My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on May 5, 2026

After a Tesla Mobile Service upgrade for our 2019 Tesla Model 3 last week, we made a couple of test stops on our weekend trip. The DC CSS Fast Charging at an interstate Wawa IONNA near Lima, Ohio (non-Tesla SuperCharger network) made an excellent stopping point for our slightly older “standard range” EV. Since we had never charged outside the SuperCharger network, this was more of a test for future travel, but with very clean bathroom, coffee that cost me only $1 and a very fair $0.39 kWh, this ends up being a preferred stop on our way up to see our granddaughters (more on the “piano recital” later this week).

We had great weather, but my heavier foot kept our speeds higher than EV efficiency.

Drew asked about our watt-hours per mile number as that is what he uses to evaluate efficiency and driving speeds. I mentioned to him that we had a strong headwind coming back for much of the drive south and suspected that may have dinged our energy efficiency. No matter how you slice it with fuel costing so much this spring, driving the Tesla and charging is A LOT less expensive than driving the BMW X5 35d “diesel” at $5.86/gallon! (data above was from our return). 

One thing that I expected or may not have understood correctly is that “I thought” the CSS chargers with the NACS plugs (Tesla) would exchange billing data like the Tesla SuperChargers … making them plug and go. But no, the charging stations still require a transaction to occur as well as plugging the correct plug (or CSS adapter) into the vehicle if needed. Charges above were for our trip north to Toledo and back at the same location I used ApplePay on my AppleWatch for simplicity (receipts above) … besides the Apple Card currently rewards 2% back for fueling/charging vehicles. 

I was also experimenting with a third-party “trip planning” navigation app called A Better Route Planner (ABRP) that includes a bit more planning data as well as charging stations other than SuperChargers. The FREE version seems to work just fine, even with the delays updates to every 5 minutes. I tend to turn off the iPhone display and didn’t have it charging in the car … BUT it was streaming SiriusXM radio via Bluetooth; I ended up with about 50% charge on my iPhone 16 Pro after the drive, so charging while using it might be a good idea (BTW: We are currently going without the $10/mo Tesla Premium subscription — so far, so good, but having traffic and re-routing would be nice).  

(more…)

Category: Automotive, BMW, Diesel, Financial, Technology, Tesla, Travel | No Comments »
Tags: abrp, BMW, charging, diesel, ev, fuel prices, ionna, iphone, lima ohio, model 3, rivian, roadtrip, siriusxm, supercharger, tesla, toledo, wawa, x5 35d

Posted By RichC on May 4, 2026

We are steadily losing too many of the great musicians of my youth. Last month it was Dave Mason, from the 1960’s English rock band Traffic, and solo singer/songwriter from my music listening years in the 1970s. He had been having serious heart issues and suspect most knew that his time was near. Still, reading that he was 79 has me thinking “that is way too young.” ☹️ 
 

I remember his music most from his ballads, like “We Just Disagree” – below is a live version from 2013 from YouTube. I can recall listening in the car with my friend Dallas on a college break trip to Florida. We had a good time on the beach during the day and listening to music while camping at Collier Seminole State Park at night. Great memories. 

Category: Memories, Music, Video | No Comments »
Tags: band, camping, dallas, dave mason, florida, marco island, music monday, musician, musicmonday, traffic, trip, wikipedia, youtube

Posted By RichC on May 3, 2026

Last week I posted a TIDBIT and before fully using it, I found a couple of minor errors. So today I’m updating the code a little bit and will give it another try and add another web app: MP4 to GIF-maker. 

1. First up was a Proportions Calculator
   => LINK
2. Second a Poster Maker for .MP4 videos
   => LINK 
3. Third – added a Gif-Maker that converts small .MP4 videos (still a size problem)
   => LINK 

*** disclaimer *** subjected to change due to
    improvements and tweaks

Another test video using the PosterMaker:
 

Category: Archive, Coding, Computer, Productivity, Software, Tidbits | No Comments »
Tags: apps, automation, calculator, coding, html, postermaker, proportions, Software, video

Posted By RichC on May 2, 2026

After having a positive Tesla Mobile Service call on our 2019 Tesla Model 3, I opted to schedule another “not all that important” upgrade. This particular improvement switches out a circuit board in the rear of the car, near the NACS plug, that will allow us to charge at non-Tesla DC Fast Chargers. I say this is not necessary unless the SuperCharger network is busy or at inconvenient intervals while traveling.

Personally, I thought it would be handy to be able to utilize some of the newer high-speed DC chargers at some of the plazas and larger fuel centers (ie. IONNA, Wawa, Flying-J, etc). I’m planning to give one a try this weekend … just so that I’m familiar with them in the future. Some of the non-Tesla charging location use the NACS (Tesla) plugs, but other use a different CCS plug which requires an adapter … similar to the J-1772 AC adapters that are used for slower overnight charging (Hm, are the DC CCS and CCSi adapters also called J1772 … at least according to the chart above?)

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Category: Automotive, Repairs, Technology, Tesla | No Comments »
Tags: ccs adapter, charging, model 3, tesla, tesla mobile service, upgrade

Posted By RichC on May 1, 2026

For over a year, my Apple Watch occasionally changes the look of the face and created a frustrating restart “fix” for me. Over our beach walks this winter, I noticed that it was happening a bit more often — which starting me thinking that it might be my jacket sleeve or bumping my arm into Brenda.

Finally I did a little more digging into the problem, looking for software updates or reported issues causing the screen to balloon to a large size. Eventually I stumbled on the two-finger toggle and realized that I could have just two-fingered tap of the watch display to return to the normal size.

Since I’ve never used the setting, it was a no-brainer just to toggle it off. What a simple fix. DUH! 

Category: Apple, Technology, Watch | No Comments »
Tags: apple watch, simple fix, tech friday, techfriday, two-finger

Posted By RichC on April 30, 2026

While attempting to move away from the computer based software helpers (used for years – Parallels tools) or stand-alone “multi-step” software like Photoshop, Preview or Gimp … I’m tinkered with programming and setting up a couple of web-based “single purpose” apps to solve my everyday needs.

1. First up was a Proportions Calculator
   => LINK
2. Second a Poster Maker for .MP4 videos
   => LINK 

*** disclaimer *** subjected to change due to
    improvements and tweaks

Below is a test video using the PosterMaker:

(more…)

Category: Coding, Computer, Productivity, Software, Tidbits, Video | No Comments »
Tags: helpers, html, postermaker, programming, proportions

Posted By RichC on April 29, 2026

Our first Tesla Mobile Service call went well. The car was parked outside the garage and the technician arrived within the 7AM – 12PM estimated time — he actually arrived at 11:30AM and was finished by noon. 

Since I was working from home, I decided to talk to him a bit to see if he was willing to share some wisdom as to what else I should be looking for?

First off was the “the car is pretty good at detecting problems” comment, but then he offered some thoughts as to what vehicle an options he chose for his family. Due to tire wear, he recommended the long range Model Y with 19” wheels in the “Chill Mode” if the expensive tires are a concern (it was what he chose). Other than that, he said rotating tire front to rear on each side every 6500 miles seems to extend the tire wear, but then commented that he’s seen tire last as little as 10,000 miles or as long as 50,0000 — suspected driving style. Good to know. 

Category: Archive, Automotive, Tesla, Video | No Comments »
Tags: review, tesla app, tesla mobile service, tesla model 3, thoughts