Re-tired, Wet and Lazy, No Elon, The Panic

Saturday morning I awoke with a 6:30 alarm to go play pickleball. I had a good session of over two and a half hours. Even though overall I think I lost more than I won it was a good time playing with good people, which is all that matters in the end. Later in the morning I was running errands in my pickleball gear and wound up doing long walks in parking lots in heavy rain. The picture depicts the end result.

My main goal on Saturday evening was to get the new tubeless tire mounted on the Master as well as reassemble it as far as I could. I was unsure how this new tubeless tire would seal since this wheel is not designed for tubeless tires. The answer was quite well.

Mounting it on the rim was very easy thanks to my new installation technique that utilizes zip ties. I could just press it onto the rim without any conventional tire tools. I had one issue, it looks like either I somehow lost the gasket for the tubeless tire valve or it did not come with one. Instead of calling it quits I went to the local Autozone and bought a miscellaneous O-ring kit and found one that appeared to get the job done. I was able to pressurize the tubeless tire rather easily and it appeared to be air tight somewhat surprising.

I put as much of the wheel back together as I could and verified basic functionality. I have parts arriving today that should hopefully allow me to complete the repair to get back and rolling on this wheel.

Sunday was one of those all day rain events which is looking to turn into a several day rain event. I got my bills paid, my coffee bought, and tended to a few minor house chores but for the most part was lazy. Being lazy, even for one day normally isn’t great for my state of mind. I wound spending a large chunk of time binging Season 2 of Rings of Power, the Lord of the Rings prequel. I remember when I watched season one thinking it was too slow and almost lost interest however season two was great and presumably the last season? I watched the last four or five episodes all in the span of the afternoon/evening. If you like LOTR you will like this. I now have started on Tulsa King which I have heard a bunch of people talk about favorably.

Over the weekend I got my official notice that MY Cybertruck was ready to be purchased. You may recall months ago I was given the opportunity to buy one of the “Foundation” model trucks which were stupidly overpriced for the privilege of being an early adopter. I passed. Once again I will be passing.

When I placed my deposit over four years ago on a Cybertruck it was with the understanding that the dual motor version I wanted would be $49,900. As you see in the graphic the price of this model is now $80K, insane. Never in my life have I had a situation where you put a deposit down with the agreement on price and that gets casually tossed out the window and it instead is offered at over 50% more?! I love my Tesla’s but sanity has taken hold and there is absolutely no way I would consider that ridiculous money grab. Although I know the numbers will never be published, I would love to know how many of those people that put down deposits have walked away. I am sure it is a HUGE number which I am now officially one of.

So the panic regarding Hurricane Milton started in earnest yesterday in our area. Grocery stores, gas stations and home improvement stores all were hit hard. This morning I stopped at the ATM to get cash to pay my cleaning lady and that was tapped out as well. I did take my own precautionary step of filling the Tacoma as well as my two 5 gallon gas cans to run my generator if necessary.

I was considering buying the materials to make my own “suicide cord” for the generator. This is a cord that runs from the 220 output on the generator to the dryer outlet in your house. Although potentially dangerous it allows you to back feed electricity into your house and control distribution via the breaker box. This is universally looked at as a bad idea by electricians, hence the name. If you forget to throw your main breaker prior to doing this you can back feed the grid which causes all sorts of potential disaster. It became a non-issue though since all of the wire, plugs and adapters seemed to be snapped up already. I have enough conventional extension cords to rig something up to get me by if it comes to that.

Unlike Helene which was consistently forecast to hit towards the pan handle, Milton’s track is currently in the Tampa Bay area with the potential cone barely touching our northern border. However that is close enough to cause significant impact here. The storm could touch CAT 4 strength before landfall. This is going to be an interesting week to be sure. I might just get the chance to test out my new hurricane protection if the projected path drifts down our way. Let’s hope not. Our ground is already saturated so there will be significant flooding, regardless. The Tacoma will be my vehicle of choice the rest of the week.