Imagine your car needs to be serviced by a mechanic. It could be a complicated problem, routine maintenance, or you could be on the side of the road somewhere. Then imagine you live in a world where you just open up an app on your phone, choose from a dropdown list of services (or type out your own issue), schedule a time, approve the estimate, then the mechanic comes to your location and performs the work on your car right there.
Well, my friends, I just described Tesla’s Mobile Service, it's been available for over five years, and I got to try it for the first time last week.
It was time for a tire rotation on my Model 3 and I couldn’t make it to my regular mechanic (sorry Raks). I must admit I was a little skeptical of having Tesla do this at first, I imagined it would be way more expensive than a traditional mechanic. I was originally quoted $89 for the rotation but a day after scheduling Tesla sent me a message that the price was being reduced to $65. My regular mechanic would probably have charged $40 but I was fine paying an extra $25 for the convenience. I did some research and the average price for a tire rotation in the US is between $60 and $72, according to Kelly Blue Book.
On the morning of the appointment the mechanic, Ryan, arrived right on time and messaged me via the Tesla app that he was there. He was driving a Model S that had been converted into a mobile service vehicle and had most of his tools in the frunk (front trunk). Ryan had all wheels swapped in a matter of ten minutes. While he worked we chatted about Teslas, camper vans and life in general. As luck would have it, he was from Ohio too.
As my entire ownership experience has been with Tesla in the past two years, the process, from A to Z, was extremely streamlined and futuristic. It left me wondering, why in the world doesn’t everyone do it this way? This company's outside of the box thinking never fails to impress me.
My good friend, tattoo artist Greg Lehman, was kind enough to make me this phone charger and holder for me as a gift a few weeks back. Greg is easily the most creative person I know. Along with being one of the most respected tattoo artists in the Twin Cities area he's also a "maker" which means he has the knowhow and the tools to create and invent pretty much anything he can dream up. He designed the miniature Tesla Supercharger phone charger and actually printed it on his 3-D printer. These have to be some of the most thoughtful gifts I've every received in my life. I stay charged with a little help from my friends. : )
My Russian/Ukrainian genes were singing last week. I found a great recipe to make this traditional beetroot soup and we were stuck at home in the bitter cold so I figured I'd try it. It was simpler to make than I imagined and it was absolutely delicious. The recipe made ten portions and the taste just seems to get better then longer it's in the fridge. I've been experimenting with adding different proteins to it like grassfed beef and chicken. Of course, no bowl is complete without a monstrous glob of sour cream and dill.
~Eric Vance Walton~
Thanks for reading!
(Photos are original.)
Poetry should move us, it should change us, it should glitch our brains, shift our moods to another frequency. Poetry should evoke feelings of melancholy, whimsy, it should remind us what it feels like to be in love, or cause us to think about something in a completely different way. I view poetry, and all art really, as a temporary and fragile bridge between our world and a more pure and refined one. This is a world we could bring into creation if enough of us believed in it. This book is ephemera, destined to end up forgotten, lingering on some dusty shelf or tucked away in a dark attic. Yet the words, they will live on in memory. I hope these words become a part of you, bubble up into your memory when you least expect them to and make you feel a little more alive.
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