And contrary to many believe, the significance of Cinco de Mayo is not that it is Mexico’s Independence Day — because it's not. That holiday is held on September 16 (or dieciséis de Septiembre).

May 5th is on of those holidays that you (I) might have gotten a little too excited about in your (my) twenties and then somehow a couple decades later, you (I) still have a pavlovian response to when it comes up on the calendar. My ability to metabolize multiple numbers of any drink has diminished considerably, but margaritas are still fun.

If you are out & about on Cinco de Mayo, be careful. Make sure that you are with safe people in safe (and well ventilated) places. I always tell my kids to be extra vigilant on the roads around holidays. Driving is a super high-risk thing that we all take for granted already. It definitely gets more so if the number of impaired drivers are higher than usual.

Speaking of driving, CLI bids farewell to the 2008 turtle-top van this month. For those of you who don't know this fine steed in CLI's stable, well... you aren't missing much. While this fine piece of Ford engineering has its fans, I've never been one. I've been impatiently waiting for it to die for at least 2 years. However, we're driving a lot now and need even more vans, so in the way Murphy has, the van died just at the time we most needed it.

But, we don't know whether we can afford to buy another expensive vehicle until we know whether we'll generate enough money focusing only on person-centered, community integrated services vs. the old-school large facility based services that paid the bills pre-COVID.

So for now, we've leased a a 2020 Nissan Leaf-- our first electric vehicle. This one will assigned to community employment diva, Kristi Green. I'm thinking it will be sporting some sparkly seat covers pretty soon.

This is a bit of an experiment for CLI to see whether the more limited range is an acceptable compromise to the lower operating costs. We will spend more than $30,000 on gasoline this year. Pre-COVID we spent more than twice that.

As we move further and further into the community, CLI is going to need more vehicles and will probably be using them frequently for lots of short trips, but less than 150 miles in total per day. That is perfect for electric, which costs about 1/4 in energy costs to zip about in as compared to gas. During the winter, it's a mixed bag with a 40% drop in available range (but still enough), but instant heat (the benefit a driveable toaster). CLI really only has room for 1-2 cars in our fleet because we need to be able to fit 4 passengers on a regular basis. This Nissan has a range of 225 miles between charges. If this vehicle works for us, we'll look at an electric van as soon as one is available-- and we know that we are making enough money to keep the bank happy.

I heard back from Andy Swaisgood at the Clearwater COG and he's good to interview with Jeremy in the next few weeks. I know that Rocio is already working out the details. I'm looking forward to learning more about this initiative. I feel like I've said this before, but this is the most interesting time to be working in the field of helping people with DD. While there are many frustrations and I do worry about lots of the nuts & bolts-- we really are at a tipping point where we neither any longer go back nor teeter in place here forever.

That's all I have. Enjoy your week & stay safe!

Just a reminder that if you or someone you know is excited about CLI & want to learn more about what it's like to work with us-- you can send an email to us by clicking on this box.