I Drive The Auto Electric (I wish!)

In October 2007, something interesting happened to a building not too far from where I live.
The building in question is on Santa Monica Boulevard, the block East of the 405 freeway.
It used to be a kid's furniture store. It closed and stayed vacant for a while.
And then, some time in october '07, this banner went up and construction began:



I was rather surprised.
Those of you who read this journal regularly know of my penchant for automobiles and vehicles in general.
So when I saw this banner, I immediately realized what it was and what it meant:
There was going to be a Tesla Motors dealership in my backyard.
Tesla Motors is a company based out of Menlo Park, CA, that makes one product, for now: the Tesla Roadster.
The Tesla Roadster is a heavily-modified Lotus Elise that runs on electricity.
It's a high performance sports car, and it's completely battery-powered.
It's also rather good-looking.
And pricey.
More on that later.
Over the next few months, I kept an eye on the building, determined to see if this would really happen.

( More photos and a visit to the Tesla dealership under the cut )

So yeah, neat stuff.
Hopefully, enough people will buy this and the technology will get cheaper and more people will benefit
in the long run. Because we need people with money to be the pioneers to buy stuff and help the tech grow.
For more info on the Tesla, check out their nice website here.

Random: Cape Suzette

A nifty item for costuming on the cheap if you're doing a bat or dragon or demon!
Just change the wing fabric or whatever.
Has a 5-foot wingspan and costs $40, I think.
Close-up of the obligatory warning sticker:



"WARNING: Keep Away From Fire - CAPE IS NOT A FLYING TOY"