I had some free time last night so I decided to get a live stream in. It had been over a month since I last did so. In the stream various things were covered including the new wheel from Inmotion that supposedly has a top end of over 90 MPH, which sounds insane. It was roughly a two hour stream which was enough for me. I don’t have the desire to stream or create content as much as I have in other time periods of my life.
I made the call to Comcast/Xfinity today to cancel any and all services I have with them, a company I have been a customer of for close to 20 years. They have been a company that has annoyed me regularly over the years with the games they play. Their favorite tactic was getting you signed onto a seemingly attractive plan that had a limited duration. When that duration expires your costs increase significantly. They play this game betting that most people won’t take the effort to do something about it.
For a long time I did just that, every time my plan expired I would get on the phone and get put onto another plan, usually having to sacrifice something or agree to add something to the service to do so like a landline or wireless phone that I did not need. Again the intent is to charge you full boat for these services when the promo expires.
Xfinity was also one of the worst offenders of bill creep. Every few months my bill would go up a few dollars. When I used to inquire about why the answer was always the same, new fees/taxes for this and that. It was maddening. They stopped being as agreeable when it came to negotiating a new promo for existing customers as well. The savings got to be so minimal I stopped trying and resigned myself to paying $230+ per month for the last couple years, which is ridiculous IMO.
One of the things I like about my Quantum Fiber arrangement is the price is $105 per month, period. Unless you change your service level that is what you pay, forever. It’s a refreshing change from bill creep and bait and switch pricing that Comcast loves so much. So in total I will be shaving almost $270 per month from my budget by saying goodbye to Comcast/Xfinity since I also had an Xfinity Mobile line I was paying for. Good riddance.
One of the things I was less than happy about when my Quantum Fiber install was complete was my line speeds were not what they should be although the wifi speeds were very fast. My speedtest.net numbers hung right around 1gb despite installing a 10GB card in my PC to give me a fast connection to the router. Just for the hell of it last night I reran the test and got much better numbers, my download and upload speeds were well above 2GB. It’s still not at the advertised 3GB speed but maybe as they continue rolling out the service that will improve. It’s still lightning fast, especially on the upload side which is great for someone that is posting internet content like I do.
Hey the federal government is still shutdown. It’s a very bigly shutdown. People are saying it’s the best shutdown ever.
Saturday morning I played pickleball for the fourth time during the week, having sessions Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday as well. I only played three games Saturday but they were all long games. I had a unique situation where my last game was played with another player named Shawn, spelled the way I do. What made it more interesting was it was a woman. We won our game. If cutting volleyball out of my routine means I can play pickleball four times a week that is a trade I am happy to make.
During the day I went outside and reconfigured my exterior RGB lights to talk to the new wifi network. As far as I know it was the last iOT devices in my home I had to touch. I was confident enough in my work that I turned off the Xfinity router. I noticed no ill effects from doing so. Now I need to see if I can shave down my Xfinity account to the point where I only have barebone access that allows me access to their streaming app while dropping the internet connectivity. If they want to overcharge me for that I will just kick them to the curb permanently.
I listened to the Eagles game against the Broncos. It looks like the curtain was pulled back a bit on the team. I think the 4-0 record assisted by some incredible good luck they have had up until this point has masked some of the issues the team has. They allowed the Broncos to score 18 unanswered points in the second half to come all the way back from a 17-3 deficit. There was some pretty terrible officiating in the game from what it sounded like but regardless, they should win that game, especially at home. Oh well, my emotional investment in the team is nowhere close to what it once was so the lingering effects of bad losses is much more minimal.
I saw pictures on Facebook of my 40th high school reunion which went down this weekend. It was a relatively small gathering of maybe 30-40 people. I have never attended a high school reunion yet the idea of 40 years passing since I graduated is crazy if I allow my mind to dwell on it. Some people I could still identify from the pictures while others I had no clue who they were thanks to the effects of four decades of time passing. Perusing the pictures made the time, energy and effort I have put into remaining active seem worth it.
The other thing that impacted me was a list of classmates that have passed away. There were 17 or 18 names on the list. I knew about handful of them but most of the names I had no idea about. It was yet another reminder that you better appreciate the here and now because tomorrow is never guaranteed.
Last night I put out my sole remaining Halloween decoration, the Spidey Pumpkin. By my calculations it has been with me for over a decade. Last year I don’t recall doing anything at all for Halloween, I wasn’t in a great headspace at that time. I mounted the “pumpkin” on a spare trashcan in the entryway so it would be more visible to passers by. I flipped my garage RGB lights to orange as well. Sometimes simple is better, at least nowadays it is for me. With my old house there was a lot more decorating going on both indoors and out.
Back then I had multiple inflatables spread out across the front yard. I had two or three containers of them. Inside the house there would be Halloween things scattered around the living space. Ironically even with all of this decorating I NEVER got trick or treaters visit my place. I viewed the decorations as something nice for others that drove by to look at. Now I would view that amount of effort as mainly a pain in the ass and little else.
Speaking of the old house, it is still for sale. My old neighbor has been giving me some updates as we are trying to figure out why it is back up for sale. It appears there is only one person living there currently so it seems some sort of significant life course altering event has gone down. If you have a spare 682K you too can experience what I did living there for 22 years. Ten chickens are included for that price.
After my weekend in Orlando I am looking for a more “normal” variety this go round. I have plenty of potential things to keep me busy from both the work and fun categories.
So I took my 3D printed pickleball paddle out to the courts yesterday with no clue how it would play or if it would last 5 minutes until breaking. After playing two complete games with the heavy paddle it appeared to be completely fine. I would not use the word “fine” to describe what it is like playing with the paddle although I did win one of the two games I played with it. It’s a heavy beast and there is no real “feel” at all. The paddle just plows through the ball. The extra weight definitely affected my hand speed in shots that require it. Still, it was kind of fun to play with a paddle I created and I may bring it along more often just to see how long it will last.
I have decided to not play volleyball this week. My enjoyment to aggravation formula has swung too far towards the wrong direction far as my body is just not responding well to playing. I have to play between 3-4 games before I even think about trying to jump. If I am forced to choose at this point in my life if I am going to continue to play pickleball or sand volleyball it is a very easy selection for me. Pickleball wins instantly.
There are a lot of people I like that I play volleyball with so it will be a bummer to not see them regularly but the physical reality of approaching 58 years old makes one make decisions that they would rather not have to. If I get to a point where my lower body feels solid once again maybe I’ll give it a go again but this last 365 days has been a physical struggle pretty much the entire time.
Last night I got a couple things done. When I was doing the work connecting to the new fiber internet last week I made a revelation that for unknown reasons did not strike me before. When I set up my PC at the new house I set it up in a way that hid the glass side which allowed visibility to the plethora of RGB elements inside the PC. All the fans, the water cooling and even the DIMM memory has RGB lights on it which look cool. I have no idea why I did not account for that when I set up the PC two years ago. I corrected it last night.
Doing this required me to unhook everything connected to the PC and reroute it to the other side of the desk. A simple task for “normal” computer users but I have a lot of shit as you can imagine. The work was tedious and slow but eventually I got everything moved and working once again. Having visibility into the RGB wonderland inside my PC after two years was appreciated.
I also got to do the finishing touches on my 3D printed pickleball paddle, adding a skin to the face, an edge guard and an overgrip for the handle. It looks somewhat odd but when you pick it up it becomes apparent this is not a normal paddle because of it’s weight. Tipping the scales at 12.5 ounces, this paddle is roughly 50% heavier than normal paddles. I plan to mess around with it a little bit during play today but just the weight alone would make the paddle not viable long term, not to mention the odds of breakage being high. Still, it’s one of the more interesting 3D projects I have undertaken.
Hey, the federal government is shutdown, awesome. I found out that government shutdowns were never a thing until Reagan’s terms. What a great idea, it ranks right up there with allowing corporations to create Super PACS. I SMH so much nowadays that I have a permanent neck deformity.
When I got back from Orlando on Sunday I did not get groceries, figuring I would just get it Monday after work. I got a late start to doing so and I decided to just add a Costco trip onto that agenda. The end result is what you see here, a mountain of grocery and other items piled into the back of the Tesla.
I was already tired/sleepy by the time I hit Publix. Pulling into the driveway close to 8:30 PM and unloading everything was a task I did not feel up to performing but I trudged through it. Once my head hit the pillow it did not take long for me to fall asleep. I attribute the fatigue to a busy weekend.
I just heard that the Rapture was predicted to have gone down recently by some religious pundits. This biblical event is basically the end of days where everyone goes to heaven, well I guess the ones that qualify at least. Well surprise, surprise, we are still here. In the last decade or two there have been several end of days predictions that have fallen flat.
The expiration of the Mayan calendar in 2012 was the biggest one I can recall where to many people indicated the end of the world. Instead it passed just like any other day. To be clear I believe there will be an end of days coming for all of us whether it be via climate change, asteroid impact, nuclear holocaust, pandemic or some other means. It’s not a matter of if but when. My personal preference would be to expire naturally before that happens but if I get to bear witness to the end, so be it.
My long 3 day weekend in the Orlando area went by quickly. I haven’t been to Orlando for non-work functions for a number of years. Despite living in Florida for over 25 years I can count the amount of times I have gone there for leisure on one hand I think. The biggest reason for that is the crush of humanity just about anywhere you go. I am never a fan of crowds and they are nearly inescapable in Orlando. Despite this negative I had a good time there overall and did not return until late Sunday afternoon. I once again bought a one month FSD sub for the Tesla to assist in the drive and was glad I did so.
Once I got unpacked I did my weekly bill paying session and then resumed some open tasks that needed to be closed up. One of those was doing more cut over to the new wi-fi network. I ordered four smart switches to replace some old Belkins I was utilizing inside the house. After installing these I believe every “smart” device inside the house has now been migrated to the new network. The only things that need to be touched are the four RGB exterior lights and I think I will be finally done. I knew I had a lot of wifi devices in my household, I did not think it would take me this long to touch each one to get them converted over.
I also finally felt comfortable enough to wipe my old Iphone to ship it back to AT&T as part of my transaction. It had been sitting turned off for several days and I have not noticed any issues on the new phone which would require me to access the old one. I paused a brief second before hitting the ERASE NOW button but I am pretty confident I am in the clear.
Although I had already bought a case for my new 17 I just received another one that I like better. I shoot a lot of content on my phone. The new case has a trick hinge on the back that allows the phone to stand upright, hang from something or stick to something metal courtesy of a strong magnet. I think that versatility is going to be very appreciated over time.
Oh the Eagles won. I got to hear part of the game during the drive back. It sounded like despite some more warts in their game the Birds beat a good Tampa Bay team, in Tampa so I’ll take the W and be happy.
Yesterday I received my 10G LAN card for my PC. My hope was installing it would instantly snap me up to the full 3 gigabit speed I now have in my house. It didn’t. My download speed still would not crack 1 GB although my upload actually hit 1.4 GB. I have some more tweaks in my bag to try yet. I also converted a few more things over to the new wifi network. I probably won’t have everything converted until next week as I am going away this weekend.
I received an email from my old neighbor last night that my old home is back on the market which surprised the hell out of me. I had considerable interaction with the owners during the sale as I gave them a ton of stuff with the sale of the house. It seemed to me like they were in the home for the long term. They fenced in the front of the yard and the few times I went by it seemed like there were a number of people living there and they had a lot of stuff.
Seeing the pictures of my home of 22 years gave me a weird vibe. Flipping through all of the pictures of changes I did and all of the money, time and effort involved triggered back stories in my mind of how each thing came to be. The pictures of the place make it seem very sparse inside which was the opposite of what I expected based on how “full” the house seemed driving by. I was happy to see that they did have chickens, which they talked to me about although I don’t think they are as close to them as I was mine since they are listed as one of the accessories that goes with the house. It also appears they don’t own a pressure washer although I gave them one of those too. The out buildings and pool cage looks like they had not been cleaned in a very long time.
They are listing the house for 680k plus which seems nuts. I think they are unlikely to get that number with the plentiful home inventory in the area. I don’t know what changed to invoke a sale but I guess you never know what twists and turns life has in store for you.
Last night we had our big HOA meeting. In the past these were held at the presidents home, this time it was at the community center of the park where I play pickleball. This was the largest meeting I have been involved in but still only maybe a little more than half of the 30 homes in the neighborhood were represented. The board members were up on a “stage”, facing the rest of the audience. The household that has been the impetus for the board to discuss enlisting a property management firm was not in attendance which I predicted to several people. They appear to be the type of people that prefer to exist mostly hiding behind phones and keyboards.
The meeting went well from my perspective. There was some prolonged periods of Q & A of both us board members and the representative for the property management company. There was some push back about using a management company but I think the major concerns were addressed, most notably that if we ever decide we don’t want to use them all it requires is 30 day written notice. We also received assurances that the fees we would pay them would be more or less locked in, addressing fears of a bait and switch scenario where fees steadily increase over time.
The meeting ran close to two hours long but was productive. The next challenge will be trying to get some different people in the neighborhood to volunteer for the board as we potentially have three spots that will be open due to resignation. With only 30 households there is not a large pool to select from. I came away from the meeting feeling more positive that the road ahead will be less rocky than 2025 has been thus far.