So I once again received my annual SiriusXM renewal which once again was a ridiculous $283 for an annual subscription. Of course I had no intent of paying that much so I did the same thing I have done the last five or six years, threaten to cancel. My last interaction with Sirius, like many of them over the years, was pretty shitty when I transferred my service over to the radio in the Tacoma., so I wasn’t looking forward to another phone interaction.
It’s a pretty simple process, when you get into the phone menu you select the cancellation option which puts you in the queue to talk to a live person. I have given my speech so many times it comes out very easily. Basically I say I received my renewal notice, I can’t afford to pay that much and I would like to cancel my subscription if I can’t pay the same rate I paid the prior year. Saying you “want to cancel” is the key phrase. Once I said that my rate magically was cut almost in half. I’ll be paying roughly $145 for the year subscription, once again. I was also pleased that the phone rep this time around wasn’t an asshole.
Today is Amazon Prime day so if you are an avid Amazon customer you may be able to score some sweet deals. Our Amazon Echo and Dots continue to amaze us with the new features that are added on a regular basis. We voice ordered a couple early Prime deals last night and the Echo will give us a voice notification of shipping updates as they occur.
The Alexa calling feature that was recently added is pretty cool, it’s like a PA system for the home. Cindy used it last night to open up a two way voice channel to me as I was sitting in the office while she was driving home from teaching a class. Of course if you are concerned about privacy, having a device that is constantly listening is not going to be for you. However if you are like me and operate on the premise that there is no real privacy in today’s world, you just roll with it.
So a few weeks ago during a phone call with my dad he told me that he planned to install a whole house solar system which I thought was very cool. However what surprised me was how he intended to mostly pay for it by selling his two investment lots in Arizona, his BMW motorcycle AND his Alfa Romeo. I am embarrassed to say I don’t recall which year his Alfa is but I think it’s 1963 or 64.
So the first three things he was selling made sense. The land, which much like my investment land in Lehigh Acres is worth a fraction of what he paid for it and will likely never recover appreciably. With dad’s aching lower body long motorcycle rides just are not enjoyable any more so there isn’t much reason to keep the bike. Selling the Alfa however is a BIG deal.
That car has been around prior to the point in time my memories started. It lived in the garage in the Gouglersville house during most of my childhood. Hell there was a junked Alfa in the barn that was used for some parts as well. The junked Alfa also was my make believe vehicle. I remember crawling into the cruddy, rodent infested cockpit and imagining I was out on the road many, many times.
For almost my entire life the Alfa was under some sort of cosmetic or mechanical restoration. At no time was the vehicle driven on a regular basis. I don’t think I would be inaccurate in my guess that during my lifetime the car has seen less than 1000 miles added to the odometer. When I got my drivers license it happened to coincide with a time where the Alfa was actually running. I got to drive it a few times and even took it to my senior prom. The car had a very unique, low posture and the ticking sound it made before you started it will always be ingrained in my brain.
The car has moved around the country with dad, from PA, out to New Mexico, and back to western PA in the span of about five years. When I say the car was undergoing restoration for the last 30 years or so I am not exaggerating. Some of the work dad did himself but a lot of it was outsourced which of course lead to a LOT of money being spent over time. I would say the restoration more or less was complete a couple years ago although I think there were still a few things left to do.
So anyway, yea, for dad to be willing to finally let go of his young man hobby car after more than four decades is a real big deal. I talked to him again today and it sounds like he actually has a legitimate buyer lined up for the car, via Craigslist no less. If things go well, as of this weekend the Alfa Romeo will no longer be under roof.
I am curious if dad will feel similar to how I did with the SSR, where I surprisingly felt minimal remorse after it was gone. The sale of the SSR allowed me to do a lot of great things. The sale of the Alfa is going to allow dad to become much more energy independent which is something that sounds very appealing to him at this point in his life. I’m proud of him for making the decision to let the car finally go, it was a long, very long, time in the making. Hell the car almost felt like a distant sibling that was always around but never said much. The older I get the more I put value on things I do, feel or accomplish and less on what I own. You can’t buy happiness, after all.
So as part of my Saturday morning chores I wanted ot get the grass mowed and weed whacked. The standing water had dried up so I knew in wet season you need to take advantage of these dry opportunities. Cindy and I busted ass and got everything looking good, just in time for it to absolutely pour a couple hours later, submerging the grounds once again. It’s so frustrating. When I walked back in the chicken area to turn the pump back on the water was only three to four inches from the top of my boots.
When I was doing stuff around the yard I was feeling some moderate discomfort from my right side. It was the left over pain I had from doing dragon flags on Friday. I was a little concerned that the pain, which seems to be right around where a liver is supposed to me, was still hurting. The pain also erased running from the activity list for the weekend. When I was crossing the Home Depot parking lot with Elsa and tried to transition into a light jog to avoid burning her feet I felt significant discomfort. As the weekend progressed the pain has lessened so hopefully just avoiding dragon flags in the future will be the long term remedy.
Saturday night we got out to see the new Spiderman movie. I found it interesting that Marvel basically decided to tweak the Spiderman origin story most of us know. Despite this it somehow all worked which isn’t surprising. Everything Marvel touches just works. Both Cindy and I really enjoyed the movie, earning a shiny A+ in my book.
Sunday morning Katie joined us for our EUC ride around some of the beautiful nearby developments. She had my old Ninebot One that I gave to Daniel in her truck which Cindy hopped on and rode at the end of the ride. It was sort of a symbolic triumph for Cindy since it was her fall off the Ninebot One in the driveway that scared her from learning for months and months. For her to be able to step up and do a few circles on the 9B1 like it was no big deal was a testament to how far she has come. Cindy said she actually liked the way the 16 inch wheel felt.
I did some more 3D printing over the weekend, printing a cool clamp style headset holder for Cindy, a small skull ring, a new phone case and a few other items. I also got to do my first “fixing” of the FlashForge Finder. When I was changing filament a piece seemed to get stuck in the extruder. I had to do some minor disassembly to get access to the filament tube. I then was able to use the included tools to clear the path and load in some fresh spool.
It’s a good thing that I get some practice digging into the printer. With the CR-10 large format printer I have on order there is probably going to be a lot of tweaking, improving, and fixing going on.
I recorded a second video during the afternoon recapping my experiences thus far with 3D printing. For being complete novices, I think Cindy and I have created some pretty amazing objects.
Sunday afternoon was chill with Cindy working more on her costume designs while I worked more in WoW. Since I unlocked the ability to fly in game it has made leveling characters significantly easier. I now have six or seven of my 11 toons at max level and keep working on the what is left.
We watched 50 Shades Darker last night, a movie I rented because Cindy expressed interest. I saw the first one with her and was not very impressed although it was some low level soft porn. I thought the sequel suffered from a disjointed plot which I found a hard time caring much about. Of course it was filled with large amounts of more soft porn once again so I can give it a B on entertainment value I guess.
I once again have not been sleeping well. Lately it seems I wake up an hour or two before the alarm goes off and just fade in and out of consciousness until the bell sounds.
Yesterday afternoon another line of storms blew through delivering yet another standing water blow to the backyard. I headed out there and fired up the pump immediately. By this morning it had drained enough that I could turn the pump back off. Although pumping surely won’t keep the area dry it certainly helps keep things less submerged.
I did more 3D printing yesterday, printing out a cool WoW themed iPhone 6 case and a cupholder iPhone mount for Cindy’s car. The phone case did not last very long, I cracked the top of it trying to remove the phone which is not a huge deal and sort of expected. Something like a phone case would be best printed in ABS plastic as it is more flexible and durable than PLA.
This weekend Cindy and I would like to get out to see Spiderman, do some EUC riding along with the mandatory house chores/maintenance that are a staple of our existence.
So even though my CR-10 printer will likely not arrive for a couple weeks I have already been printing some parts to enhance it. The CR-10 user community is huge and active. As a result they have quickly identified potential weak points in the printers design and come up with solutions that can be 3D printed, ironically. I printed a cable strain relief bracket and some enhanced leveling knobs so far but there will be more stuff to come for sure. I can’t wait to start trying to print some bigger objects. The 12″x 12″ x 16″ print volume has some huge possibilities. One of the first things I want to try are printing tray inserts for the center console of the Tacoma to give the big space multiple levels of organization.
I think the pump I have in the back of the chicken coop yard is definitely help to accelerate the removal of standing water. Last night I turned it off. If we can get a few days without rain I would like to dig a hole in the absolute lowest spot back there which is maybe 20 feet from where it is now. I can then put a bucket in the hole and the pump in the bucket to maximize it’s water relocation potential.
Over my adult life I seem to have hobby or interest phases where I get very focused or interested in something and dedicate a LOT of time to it. Some things totally fade away, others just see less time dedicated to them. Some of the things that have rotated on and off that list are volleyball, cars, bar fitness, WoW, race timing, RC planes/drones, and electric unicycles. Well it seems that 3D printing may be officially on that list as well.
After buying my FlashForge Finder a few weeks ago CIndy and I have been on a 3D printing tear. The majority of that printing has been stuff for Cindy’s Widowmaker costume for Supercon but I have made a lot of other cool things as well. There is something very satisfying about being able to create an object out of nothing.
Well I expanded my 3D printer collection by ordering a printer that is taking the 3D printing world by storm, the CR-10. It is so popular because it is able to produce HUGE prints in multiple materials with very good quality. There are lots of printers that make really nice prints however what makes the CR-10 so crazy is it is only $400, $100 less than what I paid for my FlashForge printer.
This printer does require some minor assembly and is definitely not as targeted to the 3D printing novice as much as the Finder is. I did a decent amount of reading and researching on the CR-10 and unlike so many things in life, it actually seems to not be to good to be true. It’s a high quality, huge volume printer for a very affordable price. I’m really looking forward to digging into it once it arrives and see what I can do. I expect some more technical challenges with this type of printer but nothing that I can’t handle.
Speaking of 3D printing, Cindy has been busting ass getting the dozens of 3D parts I printed assembled for her rifle. She is almost there and it looks great. It amazes both of us that we were able to create something of this detail and realism ourselves, as complete 3D printing novices.
So I wanted to do a different kind of EUC ride for the 4th of July. I suggested to Cindy we drive all the way down to Marco Island to ride around the hilly area, something we never tried before. Cindy was enthusiastic about the idea. The drive took between 45 minutes and an hour so it was significant time investment.
We parked at the same spot the Marco Hill Run is based out of, a race I timed for years. I was initially frustrated when I turned on my GoPro and realized I left my micro-SD card in the reader at home. However I was able to run into the Publix and grab a 16GB card to save the day.
The ride was really fun, scenic, interesting, and challenging. I have NEVER ridden any EUC on hills that big. I have seen a number of videos of fellow riders on the internet pushing their wheels up and down big hills and having the bot overheat or implode. As we were riding I was using the app on my phone to make sure both the Monster and Msuper were not getting too hot from the added load. Both wheels stayed safely in the normal operating range thankfully.
Riding hills requires a different technique. Depending on the length and degree of climb you have to really pitch your body forward and shift your weight to your toes to keep the wheel going. It also feels weird going down steep declines as your speed can very quickly ramp up to uncomfortable levels. Cindy got a bunch of seated riding in too, despite the terrain. It was a great ride and I hope we can take the wheels down there again to explore other parts of the island.
So when we got home after lunch I went directly outside to mow the back yard, the area I missed on Saturday due to a downpour that submerged the yard once again. I gave the back yard a matching haircut and finished up just as it started to rain, again. By the time it stopped the standing water was back again.
We spent a lot of the rest of the day doing stuff we enjoyed, me playing WoW and Cindy working on her gun. We were trying to estimate how much time in total we have spent on the Supercon costume/gear but it would be too staggering to add up. Despite all the work, it’s something Cindy really enjoys doing so the hours don’t really matter.
I forgot to mention I have now put up a a web site for my EUC Army moniker that I established on YouTube awhile ago. I took down the running club website that I still had alive in one of my WP hosting slots on GoDaddy and installed eucarmy.com there instead, a much better use of my resources.
My thought process is when we are asked about the wheels we can simply say, “go to eucarmy.com to find out more” The site explains some of the basics as well as links to more information, a forum, and recommendations on where to buy EUC’s. I like the visuals of the site, it will be interesting to see how much traffic it will generate for me.
Our 4th of July celebration was a minimal as you can imagine. When we took Elsa out for her final walk of the night we each lit a single sparkler that was waved around for a few seconds. I had no desire to go fight traffic and crowds to witness the fireworks at the Naples Pier and there were plenty of backyard firework shows going off all around us.
Cindy and I started off the weekend with a track 5K. I forced myself to do it even though as recently as Friday night I was walking around gingerly due to hamstrings still sore from deadlifting on Tuesday. Much like the week prior, the run felt like a struggle pretty much the entire time. The temp almost being 80 degrees with high humidity at 7AM didn’t help matters.
I wanted to get all weekend labor out of the way on Saturday and I worked diligently to make that happen. Weeding was a particularly large pain in the ass. The frequent rain combined with steaming temperatures provides the perfect conditions for weeds to pop up everywhere.
It was bright and sunny for most of the day Saturday, so much so that once again the dreaded standing water had dried up. Around 3 o’clock I decided I should take advantage of this and jumped on the tractor as I saw a few gray clouds starting to form. Well as I was about half way into mowing the first front section when it started to rain lightly. Since the tractor has a sun canopy it also does a decent job as a rain canopy so I pressed on. By the time I called it quits after finishing the front of the house I was mowing in the middle of a monsoon. Of course the recently dried up sections of the yard were now back under several inches of water…..sigh.
Another thing I got out of the way on Saturday was my weekly bill paying session. I actually had very few bills to pay this week so a wave of inspiration hit me. My primary 15 year mortgage was real close to being paid off. I had planned to pay it off in a couple months but I decided I would dip into one of my other budget columns and pay the sucker off now. I have been overpaying a little bit each month ever since the house was refinanced which has allowed me to get to this point roughly a year ahead of schedule.
A looong time ago I had set a goal of having the house paid off before I was 50 so it feels good to accomplish that. However when I initially set that goal it was the intent for the house to be COMPLETELY paid off which it is not. I still have my home equity loan which was opened almost as long ago which was used to pay for things like the pool, the two terrible land investments in Lehigh Acres, divorce settlement funds, and home improvements. Now that the primary mortgage is cleared out I can attack the HELOC as well as having some extra funds to both save and do some other things with. I would like to open up a Roth IRA to give me a third retirement account to lean on when I am old, gray, and feeble. (if I make it that long) So anyway, yes, it feels good to have the primary mortgage satisfied, it’s something a lot of people never get a chance to do in their lifetimes.
Saturday night we stayed home and watched Aftermath, a recent movie I never heard of with Arnold starring in it based on a true story. I was somewhat surprised that the movie was missing pretty much any of the classic Arnold physicality even though there is a weird, twisted, revenge plot going on. I thought it was well done although extremely sad and tragic. It gets a solid B but don’t expect to be jumping for joy afterward. I think this movie never hit theaters and went direct to Blu-ray.
Sunday morning Cindy and I got out on the wheels, riding directly from the house over to the high school roughly three miles away. The wide open and traffic free roads are great for practicing. I did more seated riding on the Monster and Cindy worked on a number of skills as well. Her comfort level on the wheel is approaching mine.
It felt like I was wasting time not having my 3D printer building something so over the weekend I printed Arthas the Lich King, a big character from World of Warcaft lore. It was a very complex model and I was skeptical of how it would turn out. When it was done printing it was encased in support material but after a lot of careful clean up by Cindy this was the end result. Cindy will also be the one to take on the very intricate task of painting the model when she has time.
The reason Cindy’s time has been taxed is her relentless work on her cosplay costume and props. She has been spending a ton of time assembling the 3D gun that we printed the parts for. Putting all the parts together and making it look pretty is a far greater task than the printing of the parts. It’s exciting seeing the gun come to life bit by bit. Hopefully by the end of this week it will be more or less done.
While she was plugging away on her stuff I was plugging away in WoW having a good time rotating through my various characters and getting stuff done in a virtual manner. I always feel somewhat guilty after prolonged gaming sessions but I enjoy them all the same.
I have a weird week where after a day at the office I am treated with another day off. Cindy and I have no definitive plans for the 4th but I am sure EUC riding, gun building, and WoW will be part of the itinerary.
