A Leaf on the wind

By Kay H. Wilson

I call her Serenity New.

That's after the spaceship on the long-dead TV space western “Firefly,” and the movie “Serenity” which was filmed after the series was cancelled. Hubby and I love the show and rewatch it on DVD occasionally, though we didn’t know about it when it first aired.

The spaceship known as Serenity in the series and movie was a tub of bolts, and there was a full-time crew member who was always working at keeping her running. Hence, the New on my Serenity – my new Nissan Leaf electric car is definitely no tub of bolts. She is a smooth, slick and fast-running, clean machine.

I had to peel out the other day after showing her off to some of my old blue collar co-worker buddies (America’s new Republicans? Should we change the term to "red collar"?) from the phone company – they just didn’t believe she’d have any get up and go. They were impressed. There also isn’t any of that lag time you get with a gasoline engine when taking off fast.

One thing that we finally noticed was that there is no spare tire. Hmmm? There is, however, a can of fix-a-flat. Guess what? I just called and was reminded we have no spare because we have unlimited roadside assistance. Say, for instance, I’m dumb enough to head to Dallas and run out of juice: roadside assistance will come haul me to the nearest charging station. I wonder if I ought to test that?

Speaking of not being caught on the interstate, you probably won’t be surprised that the most-asked question is “How far can you go in it?” My new standard answer is “As far as I need to – then I park it in the garage and plug it in.”

This is hubby’s and my second car (third, if you count the pickup) and we use it for around-town driving. There are two, sometimes three days a week I run errands, and hubby drives it to work the other days. On the weekend, we drive it exclusively when in town. It is especially efficient for city driving as the starting and stopping is what eats up the gasoline in a traditional automobile; in an electric car, braking recharges the ion-lithium batteries.

Hopefully someday I can get a solar panel to charge her. Then Serenity will be off the grid – just like the outlaws on “Firefly” wanted to be.

Yours in hope and cynicism,

The Compassionate Curmudgeon

PS. I have put 700 miles on her since I got her Sept. 8.

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