 600,000 lives lost

Monday/ BMW’s i3: still in production

Sunday/ pomp and circumstance

Saturday/ daisies & their little look-alikes

Friday/ spectacular tennis

June 30, 2021

After 16 months, Washingtonians can again go to a bustling restaurant, sit at the bar, imbibe until as long as liquor licenses allow (usually 2 a.m.) and gather in large groups. If you are vaccinated, you can ditch the mask.

For now, masks are still required in healthcare settings, and on public transit. Employers are allowed to let fully vaccinated employees come to work without a mask— but they are also allowed to require masks for all employees regardless of vaccination status. Masks are still required in schools, childcare and day camps: the vaccine isn’t available to children under age 12, yet.

In King county, more than 70% of residents age 12+ have been vaccinated, but many other counties lag far behind, shockingly so. Despite being two of the four most-populous counties, Pierce and Spokane hover around 45%.

This banner was shown at a celebration rally in Wright Park, Tacoma where Governor Inslee said it was time for businesses to fully reopen. A flag that look like this was added to the flagpole on the Tacoma Dome today, below the big The Stars and Stripes flag.
[Graphic from coronavirus.wa.gov]

June 29, 2021June 29, 2021

I took my car to the Tesla Service Center this morning for two very minor repairs. A new owner gets 24 hours after delivery to report any defects, and then these are repaired free of charge. (In my case a tail light cover had a slight chip on the corner, and the trim on one door was slightly misaligned).

This car-carrying trailer full of red and white Model 3s (all with the 19’’ Sport wheels), was parked at the curb, by the Tesla Service Center at 2200 6th Ave South in SoDo (south of downtown). It must have made the trip to Seattle from the Tesla plant in Fremont, California (the only US plant where Model 3s are made).

My loaner car was a Midnight Silver Metallic Model 3. A key fob (shaped like a Tesla car) came with my loaner car. I don’t have one for my car; my iPhone is my key fob. Not all smartphones work equally well as a key fob for the car, and so for some car owners, the Tesla key fob solves that problem (cost: $175).
So the key fob gets me into the loaner car. Then there is also a PIN to enter on the touchscreen, to start driving. (I can set up a PIN for my own car as an extra layer of security if I wanted to, as well).

June 28, 2021June 28, 2021

A visualization of the heat dome over Pacific Northwest on Monday. The thin white lines are isobars at 250 hPa (isobars are lines that connect points of equal atmospheric pressure). The warm colors represent carbon dioxide surface concentration.
[Image generated with earth.nullschool.net]

‘The most severe heat wave in the history of the Pacific Northwest is near its climax. The National Weather Service had predicted it would be “historic, dangerous, prolonged and unprecedented,” and it is living up to its billing as it rewrites the record books.

On Monday, Portland, Ore., soared to at least 115 degrees (46 °C), the highest temperature in more than 80 years of record-keeping. It marked the third straight day the city had climbed to an all-time high. On Sunday, it hit 112 (44 °C) Sunday after reaching 108 (42 °C) Saturday, both of which broke the previous all-time record of 107 (41.6 °C) .

Seattle was up to at least 107 degrees (41.6 °C) on Monday afternoon, surpassing the all-time record of 104 degrees (40 °C) set Sunday, which had topped the previous mark of 103 (39.4 °C)’.
– Jason Samenow and Ian Livingston, reporting for the online Washington Post on June 28, 2021 at 5:50 p.m. PDT

June 27, 2021June 28, 2021

Sunday comes from Old English Sunnandæg, which is derived from a Germanic interpretation of the Latin dies solis (“sun’s day”). Germanic and Norse mythology personify the sun as a goddess named Sunna or Sól.
– From livescience.com

Today’s high of 104 °F | 40 °C at 5.29 pm was the highest ever recorded for Seattle.
Monday will bring an even higher temperature.

Earth’s sun is an ordinary star, one among hundreds of billions of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. It is, however, the only star we can observe ‘up close’. This image of the sun was taken in 2015, captured with NASA’s space-based telescope, the Solar Dynamics Observatory.

June 26, 2021June 30, 2021

We got to 101 °F (38°C) here in the city today, and it will be even hotter tomorrow and Monday.
Four of us played tennis in the morning until noon or so, by which time it was already 90 °F (32°C). A good time to call it quits.

Here’s the new blue car getting its first wash at Uncle Ike’s Carwash. It was really a quick rinse only, with the water sprayer. (Driving in the dusty parking lot by the upper tennis courts at Amy Yee Tennis Center had coated it with fine dust). As soon as I started to drive away, the automatic windshield wipers sprung into action, wiping away the water beads. Rain-sensing wipers typically use a sensor mounted behind the windshield. It sends out a beam of infrared light that, with water droplets on the windshield, is reflected back at different angles. Tesla cars use its autopilot cameras to feed its computer vision neural network to determine the need, and the speed for the wipers.

June 25, 2021June 25, 2021

It’s Gay Pride weekend, but there will again be no Pride in downtown Seattle. (The organizers did not know at the outset of 2021 where Washington State and the city of Seattle would find itself come June, in the Covid-19 pandemic).

Honoring Pride Month at the White House on today, President Biden signed a law to designate the site of Pulse, a gay nightclub in Florida where a gunman killed 49 people and wounded dozens in 2016, as the National Pulse Memorial.

Pete Buttigieg, transportation secretary in the Biden administration, was the first openly gay cabinet secretary confirmed by the Senate, earlier this year.

Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, joined the Capital Pride parade in Washington on Saturday, June 12. (So how come Washington DC could have a parade, but Seattle could not get it together? I’m not sure why).
[Photo credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images]

June 24, 2021June 24, 2021

Here’s the Tesla supercharger station at the Northgate Mall off of Interstate 5.
It’s super-easy to supercharge the car. The hardest part for me is to back it nicely into the charging bay in one go. (It’s a new experience for me to use a car with a rear camera view for back-in parking, but I am learning quickly).

Park the car, plug it in. No credit card, no PIN, no thumb print or retina scan :), no nothing— the charger knows it’s your car, and how you will pay. Relax or go grab a coffee, and monitor to see when it’s done.

The supercharger station on top of the Northgate Mall parking garage has 16 charging bays, each rated at 250 kW.

The status of the charging is shown inside the car (and on one’s phone). That charging rate of 79 kW or 361 mi/hr is **10 times** the charging rate that I can get out of my 240 V outlet in my garage at home! The battery is never really charged to 100% (the white stripe on the car’s battery on the diagram shows when the charging will stop; that’s a preference & setting chosen by the driver). Maybe right before a long trip, one can try to charge closer to 100% at home. The charging rate slows down dramatically as the battery approach full capacity. While on a long trip, a battery charged to even just 70% or so, is usually more than enough to get one to the next supercharger. If you hog the charging bay with your car fully charged and ‘abandoned’, as you are take your sweet time at a nearby restaurant, you will be charged for occupying the bay.

Here’s my car getting its first overnight/ everyday charge at home.
It shows a charging rate of 29 mi/ hr, drawing 32 A of current at 238 V.

Picture from Thursday morning. Plug it in when it’s in the garage; plug it out when leaving. (The charging stops automatically when it’s done. The car will not let you drive away with the charging cord still attached).

June 23, 2021July 8, 2022

Well, the wait for my Tesla Model 3 (Long Range AWD) car was over on Wednesday.
A Tesla delivery person showed up with my car at my house shortly after 10.30 am. I signed some papers and handed over a check. We linked up my phone with the car, and that was it, for the delivery.

As for getting behind the steering wheel, completing the setup of the car on the touchscreen, and starting to drive it: I am very fortunate to have friends that have been Tesla owners for awhile, and that have provided me with invaluable pointers and ‘tech support’ from the day I had put in my order nine weeks ago. It would have been a very steep learning curve, with many stumbles, without them.

The 15-in. touchscreen shows the car’s position in traffic, its speed and a navigation map with (optional) driving directions. The screen is also the interface for entertainment and a host of other controls for the car.
There is a standard turn-signal stalk & a gear selector stalk (R N D P) by the steering wheel, and buttons on the wheel for volume control & the sideview mirrors.

Modern cars are all high-tech, but one can argue Teslas are a notch or two above that. The software that controls the car’s interface and functions will be updated from time to time through my home wi-fi network. The car has no key: your phone is the key. ‘The car knows you want to drive when you get in’, as Elon Musk likes to say. On long trips, the navigation map will work out which chargers to go to, and will indicate how many open chargers are available at nearby locations.

My car came standard with some Autopilot* functions – which I can choose to engage at any time. I opted out of getting the ‘Full Self-Driving’ functionality. (*Autopilot is an advanced driver assistance system: automated steering within a clearly marked lane, and matching the car’s speed with that of surrounding traffic. ‘Full Self-Driving’ is automated driving functionality that actively guides the car from a highway’s on-ramp to off-ramp, including lane changes, navigating interchanges, automatically engaging the turn signal and taking the correct exit).

The picked the greenhouse at Volunteer Park as the backdrop for my ‘here’s my new car’ picture. It’s brand spanking new, un-scuffed and spotless only this one time, right?

A peek inside the car. The dashboard is very clean — shockingly clean, I thought, during my test drive back in April — and devoid of control buttons and dials. The table below has some of the car’s features.

I love the high-tech, but at the end of the day I am just thrilled to have a car that drives on electricity. No more fill-ups at the gas station for me. I hope that in the not-too-distant-future, all the cars in the world can become electric.

June 22, 2021June 22, 2021

This weekend is going to be a scorcher for the Pacific Northwest.
I am among the 40% of Seattle households that do not have air conditioning installed. I do have a unit on wheels, that I will set up again in my bedroom.

Let’s see: that 76 is **24 °C**, 79 is **26 °C**, 86 is **30 °C**, 96 & 97 are **36 °C** and 94 is **34 °C**. It’s weird how I know how hot a Fahrenheit temperature is, and also, a Celsius temperature*— but I still cannot switch from one to the other in my head, after all these years in the US.
*South Africa switched to the decimal system and to SI Units of measure when I was in elementary school.
[Graphic by the National Weather Service]

June 21, 2021June 21, 2021

It was the first full day of the astronomical summer in the Northern Hemisphere.
We are just shy of 16 hours of daylight here in Seattle (sunset at 9.11 pm).
It was warm today (89 °F/ 32 °C), but there will be a little respite tomorrow & Wednesday, before the day temperatures go up again.

Daisies that I found on 12th Ave, here on Capitol Hill.

June 20, 2021June 21, 2021

Happy Fathers Day to all the dads.

June 19, 2021June 19, 2021

President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, effective on Jan. 1, 1863, declared that the enslaved in Confederate-controlled areas were free.

Texas was the last Confederate territory reached by the Union army. On June 19, 1865—Juneteenth—U.S. Army general Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, to proclaim the war had ended and so had slavery (in the Confederate states).

Slavery was only ended in Kentucky and Delaware by the passing of the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution in Dec. 1865. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime.

This Thursday, President Biden signed the Juneteenth bill, creating a new federal holiday for June 19th, to commemorate the end of slavery in the U.S.

An 1864 illustration depicting crowds of people, recently freed from enslavement, that carry copies of the Emancipation Proclamation.
[Hulton Archives/ Getty images]

June 18, 2021June 18, 2021

Another week, and still no call from the Tesla dealership (saying ‘your Tesla is ready for pickup’).
I still don’t have my vehicle identification number (VIN), though, so I did not really expect a call this week.
The VIN is needed to finalize/ update one’s auto insurance policy, prior to taking delivery of the car.

A Tesla bot or a Tesla person did send me an e-mail today, saying ‘We are working to get you behind the wheel of your Tesla as soon as possible‘.

Here’s how to decode a Tesla VIN. 5YJ means Tesla made the car; I think Position (‘Digit’) 4 will be M; not sure of 5; 6 will be D for “Type 2 manual seatbelts (FR, SR*3), PODS.”; 7 will be E for Electric, not sure of 8 & 9; 10 will be M for 2021, as prescribed by the NHSTA; 11 will be F for Fremont; last come the 6 digits for a unique serial number. (This means any one plant will never produce more than 999,999 vehicles in any one model year, which seems a reasonable assumption!).
[Information from Charles Benoit online at Electrek]

June 17, 2021June 17, 2021

Here in Seattle it was a very pleasant 76 °F (24 °C) today, perfect for our social tennis group’s Thursday night at Lower Woodland Park.

Mild weather was not the case for the southwest of the US, though.
There’s a high-pressure heat dome hovering over southern California, Nevada and Arizona— with scorching day temperatures as a consequence:
125 °F (52 °C) for Death Valley, CA,
114 °F (46 °C) for Las Vegas, NV, and
117 °F (47 °C) for Phoenix, AZ.

The white hot sun of our solar system and the Space Needle, seen from my seat on the RapidRide E Line bus today at 6.00 pm. The bus is on 7th Ave North, and about to merge onto northbound State Route 99 that run by the Woodland Park tennis courts.

The yellow chimneys in the first picture are part of a ventilation structure that allows exhaust fumes from traffic in the SR-99 tunnel to escape high above ground. (Fumes that are no longer in the tunnel, but still polluting the atmosphere, of course). The tunnel opened to traffic on Feb. 4, 2019.

June 16, 2021June 16, 2021

The annual inflation rate for the United States was 5.0% for the 12 months ended May 2021, up from 4.2% for April, according to U.S. Labor Department data published on June 10.

Will the Federal Reserve Bank have to raise interest rates from zero much sooner than it had expected just a few months ago?

‘Based on central bankers’ fresh projections released Wednesday, the median Fed official expected to achieve the central bank’s goals and lift rates by late 2023. The Fed’s interest rate projections showed that more than half of its 18 officials expected rate increases by the end of that year. More, but not quite half, expected an increase or two in 2022.

That markup came as Fed officials offered headier economic forecasts. They now see growth coming in stronger in 2021, and expect inflation to average 3.4 percent in the final three months of the year. They expect that headline inflation gauge to retreat quickly, however, falling to 2.1 percent next year and 2.2 percent in 2023′.
– Jeanna Smialek reporting for the New York Times

Annual US inflation rates has been as low as 0.7% in 2015, and not much higher than 2.0% in any other year since 2012. There is a big debate among economists as to how long the recent, higher rates of 4.2% (for April) and 5% (for May) will persist.
[Cartoon by Robert Rich for Hedgeye.com]

June 15, 2021June 16, 2021

We’re at 600,000 reported Covid-19 deaths in the United States. The real death tolls in the U.S. and around the globe, are probably significantly higher than the official numbers, with many cases overlooked, or concealed.

As for the vaccine, in California, 72% of residents older than 18 had gotten at least one dose, and 70% for New York state. Both states lifted most of their Covid-19 restrictions today.
Washington State (at 72% one dose, same as California) will follow suit at the end of June.

Text and graphic from the New York Times.

So life is returning to normal in many ways in the United States, but the pandemic is far from over. Some 25% of people that had contracted Covid-19 and survived, or even those that were asymptomatic, suffer long-term symptoms. Millions of people are still grappling with the loss of a family member or a close friend.

June 14, 2021June 16, 2021

Here’s a new BMW i3 that I found this morning, on the way to the Safeway grocery store. (I tagged along for a little test drive of one in 2014).

I see more Tesla Model 3 cars here in the city than I do BMW i3 ones. Or could it be that I have eyes for Teslas only? That’s definitely possible.

I went to the BMW website and mocked up an order for a BMW i3, and the car actually comes to a few thousand more ($44,450 MSRP as built) than Tesla’s Model 3 Standard Range Plus (cheapest Model 3).
This for a compact car with a 153 mi range vs 263 mi for the Tesla & 42 kWh battery vs. 54 kWh. The BMW might be more suitable for navigating the narrow alleys and cobblestone streets of old European cities, though.

This is a 2021 BMW i3 (color: ‘Capparis White’). There is also a BMW i3s (for sport; increased power, handling, slightly different look). BMW still make both of these with gasoline engine ‘range extenders’ as well. These BMWs are all made in Leipzig, Germany. The first ones rolled off the production line there in Sept. 2013.

June 13, 2021June 13, 2021

Pomp and circumstance: impressive formal activities or ceremonies (Merriam-Webster dictionary).
Beefeater: Beef + eater. Prob. one who eats another’s beef, as his servant. Could also be from: hlāfǣta, servant, properly a loaf eater. (Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary).
Beefeaters are the yeomen of the English royal guard, who, since the accession of Henry VII. in 1485, have attended the sovereign at state banquets and on other ceremonial occasions.
The name is also given to the warders of the Tower of London, who wear a similar uniform.

WINDSOR, ENGLAND – JUNE 13: Queen Elizabeth II (center), US President Joe Biden (right) and US First Lady Dr Jill Biden (left) at Windsor Castle on June 13, 2021 in Windsor, England. Queen Elizabeth II hosted US President, Joe Biden and First Lady Dr Jill Biden at Windsor Castle. The President arrived from Cornwall where he attended the G7 Leader’s Summit.
By Sunday night he had arrived in Brussels, for a meeting of NATO Allies. Later in the week he will meet the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin. (Photo by Samir Hussein – Pool/Wire Image)

Queen Elizabeth II received President Biden and First Lady Dr Jill Biden at Windsor castle today. ‘President Biden and the first lady seemed relaxed, and there were no obvious diplomatic breaches‘ reported the New York Times.
Yes. Like stepping in front of the Queen. Or tweeting about the Prince of ‘a group of large marine mammals’ (‘Whales’).

June 12, 2021June 12, 2021

There was a half inch of rain yesterday in the city, and there will be a little more rain tonight. The flowers are from my walk after dinner last night.

White **daisies** (genus is *Bellis* or *Chrysanthemum)* with their yellow centers, a spiral matrix of stamens.
The daisy flower does not just bud, blossom, and die like most other flowers. Rather it performs a daily routine of “sleeping” at night by closing and “waking” in the morning by opening up again. Because of this unusual trait and the whorled appearance of the flower, the daisy was given the Old English name ‘dægeseage’, meaning literally “day’s eye.” [From Merriam-Webster dictionary].

Some of these pretty little flowers look like daisies, but they are not: they are **chamomile**. Chamomile is a herb plant with relaxing benefits and a pleasant scent, used to make chamomile tea which can promote relaxation and help with getting a sound night’s sleep.

June 11, 2021June 11, 2021

The body is mostly steel, with some aluminum. The 2021 Model 3 replaced the chrome door handles, side mirror trim, window trim, and camera covers with a black finish. It has a double-paned windshield, a powered trunk, and a new center console. Tinted glass roof with ultraviolet and infrared protection. Curb weight is 4,072 lb (1,847 kg).

Two electric motors (‘dual-motor all-wheel drive’).
Front motor: Alternating Current (AC) Induction.
Rear motor: Alternating Current (AC) Permanent Magnet.

Transmission

Automatic, one-speed fixed gear, 9:1 ratio.

82 kW-h capacity. Rated range of 353 miles (568 km).

Wheels

Aluminum, aerodynamic covers. Four-wheel disc brakes with anti-lock braking system; regenerative braking to extend battery power.

Controls inside

LCD touchscreen in landscape orientation that combines the instrument cluster and infotainment. Heating and air-conditioning cooling efficiency increased by heat pump with octovalve.

There was spectacular French Open men’s tennis on TV today.
The youngsters Stefanos Tsitsipas (Greece, 22 yrs old) and Alexander Zverev (Germany, 24) went first, with Tsitsipas overcoming a mid-match slump to win 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 4-6, 6-3.

Then the legendary King of Clay, Rafael Nadal (Spain, 35 yrs old, won 13 French Opens* in 16 years) took on the world’s No 1 Novak Djokovic (Serbia, 34). Djokovic won 3-6, 6-3, 7-6, 6-2.

Officials decided to suspend the controversial Covid-19 curfew in Paris, that had them empty out the stands at 9 pm on Monday & Tuesday night, and at 11 pm later this week. The Nadal-Djokovic match was still going at 11 pm. There would have been a French Revolution II in the Philippe Chatrier tennis stadium, had anyone attempted to chase the rabid tennis fans out.

*The French Open is a Grand Slam tournament, with 128 players in the main draw. (Regular tournaments have 32). For 4 of the 128 spots in the main draw, there was a qualifying tournament. To win, you have to win seven matches in a row, all guaranteed to be against a fierce competitor in the game of tennis.