As I drove past the long lines of cars waiting for gas this morning, it reminded me of when I was young boy, forty years ago, waiting in long gas lines with my parents.  How could it be forty years later and nothing has changed, regardless of the cause?  At that moment I realized how lucky I was to own my Chevy Volt.  It was just one more in a long list of reasons.  When I purchased my Volt two years ago, never did I envision a hurricane as a reason to purchase it.  I simply enjoy being at the forefront of technology.  It also stops my sons from calling me old man.  The Volt is just a great car that happens to be an electric vehicle.  I am generally stopped two or three times a day and asked questions about the car and I happily provide any answers I can.  Although I feel badly for all of the people waiting on lines for gas that may not arrive for hours or days, I do feel somewhat vindicated from all those nay sayers who believe the Volt and all EVs are just a fad.  Now there are tens of thousands who wish they were in on this fad.  When I return home, I simply plug in my car to the outlet in my driveway and wait for the car to charge while I work, eat, or sleep.  It’s that simple.  There was a period of several days that we had no power like everyone else, so no charging.  But in addition to the almost fifty miles on a charge, I can also travel 350 miles on gasoline which means if I drive thirty miles a day, I can hold out for a fairly long time for electricity to once again become available.  As soon as power was restored, I plugged in and I’ve been driving only on electricity for the last couple of days.  As long as I don’t journey too far, which I have no intention of doing until life returns to some level of normalcy, I can drive on electricity indefinitely.  Although it shouldn’t require a catastrophic event, perhaps Hurricane Sandy will at last provide the kick-start this country needs to move ahead quickly with EV technology and infrastructure.