Yesterday I initiated a claim on the Ipad Air we have had for years. The power button on the tablet stopped functioning ages ago but for some reason it never occurred to me that this is covered under the device insurance policy I have been paying for monthly. Filing the claim was very easy and since the tablet is probably at least four years old, I wind up getting an upgraded model sent to me with 4X the memory, a sweet deal. Assuming the migration goes ok Cindy should have a brand new tablet all ready to go by the end of the weekend.
My lower back pain has persisted despite efforts by myself and Cindy to remedy it. Last night she put her TENS device on the painful area for some electro-stim. It helped somewhat but I still am limping around this morning when tasked with walking. At this point I have no doubt the pain will be with me tomorrow for the tree trimming bonanza. My plan is to set the alarm so I am outside as day breaks to maximize my time working in cooler conditions. I have a long history of grinding through unpleasant tasks so I expect this to just be another more painful example. I will be on a steady diet of Advil to help me get through the day.
The other project I hope to accomplish will test my patience more than my body. I want to put together the MMU2 unit for my Prusa printer which will allow me to utilize up to 5 different filament color/type in a single print. Outside of that I hope the rest of my three day weekend will include resting up from the abuse I subject my body to tomorrow.
I have been hoping my left side lower back pain was going to start feeling better as I need to be able to endure hours of tree trimming on Saturday. This typically is one of the more exhausting annual chores I take on after all. Well instead it seems the needle has moved towards the worsening side of the meter. This morning even with a dosage of Advil in me every step with my left leg on the long walk from the parking garage to the office sent a jolt of pain down that region of my back. Right now it is impossible to walk without a limp. It’s so bad that I am considering not even going to the gym in the hope that doing very little for the next two days allows me to do a lot on Saturday.
I am lucky in my job that I don’t have to deal much with customers as generally speaking, they can be a major pain in the ass. However with the birth of the 3D printed parts store I do have to deal with customers and their problems. More than once I have had people that I have gotten delivery confirmations for tell me they never got the package. Instead of taking the hard line stance and presenting them with a “too bad so sad” answer I have replaced the stands at my expense. Likewise I have had some parts break, likely from abuse, but again I have replaced them on my dime. It aggravates me at first but usually once that passes I come to the hope that putting the good will out there will come back to help me in the future via positive word of mouth.
Almost a month ago I was contacted by some guy in France. Right away I got a bad vibe about him. He refused to send me emails in English, requiring me to translate. One of his earliest emails asked if I could give him a discount for some reason. Sending stands overseas is a big pain in the ass for me and the last thing I was going to do was discount it further. When I told him no discount he whined a bit but then eventually said he wanted to get two stands via another three or four annoying emails. I just knew this guy was a dick based on the communication. I had considered just stopping response to him so he would go away but I did eventually agree to make a custom store item that would allow him to buy the stands.
He was unhappy with the $22.80 it cost to ship them to France but I charge customers what USPS charges me, not my problem. Then he wanted me to tell him what other fees or taxes France would charge for the package. Again, not my problem, I don’t control import taxes. So when he finally places the order he sends me three emails to verify I got the order, despite him immediately being sent an order confirmation from the store. He then wants to know when they will arrive. I told him that is why the tracking information email was sent to him. At this point I just couldn’t stand this guy, I was relieved when his package was dropped off in the mail, good riddance.
So yesterday I get another email from the guy saying the package arrived. He sent me a picture of the parts that he claimed were inside. The 8 bolts that are in their own little plastic bag were not in the picture. He claimed they were missing. I immediately was suspicious as I am certain the bolts were inside when the package was sealed. I disassemble the stands at my desk before packing so all parts are accounted for. I asked him for a picture of the package and asked him if it looked like it had been tampered with. He never sent me the picture. What I did receive was a dispute from Paypal, saying the customer received goods not as described along with a request for a $12 credit, that son of a bitch…
So I email the guy again asking why he filed the dispute. He said because I shorted him eight screws and he also said he didn’t like the packaging of the stands. I had the urge swell up in my neck to reach through the screen and throttle this idiot. Unless somebody opened the package, removed the bolts, and then sealed it back up, this guy was outright lying and using the lie to get that discount he asked for at the very beginning. I considered being a dick and ignoring his Paypal request until the deadline at the end of the month. I instead thought better of it. $12 wasn’t worth the aggravation so I refunded the money, closed the case, and blocked the guys email address so I never have to communicate with him again. Vive la France! Idiot.
So I have been in a holding pattern for our solar system install for over a month. After them doing the site survey the day after signing the contract I was impressed at how quickly they moved. I hoped it meant everything would move at this pace. The permits were submitted quickly as well but nothing has been issued as of today. I have checked with the solar construction manager twice since then and he said the hold up is on the county side with their slow processing of permit applications. I believed the explanation as there is a established history of permitting being slow in our area.
Well with the passing of another week I thought I would try to look at the status of this permit myself, which I could do via the public web site. I was not happy with what I found. In there it shows a letter notifying the contractor of an incomplete application was filed on October 11th and then AGAIN on October 30th. Basically this meant that the delay all this time has not been due to the county, it’s because the contractor submitted incomplete applications, twice.
Now the construction manager is not the one that submits these permits so there is a good chance he did not know the details of the delay but it still pisses me off nonetheless. I sent my findings to him with a request to verify that all required paperwork has now been submitted successfully. Just to cover my bases I also sent an email to the permitting department to verify the same, just so I can call out bullshit if it is presented to me once again. I should know by now that trusting the word of others is a crap shoot in today’s world. I am hoping this is the one and only snafu in my solar conversion project.
My lower back has been flaring up once again. Despite that I opted to do smith machine squats yesterday at the gym. I didn’t feel any “oh shit” moments doing the reps but I am sure paying for it now. Getting out of bed was ridiculous and walking was a painful process. I immediately popped a couple Advil to take the edge off the pain. I need to make a pretty rapid recovery as the massive annual tree trimming project is on the calendar, written in permanent marker.
My normal routine after work is to get changed and then go out and have my evening chicken visit. This visit includes things like scooping poop in the run, giving them various treats, and cleaning/refilling their water if Cindy had not done it earlier. This was the first time doing that since the clocks fell back. The time change paired with overcast skies meant it was already well on it’s way to getting dark by the time I got out there. I rushed to do my tasks but I had one more to work on, the chicken door from the coop to the run. Cindy reported it stopped working during the day. So after giving the hens treats I pulled a bucket in front of the automatic coop door and started to take it apart.
When I started I already had a couple birds in there with me, up on the perch. As I continued my investigation I soon had all nine hens observing me. Ginger, the chicken that seems most attached to us positioned herself right next to me and was eye to eye. I petted her a few times during breaks in the work. The original problem was the plug to the motor had worked it’s way loose, something that happens over time from vibration. I plugged it back in and thought all was well until the door came slamming down meaning the string that supports it has now also broken, great.
I took the door back apart and temporarily threw a new piece of string in place to get me by until I can do the work without a coop full of chickens. Surprisingly the birds seemed to hold off pooping on the mats while I was in there. I appreciated the consideration.
My new multi-material upgrade for the Prusa showed up yesterday but I don’t plan to attempt building the add on until the weekend when I have a decent time buffer allowed. It should consume far less time than the original printer build but I am sure it will have it’s own set of challenges. Luckily I do have a three day weekend ahead of me courtesy of Veterans Day. I am targeting it as tree trimming weekend as well, hooray.
Friday evening started with another rowing session. Every time I choose to row instead of run I feel a slight pang of guilt. The biggest tether to me running lately has been lower back pain which will only get amplified by 5K of pounding.
Most of my Saturday morning was spent outside between chicken chores, weeding and then weed whacking the property which was well overdue. Running the weed whacker for over an hour and a half is not my idea of a good time. After lunch we headed to Home Depot for a few items, well we headed out, came back and headed out again. The reason for this was my KS 16X wheel showed up EARLY which was unbelievable.
After a weather delay out west FedEx had the wheel delivery scheduled for Monday which bummed me out. I hadn’t bothered to check the tracking again Saturday morning. We got the notice on our Ring literally two minutes after leaving the house. Cindy told the guy to have the neighbor sign. I swung a U-turn to go grab the 60 pound box and put it in the house. To have a FedEx wheel delivery show up early is unheard of in my world. Usually the box is later than promised, spending an extra day or two collecting dust in the central Florida distribution center. I’m not sure why my box got fast tracked this time but it was a very pleasant surprise. I unboxed the wheel and took it on a very quick test ride just to make sure everything was in good working order, it was.
Saturday night Cindy and I went out to dinner and to see the new Terminator movie. Instead of eating at the theater we chose to eat at a restaurant nearby. It was an interesting combo of Italian and sushi cuisine. The place had a cozy atmosphere, our waitress was very nice and we both enjoyed our meals a lot, probably too much, as we ate more than we probably should have. We will be sure to patronize the place again.
I was looking forward to Dark Fate, it looks like the rest of the country was not since the movie only pulled about $29 million on it’s opening weekend, a weak number. I thought it was cool that James Cameron was once again involved in the film and I didn’t care that the plot of this movie ignored the existence of all Terminator movies after T2. It was was interesting seeing Linda Hamilton, who I was very hot for back in the 90’s, reprise her role as Sarah Connor. She is still in great physical shape but a lifetime of smoking cigarettes did her no favors otherwise. Despite the box office numbers, I thoroughly enjoyed the film. As a lifelong Terminator fan I feel an A rating is merited.
Sunday morning I took my new 16X out for it’s first Dunkin Donuts ride. It was an enjoyable ride although it was a bit speed limited due to a configuration change I needed to yet make. During the ride I talked about a number of things including a weird situation I read about in one of the EUC groups. A week or two ago a group of guys were riding in the LA aquaducts which were mostly dry except for the side channels. One of the guys was trying to do a trick and came off his wheel. Instead of falling over however, the wheel continued to stay upright and roll away from him, right into the water which fried the wheel. It was very unlucky.
Well this post was to advertise a GoFundMe created by someone to buy this guy a new wheel to replace the one that went swimming. This immediately struck me as odd and I talked about it at length in the video. The GoFundMe was created by someone else but the guy whose wheel it was posted the link to the “charity”. In the comments for the GoFundMe the owner of the wheel claimed he could easily afford to buy a new wheel which seemed extremely odd to me as he was promoting others paying for the wheel instead. Anyway I didn’t agree with using crowd sourcing for this situation and I expressed it. I got a few negative comments about my opinion but that’s all that it was, my opinion. I have a lot of them that you either embrace or disregard, it doesn’t matter to me.
Another thing I talked about was the change of plans for my birthday. On Friday I almost pulled the trigger on a quick cruise for the occasion but potential hurdles Cindy presented derailed the idea. Instead now I think the plan is to do a quick three day mini road trip which will include visiting Galaxy’s Edge in Orlando and the Kennedy Space Center. It should be a different but equally cool kind of fun.
I watched the Eagles/Bears game. During the first half they DOMINATED the Bears and should have had a much bigger lead but they repeatedly traded touchdowns for FG’s when in the red zone. In the second half they allowed the Bears, who literally had ZERO yards of offense in the first half to get rolling. Luckily the Birds were able to close out the game with a prolonged drive late that sealed the deal. It was shaping up as a classic Eagles prevent defense collapse up until that point. It was nice to get a win to inch above the .500 mark but I don’t have a real strong feeling that this team is going anywhere lofty this season.
Yesterday as I was flipping through email I came across one from Royal Caribbean notifying me of a big discount on several upcoming cruises. Since we returned from the cruise I have had lingering fond feelings about the experience so I clicked on the link to see the deals. As I was digging around I saw they had a four night Key West/Nassau cruise departing from Fort Lauderdale. The rate was good and when I saw it covered my birthday a light bulb went off, another birthday cruise! Much like many purchases this year, this idea came out of nowhere.
Cindy was teaching a class so I couldn’t discuss the idea with her right away. I stepped through the reservation process all the way to the final payment screen. When I talked to Cindy she was surprised by my idea but said she had to check on the dates and if Katie could do chicken duty. If I would have gotten a “yes” from Cindy before leaving for the gym we would have a reservation booked right now. Instead my session timed out during lunch and Cindy raised issues related to Katie’s work schedule and her own.
So as of now nothing is planned although Cindy was looking at options last night online. She would prefer to do something that doesn’t impact Katie’s work schedule. I told her I really liked the idea of doing it over my birthday which is not flexible, like work schedules or babysitter options. The added passing of time since the idea came rushing to the surface may cool my desire to pursue it further, we’ll see.
Although the cruise impulse did not come to be yesterday I did make another snap purchase, the MMU2 upgrade for one of my Prusa printers. MMU stands for Multi-Material Upgrade, in other words it allows you to use multiple types/colors of filament in a single print. Most of my Prusa stands I make have a contrasting color for the letters. This is done manually where the print job stops, I change the filament and then it resumes again. With this add on I can have up to 5 colors of filament loaded and the printer will seamlessly switch between them, opening the door to some really amazing prints.
This add on comes only as a kit so it is going to require some more patience sapping construction work but I am hoping the end result is worth it. With all of the 3D store sales, all of this stuff is paid for out of my Paypal account which doesn’t touch my normal budget whatsoever so that made the decision even easier to justify. I can’t wait to see how this turns out.
I finished up the prototype model I designed for the skateboard company. The owner was thrilled with the end result and is coming to check it out today. I suggested that if the logo was painted in a contrasting color it would look sharp, he agreed. I think Cindy will take a shot at doing the paint work. If the Prusa MMU upgrade works as I hope, that contrasting logo can be printed inline without skipping a beat.
This weekend the grass needs a full mow and weed whack which I’m not looking forward to. We are now into November without having our first appreciable cold front. I don’t recall this EVER happening since I have lived here. Normally around mid-October we will have our first nighttime temps that touch the 60’s. It has not happened yet and the last time I checked the extended forecast it is not even on the horizon. It better happen some weekend this month as I need to target a cooler day to tackle the oppressive and body destroying tree trimming annual task.
The Halloween decorations will come down prior to the yard work. It was great that all the Trick or Treaters last night got to to enjoy them. Who am I kidding, nobody showed up, just like the last decade, oh well.
Last night was another busy one. I spent time doing 3D store order processing, stand building, and started building the prototype for the skateboard display stand. I think it looks pretty good, I am hoping the small changes I made to the support placement will make it stable enough.
For the first time in a few years we aren’t doing a PEV ride through Victoria Park during Halloween. Since baby DJ arrived it isn’t easy for Katie to go riding. Plus if you recall, it was a nightmare and dangerous trying to ride through the hundreds of trick or treaters jamming the streets last year. The end result is we will be spending this Halloween at home, with the porch light on for trick or treaters that will never come.
Cindy got most of the remaining items that were displaced for the carpet work back where they belong yesterday. It felt good to come back to a house that was more or less back in order, I never feel good when piles or clutter are around. One of the things I did last night was edit the video I shot documenting the fun process. (spoiler, it wasn’t fun)
I forgot to mention yesterday that someone finally took me up on an EUC trade offer that I have been putting out there on social media and YouTube videos for awhile. I offered to trade my like new Nikola Plus for a King Song 16X, the wheel I demo’d a couple months ago. When I demo’d the wheel I found myself liking it more than the Nikola, a wheel I liked very much already. I have been trying to be a bit more reasonable in my PEV buying habits recently so instead of spending another 2K for a new 16X, I threw the trade offer out there.
From a dollar perspective it was a good deal for someone as a Nikola Plus cost roughly $500 more than a 16X. Despite this, I couldn’t get anyone to make a deal. Finally this weekend someone agreed to the trade. His 16X has roughly 150 miles on it, my Nikola only had 120 miles so it was pretty close. We both shipped our boxes out on Monday and by the end of the week we both should have received our wheels. To me the Nikola was better than the 16X in only two ways, it’s top speed which pushes 40 mph, (which I would never ride at), and it’s LED lighting is more visually interesting. In every other way I prefer the 16X. It should make for interesting video content. A few people think I’m crazy but most seem to agree that overall the 16X is a better wheel.
Last night after work I had the cousin of the guy that detailed my truck stop by. He brought one of the skateboards he sells so I could use it to prototype a stand that he could use to display his boards in a store. Matt was extremely nice and seemed like a very genuine person. I put the board in the stand I made for my Meepo and it stood upright albeit in a little tipsy manner. I need to do a few modifications to make the stand a little more stable and also include their logo into the design. If this works out it could lead to yet another avenue for additional 3D printing work which is good and bad at the same time. The amount of my time consumed by this hobby turned into a side business is growing at an accelerating rate.
A good portion of the three day weekend was spent doing all of the work required to clear four rooms in the house for carpet restretching. The carpet guys had their work done in about an hour, between Cindy and I we spent 12-15 hours doing all of the required work to prepare and recover. Home Depot has very clear instructions on what you need to do properly prep the room, basically EVERYTHING comes out but the up to six furniture items per room that they will move. However those furniture items need to be cleared of any items as well.
The clearing work resulted in a bag of trash and several boxes of donated items. Overall it was a positive experience as not only do the rooms no longer have raised ridges in the carpet, we also got to use better judgement when filling them back up. I wound up having four or five left over power strips that I no longer needed after connecting things in a less haphazard fashion. There were a lot of things that are now cleaner, more organized, and more efficient at the end of the arduous process.
While I was waiting for the carpet installers to show up I had the detailer that I contacted out working on the Tacoma. He spent over three hours on the truck, going over it inch by inch. He cleaned the wheel wells, the engine bay, and seemed to vacuum up every single strand of dog hair that littered the interior. He really did a great job and I felt he certainly earned his money.
I talked to him about also doing the Tesla down the road. We also talked about the 3D printers I had running in the garage which he found fascinating. For the carpet work I also had my PEVs in the garage on their 3D printed stands. This caught John’s interest as he and his cousin also have a small skateboard business. He saw the stands I made for my one e-sk8 and Cindy’s conventional skateboard. He said they were opening a store at the mall and thought a stand like this would be great for them to display their boards. He asked if I had any interest in designing/making a few of them for him.
I told him I was very busy but I would be open to coming up with something on a limited basis. I told him the main thing I would require is one of the boards that can be used to prototype with, making sure it fits well and is secure. Supposedly after work tonight the cousin is going to drop off a board to do exactly that. I surely don’t need more work on the 3D front but this will be a fun little challenge that could lead to more opportunities down the road.
I was sort of dreading the carpet project so it feels good to have it in the rear view mirror. Having the work done now should buy us another couple years until we decide what to do with the flooring in those rooms next. I have had a pretty constant feeling of being behind the curve of what needs to get done for awhile. I can deal with that feeling in short bursts but it is not viable long term.
Last night we had DJ. When we babysit him in the evening it can be rough as many times he gets grexy that time of day it seems. He was a little better last night which was cool. As he gets older he becomes more and more interactive with the world around him which is neat. He seems to like me, usually I can get a smile out of him with a funny face.
I am on the doorstep of a three day weekend. Unfortunately it isn’t for fun, it’s to clear out all of our carpeted rooms so the ridges can be pulled out. I am hoping all of this effort is worth it. When it comes time to redo the carpet the next time I think there is a good chance the office and the hobby room will become hard surface flooring. I have so much 3D printing demand that I plan to continue production even after the hobby room is ripped apart. My hope is to set up the benches in the garage and let the printers continue in there during the work.
