Archives 2019

I arrived home last night to a water nightmare.  It looked like I remember the day after a hurricane, there was that much standing water.  What is insane is this is from just random ferocious daily thunderstorms, not a tropical system.  When I walked out back to the chickens there was hardly any ground to be found that was not submerged.   The water behind the coop was so deep that the submersible pump was completely submerged.  I would estimate that at certain spots there was a foot of standing water.

Even Chicken Island was submerged, the first time that has happened since I elevated a 20 x 30 square back there.  It was bad, really bad.  My first concern was the birds as they literally had nowhere to stand where their feet were not in water which is no good for them.  I opened up the the gate to their yard giving them access to the rest of the property and higher ground.  Cupcake, one of the older hens immediately took advantage of the open door while the “babies” took a little bit longer to understand they were allowed outside their fenced confines.

When I pulled in the driveway I was greeted by a walking catfish who was literally walking up towards the house.  We have had them on the property several times.  I scooped this guy into a bucket and dumped him in the canal before a bird could swoop down and grab it.  I remember when I first saw fish in the middle of the yard years ago I was dumbfounded.  Now it gets a shoulder shrug, just another weird Florida thing.

This morning we again opened the gate to the chicken area.  The birds didn’t take long to start moving to higher, drier ground.  The pump seems to be dropping the water level in the their area but there is a long way to go.  The problem is the drainage ditch I am pumping to is already filled to the brim so I am just moving the flood from one section of the property to another.

Today marks the five year anniversary of my mom passing away.  I had to double check the year because it seemed impossible that five years had already passed since that tragic and emotionally crushing day of my life.

The speed that time passes as you grow older feels exponential in it’s acceleration.  I feel like if there was anything good that came of her sudden and premature death it was that it realigned my focus on doing things in life that I want to do, to enjoy the time that I have because nobody knows when that time will come to an end, abrupt or otherwise.  Love you Mom.

The shitty wet weather continued through Friday, leaving the grounds a sopping mess.  I decided to knock out mowing half of the yard after work on Friday, the front half.  I mowed around the standing water areas to at least give the grass a much needed haircut where I could.

Saturday morning Cindy came with me to the track to run.  My old routine was setting a 6AM alarm so I got out as early as possible.  The last couple times I have run I haven’t been setting the alarm.  I normally will wake up around 7AM on my own so I have been trying it that way.  Saturday was the first time I paid the price for it.

Right around lap 8 the sun completely cleared the horizon.  As it did it felt like someone turned on a heat lamp which is what I ran in for the last mile, making an already uncomfortable exercise experience more so.  Cindy, who has been running even less than I have, did well for not being out there in a long time.  She felt the heat as much as I did.

When we got home the chickens and weeding still needed to get done which we tag teamed.  After breakfast we headed to Home Depot where I picked up top soil, 20 pieces of sod, and five 50 pound bags of sand.  This was all for the chicken area of course which is the most wet area of all.  It unceremoniously started to rain on me again as I spread the dirt and laid down the sod.  I believe I cursed out loud at Mother Nature more than once.

Early afternoon I decided I was going to mow the back of the property, despite the rain that dropped only an hour or two prior.  It was like a monster truck meet where my Craftsman mower plowed through muddy areas repeatedly.  When I was done it looked like someone went nuts with 4 wheelers in the back yard.  Even though the standing water has started much later this summer compared to last, I already am beyond fed up with it.  I really hope to utilize this sod guy once the property dries out to get the ground level higher in the worst areas.

We had a garden success, something that is very rare in the summer, a decent sized melon.  I have tried growing melons a number of times and they have never been fruitful, pun intended.  Usually bugs take over before the melons can grow appreciably.  For whatever reason this year the plants are being more or less unaffected by insects.  I discovered what looked to be a nearly full size seedless melon hiding under the vines with at least another half dozen growing as well. We harvested the melon prematurely however, the inside was mostly white but luckily the chickens still found it to be quite edible.

Mid-afternoon Daniel and Katie came over.  Daniel was going to help me with my air handler UV light problem.  I bought another bulb but when I plugged it in I got no light.  Daniel said the ballast was probably bad.  After opening up the air handler what we determined was it was actually the transformer that drives the ballast which was bad, a rarity.

Daniel had a spare in his van that he put in there.  Once he did both the new and old bulb lit up.  I have another full UV light kit on the way which I plan to install on top of the air handler, where it was before.  However Daniel moved the existing bulb inside the air handler, right between the A style coils which is the area most likely to have organic growth.  When the other light set shows up I will open it up again and do the work myself since I have a clear picture of what goes where at this point.  With the new bulb location it is very easy for us to check for proper UV light operation as we can see it if we pull the filter in the return in our bedroom.

Saturday night we watched The Mule, with Clint Eastwood.  It’s hard to believe an 88 year old man is still starring in and directing films but Clint pulls it off.  The movie is based on a true story and it’s a strange story indeed.  I’d give it a B+.

Sunday morning Cindy was feeling the effect of the run so I decided to take the Nikola to Dunkin Donuts solo, something I actually thought I would have done multiple times during my nine day staycation but it didn’t work out.  The Nikola was a beast on the ride, with me rolling at 24-26mph for the majority of the 20+ miles.  It really is a great wheel but now I am wondering if I really need the KingSong 18XL as the two wheels fulfill the same need with the Nikola getting an edge on speed and battery size.

Later in the day Sunday I had a prolonged WoW session, the most time I have gotten to spend in the game for quite awhile.  I made a lot of virtual progress which almost feels like real progress, hence why the game has appealed to me for almost 15 years.

The daily heavy precipitation in our area just will not relent and it is aggravating me.  I would love to be able to at least get the chicken area raised and sodded but I can’t as long as the ground is this waterlogged.  A dump truck filled with dirt would destroy the yard and might even get stuck back there so I don’t have much choice but to grin and bear it for the time being.  I do plan to get a few pieces of sod hopefully this weekend to fill in some mud spots in the chicken yard at least.

Today Cindy has her first day of 2020 Census training.  She worked for the census once before at least 20 years ago.  It’s not a bad part time gig with decent pay and flexibility that should allow her to work around her fitness class instructor schedule.  She seems nervous but excited about the opportunity.

This weekend I need to try to find a way to mow at least some of the grass.  I also would like to get some extended riding time in if I can get a couple hours where the skies don’t look like they are on the verge of letting loose.

Below is the email I sent to my AC company regarding my thoughts about their recent service.  So far it has met with silence.

So Cindy has been complaining of an intermittent mildew smell in the house for a little while.  I have only smelled it twice but she evidently has a heightened nose ability.  Her complaints of the smell prompted me to get my normal AC company out to do normal preventative maintenance.  You may recall I scheduled the work the day prior and then the next morning no one showed up at that time.  I called the owner and she had evidently forgotten to actually put the appointment in her book when I talked to her less than 24 hours prior.   The end result of this was her getting one of her guys to still come over that day but in his personal car which had very limited tools inside of it compared to their normal van.  He didn’t even have a shop vac to suck out the drain line.

Anyway, during his visit I mentioned the smell.  He said he cleaned everything but it all looked good.  I asked him about the UV light, whose job it is to sterilize the air handler.  He said he checked it and it was dim but still working.  He advised I replace it the next maintenance cycle.  So after the PM Cindy still complained of the smell.

So last night I went and pulled the bulb out to take a look for myself.  It was not lit and something was rattling around inside.  Either the bulb had just failed since the PM or the guy didn’t really check it in the first place.  It was also brought to my attention by Daniel and reinforced by my research on replacement bulbs that our UV light was not installed as it should be. Our light was stuck into a hole in the supply side of the duct above the air handler.  Everything I read said the light is supposed to be installed INSIDE of the air handler where it can do the most effective sterilization of the coils.  I found this very annoying since I paid roughly $600 to have the light done, which upon my bulb research, I could have pretty easily done myself, correctly for about 25% of that amount.

So at this point I am pretty sure the onset of smell coincided with the bulb going bad.  I ordered a replacement bulb AND another complete UV light kit.  If things work out as I hope the end result will be having not one but two UV lights in the air pipeline.

Yesterday I finally pulled the trigger and bought a genuine Prusa MK3S printer.  Cindy and I met Joe Prusa at Maker Faire Miami last year.  Prusa is the benchmark that most 3D printers are measured against.  I have wanted one for a long time.  I opted for the kit version which saves about $250, allowing me to pay for the purchase completely out of 3D store funds, which is the way it should be.  Despite it coming all the way from the Czech Republic, the printer is supposed to be at my door on Monday.  It should be a fun build. To make space for the printer I will be giving away my original 3D printer, the FlashForge Finder to a new home.

Today I have a follow up with our employee clinic regarding my latest test results, more specifically the high thallium indication which is a real head scratcher.  This is something that is very unusual and trying to determine it’s source is likely to be very difficult as well.

Overall I would say my fatigue the last few months has been less prominent.  Although I do still feel it most when exercising, it isn’t as severe as it has been during certain time periods over the last year.  I am just tired of endless tests that lead to more tests that have an end result of basically shoulder shrugging.

I have really been selling a lot of 3D printed stands lately, last month was my biggest sales total to date.  I have been trying to get ahead of the curve by fully utilizing my hobby room print farm.  Last night I loaded up and had five of my six printers cranking out parts.  The growth of my 3D printing store has been unexpected and is purely through word of mouth.  The stands show up on social media or videos and generate interest from others.  The growth of the sales has been a pleasant surprise.

I have been trying to get the back of the chicken yard pumped out but the rain just continues to dump.  I sent a picture of the flooded area to a kid that graduated with Daniel who is in the sod business.  I had been talking to him about putting sod back there to help raise the ground level.  After seeing the picture he said he would suggest I get a load of fill first that he would spread and then put the grass on top of that, otherwise the grass would likely drown and die.

I told him I was down with that plan but the area needs to dry out first.  I also will have to temporarily cut the fence to make this work so he can access the area with his skid steer which will not fit in the existing four foot wide gate opening.  I am looking forward to this getting done, it’s something I should have done a long time ago.  This kid’s prices are very reasonable and save me a lot of ass busting work.  If this works out well I will likely have him add sod to the other areas of the yard that are flood prone.

So my return to work yesterday was mildly busy but not terribly so.  I had the opportunity to waste 30 minutes on the phone, most of that on hold with the NCH billing department.  Yes there is another chapter in the ridiculous ER billing fiasco.  You may recall that I fought with them about the initial bill sent to me for $950 which included a charge of over $700 for a single pill.  The end result of that was them agreeing to totally drop the $700 charge for the pill and them saying they would resubmit the claim to insurance.  So late June I get a new bill for $589.43 which was still more than I hoped but I had two months until it was due so I was just sitting on it, in no rush to give them my money.

So late last week I get a letter, not a bill from NCH.  It said I have an amount due and it now has magically increased to $733.45  WTF?  So I picked up the phone yesterday and got a woman in the billing department on the phone.  I gave her a brief recap of the events leading up to my call.  She said she needed to put me on hold to check with another department.  She puts me on hold and leaves me there, for 20 minutes.  Not once did she come back to apologize for the wait or to let me know wtf was going on.  Nope just hold music for 20 minutes after which I hung up, angry as hell.

I immediately call back but can’t get anyone to pick up the phone so I leave a message highlighting my situation, angrily.  I later got a message on my home number that the account has once again been “submitted for review” and there should be an answer in 4 to 5 business days.  I’ll tell you this experience with the modern day medical quagmire makes me want to avoid hospital care like the plague.  It’s incredible just how convoluted, inefficient, complicated and obscenely expensive medical care is in the USA.

Over my vacation I was pretty sure that I was going to have to be burying another chicken, Katie.  She has had a bad leg for over a year but in the last couple weeks she had developed the same lethargy that other birds have before they dropped.  She was weak, basically stood/sat around all day, and had minimal interest in food.  She even stopped making the cute little noises she is known for which to me was a sure sign she was a goner, the same pattern Kristen followed before she died.  Katie was so weak that I had to pick her up and place her on the perch at night, she couldn’t do it.

So all of a sudden late last week Katie bounced back, amazingly so.  She started being more mobile, eating, and even making her cute noises again.  I was so relieved.  For about a month we have been trying to give the birds cayenne pepper and tumeric mixed in with their food.  It helps battle parasites and worms naturally.  We also add rooster booster to their water, give them yogurt, and watermelon which all supposedly help the birds stay healthy without using toxic chemical dewormers.  This time of year is especially bad for the birds because they insist on drinking the dirty standing water which has countless harmful things floating in it.  So anyway, Katie is doing better and I hope it stays that way.

The latest outbreak of mass gun violence, not perpetrated by Muslim terrorists but by angry, racist, white males seems to have really awakened some people.  Some GOP politicians are actually using the words “white nationalist”, something that was taboo up until this point since they are a core and integral part of the Trumpers.  Maybe, just maybe there is enough momentum this time to actually get something done, but I doubt it.  The gun lobby in this country is so powerful that politicians cower in fear of the idea of crossing them, almost like they have a gun to their head.

So I entered the weekend a bit sad that it meant my nine day staycation was coming to it’s end.  I was also a bit sad about the turn in the weather where massive amounts of rain dropping in short periods of time had totally flooded out parts of the property.  I have at least improved my water relocation abilities with the new pump I bought from Harbor Freight.  Not only is it more powerful, it has the ability to support large 1 1/4″ outlet hose.  With my old set up I only had shitty 3/4″ garden hose attached.   I found 24 foot sections of flex pipe designed for sump pumps at Lowe’s.  I bought a bunch of them, chained them together and was amazed at the results.

It was like I had a fire hydrant open, the water was dumping into the drainage ditch that fast.  It pulls water so fast that we have to keep closer track of the water levels back there so the pump doesn’t run dry.  The problem is we have had so much rain that soon there will be nowhere to pump the water to as the drainage ditch is filled to the brim.  What we need are a few consecutive days that don’t include an end of days rain event.

All the moisture made mowing a no go this weekend as well.  The only other standard chore I dealt with was weeding in the sloppy, soppy property.  Saturday afternoon I decided to make an attempt to ride my new One Wheel Pint to Dunkin Donuts.  DD is a little over 10 miles from our door.  The Pint is rated for only 6-8 miles of range but my early testing made it seem like it could go farther so I wanted to test out that theory.  A strong headwind helped insure I failed my attempt but even with less than ideal conditions I exceeded the top range estimate.

Saturday night we went to see Hobbs & Shaw an odd spin off of the Fast and Furious series where they basically ditched the rest of the cast and made a Rock/Jason Statham action film instead.   It was an over the top, silly, but fun action film that Cindy and I both enjoyed. B+ all day long for me.

Sunday morning it was once again raining but I really wanted to get out to ride.  I checked the radar and it looked like the rain was moving north and east so I hoped if we headed south and west we would be ok.  On the drive to the Greenway it did not look good as we drove through blinding downpours at times.  We got lucky, as we got close to the parking lot the sun was actually out.  Cindy and I had a good time riding the Pint and Backfire Ranger X1.  At the end of the session Cindy decided to sit on the board and ride around go kart style, it was funny.

During the ride I got to test my new and expensive Rode Go wireless mic system.  I have been trying various solutions to get  consistent quality audio while riding which is challenging due to wind noise.  This Rode system seems to be the answer as the audio during the ride was clear and noise free, regardless of the conditions.

Yesterday I recharged the battery for our airsoft AK-47.  We have had a couple hawks that have been getting very comfortable hanging around the chicken area.  It seems like they are focused on grabbing small critters like frogs from the wet ground but we are nervous about them turning their attnetion to bigger targets like our hens.

I really enjoyed my nine days off and as I have said repeatedly, I have total confidence I could retire tomorrow and never be bored.  Unfortunately that is not a financial reality but believe me, once it is, I am jumping ship asap.

As expected, my days have been rolling by, passing quickly as I keep them pretty much filled with activities both project and hobbyist related.  Tuesday was my most triumphant day as I managed to get the Prius battery put back together and reinstalled into the car.  At this point the car has had around 150 miles on it since the work and it is performing well.  Swapping out individual cells is not a long term fix for an old battery pack but hopefully it will hold up for another 6-12 months.  The good news is I have all the tools and experience to swap out more cells if needed in the future.

My One Wheel Pint showed up on Tuesday but I didn’t really get a chance to ride it until Wednesday.  It seems like a great product that provides a real One Wheel experience with no compromises outside of less battery range.  I am excited to see how Cindy does on it.

The property had been doing very well this wet season, so far we have not had any standing water that lasted for more than a day or two.  Well on Wednesday that changed when we got absolutely pummeled, creating deep lakes around the property.  I set the pump back up in the chicken area to try to move the water to the drainage ditch.  That pump is now a few years old and doesn’t run consistently.  I decided to go to Harbor Freight and get a more heavy duty pump that supposedly can move 4000 gallons an hour.  I hooked it up and noticed and immediate difference.  Before the water was just running out the far end of the hose, now it’s shooting out.  I may try to increase the capacity further by connecting the pump to 1 1/4″ hose instead of 3/4″ garden hose.

I have been digging into a ton of little small projects, organizing and cleaning things up around the house.  Those sort of tasks are truly endless.  I have been finding time to do a lot of video production as well as you can see below.

I started off this morning with 12 laps around the track at a very slow pace.  I survived which is all I care about.

Speaking of surviving, I got a surprising call late last week regarding my latest round of testing.  They said a high thallium level was detected in the urine test.  Thallium is a heavy metal that in high enough concentrations can cause all sorts of bad things, up to and including death.  The low end of the scale where they get concerned is a level of .5 which is what mine came back at.  I need to do a follow up visit with the doctor to discuss further actions but for now Cindy ordered some stuff that is supposed to bind to thallium and help flush it out of my body.  I assume whatever the treatment is there will be a follow up test to see if the numbers move downward.

Since I am on vaca I will try to drop an entry in here every couple of days so I don’t need to tax my memory too much.  Friday I left work a little early to meet up with Daniel who was installing our new water heater.  My intent was for it to be a tandem effort but he got done with work early, by the time I got there he was almost done.  I am pretty sure I could have handled the swap out myself, the biggest issue would have been getting the correct plumbing fittings I would have needed.  Since Daniel does HVAC work he had all the parts on hand.  The new heater fired up without issue and within 30 minutes we once again had hot water flowing in the house.

Friday evening I also got out on the new Gotway Nikola Plus EUC for an initial test ride.  I REALLY liked the way the wheel felt.  I can’t wait to get more extensive testing in.

Saturday was the day I hoped to get the Prius back together.  Unfortunately I made a bad decision to use my power ratchet to reinstall the copper bus bars.  I managed to snap one of the battery cell terminals which meant I now have to wait another few days to get another replacement cell.  I was so annoyed with myself.  I released the adventure so far on video.

I decided to punish myself for my stupidity by doing a full weed whacking and mowing session during the hottest portion of the day.  It was around four hours of shitty, sweaty work.  I was beat to hell afterwards but glad I put in the effort as it dumped rain again Saturday night, making various areas lakes once again.

Saturday night I watched a Star is Born with Cindy.  Although the movie has been remade several times I never saw any of the older versions.  I thought it was really well done and I enjoyed it thoroughly to a B+ level.

Yesterday it felt like I was on the go constantly.  I have so many smaller things I want to get done over this week hiatus.  Cindy and I did get out on a ride in the morning which was fun.

The rest of the day was consumed by these little tasks which added up to five or six hours of time, a couple of the tasks resulted in ADDITIONAL videos.

I expect today to be busy as well.  My OneWheel Pint was supposed to show up today but AGAIN it looks like FedEx is shitting the bed, missing ANOTHER delivery time due to the box sitting in the black hole of Bell Isle Florida, again.  FedEx really sucks.

Oh I finally sold the Ultron scooter last night after it being for sale for a couple months.  The buyer was a nice guy from Bradenton. We had common interests, scooters, 3D printing, and fitness.  He was impressed by the neck snapping torque the machine has.  I was just relieved to at least recoup some money for the scooter and to have one less piece of equipment in the dining room.

So on Tuesday morning I was off as we were supposed to head out to Orlando for a conference around 1pm.  I called up FedEx to try to get some clarity on the tracking from my EUC that was already a day late.  The tracking I saw said it was put on a truck for delivery but then a few minutes later the status was changed to “At local FedEx facility”  To me it looked like they put the box on the truck and then pulled it back off for some reason.  So I asked the rep on the phone what the deal was, was it on the truck or was it at the depot waiting to get picked up.  The rep said she called the depot and they told her it was just a mistake, the box was actually on the truck to go out for delivery.  Ok, great.

So Cindy came up with a fun idea where she would drop me off at Dunkin Donuts on her way to work with one of my wheels.  I could grab coffee and then ride back.  I had the big Gotway Monster so the ride back went fast, barely a half hour.  When I got home I notice I have a voicemail on my phone.  It’s a woman from FedEx.  She says they have box there on hold waiting for my pick up.  What in the fck??

So my head is now very quickly running numbers, time estimates and possible outcomes.  It is now after 10 AM.  Don was originally supposed to come around noon.  I texted him asking if he could push off his arrival till around 12:30 to give me some time.  I had the Tesla in the garage sitting at 100% charge, which I did for the long drive to Orlando.  I had no other vehicle options since Katie still had Cindy’s car and Cindy had my truck.  Going to the FedEx depot in Fort Myers and back was going to chew through a good chunk of battery but I had to do it.

Now I was still unsure if this voicemail was accurate but I did not have time to sit at the house on the phone to figure it out so I hopped in the car and called on the way.  I spent over 25 minutes on the phone, with about two thirds of it being on hold.  The guy first told me that again he contacted the depot and they assured him that the box was on the truck.  I then pressed him and asked why would I get a message that it was being held there.  He said maybe it was just an automated message, I told him no, this was an actual person.

I did not trust what he was telling me so I asked if he could connect me directly with the depot so i could sort this out for myself.  After another hold he came back and said “I am connecting you now”, after another FIVE MINUTES of holding I hung up the phone, furious.  I called back immediately and more or less screamed at the guy that answered, letting him know how frustrated I was at how inept FedEx has been.  I said all I want is to be connected directly to the depot at Fort Myers.  It took another couple transfers and another 10 minutes or so of waiting but I finally got a hold of a live person at the depot.  Yep, the box IS there, despite multiple assurances from other FedEx staff that it was on the truck.  Even though I was angry at just how inept FedEx is, I was glad I went with my gut and started driving that direction immediately.  By the time I got the confirmation I was only 5 minutes away.  I picked up the box, sped home, plugged the Tesla back in and hit my remaining to do’s before departing in a whirlwind fashion.

Part of this conference included Cindy dog sitting Don’s dog, Lucky.  We have had Lucky out at the house a few times but it has been 2-3 years since his last visit.  Lucky seemed to acclimate himself quickly although Elsa didn’t seem to remember him very well.  Don and I loaded our bags into the Tesla and pushed out around around 1:30 or so.

Because of the unexpected trip to Fort Myers my battery level was only in the low 80’s when we left.  We stopped at a huge 20 station supercharger in Sarasota to fuel up for the remaining push into the Orlando area.  The charge rate was amazing.  We spent maybe 35 minutes walking around Whole Foods and came back to the car being close to 90% charged.  The rest of the drive went smoothly, I used auto pilot for a good portion of the ride and we arrived at the hotel a little after 5:30.

The only thing on the conference schedule for Tuesday was to check in at the registration table and attending the opening banquet.  The Omni hotel was MASSIVE and included a golf course, wave pool, lazy river, and more.  My room was clean and modern.  Really the only thing I didn’t like about the hotel was certain areas were kept meat locker cold, I did not bring any long sleeve shirts to combat the extreme AC.  The Tuesday night dinner was fun with large spreads of food served buffet style and an open bar.  I probably had a half dozen Miller Lites over the evening.

A group of people went down to the lazy river after dinner.  I hung out there for a short while but since I didn’t bring a bathing suit it wasn’t much fun watching others float around.  I instead went back up to the room but then decided I wanted to go pull my Mten3 out of the trunk of the car and ride around.  I spent close to a half hour just tooling around the large parking lots of the hotel in the forward and reverse directions, enjoying myself.  After my shower I collapsed in bed, tired from the very long day.

The conference went as many conferences do, you eat way more food than you should, you listen to a lot of people talking, and you cherry pick what information is pertinent to you.  Actually one of the most valuable things is hearing the stories of other customers and how they handle certain situations, which in some cases may also help us out in the future.

On Wednesday after the presentations were done I just felt gross from the combo of food and beer the night before.  I told Don I was going to hit the hotel fitness center to help burn off some of the grossness I was feeling.  The fitness center was pretty large with a good variety of equipment.  Again the AC was the only negative, it was so cold that I was literally shivering at first when I entered wearing a sleeveless t-shirt and shorts.  After close to an hour workout I did feel less blah which I was happy about.

We had dinner that night at one of the restaurants in the hotel.  We wound up sitting with some of the employees of Grant Street, the company who was holding the event.  We had a enjoyable dinner with slow service and frigid AC but good food and conversation.  I left the EUC in the car that night as it had been raining off and on for a few hours. I fell asleep watching CNN coverage of the Mueller hearing which was filled with him looking confused and refusing to directly answer questions a couple hundred times.

The last day of the conference was shorter for us as the last presentation we attended wrapped up at two.  We wasted little time getting out of there.  During the day Cindy told/sent me pictures of water in the garage.  Through more investigation she verified the leak was coming from the water heater, great.  Not only did the garage have water, the property was underwater as well from massive rainfall over the last 24 hours.  I was not looking forward to having to address the water heater issue as soon as I got home.

On the way back we stopped to supercharge in Brandon.  The charging was really quick once again however I actually wound up turning around in the parking lot and hooking back up a second time.  I figured that 80% was going to be enough to get us home but the Tesla did not agree with my math, it said that my battery would be lower than what it recommends and I would need to keep my speed under 75mph to ensure I get home.  That was when I spun around and hooked back up for another few minutes to get us to 88% which cleared any restriction warnings.

The lack of speed restriction was certainly needed.  The pace of traffic on I-75 at times is insane.  There were points I was going in the low 80’s and had the pack of cars leaving me in their dust.  We pulled into the driveway around 6:30.  Both Lucky and Elsa were thrilled to see us, they went nuts running around the house, it was very cute.  After hanging out a bit Don and Lucky headed home and I looked more at the water heater situation.

Cindy had already turned off the water line to the heater as well as turned off the breaker.  The leak was coming from the top heating element.  There is a possibility I could just replace that element and get by for a period of time but I had already resigned myself to just replacing the unit.  I was considering a tankless water heater, the type that only runs as needed to save electricity.  The issue with those is it is a more involved install and often the circuit for a conventional water heater is not beefy enough because of the huge amp draw required to instantly heat water.  The leak was bad so Cindy and I felt the need to go out to Home Depot last night, despite it being after 7PM when we left.

Once there we saw no tankless heaters on display but a lot of high efficiency Rheem conventional heaters.  There was a model on special for $500 with the same capacity as mine, 50 gallons.  In addition it has a digital display and the ability to add a wifi module which is cool but probably unnecessary in our set up.  We decided to go this route for simplicity sake.  The install should be very easy and Katie’s boyfriend Daniel replaces water heaters all the time for his job as an HVAC tech.  He said he would be willing to help me do it which sealed the deal.  We loaded the big box into the back of the Tacoma and plopped it into the garage.  I plan to leave work early today to meet Daniel to get the job done.

The water heater will only be the opening ceremony of things to do during my upcoming week long staycation.  The other BIG thing I hope to accomplish is completing the Prius battery repair so we can get all of our vehicles back in the household.  I also have my brand new Gotway Nikola to test, ride, and document for YouTube.  It’s going to be a busy but hopefully satisfying and fun week.