Category Home Improvements

I had made one last purchase to add to my voice controlled, internet connected arsenal, a Sensi smart thermostat.  I had looked into getting a Nest a couple years ago but was told my Trane AC would not work with it.   The Sesni actually has better reviews than the Nest and supposedly had greater compatibility, working with over 95% of all HVAC systems.

Before buying it I tried to 100% confirm it would work with my Trane unit.  I could not find that confirmation but I also could not find any info saying it would not work.  So when the box arrived today I was eager to get it installed during one of the breaks in my online training class.

I was surprised when I pulled the Trane thermostat off the wall that there were only three wires feeding it, a red one, a white one, and a yellow one.   When I used the install guide that is included with the Sensi app it asks you to enter the letter for each terminal of your existing thermostat so it can tell you how to hook the wires to the new thermostat.  Well the yellow wire went to a terminal labeled D.  There was no D option in the app which was the first sign I had an issue.

So I called the toll free support line, described my problem and gave them the model number off the Trane thermostat.  After a brief hold the woman gave me the bad news.  My Trane system uses something described as a “communicating thermostat”, a proprietary thing that shoves my system into that less than 5% that the Sensi won’t work with.  Damn it.  I was mad that my new purchase was incompatible and frustrated with myself for not 100% verifying it would work before pulling the trigger.  I boxed it back up to get returned tomorrow.  I guess I will just have to live with a “dumb” thermostat for the foreseeable future.  I guess I could have worse problems right?

Today has been a pretty dreary day with a near constant rain which I believe is the ass end of Colin.  Quick, hard bursts of rain are expected around here.  Long, gray, wet Pennsylvania type days are not.  The chickens are soaked.

I find myself fascinated with the Tesla autodrive feature.  I have watched a ton of videos of the vehicles driving themselves.  It seems like Tesla somehow leapfrogged the self driving car field.  A couple years ago the only way to implement self driving was via a clumsy roof mounted 360 degree spinning sensor.  Technology is awesome.

Tropical storm Colin had some impact on us yesterday but nothing horrible.  It was windy for a good portion of the day and we had some periods of heavy rain however that can be said of most Florida weather days during wet season.

So despite my best efforts to unclog the air handler drain line over the weekend we were still having water back up and leak out of the unit.  We had a PM scheduled for the AC system on Wednesday but I called early Monday morning to see if we could get it someone out there sooner.  Luckily they said someone could come out during the afternoon.

I also had my first day of at home training for Office 365 deployment, which I plan to roll out in our office sometime this year.  The instructor was good and delivered the information in a way that kept your attention.  The labs are a bit repetitive and frustrating at times but all in all so far so good overall.

When the AC tech got there he quickly confirmed there was still something blocking the drain line.  Through applying suction to both ends instead of just one like I did, he was able to get the line flowing again.  He also did a thorough PM while he was in there.  He redid the kill switch that is supposed to shut off the air handler if drain water starts backing up.  I bet he spent close to two hours at the house and only charged me the standard $85 PM charge.  He told me to prevent the scenario in the future I should dump some vinegar into the drain line every two months.  I quickly added a recurring reminder to my calendar to do exactly that.

This morning we took advantage of my virtual classroom not starting until mid-morning by going out on a run.  Despite us starting at around 7:30 it was already ridiculously uncomfortable with a temp in the low 80’s with almost 100% humidity.  We logged about 3.5 miles, starting and ending at our Dunkin Donuts.  The humidity made for tough running conditions that had both of us soaked with sweat by the end of it.  The near instant reward of coffee afterward was nice.   It was the first I can recall getting a run in on a weekday in FOREVER.  I would not be surprised if a couple years have passed since it happened last.

Today the latest tool in my cordless 20 volt arsenal arrived, a Dewalt blower powered by the same batteries the weed whacker utilizes.   It allows me to quickly blow around anything without having to look for an electric extension cord or gas can.  I took it out for a test blow this afternoon and was very satisfied with the results.

During the morning I installed my new Tacoma rear view mirror with Homelink support. As usual I had some bonehead moments, a staple in most of my project videos.

I pretty much NEVER blog on a Sunday afternoon but things just work out how they work out sometimes.  Talk about work, Saturday was jammed full of it.  Before the work began Cindy and I headed to the track to get a run in.  We left the house around 7 but that was not early enough to offset the now firmly in place heat and humidity.  The three and a half miles we ran were hot and sweaty as you would expect.

When we got home I quickly jumped in the pool as a substitute shower before we jumped in the Prius to go pick up Sadie.  We went straight from Ali’s place to Rural King and Home Depot for our almost automatic weekly visit.  Sadie loves being able to roam the aisles of both stores like any other regular shopper.  I needed to get some stuff for a number of small projects.  I also bought a pretty big item, a Dewalt battery powered weed whacker.  They were running a promo where you got a free second battery pack when you bought the trimmer.  Considering these high powered batteries normally cost $100 each it was quite the deal.

My gas powered weed whacker still works although it is starting to have some problems.  I never would have considered a cordless trimmer several years ago but the advances in battery tech over the last few years means it is now a viable option.  The new 20V batteries are very expensive but with their cost comes long run times and power that rivals corded counterparts.

When we got home one of the many things I did was take the trimmer out for a test run in the yard since it needed to be whacked anyway.  It felt a bit odd performing the job that has exclusively been gas powered the last 15 years with an electric tool.  The power of the whacker was more than sufficient for my needs although I did have to pull out the second battery to finish up the last 10 minutes or so of whacking.

I was running around all afternoon fixing/installing things.  In the middle of it all we had a rather urgent problem to address.  Cindy had mentioned earlier in the day that she heard dripping in the AC return vent in our bedroom which happens to be right under the air handler.  When I was out in the garage I looked at the platform the handler sits on and saw something very disturbing, a very wet wall.  It was obvious the drain system for the handler had to be clogged.  Ironically we already had our AC company scheduled to come out for a PM this week.  Well this was a problem we had to address now.

I pulled the cap to the drain line and could feel some sort of organic material clogging it.  I went outside and attached my shop vac to the drain line to try to suck out debris.  When I had little to no success I took another approach and inserted my air hose from the garage side and tried to blow debris out with air pressure.  I had Cindy watching the drain pipe to see if anything came out.  She said some gunk did exit the tube.  I followed up with some misguided work with the garden hose that seemed to do little more than shoot more water around.

Cindy was freaked out by the idea of the moisture creating mold so she scraped away the very wet section of the wall.  We brought in a floor stand fan and pointed it at the wall to dry it out.  I appeared to have gotten the drain open enough to prevent more back up but we will need to the AC guys to really go over the system thoroughly.  I dropped some bleach in the drain line to hopefully kill whatever is growing in it. I am a bit annoyed that the sensor that is designed to shut off the air handler if water backs up appeared to not work.

After busting ass all afternoon I was beat but had one more item on my mental list to complete, cleaning the Prius thoroughly.   Not only did I wash it but I gave it a coat of Nu-Finish, polished the haze off the headlight lenses and applied tire glaze.  The end result was the nearly 10 year old vehicle looking about as good as it can at this stage of it’s life.

Last night we were both beat and were happy to stay home and watch our latest Netflix rental, Truth.  It is a movie regarding how Dan Rather was forced out of CBS News after 60 minutes reported on how George Bush’s National Guard service to avoid Vietnam was suspicious with allegations of him being AWOL during much of the time he was supposedly in the guard.

When this happened back in 2004 I recall the story but to be honest I didn’t pay tons of attention to it.  There was so much shady shit attributed to W at this time it was just another chapter in a very long book.  The movie was surprisingly intense and emotional.  I certainly did not expect it to be in A- territory.  Robert Redford does a masterful job of portraying Dan Rather, a role I would have told you he was not a good fit for prior to seeing the film.

This morning we did another trip to Home Depot with a DD pit stop with Sadie in tow.  When we got home Cindy got out immediately on the tractor to mow.  The forecast for the next couple days is a very wet one so we wanted to get the grass mowed before ponds once again appear in the yard. She got about 2/3 done before the rain came.

I also did my first day of the 22 kill pushup challenge, an ice bucket-ish thing where participants film themselves doing 22 push ups per day for 22 days.  The number 22 represents the average number of veteran suicides per day, so even though I am normally not a “me too” guy, a cause like this is worthy of my support.

My first installment can be seen here.

This upcoming week is going to be an unconventional one as I am doing at home technical training all week long.  In my past experience these training weeks are fun at first but lose their luster as the week progresses.  Regardless it will be nice to be sticking around the comforts of home all week long.

So Cindy and I left the house around 6 for a very unusual Thursday night arena football game.  I suspected that the odd scheduling would result in even worse than normal attendance.  My suspicion was correct, it was the lightest attended game I recall ever in my 6 or 7 years of minor league arena football attendance.  There were multiple completely empty sections in the arena.  It was sort of sad.

Shortly after we got our food and sat down we noticed it was very quiet.  Normally pre-game they are playing loud music to get the energy level cranked.  As we got within 5 minutes of kickoff there was still no sound on the PA system.  Cindy and I wondered what the f was going on.  I didn’t know if the weeknight scheduling meant they didn’t have a PA announcer.

There was no player intro announcements, no cheerleaders, no pregame prayer or national anthem.  Instead the ref tee’d up the ball and the game just sort of started, it was bizarre.  Watching the game with no PA was quite odd as you can imagine.  We tried our best to keep track of the action.

Very early on a ball thrown by the Tarpons QB came sailing my way.  It was high, high enough I needed to jump to get a hand on it.  I knocked it down and was able to jump the rail to the stairway to grab it.  Considering there was no other fans within 75 feet of us there was no one else there to contest the ball.  It was an all white ball.  The other two balls we have at home are the red, white, and blue models.  I actually tracked down a second ball later in the game which I tossed to a female veteran in a wheel chair on the floor level.  She later told us she actually gave the ball to a young kid in a wheelchair as she already had a ball at home anyway which was cool.

So perhaps the lack of sound threw the Tarpons off early.  They were actually behind 8-0 early on.  I can’t say I had even the slightest concern that the Tarpons wouldn’t come back.  I knew the Savannah Steam just were not very good.  The Steam has a lot of ultra-fat players on the roster.  When I would isolate my attention on them during a play it was incredible just how little effort they exerted most of the time.  The ball would snap and they would stand up, put their hands on the opposing player, take a step or two and that was it.  They had a few good players but not enough to make up for the dead weight, pun intended.

Later in the first half we saw two of the 7 or 8 regular Tarpon cheerleaders were there albeit in street clothes.  With no PA system there was no goofy fan games during the first half. The halftime entertainment consisted of some guys on the field playing catch with the few fans in the seats.  By that time we had heard there was some sort of technical problem with the sound system that they had been working on for a few hours. Then just as the 3rd quarter began they got it working as music started blaring.  Better late than never.

The game quickly became the blow out I had expected from the start.  The final score was 71-20.  I felt embarrassed for the team management to have a playoff game so poorly attended combined with the lack of sound for half the game.  I am not sure if there will be any more home playoff games this season, I guess it depends on how the other teams in this half baked league work out in their playoff games.  I have said it again and again but I just don’t see how the Tarpons can continue to exist next season.

I have sung the praises of the new Tacoma repeatedly but I found a simple button press that makes my driving experience even better, ECT power.   If you throw the Tacoma in DRIVE with the default settings it is very conservative with it’s shifting.  The setting is meant to maximize MPG.  The downside is it makes the truck feel sort of unresponsive.  I noticed that in the default mode, the 6 speed automatic transmission sometimes actually starts in FOURTH gear from a dead stop. No wonder it feels sluggish.

With the ECT button pressed the truck once again uses all of the gears and feels dramatically more powerful.  I assume there is a degree of MPG penalty I will pay but it is a trade off I am more than willing to make.

This weekend we have an open and flexible schedule that we can hopefully balance between must, should, and want to do’s.  Getting the Rachio online during the week knocked one to do off my list.  It is very easy to come up with a replacement task to take it’s place.

I have had no blogging the last couple days due to working at the tax certificate sale.  The sale process for us tech guys is rather boring as we are there in the off chance that something goes wrong which it rarely does.  The good thing is it meant our days ended a little earlier than normal.  I took advantage of that extra time yesterday by getting my new Rachio intelligent sprinkler controller installed.

I had to first remove the Orbit sprinkler box which I got last year to replace my original controller which died.  I felt a little bad that there was a tree frog that had claimed the inside of the box as it’s daytime shelter.  He is the star of the video I shot of the install.

Installation of the new hi-tech controller went pretty well.  I had turned it on and connected it to the app the day before inside.  Once I got it mounted on the wall and wired up it connected to the house wi-fi immediately which is cool.  I then went through the set up of each of my 6 zones.  In the app you describe each area including the amount of sun it gets, soil type, vegetation, slope, and type of sprinklers used.  It then uses this information if you decide to use the smart scheduler.  The Rachio will use the information you enter combined with the local weather information it pulls from the internet to water your property as needed.  Last night the system was scheduled to run but it cancelled the watering because it knew our area got substantial rain during the night.

The biggest reason I went with the Rachio is it can interact with our Amazon Echo.  Last night I turned the sprinklers on and off via voice control which is very cool.  Cindy likes that she can now easily turn on the sprinklers around the house easily to dissuade the chickens from digging excessively in the landscaped areas.  I can also use the app to turn sprinklers on and off from anywhere in the world where I have internet connectivity.

I like the Rachio a lot.  My only concern is it’s ability to survive outdoors.  I bought the outdoor box for the Rachio which should protect it from the elements but it still has to deal with the extreme humidity and heat Florida brings daily.  I may try to put a small “roof” over the box in a similar manner as I did with the Ring that is on the chicken coop to offer a little bit of additional protection.

Today I had my 6 month dermatologist check up.  I have had a spot on the trap area of of my shoulder that has been a problem for awhile.  It would cycle between just being red to actually bleeding from time to time.  I pointed the spot out to the doctor.  When he looked at my chart he saw he had done work in a nearby area several years ago.  He scraped the suspect area and sent it out to be biopsied.  If it again comes back as skin cancer I will likely be once again going under the knife to have the spot cut out.  When a scalpel is involved it is never much fun.

I have been playing some Overwatch since it came out officially last week.  The game is incredibly polished and well done, what I expect from any Blizzard title.  Even though I last played a first person shooter seriously probably a decade ago I have been having fun in Overwatch.  I have fun even though I really don’t know the maps or characters in the game well at all.

I also have fun even though I am not good at the game at all.  I have messed with a number of the possible heroes and found the only ones that I do half decent with are the type where I can lay back strategically and attack from afar.  Any hero that requires in your face fast twitch reaction or precise mouse control I fail pretty miserably with.  So yea, dying a lot does absorb some of the fun factor for me but I still have a good time.  I don’t see Overwatch taking over the number one or two spot in my gaming hierarchy which is occupied by WoW and Hearthstone but it is a fun change of pace for sure. Cindy thinks it’s funny watching my mannerisms while playing the game.  My facial contortions and weird breathing is uncontrollable and odd looking for sure.

Tonight we have an oddly timed Tarpons football game.  It is the first round of the playoffs and I guess it was the only date that worked for all parties involved.  I expect the attendance to be worse than normal because of it being the middle of the week which means I may be able to count the bodies in the seats in a couple minutes.  The other negative is the Tarpons are playing the team from Savannah who we just saw during the final regular season game which was a ridiculous 70-6 blow out.  I expect tonight to be another yawner but at least we will be one of the few there to support the team.

Yes I am blogging on a holiday.  Time-wise it just works out.

Even though we had an extra day tacked onto this weekend and no MAJOR projects planned we still have been going much more than not.  On Saturday the main focus was getting the chickens perch reconfigured.  We wanted to lower it to make it safer/easier for the birds to jump down from.  Our original plan was to literally just chop maybe 18 inches from the triangle shaped perch and be done with it.

Saturday morning Cindy suggested that we consider a redesign in coordination with the elevation decrease which at first I was not really into as it sounded like more work.  However with the way the existing perch was constructed, even lowering it’s existing design was going to be more trouble than you would think.  Cindy suggested we transform the perch from a triangle into a rectangle which would allow for more perching space.  Doing so would allow us to use some of the perch in it’s existing layout and to repurpose most of the wood we pull off in it’s new configuration.

We did a Home Depot run in the new Tacoma, adding another 10 bags to go with the 20 I picked up on Friday after work.  We also grabbed the additional lumber we would need to complete the perch which was not much.

We set up the 13 x 13 Coleman tent I bought at Costco a few weeks back to use as a sun shelter.  It worked well until some strong winds started to blow in advance of a storm.  We dropped the tent to prevent it from unintentionally becoming a flying object.  We finished up the work inside the chicken coop to protect us from the rain.  We were both happy with the end result.  It has ample perch space with a low enough height that even our fattest chicken, Cocoa should be able to jump down without getting injured.  Although the birds looked a bit confused about their new sleeping arrangements they eventually settled down and all had more space to sleep than they had previously.

Saturday afternoon I accompanied Cindy to the place her daughter is living with her boyfriend’s parents.  Cindy agreed to look after their two dogs, Tank and Bowser while Katie and the boyfriend’s family were away for the weekend.  I also brought my drone along to get some aerial video of the old abandoned track in the back of their property.  Tank and Bowser are normally crated when nobody is home which always makes me feel badly.  They say dogs don’t mind being crated but it sure doesn’t seem like fun to me.

They were both very happy to see us and ran around happily in the yard, enjoying their freedom.  I took my drone to the back of the property and set it up in the air.  Believe it or not I think this was the first time I have flown the Phantom since the Yellowstone drone prosecution fiasco. The track is badly grown over but you can tell originally a lot of time, money and effort went into it’s construction.  It is fully covered with asphalt and even has banked turns.  Some areas of the track you can barely see due to massive overgrowth.  The aerial footage came out half decent.  Click here if you want to take a look.

On Saturday night we stayed home and watched Max, the story about a military dog whose handler was killed.  Of course any dog related movie is going to be an emotional thing for me.  It was a touching movie that any dog lover will enjoy.  B+

On Sunday morning we were originally going to run but decided to postpone it for a couple reasons, the biggest being the big blister on the side of my foot from wearing wet Crocs a good portion of the day Saturday.  We instead did our second Home Depot run in as many days (after letting out the dogs again) so Cindy could get some supplies to repaint the perch and I could grab a few random items I needed.

When we got home I got around to doing my post 1000 mile oil change on the new Tacoma.  I wanted to minimize the chance of tiny metal shavings contaminating the oil from the engine’s first 1000 miles of use.  I was a little late as the odometer actually read 1305 miles when I did it.  While I was under the truck I heard a car stop out front accompanied by a voice.  It was a guy asking about my old king size mattress I had by the curb.  I was hoping somebody would actually take it instead of it being relegated to the back of a trash truck.  My mom got me the mattress years ago so I had some sentiment about it.

I told the guy the mattress was still in decent shape.  He first asked if I could set it aside until he could come back with his truck but then decided he was going to just strap it to the roof of his car.  I helped him hoist the mattress into position and he then tied it down.  It made me feel good knowing someone potentially will continue to get use out of the mattress that mom carefully picked out for me years ago.

I decided to video the oil change on the Tacoma just as I do with nearly all of my automotive work.  I figured it would be a good way for me to get some familiarity with my new truck.  I was literally just changing the oil and not the filter.  The oil filter location on the the new Tacomas is a bit of a pain in the ass as the only way you can reach it is by removing the skid plate from the truck.  It also is a canister type filter instead of the conventional all-in-ones I have dealt with in the past.  You unscrew the the housing and just replace the filter element inside.  I am not sure why Toyota thought this was a better choice as I am sure it will be quite a messy job to replace.

The oil swap went smoothly.  If you would like to see the documentary regarding it, click here.

After lunch I hopped on the tractor to get the yard mowed.  The grass growth rate has now started to accelerate due to the increase in precipitation.  I tried to hurry up and get done because we planned to go see a matinee of the new X-men movie at 3:30.  Even with us hustling we walked into the theater just as previews had started.  Luckily the time of day meant the theater was very empty.

Like Captain America, this movie was very long, nearly two and a half hours.  I always enjoy X-men movies although my comic book knowledge of their characters is not very strong.  I liked the movie. Although it was not as good as Civil War in my opinion, I would still give it an A- rating.

This morning we finally got out for our run.  I let my normal weekday alarm set to get us out of bed relatively early so we could start before the heat of the day hit hard.  We got to the track around 7AM and tacked on an extra lap which added up to just shy of 4 miles, a longish run for me nowadays.  We were both glad to get the run out of the way early.  Afterwards we went straight to Dunkin Donuts followed by a stop at Sam’s to grab some bulk and ancillary items.

I am hoping to be able to just chill for a good portion of the rest of the day as we have no Memorial Day social functions on the calendar.  For the last 5 or 6 years my Memorial Days used to always include timing a race in the morning and then attending the running club Memorial Day picnic in the late afternoon.  I used to have a lot of fun at the club picnic.  The recent venue change for the picnic last year along with the changes in my relationship with the club have made that option not an appealing one this year unfortunately.  Perhaps circumstances in the future will make it a better option once again.

Of course today really isn’t about picnics, pool parties, hot dogs or hamburgers.  It’s a day to reflect upon and appreciate those that gave up themselves in the name of our country.  It is a sacrifice not many can imagine but hopefully more can respect and learn from. Wouldn’t a goal of a more peaceful existence in the future where regular loss of life in the military is not so commonplace that it hardly generates a mention in the 24 hour news machines be a great thing?

The gel infused foam mattress we ordered showed up Wednesday night.  We got around to putting it on the bed last night.  Although my old mattress was quite old I was hesitant to switch it up.  Despite it’s age it was still delivering me a comfortable night of sleep.  The mattress we got is the same model as we have had in the guest room for a couple years, a 12 inch thick gel infused memory foam.

These mattresses come rolled up in a vacuum sealed bag.  Setting them up is kind of fun.  As soon as you cut the bag there is a loud sucking sound as air rushes back in to restore the mattress to it’s normal dimensions.  I thought it might make for interesting YouTube video but I don’t think my hopes were realized.

I didn’t really care if the video footage was less than spectacular, it gave me a chance to mess around with my new video editing software, Camtasia.  I stumbled across it after doing a Google search for Movie Maker alternatives.  It seemed very clear that you get what you pay for when it comes to video editing software.  Although Camtasia does cost some money it won’t break the bank like Adobe Premier will.

After downloading the demo and messing with it for a little bit I could quickly tell this was exactly what I was looking for.  It lets you do professional style edits and effects in an intuitive manner.  In the mattress video I just threw some random things in there for testing like music, an overlay and transitions just because.  In addition to being a great video editor it also has strong built in screen capture support meaning doing things that involve capturing action on the pc is super easy.  I look forward to seeing how I can improve my video production moving forward using the software.

I have one of those much anticipated three day weekends coming up.  I don’t have a big formal project on the books but several small ones instead.  There are big mulch sales this weekend so I am having Cindy buy 20 bags that I can spread in the orchard to freshen it up.

My new Tacoma recently crossed 1000 miles.  Even though I believe the first official oil change is not supposed to be until 10k miles thanks to the synthetic 0w-20 oil it uses, I want to drain and refill it now.  Old school practices are the first 1000 miles is the break in period for a motor which has the potential to create minute metal shavings which could negatively affect the engine down the road, hence my desire to drain/refill it.  With modern engines this may be absolutely unnecessary but I am going to do it anyway for my own peace of mind.

Finally Cindy and I want to reduce the height of the perch in the coop.  Although the chickens have no problem getting up to the top of the roughly 5 foot high perch they do have issues getting off it.  Most of the birds do an awkward kamikaze-like wing flapping dive off the top, awkwardly landing on the ground below.  With the size of some of the chickens like our resident fatty Cocoa we are concerned that the impact from coming down that high could eventually cause injury.  We hope to cut the height of the perch by a couple feet.

The small projects will hopefully not be overly time consuming as we would like some time to just chill.  I would love to have some time to dig into Overwatch in a meaningful manner.  We also are planning to get out to see the new X-men movie, it looks epic.

Friday I was really hoping to not have the after hours work take a lot of after hours time since it was only a small office that was being worked on.  Unfortunately we once again ran into a problem that stretched things out longer than it should have,  I wound up not getting out of there until after 7.

On Saturday morning I was outside shortly after 8am with the weed whacker in hand.  The yard had not been whacked in at least 3 weeks and was looking shaggy.  With the return of more regular rain I am going to have to get out there more often.  The heat and humidity knob has been turned back into the uncomfortable area where it will likely stay until October, yay. After whacking I jumped in the pool for a splashy splash session for Sadie which she greatly appreciated.

We then headed out for errands including a stop at Rural King and Sam’s.  At Rural King we say the running club equipment manager Bill.  It was the first time I saw him since I timed my last race.  Bill might be the hardest working human being I know.  Even though I don’t miss most aspects of timing events for the running club, being able to work with guys like Bill is one of the things I do miss.

We hit Sam’s on the way back.  With the sale of the Tacoma I was now seriously looking to pull the trigger on a replacement 4K tv.  During the week I was doing research and had established if I wanted to continue my upward growth of screen real estate I was going to have to pay in the neighborhood of $3400-$3500 which would be the most I ever paid for a set although when you adjust for inflation it might be in the same ball park as my 61 inch Sony projection set we bought when the house was new.

That was a lot of money for a tv but I had almost mentally committed myself to that just being the way it was, like I had no choice in the matter.  I had a 73 inch screen now so I HAD to go bigger.  Well Sam’s didn’t have a lot of 75 inch models but we did see a 70 inch LG 4K set that we looked at.  The picture looked sweet, even if it was 3 inches shorter diagonally.  We have had a LG set in the bedroom for over a couple years and have been very happy with it.  However the thing that really got my wheels turning was the price differential.  The LG was an $1800 set, almost half the price of a 75 inch Samsung or Sony (Samsung doesnt appear to make 4K 70 inch sets).  To pay $1700 for an extra 5 inches of screen area jolted me out of my MUST HAVE BIGGER trance.  I did not act at that point but it planted a seed.

We also went to the jewelry counter.  Cindy and I had been talking loosely about marriage for a long time and as a result Cindy has been looking at rings here and there.  One of the places she has been looking is at Sam’s who actually has a pretty substantial jewelry section, much bigger than Costco.  Randomly Cindy had sent me pictures of various rings she saw there she liked over the last couple months. We had even looked at rings online at places like Amazon but the idea of buying a ring sight unseen seemed risky.

Now my initial reaction when she told me she was looking at rings at Sam’s was negative.  I assumed they were not good rings as though they were a Wal-mart item even though Sam’s sells a lot more high end, high quality stuff.  Well when Cindy showed me the rings in person the stigma faded.  Not only were they good looking rings, they were certified diamonds and I could add an extended seven year warranty for a very reasonable price.  The buying power of a warehouse chain results in better pricing of all things, including jewelry.

Cindy showed me several she had liked.  Of course she wanted a beautiful ring but it was most important to her it was comfortable.  After putting on 4-5 rings she liked we finally agreed on one.  We took an unconventional but practical approach and just bought the ring on the spot.  Cindy did say that she wouldn’t wear the ring until I asked her in a more conventional manner.  So the ring remained in it’s box and bag on the drive home despite Cindy’s excitement to wear it.  I told her repeatedly she can just wear it but she was adamant that I needed to propose officially which I guess I could understand.  After two previous marriages my sense of formality about the process was not a priority for me.

When we got home I did some more quick research and thinking about my TV options.  I quick search on Amazon showed the LG set I saw at Sam’s had a 4+ stars rating which I put a lot of weight into.  Costco has the same set which would mean I would get a free 2nd year of warranty coverage but I would have to pay for it with my Costco American Express card instead of my Amazon Rewards Visa that I wanted to pay with for points.  Although I wouldn’t get a free year of warranty coverage Sam’s has very inexpensive extended warranties, I could tack on five years of coverage for a crazy cheap 99 bucks.  As comparison a place like Best Buy or HH Gregg will charge you 400 bucks or more for equivalent coverage.

So I made a decision I was going to just go with the LG set.  The savings versus size loss equation was just too heavy on the savings side.  I told Cindy I wanted to go back to Sam’s and get it.  We piled back in the Tacoma and headed out.  I brought the GoPro with and mounted it in the Tacoma, I told Cindy I wanted to vlog about the tv purchase.  Unbeknownst to her I also had the ring in the center console.

My plan was to officially propose to her on the way. Now most people would think this was a dumb idea but we aren’t most people.  Cindy actually had joked about the idea on the drive home earlier.   Her joke was about to become our reality.  So we started talking about the new tv purchase along with other random topics, none of which had to do with the ring.  I then finally made an awkward transition into the proposal as I was driving 55mph+ on Immokalee Road.

Despite us talking about it earlier Cindy seemed surprised by my actions.  The proposal was definitely the farthest thing from textbook as you could imagine since I made sure my eyes stayed on the road most of the time.  However I think somehow the sentiment and genuine feelings still were evident despite the unconventional delivery method.   Despite the lack of secrecy regarding the ring Cindy was still very excited and happy to be able to wear it officially.

It’s funny how the whole thing sort of organically happened.  I did not go into the weekend with any specific thoughts or plans about buying rings or getting engaged.  The circumstances just seemed to align themselves.  We have more or less lived as a married couple for more than a couple years so making it official just wasn’t as stressful as you would normally think.

So now the tv purchase took on a more celebratory aura.  We wasted no time grabbing a flat bed and loading the big LG set onto it as well as one of the extended warranty cardboard placeholders.  Checking out with my wallet being an extra $1500 heavier felt satisfying.  I was glad I reexamined my tv priorities.  The enormous box actually fit cleanly on it’s side in between the wheel wells of the Tacoma.  I think the bed of the truck is slightly larger than what I was accustomed to in the 99 as well.

Of course when I got home I dug straight into tv set up.  Cindy helped me set the 73 inch Mitsubishi in the dining room and place the slightly smaller LG set in it’s place.  Despite it’s reduced dimensions it fit the entertainment nook well, I only had maybe an inch or so extra space on either side.  Setting up the set went fine until it came time to connect it to my Yamaha surround sound.  I first tried to do so with a spare optical audio cable I had sitting around for awhile.  When I couldn’t get that to work I tried using the ARC HDMI port and had limited success.

The most straightforward way was to use the optical audio cable.  The cable I had did not seem to fit well on either the tv or Yamaha side.  I wondered if the cable was just bad so I headed back out one final time to grab a new optical cable at Wal-mart.  When I got it home I realized the only thing wrong with the old cable was my stupidity.  The optical cables have a small protective boot on either end.  I was trying to insert the cable with that boot still in place.  Once I pulled the boots off the cable snapped in place perfectly and sound started flowing from the speakers, sigh….

We watched a movie on the new set Saturday night and the picture looked great.  The movie was called Knock Knock, starring Keanu Reeves sporting quite the dad bod.  It was one of the more bizarre movies I have seen recently and had me laughing out loud during some scenes that I think were supposed to be dramatic.  Keanu meets up with two chicks that take crazy to an entirely new level.  If you like your movies to have you saying “What the fck?” a lot, be sure to rent it.  Overall I can only give it a B rating but really, on pure entertainment it could be rated higher.

On Sunday morning Cindy and I wanted to beat the now increasingly oppressive heat by getting out for our run earlier.  We left the house around 7:15.  We put in another 5k+ at the nearby track.  The pace according to Cindy’s gps was 15 seconds a mile slower than last week but it didn’t feel that way, perhaps from the heat.

When we got back I made arrangements to take Sadie back to Ali’s later in the morning with the 73 inch Mitsubishi in tow.  I had asked Ali awhile back that if/when I got around to getting a new TV if she wanted the 73 incher.  She said sure since her 48 inch or so LCD tv is really not big enough for the room she has.  They sit a good 15 feet away from the tv location.

So the Tacoma got it’s first real world use as we loaded the large tv into the bed and I secured it with my ratchet straps.  We covered it with the mylar looking bag the new tv came in.  In addition I had the empty chlorine jugs in the bed which needed to be refilled.  The new rubber bed mat really is awesome, eliminating the ice rink sliding that goes on if stuff is just on the composite plastic bed.

Ali’s boyfriend helped me carefully carry the tv into her place.  Set up had a couple hiccups but nothing serious.  The 73 inch of screen fit that space so much better and made viewing from across the room much, much easier.  Ali and her boyfriend thanked us for the tv.  I was happy that it would be repurposed and continue to entertain them for the foreseeable future.  It has been a great set for me.

Before heading home we made stops at Costco and Dick’s Sporting Goods.  At Costco we scored two sets of seat covers that wrapped the seat instead of just laying on top of them.  I had seen them when I shopped earlier in the week.  In normal Costco fashion, the check out experience was backlogged and miserable.

At Dick’s we picked up an olympic style curl bar that Cindy intends to use for a lot more than curling.  It’s shorter length makes it much more practical in her small “shed gym” she has laid out.

On Sunday afternoon I undertook my monitor repair project.  My hope was to somehow take parts out of a damaged monitor I bought on Ebay for 50 bucks to get my just out of warranty monitor working again.  I had never dug into a monitor before so I figured if nothing else it would be a learning experience. It was.

I was surprised just how little was inside the monitor as far as circuit boards go.  I first tried swapping out the small circuit board that power and video connections connect to.  When that made no difference the surgery became much more expansive.

If you want the full play by play feel free to watch the video I shot during the process.  In the end I basically pulled the cracked screen out of the Ebay monitor and inserted the uncracked screen from my monitor in it’s place.  The way I got to that point was a twisting path of confusion but all I know is it works.  My Frankensteined monitor works well. The only flaw is the top right corner has a bright spot that I hardly even notice since I assigned it as my secondary screen.

Sunday night we had our last regular season Tarpons game to attend.  Cindy thought it would be appropriate to make the official social media declaration about the proposal then since it all started there when Cindy went with me to a Tarpons game more than 3 years ago.  We took a selfie in our empty section of the arena to celebrate.

The game was yet another boring blow out as every home game has been this year with the Tarpons winning 70-6.  There will be at least one home play off game although the disorganized league doesn’t really know who they will play at this point.  All I hope is we get to see at least one competitive game this year.

As predicted the weekend was stuffed with work but with the work came a sense of accomplishment.  I was up early Saturday as Cindy had to drive two hours north for the state middle school track meet.  I headed outside shortly after sunrise to tend to the chickens and weed the yard.  Once I finished up I loaded up the truck with the computer I was setting up for Ali.

I took the new Tacoma since Ali and her boyfriend had not seen it yet.  I was surprised when I saw a different vehicle in Ali’s garage as well.  She got out of the lease on her Kia suv and bought a 2015 Nissan Versa.  It’s a big change in vehicle types but will be financially much more agreeable.  She wasn’t thrilled with the world of leasing and I don’t blame her.  I have never leased a vehicle in my life.

I got busy backing up stuff from Ali’s old computer.  Luckily she keeps most of her stuff in Dropbox nowadays so it made moving most of her data pretty simple. In total I spent a couple hours getting her new system configured.  I left her old system online with remote access so she can still get stuff if needed.  There are a couple things I have to configure yet remotely.  With 12 gigs of ram and a fast SSD drive her new, used system is much faster than her old used system.  As I worked I had various visits from Sadie, Ferdie, and Latte which made the process more enjoyable.

When I got back home I headed outside for much dirtier work.  I had more old Tacoma work planned, replacing the throttle position sensor and both of the battery cables.  I worked on the sensor first.  In theory it could have been a 5 minute job to replace the sensor as it is held in with only two screws.  The problem is the sensor is near the back of the engine compartment and the way it is oriented the only way to get on it is with a stubby screwdriver that has to be turned from a side direction.

I was able to get the top screw broken loose but the bottom screw was more stubborn.  I was starting to strip out the screw after multiple failed attempts.  A much more time consuming reality seemed to be my only choice, I was going to have to pull the throttle body off.

I have removed the throttle body several times as part of other maintenance jobs I have undertaken.  It isn’t horribly difficult but time consuming nonetheless.  Once I had the throttle body off I was able to turn it so the troublesome screw was now facing up, allowing me to strike it a couple times with my impact screwdriver which finally broke the sticking screw loose.  After installing the new sensor I reversed the procedure to reinstall everything.  After the work the check engine light had gone out, a good sign.  You can see the video of the work here.

I then turned my attention to the battery cables.  The cables were my third attempt to address a random CLICK when trying to start the truck.  I already threw a starter and a new battery at the problem.  The cables probably should have been looked at first instead of last as a potential source of the problem.  So I surveyed the greasy wire loom I was going to have to deal with to replace the cables.  I started the work by disassembling the positive battery lead that had a wing nut holding down two terminals, one for the starter and the other for the fuse box.

When I took the wing nut off I looked at the surfaces of all the terminals, they were black and covered in scuzz.  A bright idea popped into my head that perhaps I should try to clean these terminals completely before undergoing the hassle of replacing the cables.  I put my paint stripper attachment on my Dewalt drill and went to town, cleaning each piece of the puzzle until I had fresh shiny metal where black scuzz once resided.  I put the now clean terminals back together and was ready for a test.

When I started the video I had tried starting the truck while it was up on the ramps and I got three successive clicks.  After my cleaning project the truck roared to life on the first turn.  Damn.  I could not believe two things.  First that I actually got lucky and was able to avoid cable replacement with some simple cleaning. Second, that I threw more than $200 and a lot of time at solutions (starter/battery) that were not the source of the problem.  It was a valuable lesson for sure, always try the simpler solutions first.  Here is the video of my revelation. 

I wasn’t 100% sure of the validity of my repairs until I drove the truck more. Cindy and I took the old Tacoma to run errands Sunday morning and it started like a champ repeatedly without any recurrence of the check engine light.  I now feel 100% ok with listing the truck for sale which I plan to do later today.

So mid-afternoon, despite successfully accomplishing three different projects I was ready to take on my fourth with a large assist from Cindy, running the wires for the security dvr through the attic.  So my plan was to use my new 100 foot fiberglass snake to feed from the outside in.  Cindy was assigned the unenviable task of being up in the attic, armed with the extendable pool skimmer pole to hopefully grab the snake and pull it to her.

Since we were doing this mid-afternoon on a day with a high temperature of 90 degrees the attic was not a very hospitable environment.  Plus Cindy was decked out in long pants and a long shirt to protect her skin from the itchy blow in insulation.  We did the backyard wire run first as it would be the more difficult of the two.

I started to feed in the snake but could tell it was coiling up inside the attic.  Cindy said she could see it but couldn’t reach it.  She wound up carefully climbing through the blow in insulation to get there, something I was not interested in doing.  She was able to snag the snake and pull it back to the attic entrance.  When she emerged from the attic she looked like she had been in a sauna for an hour.  The heat up there is well into the triple digits.

We attached dvr wire to the snake and then I carefully pulled it back from the outside.  It was exciting when the dvr cable emerged from the hole since only a week ago I had written off this project as not doable.  The run to the front of the house was not quite as difficult but still involved Cindy crawling into an area I just would not manage well in.  The run to the front of the house was much longer, we wound up needing pretty much every inch of the 60-65 feet of camera cable they provide.

I was obviously tired already and could have left the actual camera install for the next day but my inner taskmaster demanded I finish up the work since we came this far.  I mounted both cameras and then hooked up the dvr inside in the hobby room.  Other than me stupidly having the cameras rotated upside down, they fired right up.  The 1080P picture of the front and back yard looked bright and crisp, giving me my fourth injection of accomplishment for the day.

I really appreciated Cindy climbing around in the scalding attic and told her the least I could do is take her out to dinner for it.  We headed back to Pelican Larry’s for the second time in three weeks and had a very nice dinner.  It was well deserved on both of our parts.

Sunday morning we decided to go for a run for the second weekend in a row.  If I ever want to get back to any level of decent running endurance I need to get out there at least once a week.  We did not get to enjoy the same cool temps as last week unfortunately, it felt quite warm most of the run.

We ran at the nearby track.  I had made a bit of a mental effort to try to maintain a stronger pace than we have been lately.  Most runs we have been just under a 10 minute mile pace which is pretty slow.  I was somewhat surprised when Cindy said her gps showed a 8:58 average pace for the 3.3 miles we covered.  It is the first time my pace has started with an 8 in 2016, that’s for sure.

When we got home we took quick showers and headed out to run errands in the old Tacoma.  As I said I wanted to verify my repairs from Saturday did indeed fix my remaining problems.  It also may be the very last time we do our familiar weekend errands in the old Tacoma since I am planning to list it for sale shortly.  The truck still fits me like a pair of old sneakers.

We got home around lunchtime.  After eating I needed to do my normal weekend bill paying session.  As I brought the monitors out of sleep mode my left screen started acting odd.  It would flash the desktop for a brief second a couple times and then go completely black.  WTF.  I did a normal array of monitor trouble shooting, checking cables, disconnecting/reconnecting power and restarting the system.  No matter what the problem remained, son of a bitch.

I bought this matching set of Samsung 27 inch monitors from Costco last year.  When I looked up the purchase in Quicken I saw it happened in February meaning the manufacturer 1 year warranty was done.  However I was excited that I could still get coverage under Costco since they automatically offer a second year of coverage on electronics, or so I thought.

So I called up the Costco Concierge hotline.  I explained the situation to the woman on the phone.  She verified it was out of manufacturer warranty and would only be covered under Costco coverage.  She started having me go through troubleshooting steps, basically the same stuff I did already but I played along if that was what necessary to get it replaced for free.  Eventually I grew tired of the dog and pony show.  Twice I told her I had been in the computer business for almost 25 years so I know how to identify a monitor problem.

Eventually she believed me but only then told me that the monitor was not covered under the Costco extension. Huh???  I told her I thought that Costco doubled the manufacturer warranty on all electronics?  She said it is only on select electronics like computers, tv’s and major appliances.  Well that is annoying. She said if I bought an extended warranty it would covered.  I told her I thought it was included in the Costco coverage so I didn’t bother.  Well If she would have simply told me that up front about the lack of coverage I could have not wasted 15 minutes doing the same troubleshooting I had already performed.  I hung up and had my first sense of disappointment in Costco services, even if it was caused by my lack of understanding..

I decided to bring in my old 27 inch monitor which of course is a mismatch of the one that died but it will have to do.  I did some research and found multiple examples of people having issues with this particular model of monitor, the S27360D.  Those issues made me wary of plunking down another $250 to get another one.  Instead I am trying another option with a high risk/reward formula.  I found someone selling a used version of this monitor with a cracked screen on Ebay for less than 50 bucks.  Even though I have no history of monitor repair, my hope is I can simply swap logic boards between them and come up with a functioning unit once again for the fraction of the cost of a new one.  I will either wind up a genius or a dummy depending how it works out.  Either way I will learn something at least.

I went outside and joined Cindy who was doing work in the garden.  I worked on swapping out the pond pump and the tubing that connects it to the spitting frog on the second level.  It was a well needed replacement as the old pump was barely spitting a trickle of water at this point.  By the time we got finished it was time to clean up to head to another Tarpons game.

For some odd reason they were playing the Jaguars, a team they already played at home this year, again.  Normally with scheduling a team plays each other once home and away.  With this level of arena football they don’t seem to adhere to normal scheduling rules.  Unfortunately the Jaguars, who sucked the first time we saw them sucked even worse this time around.  The final score was something ridiculous like 81-16.  Blowouts like that just are not very entertaining to watch.  Even with the blowout on the field and extremely sparse attendance in the stands Cindy and I find a way to enjoy the games.

It was a busy yet rewarding weekend.  Cindy made plans for us to have a fun weekend in July as we will be attending SuperCon in Miami, a super hero based convention.  Of course I love super heroes although I am not a hardcore geek about it.  It will be fun seeing people that are however.

Yesterday my new MAF sensor showed up so I decided to put it in last night.  I ran into various issues along the way.  Some of them were rather funny.  If you have 10 or so minutes to spend, take a look.  While I was in the middle of it my timer buddy John showed up to pick up some stuff he needed.  It’s always a unique thing when we meet up as it is rare to be able to talk timing with someone else that knows the pain associated with it.

After replacing the MAF sensor I cleared the check engine light.  I took the truck to work today so I can verify the  CEL is not going to come back on.  This morning on my first turn of the key I got a click followed by the truck starting normally, making me think I STILL have an issue with the battery cables.  I may just grab a new positive and negative cable and replace them.  The cables are inexpensive and the labor does not seem too bad, famous last words.  This recent rash of repairs will make parting with the old Tacoma a little less difficult.

This weekend I have A LOT of wish list items.  Tomorrow morning I am going to try to get Ali migrated over to my accountants old computer.  I would like to use my 100 foot fiberglass snake to get the security DVR cables routed from the attic to their mounting points on the perimeter of the house and I may just wind up swapping out the battery cables on the Tacoma.  A quick YouTube search showed no such how to video exists so that means it is fertile ground for me to make one.  We also have a Tarpons game to attend Sunday evening so I have a feeling this weekend will fly by just as most do.

Yesterday I started the ball rolling in rebooting my podcast on Itunes, something I last toyed with back in 2009. (search duf on itunes)  When I did it back then I had the bright idea that reading blog entries would translate into quality podcasts.  It didn’t.  This time I am going to convert my off the cuff vlog videos into podcasts.  I think that may work better.  Don’t think I am under any delusion that I am some sort of talented entertainer or skillful speaker.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  This is just another extension of me seeing what works and doesn’t work.  For instance if you told me a few years ago that amateur car repair  and head shaving videos would be among the most popular on my channel I would have told you you were nuts.  So anyway, if the podcast gets the official Itunes approval I will post the feed information here.