Archives 2017

That is the question I have been asked quite often by both people near and far regarding the impending doom that is Hurricane Irma.  It’s been 12 years since we had our hit from Wilma but I still remember how surreal and dangerous it felt.

So what am I going to do? Well first of all, not panic.  The hysterical/mob type mentality that these sort of events bring to the surface so easily in many people bothers me.  I absolutely hate it.  It demonstrates to me just how quickly people can devolve when faced with a crisis.

There have been a surprising amount of people that have chosen to pack their shit and get out.  I think the images of widespread destruction in Texas from Harvey being so fresh in people’s minds has ratcheted up the panic level here.  When you hear numbers like 185mph sustained winds and things like “most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean”, any person would have to be concerned, which I am, but packing up and leaving never entered my mind as a remote possibility.

I did have some concerns with gas.  I wanted to make sure the Tacoma was fully gassed up since it would likely be the primary post storm vehicle due to it’s ground clearance.  During the day every gas station you passed was mobbed by cars, like fire ants converging on a victim.  I told Cindy I wanted to try to go out later at night and to head east instead of west.  During previous hurricane episodes I actually had luck finding gas in Immokalee, I figured I would try again.

At first it looked like my plan was going to be a bust.  The first four or five gas stations we passed were out of gas.  We then spotted a convenience store with cars lined up for the pumps, normally not something I would be excited about.  I swung a U turn and got in the line which was probably around 10 cars deep.  We waited in line for around a half hour, both of us hoping they would not run out of gas before we reached the pumps.

Luckily we were able to get some gas.  Even though I had three empty 5 gallon gas jugs in the back of the Tacoma I only filled one of them in addition to topping off the truck.  I already had one full 5 gallon container at home so I didn’t want to partake in hoarding mentality.  There will still be gas deliveries this week that will allow me to fill the other cans if I want to.

As far as other prep at home, if the the forecast path remains in a direction that could hit us with major weather I still have my plywood I cut to size for the various openings on the house.  Affixing them is a long, difficult, and tedious process.  We also would have to try to get EVERYTHING that is not in the ground outside, inside using a combo of both sheds for storage while crossing our fingers that the hurricane straps that hold them to the ground do their job.  Our new RO system has a 300 gallon water tank that should be able to provide us water as long as I can provide the system power via generator.

I have two generators, a big one that is 12 years old that does not want to run continuously for long periods of time and a smaller Honda that is less powerful but very reliable.  I would use the big generator to power the water system in spurts the keep water flowing.  The little one would be used to power a few key things inside like the fridge, maybe a fan, and hopefully my window AC unit at night if it still works.  We have some rechargeable lights and battery banks to charge things like phones as needed.

To be honest my biggest concern of all is the safety of the chickens.  The shed we converted into a coop is wind rated to something like 75mph.  I am hoping it being braced against the attached run gives it some additional strength.  However if the forecast is for winds approaching triple digits I think we will use the old chicken tractor and relocate the chickens temporarily into the garage.  If they were hurt/killed from us rolling the dice with the coop staying intact I would feel absolutely awful. For this plan to take place I would need to pull my Tacoma out of the garage and park both it and the Prius sideways in front of the garage door to offer additional wind protection buffering.

So as I said, I won’t be panicking but I will be watching the updates carefully and acting accordingly.  There is nothing in my lifetime that matched the sights and sounds of the absolute fury of a hurricane ripping down my pool cage in 2005.  I am hoping we manage to not reach that magnitude of intensity this time around.

So I have spent the majority of my 5 day long weekend as I normally do, trying to front load all of the work, projects, and tasks  so for the last portion of the time off I can chill out.  Well to finish that front loading process consumed nearly three full days unfortunately.

On Thursday I got a head start on the weekend chores by weeding and weed whacking the yard in the glorious heat and humidity of a late August Florida day.  I was pooped afterward but wanted to try to get one of my “fun” projects done, replacing the case on my Msuper EUC.  I damaged the case learning to go backwards and recently got a brand new case and trolley handle to undo the damage I had done.

Changing the case on an EUC is a MAJOR operation that requires you to take the unit pretty much entirely apart.    Of course I had never attempted such a thing but I had watched a video of the process and was confident I could do the work.

Well in the end I did indeed do the work but I hit some major delays along the way, all of which are documented in the nearly hour long video which was a condensed version of the nearly three hours I spent in the process.  In the end I found a way to circumvent my issues and the new case looks sharp.

On Friday the front loading continued in earnest.  This time I jumped on the tractor and mowed the grass, taking advantage of the relatively low standing water levels.  During the afternoon I started my second major hobby project of the weekend, installing a new logic board and auto leveling sensor into my CR-10.

Like the EUC work, this project required me to rip into the hardware in a pretty significant way.  I once again had a lot of struggles with the install.  A lot of the problems came from my relative inexperience with 3D printing hardware but as I usually do, I managed to find my way to the finish line in a circuitous fashion.

On Saturday half of my day was consumed at work.  I had to replace the two main backbone switches in our NOC, another part of our renovation project.  Doing so required me to unplug every wire connected to the old switches, install the new switches, and then run new wires in a more organized and orderly manner.

I asked Cindy if she wanted to come in to help as I could use her to help me document the connections so I didn’t miss anything.  She said sure and we decided to bring Elsa with as well.  Elsa was a bit freaked out being in a foreign environment and did not want to be out of eye contact of myself or Cindy.  It took awhile but eventually she settled down enough to take a nap while we worked. For the most part the work went smoothly and having Cindy there easily helped me shave at least 30 minutes off the job.

After the office work was done we ate lunch at Panera and then stopped at Rural King and Home Depot for some more supplies.  By the time we got home it was after 3PM so the majority of the day was eaten up.  Last night we vegged out while trying to continue consuming the backlog of DVR content we have from being away on the roadtrip.  If I didn’t have EUC’s, 3D printing, and WoW as hobbies I would be able to get through shows faster but to be honest, I’d rather have other things to help split my attention between.

We had some incredible lightning and thunder Saturday night.  At one point I thought a bomb went off in the atmosphere.  Out of the corner of my eye I saw a ball of light out of the bedroom window and what seemed like 10 seconds later the shockwave hit and it hit hard.  Even inside you could feel the power of the blast, it did not seem like thunder from normal lightning, it sounded like a bomb.

All weekend I have had various episodes of limping and walking like a geriatric.  Regardless I tasked myself with getting up early this morning and going out to run.  I think I may have run lap 6 twice but either way I did somewhere around 5K of running, once again feeling very labored to do so.  I need to just keep pushing myself to get out there.  Even though things hurt the first few laps after I warm up the pain sort of fades and general discomfort sets in.

A little later in the morning Cindy and I headed out to ride our wheels.  It was my first chance to give the Msuper a thorough test after all of the work.  It seemed to ride normally which I was very happy about.  Katie and her friend Kendal joined us briefly on the ride but their one wheel ran out of battery power so they headed back early.  After the ride we made another Home Depot pit stop as well as a stop at Micahel’s for Cindy to grab some crafting supplies.

I currently have both 3D printers cranking out two different projects and I hope to be able to take a good portion of the rest of my time off doing exactly what I would like to do. We will see how that turns out.

So last night was the annual fantasy football draft party that I have hosted at the house for something in the neighborhood of 10 years.  When I got home I was pleasantly surprised that Cindy had actually done pretty much everything ahead of time in regards to prep.  All the furniture was moved, the house was cleaned, and the food was staged. It was great.  All I had to do leading up to the party were a few technical details and drink some beer.

I had sent out an email the night before encouraging people to arrive a little early so we could start on time.  I was amazed that for the most part people did just that.  Unfortunately we still got a late start due to some problems a couple remote owners were having getting their Skype connection up.

Cindy and I assumed Elsa would hide in the office or bedroom all night with all of the people in the house.  She did sort of hide under the table I had set up for my laptop but she also cautiously interacted with some of the guys which was cool.

As is always the case, I put little to no effort into draft research other than printing out an ESPN player ranking sheet by position.  I have found that years I thought I had a good draft didn’t necessarily translate into having a successful year due to injuries or just bad luck.

Somewhere around halfway through the draft I started letting Cindy help make picks.  I had a number of beers at that point and just didn’t care much about the bottom half of the roster.  She picked players based on names she liked first, their placement on the ranking charts second.  Although the end result of this system was an overall D rating of my draft it was still a funny way to do it.  If Tom Brady and the Gronk stay healthy all year I might still have a chance.  My running backs are very mediocre and that may hurt me a lot.

As usual I over indulged in food and drink but not as severely as some parties in the past.  The party broke up somewhere around 10:30.  Cindy and I busted it to get things 95% cleaned up before taking showers and hitting bed.  Today I officially begin my 5 days off.  I have a number of projects rolling around in my head that touch many areas including 3D printing, EUC, car upgrade, and of course house maintenance.  I hope to of course have some just chill time thrown in there for good measure.

This week I received a new type of 3D filament, NinjaFlex.  It is a flexible filament that is rubber like and very strong.  My plan was to use it to try to print an iPhone6 case for myself.  Because of the way the extruder is set up on the CR-10, the FlashForge Finder made more sense to use although a phone case is pretty much the maximum size object you can put on it’s print bed.

Cindy and I made multiple attempts to get the print job going but each time we had issues either with adhesion or clumping.  I plan to put down a fresh layer of tape on the print surface  and then relevel the bed and try again.  It would be cool to be able to print 3D flexible objects but it isn’t a high priority.

Yesterday I also received my replacement Msuper case from Ewheels to replace the battered and bruised shell, a side effect of learning to ride backwards.  The new case is a cool black matte finish which I think will look really sharp.  Unfortunately to swap the case requires a total teardown of the wheel which is going to be a major endeavor.  I have to see when I gather the motivation to take it on.

Tonight we are once again hosting the draft party for my fantasy football league.  Last night I did the technical work, getting the laptop connected to Skype and the new TV.  After work we will do the major furniture relocation required to host a dozen people in the great room.  It should be a good time as always.

This morning I popped off the last piece of the EUC stand I 3D printed.  It’s thick and strong in order to support the weight of a unicycle.  I am confident it can hold my 45 pound Msuper.  I am not quite so sure how it will hold up to the 60+ pound Monster.

My next printer mod should be here today, an auto leveling kit which includes a new logic board for the printer and a special sensor that is mounted with the extruder.  Supposedly once you get this kit installed and dialed in correctly, bed leveling problems become a thing of the past.  Although to be honest, lately the Cr-10 has been pretty consistent with it’s prints doing it the old fashioned way.

I took off Thursday and Friday for multiple reasons.  First it will allow me to recover from the fantasy football draft party that I am once again hosting this year.  I normally drink and eat way too much at these events so it will be nice to not have to roll into work the day after.

Taking these two days translates into a five day weekend for me since Labor Day is Monday.  The extended time off will allow me to tackle a number of projects both 3D printing related and other things rolling around in my head.  For the next few weeks at work there is going to be weekend work as some staff is moved from the temp building back here and another set of staff relocates to the temp building for a period of 3-4 weeks.

So I told Cindy Friday night that I was getting up and running Saturday morning as long as it wasn’t raining, even if I don’t want to.  Because of Supercon, the road trip, and being beat up from yard work I had not run in at least 5 weeks.  When the alarm went off at 6AM I confirmed it was not actively raining so I threw on my running clothes and headed out into the warm and humid morning.

The 12 laps around the track were slow and not enjoyable, just as I expected them to be.  But I did complete the roughly 5K run and body willing, I will be back there next weekend to continue the punishment.  Running at my age and with my joint conditions is probably a dumb endeavor but I plan to hold onto it as long as I can, as I try to desperately fend off the relentless effects of time.

When I got home I wasted no time getting outside to tend to the chickens, weed, and a few other things around the yard.  At some point the onslaught of rain began.  I was in the mindset where I didn’t care, I finished up the last of the chores in the midst of a downpour.  Once you are that wet, more rain doesn’t really matter, at least in my mind.

After drying off we put Sadie and Elsa in the Prius for a coffee and Rural King run.  This was the first time I ever saw the Rural King parking lot flooded.  That is how much rain we had gotten the last few days (it’s still raining btw) The dogs just love car rides and Elsa loves them even more when Sadie is sharing the back seat with her.

When we got home Cindy went right back into the guest bathroom where she was doing some of the final touch ups.  The side splash piece of matching quartz we ordered from Home Depot showed up Friday so we installed that with construction adhesive which was pretty much the last piece of the puzzle. The small room really looks completely different and all the credit for the design, color, and motivation to do it belongs to Cindy.

With the latest multi-day rain event the chicken area once again has become a flood zone.  Instead of allowing them to walk around in the muck all day we once again have allowed them access temporarily to the entire yard to find high ground.  The chickens definitely like having some drier land to explore but they still seem to like spend a lot of time while it’s raining on the perch inside the coop run.

So I bought the McGregor-Mayweather fight when Cindy showed interest in seeing it.  She had said something about going to a restaurant/bar to see it but in retrospect I was VERY glad we did not go that route.  So the PPV event said it started at 9PM, a little late for my tastes but ok.  Well since I am a boxing PPV noob I had no idea that it really meant the main fight would not start until roughly midnight!  Prior to that they show three fights with boxers I care nothing about.

Cindy made us some late night coffee to help keep us awake.  I spent most of the prelims playing WoW.  Cindy was in a funny mood and at one point decided to put on her Wonder Woman costume AND ride her electric unicyle around inside.  Nothing surprises me so my reaction to this was measured.

So even though I knew it was unlikely, I was really pulling for Conor to win somehow.  Mayweather just annoys the f out of me with his attitude.  But hey, the guy is 49-0 so he backs it up.  So the first three or four rounds of the fight Mayweather basically did  nothing yet somehow the majority of the judges scored three of those four rounds for him. Conor was clearly the aggressor and landed a number of punches although none of them appeared to really hurt Mayweather.

As the rounds went on it became clear that Mayweather was basically just waiting for McGregor to start to fatigue.  Once that happened Mayweather started to become more and more active.  By the time the fight was stopped in the 10th round Conor had no legs left underneath him although it didn’t seem like Mayweather had knockout power.  It was the expected outcome but I was still disappointed that Conor couldn’t at least hurt Mayweather a little bit.  I was also disappointed that we didn’t get to bed until after 1AM.  This was the first and likely last boxing PPV I will ever buy.

Sunday morning we awoke to MORE rain.  It was just miserable outside.  Cindy and I still wanted to get out and ride some so after I paid my bills for the week we threw the wheels into the car and drove down to the parking garage in the government complex, a place we rode once before.

The five level, mostly empty garage was a great, dry spot for us to do some skills practice.  I worked on mounts/dismounts with my opposite leg I normally use, backwards, and one footed riding.  Cindy worked mostly on learning to ride backwards as well as agility on her V5F wheel which is easier to throw around.  We rode for around an hour as the rain continued to come down steadily.  It was cool that we still managed to get some one wheel time in despite the precipitation.

The rest of our rainy Sunday was laid back.  I got to play a lot of WoW and had the 3D printers working hard.  Over the weekend I reprinted the lithopane of Nicki, fixing the negative image I got the first time.  It turned out really well, I gave it to Ali as I thought she would like it.

I also installed FlashPrint on to Cindy’s computer so she can start messing around with 3D printing things herself.  She printed this very cool small mesh skull for her first print.

Despite the rather miserable weather I had to remind myself that things could be worse, much, much worse.  All I had to do was look at the photos of the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey on Texas to place things into perspective.

Last night before bed I finally put together and configured my Octoprint set up for my CR-10 printer.  The install consisted of writing an image to a SD card, inserting the card into the Raspberry Pi, and installing the Pi into a case.  After that I just walked through some quick set up routines and configuration and my little $35 mini-computer was online and communicating with my 3D printer.

The device will allow me full control of the printer via a web browser as well as having the capability to do things like remotely monitor the print via a web cam.  It was very easy to set up for someone like me with a computer background however I think even a novice would be able to get through it.

I have an auto bed leveling kit on the way that is going to require more extensive surgery.  I am hoping I get that installed over the weekend.  If successful, this mod should ensure the critical first layer of my prints are consistently good.

I also finished editing a video that summarized my experience with the CR-10 up to this point and talks about the mods.

So once again yesterday Cindy did a lot of work in the guest bathroom getting the wainscot on the walls.  I came home to an almost completely finished space.  There is some minor finishing and touch up to do and we are waiting for the matching sink side splash to be delivered from Home Depot.

Cindy really worked hard on the room.  My only involvement really was swapping out the sink, faucet, and countertop along with making a few cuts in the wainscot.  She did everything else.  I certainly appreciate her efforts to keep our home clean, modern, and fresh.

It’s funny how so many people seem to get very uncomfortable living in the same house for a long time.  They always are looking to move into something bigger and better.  I can safely say that in the 16 years I have lived in the house I never felt dissatisfied with my accommodations.  Sure it isn’t extravagant or luxurious but it is uniquely mine and through the years it has been modified, tweaked and enhanced in a way that just fits me like a glove.  Whenever the day comes that I no longer call this place home will be a sad one indeed.

I like millions of other Americans, including our big league President, went outside to take a look at the solar eclipse.  Unlike our president, I opted to use glasses that are designed to protect your eyes, because well, that is the smart thing to do.

I have to say, at least from my Florida vantage point which only had something like a 70% eclipse, it was a bit underwhelming.  I thought that having only 25-30% of the sun exposed would result in a significant drop in daylight but it didn’t.  The biggest thing I noticed was the sun did not feel as intense as it normally does on an August afternoon.

It was cool to clearly see the outline of the moon as it crept across the face of the sun climaxing in a crescent of light.  I saw video of locations where the eclipse was totally full and that did seem pretty amazing where day turned into night, at least for a couple minutes.  Too bad I will likely be dead before the next one comes around which should have a more southern track.

Cindy was busting her ass most of the day yesterday in the guest bathroom, painting it a deep blue color which is quite the change.  When I got home I helped her do some of the cutting of the wainscot and chair rail.  I lugged out my table and mitre saw to try to get cuts as clean as possible.  Certain spots I had to use my jig saw and a steady hand.

When making the cuts we again ran into some issues with walls that were not straight, requiring us to try to cut at slight angles to accommodate them.  The end result was not perfect but I think a generous application of caulk to the finished product will cover up the small imperfections. I’m looking forward to this latest project being done-done.

So I went into this weekend with a lot of ambitions.  Not only did I want to get the yard fully manicured to  take advantage of the temporary lack of standing water I also had a number of Prius maintenance tasks to do such as changing the transmission fluid, inverter coolant, and replacing yet another dead headlight.  My plate was full enough that I actually had Cindy come outside with me when I got home Friday to knock the weeding out to help clear the deck for the other work to some degree.

On Saturday after we got the chicken maintenance done we headed out with Elsa in hand to run some errands.  It turned out to be one of the longest errand runs in recent memory.  We hit Home Depot, Pinch A Penny, Dunkin Donuts, Racetrac, and Rural King which took us all morning.  However a big part of the reason it took so long was the time we spent at Home Depot.  Out of the blue, despite my already having more than enough to do to hit my quota of work for the weekend, we spontaneously picked up supplies for two additional projects, a ceiling fan for the great room, and a new quartz counter top/sink combo as well as a new faucet for the bathroom. No, I’m not kidding.

I had given Cindy the go ahead to do a small remodel on the small bathroom but we did not plan to work on it this weekend, at least I didn’t.  The fan was another knee jerk purchase because I wanted to have additional lighting in that area for the NFFL Fantasy Draft party I am hosting once again this year.  We wound up getting a sweet looking three blade model with a bright LED and remote control.

So although we returned with all of these goodies, we still had all of our original list of things to get done first before we could be concerned with the next projects.  Mowing/weed whacking the grass was pretty brutal.  It was well into the 90’s and since I have not been able to do a full lawn session in several weeks due to rain and vacation it took even longer.  I probably spent at least two hours out there whacking away in the stifling heat.  Cindy spent three hours plus on the tractor mowing the regular yard PLUS the rear section which was reaching jungle like status.

After that fun I wasted little time before jumping into two of the Prius maintenance items, replacing the transaxle fluid and the inverter coolant, neither of which I have done since we have owned the car.  Since both things are supposed to be done roughly every 50-60,000 miles I was WAY overdue.  As always there were bumps in the road and lessons learned doing the work.  I made a pretty big mess in the driveway.

So we were both BEAT from the long day of labor, however a little before 9PM I looked at the outlet cover on the ceiling where the fan would go and told Cindy I wanted to try to install the fan now.  I am not sure what drove me to suggest it at that point, well I do, my relentless, unyielding inner taskmaster.  Cindy was excited about the fan enough to be enthusiastic about getting it done, even at that late hour, which was nice.

I have installed every ceiling fan in the house, a total of 5 or 6 but they were all the exact same model.  This fan was much different in appearance and installation technique for sure.  Cindy did most of the work required on the floor, I was the one working at ceiling height, hanging the fan and making the electrical connections, it was not an easy install.

The fan from the diagrams seemed to be designed to be attached to full size junction box.  The fan outlets in the house are roughly half as deep as a full box which created a lot of challenges getting all the wires stuffed inside the casing.  In addition to all the wires, the remote control receiver, instead of being integrated inside the fan body was a separate thing that had to get jammed into the already limited space as well.  To be honest, I am not quite sure how I got it all in there but after a ton of struggle I was eventually successful.  Both of us were very happy with the outcome, it sort of finishes off the space and helps keep the air circulating in the large open floor plan.

So normally I would have drug my ass out of bed and forced myself to run this morning but I had to wave the white flag today.  I was so sore and aching from Saturday’s work it would have just been plain stupid to try to run.  I was walking around like a veteran AARP member when I crawled out of bed.  Instead I again headed out to say hi to and tend to the chicken chores.  After I finished I came in and worked on editing and publishing my YouTube content from Saturday as well as printing a case for the Raspberry Pi 3D printer related project I will be working on soon. (more on that later)

Katie decided to join us for an EUC ride out at Ave Maria.  We all had a lot of fun.  Katie is simply amazing on her wheel.  Not only is she gifted, being able to ride forward, backwards, and one legged with ease, she is also fearless.  She rides backwards much, much faster than I would ever feel comfortable with doing.  Cindy rode her Inmotion V5F as well instead of the Msuper.  She is getting much better as well.  She is taking the baby steps towards learning backwards riding and also successfully rode on one foot for short periods of time.  She really has the natural ability to be a better rider than me.

So once we got back our attention once again turned to the bathroom. Years ago Ali and I repainted the bathroom and installed some updated fixtures.  It was the first room of the house we ever painted so it felt like a big deal at the time.  However the bathroom sink still had the plain veneer topped counter with a decidedly dated and unattractive faucet.  In addition to replacing the sink countertop Cindy wants to paint the bathroom a happy blue as well install wainscot.

While I was replacing the headlight bulb in the Prius Cindy started cutting the caulk on the backsplash pieces and the countertop to aid in the removal.  When I came in I got under the sink to disconnect the plumbing and four screws that secured the top to the cabinet.

Like so many other things in the house, the shoddy workmanship in the guest bathroom was evident.  The unsquare walls were revealed once the backsplash pieces were pulled that hid the gaps. The sink itself was centered on the cabinet but not on the countertop itself. As a result all of the plumbing lines were stretched to the right.

So the removal of the old sink was not as difficult as I feared.  After removing the screws the old top lifted out pretty easily.  We had identified a potential issue with the new sink.  The integrated backsplash was about 1/4 inch too high to fit under the big mirror above the cabinet.  In order to address it we decided to use a 1/2 in thick backing board under the mirror to attach the backsplash to.  We did not have a suitable board so we made yet another trip to Home Depot to grab the board as well as nice package of wainscot.

We picked up a few other things like some liquid nail, caulk, and some screws I need for my Pi project.  When we got home we jumped right back in, attaching the countertop and backsplash.

I then crawled underneath once again to hook up the new faucet.  We got the same Kohler faucet we put in the master bathroom however the chrome version to match the other fixtures in the guest bathroom.  Since I already installed this faucet last year I did have some familiarity with the process but I still did lean heavily on the directions at times.  The end result looked great though.

One negative about the countertop is it only came with 8 inch spaced faucet holes instead of 4 inch.  We plan to fill the holes with either chrome fill pieces and/or a built in hand soap dispenser which might be cool.  Other than that, Cindy and I are really happy with the way the new countertop, sink, and faucet look.  Most of the remainder of the work is going to be in Cindy’s court with me assisting where needed.  The end result should be a pretty significantly transformed space.  I’m anxious for the end result.

If you are wondering why this blog is coming out late in the weekend, it’s because yet again I am expecting another hell week at work, a rather common occurrence nowadays.