The little one is all set to fly out of the nest

It has been some time since I blogged. That is because I spent more than a week recovering from the severe allergies and nose bleeds after that super bloom hike. Was also under a lot of pressure from family to recover before first week of June, to be at the little one's high school graduation!

We came to Cupertino when she was a 6 month old baby, chasing a school district that was "the place to be" in our local circles. Most of our close Desi and Chinese friends were all moving to Cupertino and so did we! It feels like yesterday. 

17 years later, we have graduated out of this school system. It has been an interesting experience as a parent and I am sure both Jr. and the no so little one may have a very different view of things. I for one was happy to have them study here! The elementary, middle and high schools were all within walking distance given our location, they had great friends and we got great friends through them over these years. They also got a decent well rounded learning experience be it academics (thanks to all the "subject aunties" who tutored them where the teachers could not give individual attention), sports or music.... especially music! These schools had amazing music teachers who truly inspired! This place is also beautiful. We don't realize it everyday as we go through the grind, but when sitting in the stands looking at the graduating class, the backdrop was just beautiful!

While Jr. got to go places while still in high school (be it as a exhange student in Taiwan, a trip to rural Indonesia as part of a camp, a training program in Berkeley, etc.) the little one was not so lucky as she was pretty much grounded and at home thanks to COVID. That goes for almost all her classmates who missed out. 

So she was naturally hesitant to go far away. That is always music to my ears as I would like to see the kids every now and then. Not sure if I can handle San's undivided attention. It always reminds me of the ant that gets burnt by the lens. That said, both kids will be going to school in California.  The little one for undergrad and Jr. for a masters. 

While Jr. missed out on prom and a graduation ceremony thanks to COVID, she really enjoyed the grad ceremony and lived it through her sister! She made a secret collage gift and seeing that made my day!

Taking prom and grad pics made me tear up a lot. All these kids we have seen grown up over the years are now going out to the world as adults. Still see them as noisy kids yelling and screaming excitedly in the car as I used to take the group to badminton class every alternate week. 

(that background was modified using Photoshop.. I did have some fun editing grad pics!)

The little one was so happy that grandma made a quick visit for her graduation!

Slowly reconciling myself to the fact that this is going to be a very sad empty nest. Time to play board games till 3AM with a continous flow of chai with our friends I guess. We can do that again now that there are no kids in any of the houses... (in case I lost you there, here is an old old post from this blog!). 

Life does come full circle!

The kids have done us proud so far! Hope they keep succeding at whatever they try!

Local hikes in Cupertino

Planning to change my name to "The last knee bender" or something like that. Walking is sometimes an ordeal so hiking is a challenge. Walking on trails is what makes me happy, so trying out local hikes which are not more than 6 miles and not too steep for long times.

Three hikes in last two weeks.

1. The zinfandel trail

2. Mclellan Ranch trail along the Stevens creek

3. Vista loop to Maisies

A few photos from these hikes.. which all had a chai session at the top!

Enjoy these places while there is still water running in creeks and the ponds are full of water.. for the last few years we used to go by the signs that said "no swimming or wading in ponds" and laugh as there was no water in any of these creeks or ponds. 

For now, alternating between small hikes and knee care! 

Now waiting for the super bloom of flowers to start!

A sense of completion

We have hiked multiple local peaks and hills and points around Cupertino area since COVID and the resolution to hike every weekend. We had however, not covered the Fremont Older and Stevens Creek preserve in its entireity!

We got a chance to do just that this morning. We covered 10+ miles in 4 hours and went up 1800 feet, all around this local loop.. from our local Regnart Road all the way to Tony Lookout Trail loop. We started before sunrise and went at a decent pace. Came back in 4+ hours including a chai and photo breaks. Definitely one of the long ones this year, but totally worth the effort. 

We got an amazing sunrise view ..

watch the valley still enveloped by fog

and more fog..

this entire area was lush green and the trails were clean and well maintained!

Loving the macro mode on the new iPhone.. this entire thing with the buds and flowers,  is smaller than my thumbnail! 

we went along the reservoir for a nice chai break!

There are a lot of cute little bridges we get to cross on this trail. Everyone of them was beautiful!

when we got back, the fog was still there.. and beautiful

A morning well spent.. and we will do this again someday when we feel like going on another 10+ mile hike. My legs felt the effort from the morning that I took a long nap after! 

A beautiful hike for spring or winter! 

It should be easier to go green...

We bought a Nissan Leaf in early Jan to cut down on our gas cost as the big Toyota Sienna was not the right car for me driving alone most of the time on local roads.

It was one of the best decisions we made and now the Leaf has more than 2500 miles on it already!

Also, Daddy Narayanan seems to be setting a record of sort with ~4.7 miles/ kwh, if the readout is to be believed. Even at flat rates of 13 cents/ kwh, that crudely works out to 70$ in electricity bill for almost three months of use. My Sienna gas bill (mostly filled at Costco at cheapest rates possible) was ~ 270$/month!

So far so good. But there was a bigger incentive. If you went on an E-9 plan which has peak rates and off peak rates, you got cheaper electricity if you charged from midnight to 7AM. The Leaf comes with a charging timer, but ... there is always one, it can charge within that timeframe only on 220V. If you charge at 110V, it takes 21 hours.

This did not deter us. I would usually drive only 50 miles on a day and the max range was 110 miles and that meant top of charging as the strategy till we got the 220 V Blink charger installed.

Little did we know that it would be an ordeal. The whole charger install rebate program is winding down and it borders on  a scam. You get assigned to electricians who are not residents or licensed in your city. The city will not let anyone install it unless they pay for a City business license and Cupertino seems to be one of the most expensive city's just to get a business license, which you end up subsidizing out of your rebate! They need to make this part easier.

After San and me ran from pillar to post to work the permit process, install and final city inspection, we finally have the Blink Charger installed in our garage! It took almost 8 weeks, but it is finally here.

Now we get to charge the leaf between midnight and latest by 4AM. The thing sends me an email saying it has finished charging, connects to our wifi automatically and sends data to Ecotality for them to do the math, see where else I charge.. so they can figure out where to put charging stations, etc. etc.

In one way I feel happy to be an early adopter to help change the way we drive and consume gas. In another way it is interesting to see how the machinery does not favor a green solution as a default. The other interesting thing is that I now drive differently. If I see a person in front of me stopped at a signal light, I don't go as fast as possible and stop behind that person. Instead, I coast to a halt. I also drive at speed limit in the slow lane where possible. There is no range anxiety and I get to my destination..

The usual round trips are

local grocery store 4 miles 

Indian grocery store 4 miles

Kumon class 2.5 miles

swimming class 4 miles

Bikram Yoga 9 miles

work 24 miles

Which pretty much is the sum total of places I hit 90% of the time baring the visit to a friends place or some other destination during weekend! For this the Leaf more than does its job.

Do observe that there are at least 20+ Leaves that hit the same routes. Even the drivers kind of nod to each other on Lawrence expressway in the morning which I find amusing.

There is also a lot of Leaf haters out there, most of whom are in the 20-25 age demographic. Yes, I hate the racial profiling but it is true in this case.

Every time someone has taken a freeway exit on to the local expressways or main roads and they encounter a Leaf (not mine necessarily), they expect the other driver to just give them way to the point where even if there are other lanes, they won't move over. There wa this one kid in a brand new black Lexus going at 70 mph after he exit the freeway and ended up on a 50mph zone, where I was driving at 50 on my way back from work.  He kept honking for me to move over to end up in an exit lane and when I refused he had road rage and kept honking and giving me the finger. He even came directly in front of my car and put on the brakes abruptly. Knowing the kid was not stable, I was driving cautiously and was able to coast to a stop as other cars on the road watched with amusement.  Maybe his parents should have gotten him a Leaf instead of the Lexus! That way he could really go far if he goes fast and they can keep track of his every move!

As for these kids with the fast cars and no road sense, only wish the DMV had better scrutiny before handing out drivers licenses or we have a system where we can report such drivers. When I came home that day after this kid did all the honking, was really worried because he definitely seemed to have an issue with me to the point where he pointed his fingers at me as though he was going to shoot me. So came home and was tossing with the idea of calling the cops to let them know what had happened. After being on the phone for 25 minutes with various people, got put on to someone at Highway patrol.

The conversation was very short at that point.

Operator : You reporting a rash driver?

Me : Yes.

Op : when and where ?

Me : xyz location, almost 30 mins ago

Op : vehicle kept driving in which direction ?

Me : South

Op : what car?

Me : Black Lexus.

Op : Black, White, Hispanic or Asian?

Me : (was shocked by that question actualy. was expecting her to ask me male or female driver first..) White.

Op : Male?

Me : yes. young kid.

Op : Ok. Hangs up on me. 

That was it!  I kept saying .. I have the last three digits of license plate.. but nope. she hung up! Guess that was enough info for her.  A young white kid driving a black lexus south on a freeway 27 minutes ago..

Like I said, we need a better reporting system.

Only one thing remains with respect to completing the Leaf Saga.. and that is to get the HOV lane stickers. That way I can keep going in a steady pace on the local expressways without dealing with these road rage folks. Can avoid the freeways altogether.

Someday, sooner or later.. more folks will adapt to a battery operated car. The planet cannot keep going the way it does. It is just a question of time and economics and technology improvement.

Battery cars will be the default the same way Cell Phones, Digital Cameras and E-mail have replaced ther predecesors.

It is fun driving this car. It is a good ride. When you see folks race to stop behind someone, it feels bad now. But, I was one of those people and if I can change my driving habits so can the rest.

Time will do the job!

Veggie harvest amidst a bunny problem

The planter is giving us results.

Thankfully the rabbits were not able to get to these plants. We have been getting tomato by the ones and twos almost every day for the last month and it has been great! We made Okra curry and sambar with home grown okra and it was yummy.

Only issue was that we would collect 2 or 3 okra a day and store it in the fridge and would wait till we got 30 or so before making something with it. Same thing with the egg plant.

In the meantime the bunny problem is reaching epidemic proportions. There are at least 18-20 bunnies around in the bush behind our house and they have a network of holes dug under the fences on all sides so they can freely travel from backyard to backyard.

The railway tracks behind our house has even more bunnies huddling up. I saw a dead bunny on the road on my way to work Friday!  They are now crossing the roads and getting hit.. not a good sign considering they are not as fast as the squirrels. Sooner or later this is going to cause an accident with a person and at that point hopefully the City of Cupertino will act.

High time they did something. I called and they wanted me to pay and put traps for the bunnies and give the bunnies I catch to animal control. Like I have time for that?!

They should put an ordinance on having bunnies as pets and if releasing orphans into the local parks. Bad idea. They give me grief for trying to plant a Eucalyptus tree or Camphor tree but they ignore the rabbits..

Local governance at work!