Status Updates
Some Good News (January 29, 2009)
The “Accident” (January 21, 2007)
The Lotus Dome Prototype Is Nearing Completion (August 13, 2003)
Greetings, folks! Some Good News (January 29, 2009)
I finally can report some good news (if there are any of you still out there!):
Since July of 2007, I have been living in a trailer that was built to test the infrastructure of the Lotus Dome—it is basically a Lotus Dome without the organic shape. The only opaque surfaces are the floor and just over half of the ceiling. It is fully mobile and has been pulled off-road over some very rough terrain to some remote locations. Currently in the middle of winter, I am at 7,500 feet in elevation in the mountains of UT, on an exposed ridge to test wind resistance, and have been thrilled with “Sam” (as I have named her). She has been up as high as 9,500 feet in elevation and is fully vented as is necessary because no matter how cold it is outside, she gets too hot inside without some fresh air! (In the summer, she is fully shaded.)
Sam is completely self-contained, with a custom, 218-gallon water tank as part of the roof, an EccoTemp L5 water heater with a .5 GPM shower head from Zodi (with a HotTap HP as backup), a Sun-Mar Excel NE composting toilet, and a Rinnai Bantam propane heater—all of which needed to be customized to some degree to work under extreme conditions. Sam is divided into four living quarters—not including the (wonderful!) roof deck: a kitchen/shower area with a dual-sloping, Herculiner-coated floor, an office area, the Romper Room (for working out and for use as a shop), and the Lounge, which has a CA King, all-natural latex mattress. Sam generates no waste of any kind and the only signs of her presence after we leave are the tire marks which are easily swept away.
The total weight of the trailer is 2,000 pounds, including the solar array, which goes to an Outback MX-60 controller, which feeds the Trojan T-105 storage batteries, which are monitored by a TriMetric 2020 meter, and which feed an AIMS 2500W DC/AC inverter. Thus I can run any 120VAC power tools that can be plugged into a regular household outlet (though I prefer to us DC appliances whenever possible). The HughesNet satellite modem completes my connection to the (self-proclaimed) “real world.”
I am still rebuilding my life, but until I can afford to finish the Lotus Dome prototype, I cannot go into production. The prototype is still sitting in a storage unit, ninety percent done.
Thank you for bothering to read this!
XXOO
R
The “Accident” (January 21, 2007)
Dear Ones,
Please excuse my lack of updates over the past three years. There have been some “challenges” . . .
I live in a very remote region of the Southwest at 7,000+ feet and I’m told I fell down a mountain in a mountain-hiking accident on January 18, 2005 and spent a month in an ICU of a distant hospital. It took a few miracles to get me there alive. I’m told I fell about two hundred feet head-first into an ice wall.
I have no memory of the accident or the first two and a half weeks in the hospital. I had a shredded skull, severe brain damage, a blown ear drum, damaged eyes, and a variety of other “inconveniences.” I was told by the neurosurgery department that the severe brain damage would have left anyone else brain dead, at best. They don’t know how long it will take me to recover as they have never before seen someone survive such severe brain damage. I’ve also learned from others in the medical world that the University of Utah is considered by many to be the finest medical facility on the planet right now—it is not clear if I would have survived going anywhere else. I got there minutes before dying.
I am homeless, living on disability payments, and dealing with a variety of challenges. The good news is that I am finally able to get online occasionally again! (Now I’m working on restoring my brain!) Every time I go to the hospital for (yet) more head surgery, they ask me in pre-op if I have any allergies. I tell them that I recently discovered that I’m allergic to falling down mountains.
Because of the accident, I have had, and am still having, some powerful spiritual lessons that I am dealing with—gladly, deeply, but also very painfully. For months prior to the accident I had been asking in my meditations for an even deeper level of patience and an even deeper level of compassion. The “Gang Upstairs” obviously got the request—falling down a mountain is NOT something I would do without “assistance.” Now in my meditations I ask that if I haven’t yet learned my lessons, please just give me two more weeks before we do that again!
I will get better, at least as good as I was! It’s just going to take a lot of effort and time. I will never give up on the Lotus Dome, but I have no way to predict my future . . .
XXOO
R
The Lotus Dome Prototype Is Nearing Completion (August 13, 2003)
After considerable effort, the fabrication of a thirty-foot diameter Lotus Dome prototype is over ninety-percent done. All that remains is to purchase the clear polycarbonate and to make up some final pieces of hardware.Very exciting!
All available funds, however, have been exhausted. So if you know of anyone who is as excited about standing inside the prototype as I am and would be able to provide a loan for $24,000.00 for the completion of the prototype, please have them contact me. A loan of $50,000 would allow me to finish the prototype and pay the bills that have accumulated getting the prototype to this point.
Thank you for your patience—there's not much more to go!Richard Fairbanks
Fairbanks Productions, Inc.
information@LotusDome.com