My Tesla purchase was silky smooth yesterday. I was in and out of the place in 15 minutes, even with having a trade. I was the only person in the delivery bay which helped move things along as well.

I was a bit surprised when I saw just how much of my old car was cloned into the new one. All of the control customization had been moved across including my seat position, control preferences, screen layout and even my home and work address. I was really surprised when I later realized that even the streaming profiles were cloned across. I was able to access my Netflix and Apple music accounts without needing to re-authenticate. For some people having Tesla be in possession of all of this data would be worrisome. For me it’s just a shoulder shrug as I gave up on having any real degree of privacy a long time ago.

I really like the new car. I have never had ventilated seats before and thought they were sort of a gimmick. I can now tell you they are not. Once they clicked on it made a big difference in my comfort level in the middle of a hot August day.

I have already ordered a number of accessories for it. Most of what I had for the 2024 Tesla does not fit, which is not surprising. I am also getting the front windows tinted today to match the rear, a near necessity with where I live. I am very happy with my transaction. I also got the added bonus of paying less per month to own the 2026 which is sweet.

I am looking forward to getting settled into my new wheels. There are a few differences that take some getting used to but I am confident the adjustment period will be very small. Although I lost my respect for Elon in the last few years there is no denying that his company makes a very, very good car.

Here is the video I shot about my initial thoughts.

I have started the process of leveling my last three characters on my second WoW account. These characters include a mage, a shaman and a druid, the second druid that I have leveled. This druid was actually the character that Cindy played for a short period of time when she tried playing WoW very early in our relationship. She abandoned it (her specialty) pretty quickly but for whatever reason I have continued to level it for the last decade or more, anyway.

Today at noon I pick up my fifth Tesla. These cars have been purchased starting in 2019 with my Tesla Model 3 standard range. I remember when I got that car it felt like something that I was really proud of. I recall thinking in the year or two prior to that how owning a Tesla would be cool but unattainable. Instead for my first EV I was looking at something like a Chevy Bolt or the Hyundai EV. But thanks to my impulse buy tendencies I wound up making a Tesla work for my budget. Since that original Model 3 I have owned the Model Y’s each of a different trim/range level.

This 2026 Juniper Model Y is a step down in performance but a step up in range, being rated for almost 360 miles on a full charge, the most of any Tesla I have owned. It has a bunch of bells and whistles to add to the copious amount of bells and whistles my car already has.

My Tesla’s have been my favorite daily drivers I have ever owned. It’s like a rolling cell phone that receives regular updates which add consistent improvements and features to an already great car. I expect to be very happy with my new vehicle, just like have been with the four previously.

For some reason I found myself thinking about NEW cars I have purchased over my life time. The first one was a Pontiac Sunfire GT, bought in Robesonia in the mid 90s. It was a 5 speed. I remember teaching my ex-wife Alison to drive stick in my brand new car, not the best choice but the clutch survived. After that we bought two Nissan Sentra’s new and a Camry hybrid new while married. I helped Cindy buy a Hyundai Ioniq while we were together as well. Since then the number of new vehicles I have purchased were the 2016 Tacoma and now my 5th Tesla. Tesla streamlines so much about the car buying process, it would be hard to go back to the old way.

I decided to go play some pickleball Saturday morning. It was sort of a weird session where I felt like I played pretty well overall yet I lost all four or five games we played. I was a bit inconsistent at times but overall played pretty well which is all I should really care about.

I spent a good portion of Saturday afternoon editing video. I shot the wrap up video for the V14 Pro. I begin the video with a roughly 60 second montage of different short clips that are synchronized to music. It took a LOT of work to make that little bit of B roll which is why I typically don’t include much of it in most of my videos. I am pleased however with the overall outcome of the video, I think it’s pretty good.

Over the weekend I also shot a video where I outlined the steps I took to create a replacement T for the community sign utilizing AI and 3D printing.

My Sunday was on the lazy side. One thing I did accomplish was getting my 2024 Tesla ready to be traded in tomorrow. I went back to front removing any personal items. Even though I keep my vehicles pretty clean inside I was surprised just how much I pulled out of it. Tomorrow at lunch the transaction is supposed to occur. One cool thing about Tesla is there only a button or two to press on the app to complete the transaction. There is no endless piles of paper that you have to wet sign.

I’m already grabbing a few accessories for the new car. One of the things will be a sunshade. The glass roof on the car is cool but it also lets in a bunch of heat and potentially UV rays. It may be partly why all of the skin cancer I have had the last 7 or 8 years has been from the neck up. This model will allow just the front or back part of the roof to be open if you want which is cool. To be honest I think most of the time I will keep it closed though.

I also am not a fan of the stock wheel covers that come with the car so I plan on replacing them with something a little more visually appealing. I am sure there will be a few more tweaks coming as well. I’m excited to get the new Y. I have a feeling this Tesla might be in my possession for more than a couple years breaking a trend that started back in 2022.

Last night I finally got around to filming my review video for the Flashforge Creator 5 Pro, a printer I have had for at least a couple months. This printer has not blown me away which runs counter to a lot of opinions on the internet which are mostly positive. Much of the review focused on comparing the CP5 to my Snapmaker U1 which is also a tool changer printer. In almost every way I prefer the way the Snapmaker does things.

This morning I was making my lunch and it felt like my nose was running badly which is pretty normal for me. What wasn’t normal was when I wiped my nose and saw red. For whatever reason I had a nosebleed, something that does not happen normally for me. I have no idea why it happened but like most things I will attribute it to just getting old. It’s a convenient catch all excuse.

I had a dentist appointment on Wednesday, an appointment I had postponed twice previously. There has been a major shake up at the office whom I have been client of for close to 25 years. The woman who ran the practice abruptly transferred it earlier in the year. Evidently she had some sort of health issue that prompted it combined with not much need to work as her husband is a dentist as well. To make matters worse, my hygienist that I have had for nearly as long left as well due to some health issues with her son and possibly collateral damage from the ownership change.

The new female dentist is ok but I don’t have the history like I did with the prior one. I had a new hygienist as well. She is a short and old lady named Joe. At first I was skeptical of how she would do but she was fine. However due to her age I certainly can’t count on her being around long term. I had thought I would need to start looking for a new dentist office but for now, the visit wasn’t such a turn off that I feel the need to jump ship, yet.

Now I have another medical change I have to navigate. The on site employee health clinic that I have utilized for 10-15 years has been shut down. There is a new clinic but it is no longer on site and is managed by another organization so I will be dealing with a new RN/LPN. I need to get a physical shortly as a qualifier for our health insurance so I will be seeing how this round of change works out.

I forgot to mention that we got to see Odyssey on Tuesday night, the last night it was showing in Imax in our area. The only option was going back to the same theater where I had the terrible experience watching Spiderman. Luckily the theater was much less mobbed on a Tuesday night than it was on Saturday. The theater did not have residual trash in it this time either. The Odyssey delivered a pretty epic experience, enhanced by seeing it in Imax. I never read the book so the story was new to me. The movie seemed like an instant classic to me, sort of like Avatar or Titanic. It gets a bright and shiny A.

This weekend does not have any big events on the calendar although I really need to film another review video for the V14 Pro. This would be the final wrap up video which I normally put a little extra effort into. I am considering skipping pickleball Saturday morning. My knees although workable, are still not great. I have significant soreness in both of them which includes parts that are painful to the touch. When I tried doing lower body work at the gym this week I had to resort to an abbreviated version as certain movements just did not feel good. The joys of aging never stop coming.

I started off Saturday playing some hot and humid pickleball. I played pretty well, going undefeated. I didn’t notice any tweaks during play but my knees didn’t feel great the rest of the weekend after playing.

I completed printing the replacement T for the sign entering the development. I used construction adhesive to attach it. This was the first time I ever printed with ASA filament and it went great on my Bambu Lab H2S which is able to handle high temperature filaments like this.

Although not a perfect match I think the 3D printed T is close enough that once it is painted to match the other letters I think unless you know it was replaced, you won’t notice it. I gave myself an imaginary pat on the back for this one.

We could not get seats at the local theater to see Spiderman so I got us two tickets to the Regal Gulf Center theater instead which is up near Fort Myers. It’s a much bigger venue. Well we quickly found out it is also sort of a shit hole. We walked into the lobby to an ocean of people. There had to be 150 people in the concession line and nearly as many in a line waiting to get into the theaters. I don’t know if they are just understaffed or just really inefficient. They had ONE person scanning in people’s tickets. The actual theater was a mess too. Evidently they didn’t have staff clean in between showings. I had to remove drinks/trash that were at our seats and stack it in the aisle. We will likely never frequent this theater again. I was annoyed enough with the theater that I did my first Yelp review ever about how badly things are run.

Luckily the Spiderman movie was great. No spoilers but it was really enjoyable especially after the string of so/so super hero movies that have come out the last couple years. The post credits scene was not really worth staying for. Just look it up online. I would give the movie a solid A. We both really enjoyed it.

I gave FSD a significant test. I had it drive from my house to the theater, including finding a space and parking us automatically in the very busy lot. It did so without a hiccup. It drove us the 30 miles home as well without incident. It’s so good now. It is like having an invisible Uber driver available 24/7.

My Sunday other than going to the gym and doing my weekly bill paying session was pretty low key. I had things I could be doing but I just didn’t feel like it. I did manage to get my last character in WoW on my first account to level 90 meaning all 10 are at max level. Now I only have 3 left on my secondary account to go. Elsa had a pretty good weekend health-wise with no significant issues which made me happy.

Although we have 3 other people on the HOA board, a lot of the handling of things comes through me since I am the only one who appears to access the property management company website and I also get emails sent to the HOA address. So there have been a few requests/complaints that have come in that I have tried to field. If it’s something I can address directly I would prefer to do so for efficiency sake, example in point the tattered flag that I replaced at the entrance.

Evidently some idiot thought it would be funny to pry off a T on one of the signs that frame the entrance to the community. At first I had no idea how to remedy this but then I came up with a potential solution. I took a picture of the sign and asked AI to tell me what font was being used which it was able to do instantly. I measured the other T to get an idea of the size needed.

I was able to do a test print just to see how good of a match it will be. It’s not perfect but it’s pretty good. I will be printing the permanent replacement material out of ASA, a filament type that is very UV resistant and appropriate for outdoor use. Regular PLA would degrade pretty quickly. Hopefully by the end of the weekend the sign will be back to normal.

The lights that illuminate this sign were also out. I found a switch that controls them turned off in a control box, likely done by the same idiot. I will make that box more difficult to access this weekend as well.

In addition to the sign restoration project I have several other things I would like to get done this weekend. I need to do my wrap up video where I summarize my feelings about the V14 Pro. I normally will take more time in making this type of content as it typically is the video that gets the most eyeballs.

I would like to play some pickleball but that will depend on how my lower body feels. I did weighted lower body work this week for the first time since I screwed up my knee and have been paying the price with bad soreness afterward. It’s normal but makes playing pickleball not that easy. I could start work on the other side of the fence but I would much prefer to do something like that on an extended weekend.

Oh, I only have one more character to get to max level on my first WoW account, in case you were keeping track. I have three more on the second account to keep me busy next.

I saw some clips of the senate hearing where they questioned Fauci about a laundry list of shady shit that went down during his tenure as THE authority on covid. Not only does it appear apparent that covid was the end result of the Woohan lab messing around with virus mutations to “gain function” but Fauci also used his almost celebrity status to enrich himself significantly in the process. In some cases he utilized his staff to help solicit cash awards that he benefited from. It’s some pretty horrible stuff.

During covid Fauci was seen as the figurehead to lead us through that quagmire. He was entrusted with this power by both Trump and Biden. However near the end of Biden’s term he granted Fauci immunity which was very shady and lame. I think presidential pardons should be abolished. One man’s signature should not be able to circumvent the rule of law IMO.

So anyway members of the panel began depicting the various things Fauci is accused of and asking him to confirm/deny the allegations. He gave the exact same answer to every question he was asked. He said “Under the advice of counsel , I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions” He pleaded the 5th amendment 110 times, disgraceful. It got to be a joke. At one point a senator asked him about the color of his tie. He took the 5th. It’s amazing seeing him yesterday looking like this, guilty as hell contrasted to the energetic, likeable man we thought we knew.

Rand Paul ran the committee and he grilled Fauci hard as well as throwing out the attorney that was sitting next to him. Even though Rand unwillingly sides with Trump at times he is largely an independent thinker who has his the same libertarian political leaning as his father. I wish he had an opportunity to be president but the the reality is an independent thinker that isn’t willing to be coddled by the corrupt portion of their political party has zero shot of getting elected in modern America.

During covid I more or less trusted what Fauci was telling us. That trust was clearly misguided. I have never been afraid to reevaluate my position based on new information. This is just another example of it. Fauci gamed covid for his own personal benefit and if he actually was aware of unethical “gain of function” at the Woohan lab he is partially responsible for the countless covid related deaths around the globe. As if I didn’t already have an overflowing barrel of reasons to not trust what the government tells us, the Fauci 5th amendment marathon was just piled on top. Disgusting.

Elsa is still up and down with her health. She will have an episode of diarrhea and/or throwing up but then settle down for a few days. She ate well yesterday but then had some diarrhea during the day. I gave her some of the medicine I have for diarrhea, hoping that it would help. She got me up once around midnight to go but then slept the rest of the night. When she had a BM this morning it was more on the solid side.

It’s been tough riding this health roller coaster with her but there is no other option. Her care is a team effort at this point split between myself, my girlfriend and her daughters. Next month she is due for a follow up with the vet for normal yearly things and to check her blood values. It’s not a visit I am looking forward to.

Saturday morning I played some pickleball. I got a bit of a late start and it was getting hot and humid as hell so I only played three or four games before calling it quits. I didn’t want to go too hard with my recent knee issues compounded by all the walking and standing around that occurred at Disney.

Saturday afternoon I decided to work on replacing one small street facing side of the fence. The boards were in bad condition, some had completely rotted a hole where the fastener was located. The fence is made of 4 inch wide boards but unfortunately no store that I have found sells these boards in nice 4 foot length with the top crown already cut into them. My only option was to buy 8 footers from Lowe’s, cut them in half and then cut the shape into the top of each board. For some reason they do have 6 inch wide boards that are ready to go but not 4 inchers.

The work was tedious and slow, made worse by the extreme heat and humidity. I sweated through my shirt within the first 15 minutes. Removing the old rotted fence board was done using a chisel, hammer and my hands. I had to remove the old wood screws and original brad nails that were used to install the fence originally. To do just that small section took me at least a couple hours. It turned out well and gave me a chance to redo the gate in a manner that made it easier to open, close and lock.

The great news is the other side of the house has a section of fencing facing the street in nearly the same bad condition that is twice as wide. That will be my next target. Whether I get motivated to do it soon or push it off until cooler weather arrives is to be determined. You never know when a wave of motivation will hit me.

On Sunday I got out on my V14 to do a couple things I wanted to try since I got the wheel. Jump it a little bit and take it up over 40MPH. I have very limited backyard space to do something like a jump but I made it work somewhat using the patio stones as the launch pad to allow me to hit my small ramp into the stones/grass. The wheel felt great although I could not hit the ramp with a lot of speed because of the short distances. I got the wheel up to 42 miles an hour plus for a short period. Despite it’s small size the V14 felt stable and powerful at those speeds.

I had a live stream Sunday night, my first one in over a month and a half. Despite the long hiatus I didn’t feel like I had a ton to talk about and the live stream audience was on small side which meant the comments that normally help me fuel the content were lacking. Oh well.

Elsa had one of her bad nights on Sunday evening. I got up with her three different times because she had some diarrhea and then early in the morning threw up a bit. I didn’t really fall asleep in between these sessions because I was worried about her. I woke up feeling exhausted. All day yesterday she was low energy and weak not wanting to eat much at all and spending most of the day sleeping. Unfortunately this is kind of the new normal, she has several good days followed by a bad one. Last night she actually slept through the night but again I found myself not sleeping as I was still worried she would need me to let her outside.

This morning I could tell she was starting to feel better. I am very locked into how Elsa is feeling based on her body language. I am hoping to come home today and find her feeling better. I hate not being able to give her a magic pill that makes this all go away. Elsa has a very expressive face so when she is not feeling well I feel terrible for her.

I don’t recall if I mentioned it or not but I have a delivery date for my new Tesla, August 11th.

I recently returned from a Disney trip where we stayed in a townhouse I found on Air BnB. Unlike previous Air BnB experiences, this place was pretty great. They took an old place built in the 90’s and did just enough updates to make it feel modern and cool. It even had a small pool in the back which I utilized a couple times.

During the trip we had two park days with a “rest” day in between which is needed if you want to retain any degree of sanity during a Disney vacation. The Disney days felt more like a test of determination, patience and endurance. To me it felt like something to be survived instead of enjoyed. I have a lot of thoughts about this so I will see if I can express them in a way that doesn’t sound like I am just complaining non-stop.

Let me start with positives. The management and logistics involved in running these parks is mind blowing. Coming up with solutions to managing the needs of thousands of visitors every single day is a monumental task and Disney has it locked in. You never have to look far for the next bathroom our food/drink possibility. The grounds are immaculate. If something gets dropped on the ground within single digit minutes there is a Disney staff member swooping in to clean it up. They allow very little room for guests to mess things up. They have staff directing you at every turn. Even when you get food there is somebody telling you which line to go stand in to keep things flowing as cleanly as possible.

The landscaping is beautiful. The buildings and rides are intricate, detailed and amazing. Walking through the circles of countries in Epcot is a prime example of just how much has gone into making the park a unique experience.

So you may say, wow it sounds like you are gushing with compliments about the parks. What is the issue? The answer is very simple, the hoard of human beings that are clogging every nook and cranny of the park. And before you say it, complaining about the people at an amusement park is like pissing in the wind. They are unavoidable, a truth you can not escape. Let’s break down some of the negatives.

How about cost first? A one day pass to Disney is $180 for one person. They give you a “deal” of $220 if you want to subject yourself to a second day. For for a family of four with a two day pass when you add in $35 to park you are basically spending a grand just to get into the place. This is only “standard” access meaning you get to stand in the “stand by” lines for each ride. The wait times on the rides varied from 15 minutes for the rides that no one cares about to two hours on the thrill rides, which is insane.

For people that have a desire to not stand in line for hours you can purchase a “lightning pass”. This allows you to bypass the majority of the line but for only three rides and one time per ride. This costs $35 additional per person. But wait, it gets better. The real popular rides with monster wait times do not allow you to use the lightning pass. On the second day at Magic Kingdom I paid for lightning passes after some miserable waits at Epcot Center.

If money is no object to you you can buy a “premier pass” add on This gives you unlimited lighting lanes access, sort of. It appears that they still could at their discretion block access to certain rides depending on conditions. The cost for this golden ticket? $400 OMG. So yea it gets crazy.

I made the observation to my girlfriend that most people look miserable. The park to me was a petri dish of modern society. Gluttonous obesity was on display everywhere. There were far more people that were significantly obese by BMI standards than not. Then we had the addiction to phones on display everywhere. People would be bumping into you routinely because they had their face down scrolling an IG feed, it was maddening. The kids walking around with souvenirs that will likely be stuffed in a drawer or thrown away once their magical experience was over. This was the ultimate display of consumerism and I here I was in the middle of it, contributing.

My lower body felt rather awful most of the time between walking tons on my aching knees to standing and shuffling in lines for hours upon hours. All of this was done with temps in the 90’s with high humidity so it was just not fun.

We stayed for the fireworks on our Magic Kingdom day. We did not get home until after midnight because of the frustrating way you have to access Magic Kingdom. There is a tram or ferry that takes you to/from the park and a shuttle that takes you from the parking lot. When we tried to leave after the fireworks we ran into a literal river of people all trying to leave. I was so done. mentally and physically.

I felt like the days in the parks was about completing a mental challenge. Just how much frustration. discomfort and misery can I endure while paying a premium price for the privilege of doing so? When the second day was finally done I almost felt like I completed a half marathon. I didn’t enjoy Disney, I survived it. I left the park feeling even less hopeful for the future of humanity than I already did, probably not the goal Walt was reaching for.

So of course after mentioning Elsa has been doing better the last few days she had another episode this morning around 4:30AM after having a good day of eating yesterday. She got up and I heard her so I let her out. She just peed so I thought that was it. However just after I got settled back into bed and was trying to fall back asleep I heard her doing the thing with her mouth when she is getting ready to puke. I quickly jumped out of bed once again and got her outside where she threw up most of her dinner. She also had a round of diarrhea, usually these two things go hand in hand with her current condition. After that we went back to bed for maybe an hour before I had to get up. Solid sleep is something I don’t get very often nowadays.

Once we got up and going Elsa hit the water bowl. She isn’t very good at drinking regularly. She instead prefers to drink a ton at once. Well with her already feeling poorly 15 minutes after filling her belly with water she threw most of that up as well. Again, none of this behavior is new. Before I left for work she got another drink but I stopped her from drinking too much so her stomach could settle. As expected she did not have interest in food outside of a couple of dry biscuits that normally help settle her stomach a bit. If things go as they normally do she will have a low energy day today and hopefully feel better tonight/tomorrow.

I went ahead and booked an AirBnB for our trip to Orlando last night. It’s a unique and cool looking place. I will do my best to enjoy it despite having thoughts of Elsa’s wellness on my mind on the short 4 night trip. I know Alison and Shugs will take good care of her and do whatever is needed including with dealing with the results of when Elsa doesn’t feel well.

Today I am making my return to the pickleball court, the first time in two weeks after injuring myself from a combination of playing and aggravating things at the gym. The swelling is under control and I can walk more or less normally. We will see how it holds up after three or four games.

Although the trip next week is only for a few days I actually have off until the 28th. I have a few things around the house I would like to tackle when I get back like replacing another section of fence boards that are on their last legs. I also need to swap out the broken Tesla motor cover that I broke when I zigged when I should have zagged. I am unsure if I will post during that time period or not. Stay tuned to see.

Oh I now have a rather large potential delivery window of the new Tesla of August 2nd to the 28th.