Last night I saw F1 the new Brad Pitt movie about Formula 1 racing. Like Tom Cruise it is a rarity that I see a Brad Pitt movie I don’t enjoy. F1 felt like a throwback where everything wasn’t CGI generated although I am sure there was still plenty in there. Even if you aren’t a racing fan I think you would enjoy the movie, a lot. Brad, who is now 60 years old I believe gives me an example to shoot for where you can be still be viable, active and fit well past the half century mark. I’d give the movie an A-
When I arrived home last night there was quite to commotion with trucks and heavy equipment gathered around the entrance to my development. On my way back from walking Elsa I asked one of the men working what was up.
For the last couple weeks there have been some utility contractors laying conduit for fiber optic cable. They pissed some people off as they spray painted yards, the street and planted flags indicating underground utility locations without any prior notice/permission. My neighbor across the street was really pissed because the drilling machine was on his pavers and spilled oil on them during the process. I saw the 84 year old man out there trying to scrub the oil off for quite awhile over the weekend. Well this mess at the entrance was due to them as well.
Evidently the underground drilling machine they use broke a sewer pipe near the entrance. Luckily it only affected one house in the neighborhood as far as the sewer connection but it still required a ton of work to address. I am sure the contractors responsible will have a huge bill from the county coming their way.
In theory having fiber in our neighborhood should be a good thing, it’s just a matter of how much speed it provides and at what cost. If the numbers are good I could see myself dumping Xfinity. It costs me over $220 a month for their service which is ridiculous IMO.
I have been hooked into a YouTube channel called Cart Narcs for a week or two. The premise is simple, a guy politely gets in the face of people that do not return their shopping carts to the collection points in parking lots. If they ignore his request to put the carts back he drops a magnet sign on their vehicle indicating they are a “lazy bones”. The reactions he gets from people he confronts range from good natured to violent.
My first job ever was a stock man at K-mart in the 80’s. One of my tasks was collecting shopping carts. Ever since then I had a strong dislike for individuals that were too lazy to walk a cart to the corral. Hell I have a strong dislike for lazy people in general now that I think of it. I recall that mostly miserable job at K-mart paid a whopping $2.75 an hour.
The other day as I was driving my Tesla Model Y Performance I had a random realization come into my head. When I bought this car last year I thought upgrading to the performance model of the car was something I wanted. With 0-60 times of 3.5 seconds the car is a true rocket, faster than most conventional performance or muscle cars. My rationale was I could get this performance while maintaining my payment because of the 1.99% financing I got on the car. The reality is I hardly ever utilize that performance I paid more for.
Every Tesla is relatively fast already. Sure the performance version adds some other things like cooler, bigger wheels, better brakes and a rear spoiler but the visual change is not dramatic. In retrospect I think I would have been better served if I held off until the Model Y refresh came out which adds features that matter more to me than leaving cars in the dust during stop light to stop light drag races that I never really have. It’s just another example of how my priorities have shifted and mutated over the years.
Here is the first of several videos I will be making regarding the V12S
My three day weekend passed quickly as always. My 4th of July was pretty calm. I stayed home with Elsa, giving her a couple hemp calming treats to get through the night of fireworks, her worst nightmare. She spent most of the evening in the guest bathroom. I left the loud vent fan on the entire time to help block out some noise.
On Saturday I finally got around to refreshing the mulch in the landscaped area, something I originally wanted to do over the winter when temperatures are 15 degrees lower and the humidity isn’t oppressive. Luckily this house has a lot less areas that need mulch than my old property so it was done in around an hour. I spent time out on the new V12S wheel for a nice 20 mile ride. I also shot a bunch of content around it, something I haven’t done a whole lot of lately.
There are lots of blanks I could fill in about the weekend but my mind is not in the thought sharing mode today for some reason.
Last night I got out to see the latest Jurassic Park movie, a franchise they have stretched across three decades at this point. Unlike some of the previous films they didn’t lean into the past pulling in characters from years ago. I think this cast stood well on it’s own, I really enjoyed the movie, enough to give it an A-. If you are a dinosaur fan you will want to see it.
With July 4th falling on a Friday this year it translates into a long weekend. As is usual my 4th will involve trying to minimize the amount of terror for Elsa from the fireworks through a combination of CBD calming treats and a lot of background noise in the house. The rest of my weekend will likely involve a combination of work and play, hopefully keeping the ratios at acceptable levels.
Pardon the abrupt segway but I have come to realize that I am far, far better off focusing on things that I can directly influence or control than spend large amounts of energy on situations that I can’t. Banging your head against brick walls is not good for your physical or mental health. I certainly have done my fair share. Everyone is responsible for the reality that they create/accept for themselves. If you don’t like it, change it. No one is coming to save you.
As I have referred to previously my time as an HOA board member has been more eventful than I thought it would be. The HOA has existed for over 30 years and has always been run in a casual fashion because all of the people that lived there more or less got along and nobody was unreasonable. Well that reality has shifted in the past few months and in order to be proactive we are looking to make changes that will make our tasks as board members much simpler yet make the HOA itself much more formal and organized. Of course you never get something for nothing so there will be an increase in our annual fees which is nominal. Our HOA fees are very, very low so although residents will never be happy about paying more, in the big picture it’s still a fraction of what most associations charge. I’m all for it as this change will insulate all board members moving forward and allow us to let any squeaking wheels get greased without it causing major headaches. In the big picture I think this will wind up being a great thing, ironic it has been set in motion by a not so great thing.
I have still been printing up a storm in my newly rearranged office with mini print farm. I bought a second air cleaner to put in the office as some of the stuff that is a byproduct of the printing process can be bad for you. Almost all of my printing is done in PLA which is not bad but I have been printing a project in PETG-CF and I can definitely feel there is stuff in the air after those prints.
I had a very full weekend. After getting up early to go for a walk on the beach Saturday morning I headed to the pickleball courts for my third play session of the week. I didn’t get there until after 9AM so the heat and humidity was already ramping up. I played 7 or 8 games back to back and was absolutely drenched by the end of it. I once again played pretty well. Not having the significant nagging pain in the right leg/hip definitely helps me play better.
Saturday afternoon I started and completed an unconventional construction project. I wanted to build a stand to put the A1 printer under the bench, making room for the PS1 up top. I took a couple measurements but as is almost always the case the plan for building the shelf was very much formed on the fly.
I utilized two 8 foot sections of 2″ x 12″ lumber for the build. I wound up using almost every inch of it to make the three foot long unit. I also was able to use some of the lumber that was left over from the fence work. The end result was a very heavy and sturdy shelf that could probably support 500 pounds easily. The weight is a good thing since the printer throws a lot of back and forth energy that would shake something thinner/lighter apart.
On Sunday the work continued. The A1 printer fit nicely on the new shelf, clearing a spot for me to put the new P1S. Bambu does an amazing job packaging their printers, utilizing space in a very smart way. Setting up the P1S was very straightforward. I had it up and printing in roughly 30 minutes. I did several prints on it during the day and they all turned out great. Later in the evening I had all three printers running at once. I was pleased with how it turned out.
I did a live stream Friday night where I unboxed the new V12S that was sent to me. The wheel has a lot of cool features along with a different modern look that I really like.
On Sunday I got out for my first ride on the wheel. Even though it is a 16 inch wheel it rides like something bigger due to the large size of the shell. I have a lot of testing to do on it with the video production that accompanies all of it.
By the time Sunday was winding down I was tired. I had documented and posted a ton of content about both the 3D printer work and the Inmotion V12S. When I make content it doesn’t necessarily just go to YouTube, many times it also needs to be curated for Tik Tok, Instagram and/or Facebook. Even on YouTube it goes to multiple channels as I have my main one and then sub-channels that deal only with certain aspects like 3D printing and PEVs. It was all part of my plan to make content creation a viable side gig. Things haven’t gone quite as planned although I do make enough to pay for my monthly Dunkin Donuts bill.
I made it through another volleyball night. Two hours of moving through the sand in warm and humid conditions takes a toll on my 57 year old body but I survived with only minor aches and pains. My team split every two game series we had, winding up 3-3. We had a disadvantage as we only had three players where as everyone else had four. I played decent.
On our team we had a woman that I have played against before but never with. She is the type of person that likes to give unsolicited advice, a large annoyance for me. If I made a mistake she would often like to chirp in advice which quickly became tiresome as of course I already knew what I did wrong. She made plenty of mistakes on her own including missing a bunch of serves. I did not miss one the entire night. My inner smart ass wanted to give her a tip that it’s better to get your serves in but I kept my mouth shut. I was a sweaty and sandy mess by the end of the night. There is no shower during the week that feels better than the one that occurs after playing sand volleyball.
This weekend I may have a new wheel to play with. I also have a new printer to play with which is going to require a minor construction project in my hobby room so I can accommodate everything. I might also get some pickleball time in as well as whatever else needs to get done around the homestead. Oh there could be a live stream wedged in there as well, should be an active weekend.
Last night after work I went to get my hair cut. I last had it done before the trip to Texas so I felt ready. When I got home I finally got around to making a video comparing two of my wheels, the Inmotion V9 and the Nosfet Aero. It was something I had been wanting to do for at least two weeks so it felt good to get it off my plate. My plate feels pretty full of should do’s but far less must do’s than I once had.
I had an impulse buy of another Bambu printer yesterday. They are running a pretty significant sale that started yesterday. I bought a P1S with an AMS unit which was more than 25% off it’s normal pricing. I now need to put some serious thought into how I want my office/hobby/3D printing room laid out to make this all work. As is often the case, getting rid of things that I don’t really need anymore is step one.
Last night I did a very rare evening/night ride on my Nosfet Aero. As I left I was treated to a number of beautiful views of the sky as the sun had recently set. The Aero was a great wheel for the ride, able to comfortably roll me along at 25MPH without being overly big or heavy.
I have always said riding is a great way for me to clear my head and reset myself overall. There have been various stressors circling around me in recent months and I have done very little riding to help even that out. I have ANOTHER wheel coming my way in not too long which looks to be another design that checks a lot of my boxes. It is being sent for my evaluation. I’m looking forward to it
