Tuesday, August 1, 2023

Free? Parking and Electronic Vehicles A historic perspective?


 No Parking—It’s About the Journey Not the destination 


so… it’s August  2023 and according to astronomers, astrologists, and a lot of people  who pay attention to such things, there are going to be two “Super Moons”  in august.  Now  in the 70’s and probably still today it was common to see many types of moons coming from big Pontiacs, Fords, and Station wagons of all varieties… but that’s a different sort of story altogether.  No we’re talking about that place where a half century ago we sent some space pilots to go walking around to pick up some rocks and smack a few lofty irons towards no particular greens.  

Well on the first trip  the space explorers  had to walk around, but after  a bit the guys decided “hey we’re Americans  there is no sense in walking even a few miles when we can drive.”  So..of course  the rocket nerds  got together with the gear heads and built two or three moon buggies  but since they were going to cost a lot they weren’t called moon  buggies they were called “Lunar Rovers.”  Now there were three missions that had cars and while official mileage may very it is estimated that  these vehicles traveled a total of about 17 miles.  What we do know is that  the first of these moonlit  (well the astronauts probably weren’t lit) drives took place On July 31, 1971 which is a half century ago now.  It’s not clear from any of the articles  what the space jockeys  were driving around  trying to find as there weren’t any open drive-thrus up there and they had all that Tang already.  So … here’s what can be guessed.  First  the 17 miles was only supposed to be 9 miles, but the drivers were guys and there wasn’t any  road signs on the moon and you know these dudes aren’t calling NASA or asking anybody else for directions.  Now  that may not be true, however it’s either that or they just kept driving looking for the best parking spot.  


Okay what does this have to do with seeking Peace and Joy?  well in driving like in life we spend  a lot of time moving around searching for some destination. And don’t pay attention to all the cool stuff along the way and even though we have experiences or what we might otherwise call the “vehicles” in our life we often times leave cool experiences parked  for long periods in between the times we take curious  paths for a spin.   It’s hard to say why we pay so much for  our cars and our experiences (like let’s say learning to read or think logically) and then then leave those things parked… but we do it all the time as in the United States we expect to leave lives parked along with our cars because there are 4 parking spots for every car  we own and  every car spends almost 95 percent of its life parked.  


So in Seeking Peace and Joy maybe we should take our lives out for a spin now and then.  They’re will be plenty of places to park ourselves and also why don’t we drive by our local mall and figure out  that the places where we  might park are far more spacious  than the stores we are headed towards  which means we expect to leave our our cars somewhere we don’t hjave to pay for and won’t have to walk too far from thus reducing the possibility of actually having to enjoy the outdoors or run  into fellow human beings… 


So maybe we should reconsider the whole parking lot thing as we often pave paradise and put up a parking lot.. 


anyway  if you ever make a trip to the moon there are three slightly used cars… but the parking meters  probably need a dime or two or the fines might be a little steep I suspect you might be able to use one of the rovers if you can find a charging station (just like your EV here on Earth).  … … Enjoy  the Super Moon and don’t waste your time  looking for the perfect  place to sit still.


Peace. 

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