Solar service, I can be a smart ass, Fireworks at the end

Ever since Monday morning my solar system stopped reporting it’s status to the internet.  I contacted the installers and they referred me to Enphase, the company that produces the brains of the solar system to help me troubleshoot it.  Last night I was out by the control panel in the dark with their support on the line.  They had me remove a cover panel to access the cellular modem.  After shutting down the system I disconnected the modem, removed the sim card, wiped it off and put everything back together.  After a few minutes the system came back online and the cellular system was communicating.

While I had the tech on the phone he mentioned how the system can also be connected to wi-fi.  Doing so allows the monitoring data to be updated every 15 minutes instead of every 6 hours.  I remember asking the installers about this and they indicated it wasn’t feasible for some reason.  Well I had the tech send me the instructions on how to set it up that way in email, I will take a shot at it this weekend.

So my EUC buddy Marty posted a video the other day talking positively about the EUC stands I sell as well as talking about our history together.  I didn’t know he was going to do this but I appreciated it.  He linked the video to one of the EUC Facebook groups as well which I saw yesterday.  As I looked at the comments I found myself getting annoyed by one particular individual.  He said that he bought some stands from me and he thought that they were weak.  Well for emphasis he actually said WEAK!!  I told him that I have had wheels on these stands for over three years.  I continued, saying that if he had some issue with his stands he never contacted me about them and I didn’t appreciate that the time he felt was appropriate to complain was on a post that was saying they were good. I referred to his action as “trolling” which anyone that spends any appreciable time on the internet is familiar with. It’s basically another name for antagonist.

So the guy didn’t react well to my calling him out and said that I can’t take criticism and I shouldn’t be selling stuff if that is the case.  I corrected him again, stating criticism is fine, it was his choice to post his complaint without ever addressing it with me, on a post praising the stands no less.  I hastily threw together a video demonstrating just how “weak” the stands are by standing on one of them.  My body weight is over double that of the heaviest EUC in production.  After I did this the guy deleted his original post, perhaps seeing the error in his judgement.  Normally I ignore or joke at/with people that do such things but for whatever reason I felt last night further remediation was needed.

I watched the longest SpaceX Starship test flight to date yesterday where it shot up about 12 KM, belly flopped downward using it’s fins for control and then reignited the rockets for landing.  Everything worked great except the landing part, the rocket evidently had inadequate fuel pressure to generate enough thrust to slow it down sufficiently, causing a massive fireball on landing.  Despite the crash and burn at then end, overall the test was a huge success in proof of concept.

Elon said something crazy like he thinks there will be a manned mission to Mars within 6 years.  He is infamous for inaccurate timeline predictions but hopefully he isn’t too far off.  I have always hoped that before I die or become senile that I would see the day we go to Mars, rooted in my lifelong fascination with space and all things associated with it.