Archives November 2019

Yesterday afternoon I got a call from Pawel, the solar company construction manager.  He started off the conversation saying he has some not so good news and some good news.  Instantly my mood worsened as he told me that they are not going to be able to get the Silfab panels that we agreed to.  Even with going through different distributors they weren’t able to get the 48 panels they needed, despite last week saying they would be able to.

However Pawel then told me the good news.  Instead of using the 300W panels, he convinced the owner to upgrade me to the Silfab 320W panels which are newer and obviously have more capacity.  When multiplied times 48 it adds up to almost a full KWH of additional capacity which is significant, raising the array capacity up around 15.4KWH.  This will translate to more savings over time.  Pawel said despite these panels costing more they are not charging me any more for them, which of course I would have fought anyway, but still a nice thing.

Pawel had one more piece of good news for me.  With the original panels sourced through other distributors we were looking at at least another one to two week delay until they would have them.  The 320W panels are in stock and they plan to install them on FRIDAY. Wow, I am not used to getting hit with so much good news at once.  I thanked Pawel for his efforts.  All of a sudden getting the array up before Xmas actually seems like a possibility.

When I got home I was pleased to see the skeleton of the frame was in place.  It looked like the beginnings of a stadium bleacher section.  The array of panels is going to be huge and the unobstructed view of the southern sky should be generating power at a pretty impressive rate.  Today they are supposed to dig the trench for the cables that connect the array to the house and do some more work on the frame.

Tomorrow for Thanksgiving I would like to start the morning off with some sort of exercise, either a bike ride or run to get a little caloric deficit to offset the huge influx of food that is sure to come during the day.  Originally we were going to have the meal at Katie’s new place but that plan shifted back to our place yesterday which is fine with me.  It’s so nice to not have Thanksgiving associated with the mountain of stress and work that it once held when I was timing races every Turkey Day morning.  This will be our second year in a row that does not involve timing, volunteering or participating in a Thanksgiving race and we are both thankful for it.  Cindy and I are hoping to get Xmas decorations up tomorrow afternoon if possible.

My Black Friday is up in the air.  I’d like to get some shopping in but since the solar panels are supposed to be going up I want to be available of need be.  I guess I’ll play it by ear, like many things in my life.

Yesterday I wound up my three day weekend which was filled with arduous tasks with pressure washing the pool cage area.  The cool temps in the 50’s felt chilly enough that I started off the work wearing a sweatshirt.  However trying to control 10 feet of pressure washer extension pole quickly made the sweatshirt unnecessary as physical effort kept me warm. The cage was dirty but not as bad as it has been at times in the past.  I wrapped up by around noon.

The solar installers arrived about 10:30 and got to work.  There was a van, a big straight body truck, and another truck with two pallets of concrete that were in the back yard.  The weight of these vehicles left deep tire tracks in the yard which isn’t surprising since sugar sand is underneath the grass.  However the guy dropping off a BobCat did a lot more than that, he got stuck trying to cross the culvert, burying his Ram halfway up the tire and wedging the trailer into the dirt as well.  They spent almost an hour getting the truck and trailer unstuck, utilizing the Bobcat to do it.  The end result was the yard looked like a landmine went off where the vehicles were stuck.

While all of this was going on I was in the middle of changing the oil in the Tacoma. All of a sudden my neighbor pointed out that there was a large dog in our yard.  He must have wandered in through the open gates.  He was some sort of mastiff.  I went over to him and called him to me.  As soon as he approached he immediately rolled onto in a submissive position like he was ready to get hit.  He had tags including one with his name, Leo and a phone number.

I called the number and it went straight to voicemail.  That voicemail box was full so I couldn’t even leave a message.  I got Leo some water and a couple big dog biscuits which he seemed thankful for.  He was a good boy.  I first posted on NextDoor hoping someone would respond quickly.  I then texted Cindy about the dog.  She said she knew the dog and the owner lived on 10th street, close by.

I went and grabbed a leash and took Leo for a walk.  We got lucky and the owner must have seen us walking down the street and came out to get the dog.  He thanked me for bringing Leo back, evidently he runs away pretty regularly.  Unfortunately I have a feeling I know why.  Some people should not own animals.

The solar guys worked until the sun had set.  They got six of the 14 poles cemented into the ground.  The holes for the footers are massive, each being two feet in diameter by five feet deep.  There was some miscommunication about the time period for this phase of the install.  I was under the impression they were going to get all of the frame work done yesterday.

It actually is going to take three full days to get the stand built and the wires run to the house.  Then we have to wait for solar panels to arrive which supposedly will take 1-2 weeks.  It’s a BIG project that I will be documenting as we go along.

My third Prusa printer arrived yesterday.  I had it up and printing within 20 minutes.  My print farm is one printer away from full capacity at this point. I have a fantastic two day work week prior to the Thanksgiving weekend.  I can get used to this.

I headed out to the track for a run for the first time in probably at least 3 months on Friday after work.  Overall my strength and endurance has felt better recently so I wanted to see if that feeling also translated into being able to run again.  Cindy and DJ walked around the track while I ran which was nice.  I definitely felt better running than I have been accustomed to, especially considering I hadn’t run in so long.  It felt like I also ran a faster pace than normal although the Apple Watch did not feel the same way.  Regardless, it felt good to get out there and not feel absolutely awful while doing so.

So even though I had a long three day weekend, I penciled in enough things to probably keep me busy for four or five days.  On Saturday after doing normal chores I turned my attention to the backyard.  I figured since the solar installers were starting Monday it made sense to get that area nice and manicured.  However just mowing the large area wasn’t enough, after I finished I limped off the tractor seat and grabbed the weed whacker.

I knocked down the entire fence line which is a massive chore as you go around the perimeter twice, once on both sides.  I also knocked down the growth in drainage ditch and around a few other areas.  I had to reload the trimmer spool three times, whacking a wire fence eats trimmer line like crazy. Between mowing and whacking I consumed the majority of the afternoon.  I was beat but glad I wouldn’t have to worry about revisiting the chore until spring is on the doorstep.

Saturday night before dinner I fired up the camera and mic for a quick live stream.  I had been talking about doing it for a little while.  I have no plans to make it a scheduled formal thing but I do enjoy getting to connect to people in this way.  Despite it being an unscheduled and unannounced broadcast I had as many 20 simultaneous viewers at one point, better than I had been doing towards the end of the bi-weekly live stream shows.

Today we woke up to off and on rain which would normally put a damper on EUC riding plans.  However I had not even made any plans to ride because I had another massive chore lined up, pressure washing.  I targeted getting the out buildings cleaned which included the two sheds and chicken coop.  The Eagles played at 1PM so I couldn’t fit pressure washing the pool area into that as well.  Near the end of the day I decided to included the castle stones in the blasting agenda which were coated with black slime.  By the time I got done cleaning the 125 plus stones I was the one coated in black slime.  At least the rocks looked better.

In the middle of all of this work I did watch the Eagles go down to the Seahawks in much the same manner as they lost to the Patriots the week before.  The defense, which I was regularly critical of for the first half of the season is actually the better performing unit at this point.  The offense was missing a lot of starters once again but Carson Wentz did nothing to elevate his game.  He missed a bunch of easy throws, made poor decisions, and turned the ball over a couple times.  He just is not playing with confidence and it shows.  Elite NFL QB’s can take over a game and impose their will onto the opposing team.  I have never seen Carson do that and I don’t think that is the type of QB he is.

Wentz is a gritty, determined and athletically gifted athlete but I just don’t know that he has the “it” factor.  He has not proven an ability to deliver in the clutch, unlike Saint Foles that seemed to be able to do the exact opposite, play his best as the pressure mounts.  The remainder of the Eagles season is favorable but if Wentz doesn’t get his head screwed on right it isn’t going to matter.  Their only chance of making the playoffs is to beat the Cowboys for the NFC East crown.  They are only one game behind so they still have a shot.

As I said, tomorrow the solar project begins.  I have to inform them that all of the painted marks that were laid down last week are incorrect.  It will be interesting to see what all gets done.  I plan to use a good chunk of the day for pressure washing the pool area which will wrap up my list of shitty home maintenance projects for the rest of the year.  If I happen to find any spare time left I need to get the oil changed on the Tacoma and the Hyundai.  It never ends.

I did have some good news on my Prusa MMU2S front, I got my best print out of it to date.  It seems like for reasons undetermined by me yet, running filament through position 1 on the MMU is problematic but if I use spots 2-5 it appears to work sort of well so that is what I am going to do for now, use what works, not what doesn’t.

Yesterday a guy from the solar company stopped by to mark the property for location of the solar array and the wiring to go to the house.  It was the same guy that came out a month and a half ago that I had met.  When I got home I saw the line he painted was 100% wrong, not following the path I told him we needed to follow back in October, I guess he forgot.  The line he painted goes right through buried sprinkler plumbing, buried coax cable, and more.  We need to more or less hug the fence line and then make a 90 degree left hand turn to the house to minimize it’s impact.  I even quickly sketched out a crude diagram of what I meant and sent it to the construction manager.  He said it was no problem and they will follow what ever path I advise them to on Monday.

Last night I set up the folding table and dug more into my Prusa MMU2S issue.  I found a couple things that were not assembled quite as they should be upon reviewing the instructions.  I corrected them best I could and did another test print.  It sort of worked.  I had to babysit the filament in slot one but slot 2 and 3 loaded and unloaded cleanly repeatedly which gave me some hope.  My third Prusa MK3S arrives Monday so I’ll be doing some more shuffling in the hobby room.

I neglected to stay up till 11PM to see the Tesla CyberTruck reveal but I dug in quickly this morning.  I had seen a lot of renderings of what people thought the truck might look like leading up to the reveal.  Some looked sort of normal and some looked sort of crazy, I figured what would be announced would be somewhere in between.  Well I was wrong.

Instead what was rolled out onto the stage was a few degrees beyond the craziest designs I had seen.  The angular design was visually shocking and futuristic.  It looked like some crazy vehicle you would see on a movie set, not a production vehicle.  When I started looking at the numbers my jaw started to drop.  The three levels of equipment had very similar pricing to the Model 3 which was shocking.  An entry level CyberTruck is pegged with a $39,900 starting price with the the top of the line version being $69,900.  This pricing is very competitive with full size ICE trucks.

What was even more surprising was the performance numbers.  The base model gets up to 60MPH in 6 seconds plus, great numbers for a big truck but the “tri-motor” truck will do it in UNDER 3 SECONDS…WTF  Equally impressive was the battery range which started at 250 miles+ for the base all the way up to an incredible 500 MILES on the top tier, a number previously unheard of.  Of course most truck owners care about towing and payload numbers.  The CyberTruck delivers in spades there as well, being able to tow up to a whopping 14,000 pounds with a 3500 pound payload.  It can do real work.

The construction of the truck is unique as well, utilizing stainless steel body panels that appear to be extremely durable.  During the demo they hit a door panel with a rubber coated sledge hammer multiple times without leaving a mark.  The glass on production vehicles is supposed to be bulletproof which they also tried to demonstrate at the reveal, unsuccessfully.  A guy tossed a metal ball at two of the windows.  The intent was for it to bounce off the windows like a basketball but instead it cracked them both, a bit of an embarrassment but Elon assured us it will be fixed in production vehicles. 🙂

So the CyberTruck, despite not being slated to begin production until the end of 2021, which will surely be delayed based on Tesla’s track record, can be reserved with a deposit today.  Gone are the days where Tesla required a big $2500 outlay to reserve a vehicle, it can now be done for a measly $100.  With little hesitation I plunked down a deposit on the mid-level truck.  It’s refundable but who knows, with the predicted timing of the CyberTruck arrival it would coincide with me getting ready to move on from the Tacoma, maybe.  There is a lot that can go down before now and then.

I have a three day weekend coming up thanks to taking off Monday for the solar project launch followed by an even longer four day weekend next week for Thanksgiving.  This weekend I have a bunch to do, shocking I know.  It includes mowing down the back half of the property and getting some pressure washing done.  I’m not sure if I will split the task into the sheds now and the pool area next weekend or try to get all of the misery contained within one arduous day.

It looks like my solar install is full steam ahead.  Yesterday I called to have the underground utilities marked to make sure nothing is cut during excavation.  Most of the digging is going to occur in the backyard but there will be a long trench cut that leads to the house to tie into the grid.  I took the day off to be available if needed and to allow me to document the process on video.

So last night I spent more time fcking around with the MMU2S attachment on my one Prusa and once again I met with failure.  Obviously by this point I am very frustrated with the set up.  I need to take a deep breath, regroup and methodically step through troubleshooting steps one at a time.  Ironically, despite my annoyance with this particular Prusa product, I bought another MK3S yesterday once again using mostly 3D print store funds.  They were running a 10% off deal right now which incentivized me.  I will now have as many Prusa printers as Anycubic I3 Mega’s, my old workhorse printer.  The MK3S printers are going to be assuming more and more of that role.

Wow Sondland really tossed the stable genius right under the bus yesterday, negating all of Trump’s sharpie scribbled notes.  I’m not sure what was more entertaining, seeing Sondland basically said that Trump and all of the acolytes that ingest his bullshit like sweet nectar are all full of shit or seeing the pic of Trump’s child-like notes.  There is no doubt that this is fantastically, very, very, bad for the extremely stable, sharpie note reading, best of all time, genius.  Please sweep this bad joke out of office.

All it is going to take is a couple brave Republicans to put a crack in the dam of fake, self serving support of the President.  Once that happens and everyone realizes they are backing the losing horse they will abandon ship faster than they did on the Titanic with only Rudy Guilliani left playing violin on the upper deck.

I have been checking the solar permit status several times a day.  Yesterday afternoon the status finally changed from “Under Review” to “Ready for Issuance”.  I immediately sent an email to the construction manager making him aware of the change.  An hour or two later I got an email that was exciting at first and then aggravating as I read deeper.  The guy said they would be able to break ground on the project next Monday, a great turnaround time.  However he then continued on saying the solar panels that I was quoted were not available but my install would include one of two other brands which he sent me the spec sheets for.  Woah, let’s slow down chief….

So when I got home I pulled up the spec sheets of the two proposed replacement panels and compared them to the Silfab panels I was quoted.  I could feel the anger swelling up when I saw both of the replacements had less than half of the product warranty that the Silfab panels do.  They offered 10 year product and 25 year performance guarantees, the Silfab are 25 year product and 30 year performance, a HUGE difference.  My immediate reflex reaction was this was a bait and switch.  The Silfab panels also appear to cost more so I theorized this was a way to pad the bottom line if the customer was asleep at the wheel.

Before responding to the email I got on the Silfab website to verify they were still producing panels, which they are, albeit the model numbers have changed.  I then crafted a measured but firm email to the construction manager telling him I was not agreeable to swapping out the hardware for something with a far inferior warranty.  I also said I didn’t appreciate the timing, dropping this at the last minute after the permit was approved.  If this was truly an issue it could have been brought to my attention weeks ago.  I summarized that my preference was to still go with the Silfab panels and said if the other panels were the only option then I would need to renegotiate the price downward.

This morning I received a follow up email apologizing for the problem.  Supposedly they just found this out yesterday when they went to order the panels from their normal supplier.  The manager again pushed to use one of the alternatives with a third option of getting a different model of the Silfab panels although the timeline for doing that would be unknown.  As I was in the middle of responding to the email, saying again basically “Silfab or I pay less” I got ANOTHER email from the construction manager.  He said his boss did some legwork and was able to get the panels ordered from an alternative supplier. I deleted my draft email and instead sent a short and sweet reply, confirming we were once again on for Monday.

I plan to take the day off from work so I can document the process and answer/address any questions or problems that may arise.  To be honest it’s been so long since I agreed to the solar install that it almost feels not real at this point.  I guess once shovels start hitting the dirt that perspective will change pretty quickly.

Last night I stayed up after midnight watching Ironman 3 on Disney +.  Of course I saw this movie in the the theater but evidently I forgot huge chunks of detail about the story.  It almost felt like I was seeing it for the first time.  Cindy and I both enjoyed it.  That’s the great thing about being old, even old things seem new again, because you forget them.

I have seen some of the impeachment hearings and they are in a word, maddening.  The same thing gets asked 20 times, looking for the slightest crack to try to redirect the narrative to something that looks less dirty.  The entire event is truly a circus and if it had a chance of actually ending in the outcome of throwing Donald out onto the lawn of the Whitehouse, it would be worth the effort.  However we all know the partisan Iron Curtain is awaiting in the Senate so no matter how much dirt is thrown on the floor during the inquiry, Republicans will happily sweep it all under a very large rug.  Nothing to see here folks, our extremely stable genius leader has all the answers.

I broke down pretty quickly after Disney + launched and bought a year subscription which saved me roughly 15%.  The combo of a having Star Wars and Marvel on one streaming service is just way too appealing for someone like me.  Cindy and I watched the first two episodes of The Mandalorian, one of the the first Disney + original shows based on the Star Wars universe. So far the show is great and feels like an authentic Star Wars production.  When you add in Marvel content and Pixar stuff on top of that I really think it is one of the best valued streaming services out there.

Yesterday I also re-added Showtime but I didn’t do so through Comcast.  During my last rework with Comcast I added high speed gig internet but sacrificed the premium channels I used to have as well.  Showtime has a bunch of shows that we both enjoyed so I dipped my toe back in but did so by adding Showtime streaming to my Amazon Prime Video account, allowing me to stream it easily anywhere instead of being tied to my Xfinity hardware.  Both of our LG TV’s have native Amazon Video and Disney Plus support built in so it’s stupid easy to access.

So the Impeachment holiday TV special is in full force.  It seems each day new slimy pieces of information are revealed about the mafia-esque workings of the White House.  If anyone, even Trump underwear wearing cultists doubts the basic timeline of events that went down regarding Ukraine they are too far gone to be helped.  As I have said before, in the grand scope of things this is probably small change compared to some of the REALLY awful shit that has been going on the last three years.

I was thinking just how fake outraged Republicans were when Clinton went up for impeachment for getting oral sex and lying about it, GASP!  Trump got oral sex and a lot more from a porn star, while married, paid her hush money and it has been treated as though it was inconsequential, amazing.  The hypocrisy that exists in American politics is rampant, sad, and toxic.  No this is not isolated to the right or left side of the fence.

To me the cold reality is no matter how many witnesses “me too” the Ukranian story, no matter if the House moves forward with presenting a trial to the senate, partisan politics will block any possibility of an outcome based on facts.  Instead the cowards will continue to prop up the worst human being we have ever had as President in my lifetime because it is politically advantageous to themselves to do so.  This sort of disingenuous loyalty is exactly why senate term limits need to be a thing.  Some senators are buried so deep into their corrupt and lobbyist infested blankets you can never dig them out.

So with an actual impeachment being basically impossible in this environment, the main task is making sure that Trump is not reseated for another four years of insanity.  To me, there is only one way this can happen, the economy and stock market which has been pumped up by massive corporate tax breaks, stomping all over regulation, and applying other short sighted “fixes”, has to tank, it’s that simple.  If both of these things remain strong Trump will get reelected because the majority of people in this country that actually vote care about their immediate circle of existence and not the big picture.

I think candidates like Elizabeth Warren and even Bernie at this point are going to struggle because despite my core belief in some of their policies, the reality of getting them implemented in today’s world is just plain unrealistic unless you are going to implement Senate term limits magically, which you aren’t.  I really like Pete Buttigeig, he is brilliant, amazingly well spoken, young, a veteran and offers a more moderate approach. He is basically the exact opposite of Donald Trump. Of course he is also gay which may be more damning than being black to a lot of voters, which is a sad testament to the country where the President has made hate speech, insults, and bullying the new hotness.

Oh speaking of the “hot” economy, did you know that this upswing has been historic but in a way that you would not assume.  Despite soaring stock market numbers the budget deficit has been rocketing upwards and not down.  Normally when the economy is strong, deficits shrink.  Nope, not this time.  It is a testament to short sighted decisions and fixes.  Despite all of the “great numbers”, one number that is kept in the shadows is the budget deficit that has increased 26% in ONE YEAR.  One of numerous false campaign promises was to eliminate the budget deficit within 8 years.  Instead, he has increased it by 50% in three years.  He is a very stable fiscal genius, after all.

This weekend the cold front blew in with full force but the forecast turned out to be less accurate than expected.  What I saw was predicted lows in the 50’s and highs in the mid 70’s.  Instead both days were completely PA gray with Sunday being especially so with the temps never getting much above 60 degrees.  For months and months I have been looking for cool weather and we definitely got it.  Now if we could just mix a bit more sunshine into the equation things would be peachy.

The cool weather was good for getting stuff done outside without the normal perspiration penalty.  I got the grass mowed and the property weeded on Saturday.  At some point over the next few weeks I am going to need to address pressure washing outside, another miserable task.  The out buildings and pool area are both in dire need of it.  I have a number of winter projects in my head that I really need to write down to increase their probability of getting completed. The current list of projects includes getting fill/sod brought in to raise the ground level in the chicken area (and other spots),  rebuilding the steps of both landings of the pool deck which are rotting away, and replacing the fencing around the chicken area with high quality galvanized twisted wire fencing instead of the shitty welded wire that I used initially.   Cool weather down here is a limited resource so I need to not procrastinate.

Sunday morning felt pretty raw so I put off riding until mid-afternoon.  Unfortunately the thermometer had only moved up a handful of degrees by that time.  I rode my KingSong 16X out to the entry of Ave Maria and back.  I paid the price for riding in 60 degree weather, my body felt nearly frozen solid by the end of it.  Yea 60 degrees isn’t horrible but when you factor in standing stationary on a wheel with a constant 20mph+ wind hitting you things get pretty miserable.

I did more work on my Prusa MMU2S this weekend.  I discovered that part of the problems I was having was because of my ignorance.  I was sending it files I created before attaching the MMU to the printer so that caused the printer to have issues.  I got that part of things sorted out but I am still trying to implement some sort of set up for the multiple filament spools that doesn’t result in a tangled mess as filament feeds and unloads during a typical MMU print.

I sat down for the Eagles/Patriots game not expecting much, despite the Birds winning two games in a row.  You can imagine my surprise when the Eagles jumped out to a quick 10-0 first quarter lead.  Then you can imagine my disappointment with them not scoring the rest of the game, looking downright anemic most of the time while allowing the Patriots to score 17 unanswered points.  Since I didn’t really expect the Eagles to win I guess I shouldn’t feel disappointed yet the way the game laid out I did find myself feeling very frustrated by the end.

I have mentioned before how I have never really gotten on the “Carson Wentz is the Messiah” bandwagon.  He just is not consistent and I don’t have faith in him being able to deliver in pressure situations.  His numbers are not bad and I know the Eagles WR core has been downright awful this year, ranking at the bottom of the league in productivity.  He is a gamer, tough, has a strong arm, and is mobile, yet I just have not seen an ability in him to take command of a game like top tier QB’s can do.  I hope he proves me wrong in the future but as of now I feel like with Carson at the helm the team will be a perennial wildcard contender and little else.

Things don’t get any better for the Eagles next week as they play the Seahawks, another probable loss.  If the team didn’t blow games to teams like the Falcons and the Lions early in the season they could afford to lose some of these game against high level competition.  However their reality is they have minimal room for error the rest of the season and I will be surprised if they manage to get into the playoffs as their only path is by winning the division.

Yesterday I had my blood draw and measurements taken on campus to meet our insurance requirements.  I have now started to officially shrink.  For my entire adult like I have claimed my height was somewhere between 6’3″ and 6’4″.  When I was younger I was officially measured at 6′ 3 1/2″.  Yesterday I came in at 6′ 2 1/2″ inches, meaning I have lost a full inch off my frame.  I could have dismissed this as being spotty measurement but during one of my doctor appointments this year I was also pegged at the same height, which I dismissed as a spotty measurement, so I guess I am actually shrinking.  It’s not like I needed anything else to make me feel poorly about the realities of descending into old age.

We have our first product ever being displayed in a mall.  The custom skateboard stands got set up at our local mall yesterday.  I designed/printed the stands and Cindy painted the logo part of them in a contrasting color.  It was very cool to see our work out in the wild like that.  I’m not sure if it will lead to more similar projects or be a once and done sort of thing.

I spent a lot of time yesterday gathering knowledge about the MMU2S and the myriad of things that can potentially go wrong.  Last night I got the printer up and running with a single color print at least.  I am hoping this weekend I get time to dig in to do some more thorough trouble shooting.

We are forecast to have four or five days in a row with high temps not leaving the 70’s which I am absolutely thrilled about.  Of course we have plenty of things to keep us busy but at least the amount of sweat generated by doing so should be considerably less.  I am just glad that the debilitating lower back pain I had last week has subsided, allowing me to kick the Advil habit.

I have not been happy with my decision to install the multi-material upgrade on my one Prusa printer so far.  Take away the sizeable expense and the even more sizeable chunk of time I have invested so far, it just isn’t working well.  After my first couple initial small prints worked every subsequent print has had an issue during a filament change requiring manual intervention that was sometimes successful and sometimes not.  It’s getting pretty aggravating.  I found out the process if I want to convert a normal one color model to multi-color but it doesn’t do me much good if I can’t get the MMU to work consistently.  I need to watch some troubleshooting videos which will likely lead to me having to tear into the unit all over again.

Today I had my bi-annual blood draw which is a requirement for our insurance plan at work.  I wish this would be a model that could be followed nationwide when it comes to medical care.  Basically if you want the best rates and coverage for insurance you need to jump through a number of hoops including blood tests, blood pressure, getting weighed, a physical, and other age triggered procedures like a colonoscopy.  If this testing reveals warning signs you can still get the best rates but you are required to attend education classes like weight loss, smoking cessation, and others.  If you don’t attend any remediation education you now will wind up paying more.  If you are a lazy, obese slob you can bypass all of the testing whatsoever and your reward is basic coverage and a high premium.

A national health plan that included this basic philosophy would be fantastic.  Despite my liberal leanings, I absolutely do not endorse a lack of personal responsibility.  Whether it pertains to your health or income, an individual needs to put in the effort to make the best of whatever cards they have been dealt.  Laziness of course will never go away but it certainly should not be rewarded either.  Put in the work and reap the benefit of doing so, that is how life works.

I saw parts of the first day of the public impeachment proceedings yesterday.  Ambassador Taylor was pretty amazing. If you think that guy was making shit up your rose colored Trump glasses really need some cleaning.  He was extremely matter of fact, believable and didn’t portray any partisan leanings at all.  He saw and heard things that were out of bounds and did his job to document and recount them when asked.  I also wish both sides would stop with the practice of posting propaganda placards behind the proceedings, it is ridiculous and unnecessary.