So my second AnyCubic I3 Mega 3D printer arrived yesterday. My first one has become my favorite printer I own and a workhorse, responsible for the majority of my 3D EUC stand production. I figured grabbing a second allows me to double productivity while giving me a back up if one goes down. Since I already had one, setting up the new one took very little time. Within 30 minutes I had it ready to go and it was printing it’s first EUC stand.
I used the printer addition as motivation to do some overdue reorganizing of the stuff in there, especially the two work benches. A lot of stuff got tossed out or put away. The end result is a much cleaner looking workspace that had me going back to admire several times during the evening.
This morning around 4:45 AM we had another Elsa intestinal incident. This time it was Cindy that felt/heard it coming. She shot out of bed and yelled for Elsa to come outside. Well evidently during the landing on the floor next to the bed some excrement was ejected.
We didn’t bother going back to bed, after cleaning up the aftermath I did some work in the hobby room and also did the legwork to get this week’s live stream converted into a podcast and uploaded/posted. I also received notice last night that the podcast has now officially been accepted on iTunes, meaning you can now listen to the shows on the two major platforms.
My new Meepo electric skateboard showed up yesterday. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t great but I did get out on the driveway for 10 or 15 minutes trying it out. Much like my initial experience on the One Wheel, my body is not quite sure how to react although there are definitely some similarities to the One Wheel.
Having a handheld speed controller is an entirely new thing for me. One slip of the thumb dial in either direction could have undesired consequences if you aren’t careful. I set the board to beginner mode which greatly limits the boost and speed which is a good thing for someone like me.
My cross wired foot dominance really needs to be worked on. I still find that I prefer to ride goofy foot where my left foot is back and right is front. However I don’t feel stable enough on my right leg to do things like foot brake. This is something that can be corrected with practice, I just need to put in the time. The same muscles in my right leg that are weak for mounting an EUC from that side are the same ones causing me problems on the board. I am hoping to maybe take the board to the school tonight to get some more training time in.
I also got to fight with my A5 printer, clearing a clog in the hot end which was causing under extrusion. I’ve had a lot of failures trying to correct this issue in the past with other printers but I luckily was able to fix the problem.
So a couple weeks ago I noticed I was missing the rubber axle cover on one of the front tires of the tractor. This rubber boot is used to keep dirt out of the wheel hub area. I can already tell not having one for a couple weeks has been bad as there is a lot of squeaking from that wheel. I ordered a replacement rubber cap but I also was curious if I would be able to 3D print a functional replacement out of flexible filament.
I received the new boot yesterday but instead of installing it I got out my calipers to do some measurements. After sketching up the numbers on a piece of paper I went into Tinkercad to make my 3D model which I then exported, sliced in Cura, copied to a SD card and printed. This weekend I want to do a test fit and see if I need to tweak it at all. Of course I recorded the process, it might be interesting to some to see how the need for a part or object can be totally self fulfilled using this method.
Last night we had a pretty serious storm that dumped a couple inches of rain in a short period of time. This morning there is some minor standing water but we are still staying pretty dry, especially compared to last year. By this time last year I was already pumping standing water out of the chicken area. So far that has not been necessary.
This weekend I have stuff to do around the house just as pretty much every weekend of the last 18 years. it may sound at times like I am complaining about it and in some ways I am. However in the big picture if I didn’t have goals to attain, problems to solve, and issues to address I would go bat shit crazy.
Another gun violence incident yesterday, another round of thoughts and prayers sent out, works great, at accomplishing nothing.
So last night as we were taking the dogs out just before dark I looked at the far side of the freshly rescreened pool cage and saw a dog size tear in it. I instantly knew who the culprit was, Sadie. Sadie has a long history of creating her own exits. When she was young I had to repair the drywall in the front of the house after she tried digging through the wall to get to something she saw outside. I have had her rip through screens on the lanai at least a half dozen times but this one was the most annoying of all since I just spent close to 4K getting the cage redone with high quality polyester screen.
We scolded Sadie loudly although at this point I doubt she knew what it was for. We later confirmed Sadie’s guilt when we caught her on one of the coop cams prancing around the back yard while Cindy was at work. Before bed I haphazardly covered the big tear with some tape to prevent a convenient critter entrance. I contacted the company that did the work to see if they would be able to replace the single panel. If they have no availability I will try to get my hands on some of the high grade screening that was used and do it myself.
Sadie has now lost her right to free access to the pool deck when we are not home, which is a shame since I know she loves to sit out there. However I can’t have her tearing holes whenever she decides there is something in the yard she has to get a closer look at.
I had a 3D printing mishap overnight that resulted in a beach ball pile of filament scattered on the workbench. It happens.
I heard Trumps summit with Kim Jong Un went fantastically terrific. I mean really, really great. I am terrifically, really, really excited that we have such a masterful negotiator handling the situation. This is just fantastic, and great…..
I figured since it was yet another rainy day I may as well get the blog written for the weekend. The weather the last two weeks has been crazy. We went from arid, dry conditions to wet season literally overnight. It has been gray and raining the better part of two weeks, it’s nuts. There have been a series of low pressure systems in the gulf causing the weather, the latest being tropical storm Alberto.
We got lucky and only had light rain falling on us when we went for our run early Saturday morning. I had taken last weekend off from running due to some mild pain in both of my knees. My legs didn’t feel great while covering the 13 laps but we finished with a pace almost identical to what we logged two weeks prior.
So I had a decent size list written up for the weekend, not a staycation size list but at least a half dozen items were on there. All of the rain meant the grass was back into high gear growth mode. I got the the weed whacking done before the sky let loose but that meant the tractor mowing would have to wait. I mean what sort of idiot mows grass in the rain?
Another item on the list was to take the old dryer to Cindy’s mom. She was buying a new washer to go with the dryer we are giving her. The weather was still looking terrible but I grabbed a blue tarp from the shed to cover it during it’s ride in the back of the Tacoma. Getting the unit into the truck was an ordeal. I had it on a hand truck and I was up in the bed trying to lift the dryer up with brute force while Cindy was on the ground trying to lift. It didn’t go well as I didn’t account for the wheels of the hand truck getting stuck on the tailgate. By the time I realized what was happening the tailgate was at a 45 degree angle. We set it down and modified our strategy. We transported the dryer face up with the tarp strapped around the unit to keep it dry.
It was a good thing we covered the dryer. The closer we got to Cindy’s mom’s place the harder the rain came down. We unloaded the dryer in a torrential downpour. I was absolutely soaked. So the laundry spot had an old shelf that was about an inch too low to accommodate the high profile of the dryer and pedestal stand. We decided to just pull out the shelf as anything on it could either go on top of the new washer/dryer or into the slide out drawers in the pedestals below.
So in addition to pulling the shelf I pulled the old accordian style dryer vent tube which was filled with lint. I had Cindy sweep out the outlet into the wall as well, it was pretty bad. I replaced the old vent pipe with the newer style that we had with our dryer. I was finally ready to try to slide the dryer into place when I discovered another issue. The 220 plug on the wall was an older three prong style, the cord on our dryer was a 4 plug. Luckily dryer cords are easily changeable. I hopped in the truck to head to nearby Home Depot where I got a different cord and a few other things I needed for the chicken coop.
Once I returned I swapped the plug and then was finally able to slide the dryer into place so I could see one more pitfall. The laundry nook had folding doors in front of it. With the dryer pushed into place the edge of the door blocked the pull out drawer in the pedestal from opening. Cindy’s mom said we could just pull the doors off, she didn’t like them anyway. After doing so the clearance was just enough to allow everything to work as intended. Cindy’s mom thanked us for our help and we were off.
We decided we were going to drive up to Lehigh Acres to take a look at my two pieces of “investment” real estate I own. I put that in quotes because it actually has been the worst investment of my life. As it sits I am probably down roughly 80%-90% of what I originally paid for the two parcels. I had not been up to the lots in at least two years, maybe longer.
The one reason we went was to see if there was any viability to using the lots to to store Cindy’s RV on during wet season. (it’s not viable) The other reason was to just see what has changed in the area since I been there last.
The two lots are tiny compared to our land here. One parcel is .24 acres and the other is .29 which is standard for Lehigh Acres. I bought these during the real estate boom in 2003. At one point I could have sold each lot for nearly double what I paid for them but I thought there was no ceiling so I just held on. Once the bottom dropped out of the market the prices absolutely plummeted and I paid the price for greed, riding it all the way to the bottom.
The trip confirmed that both of the lots have some nice attributes for different reasons. One of them is very close to the middle of Lehigh Acres with easy access to all amenities while being surrounded by nice homes and a nearby country club. The other lot is more remote but again nice with a canal and orange grove behind it meaning you should never have to worry about encroachment from the rear.
During the ride Cindy threw out an idea that had some intrigue for me. What if we built a house on one of these lots for either rent or resale? It’s something that could possibly be one way for me to recoup that money that will otherwise be lost forever. It’s something I wouldn’t feel comfortable taking on until I get my HELOC paid off but it is an interesting idea. It would be a lot simpler if the land prices in Lehigh started rebounding like land prices in Collier County have but it seems like that is an unlikely scenario.
My new full face helmet for EUC riding arrived Saturday. I wasted little time before trying it on for comfort. The XL helmet felt good and didn’t appear to affect my field of vision at all which is important. On Sunday I got out in the driveway with it on briefly just to do a quick real world test.
Saturday night Cindy and I got out to see Solo, the latest Star Wars movie. I have to be honest, with as disappointed as I was in the last Last Jedi combined with a lot of negative hype about Solo, I was less than excited to go see it. However as a true Star Wars fan I felt obliged to see it in a theater, regardless.
My luke warm feeling about the movie was also self cultivated from seeing trailers that didn’t overly excite me. I thought the actor they got to play a young Han Solo just didn’t look the part and I felt that would really overshadow the movie. There were also all sorts of problems during the production of the film including reshooting large portions of it.
Well I have never been the type of person to be afraid to admit I was wrong about something and Solo is definitely an example of that. I thought the movie was not good but GREAT. Although the actor that played Han was not the visual depicition most fans would want, he did a great job of portraying the personality of Han Solo. It didn’t take long for my initial apprehensions to melt away. This felt like a true Star Wars movie and I enjoyed it from start to finish, you will too. It gets an A.
Sunday morning I awoke to news that Florida was under a state of emergency from Alberto due to the potential for severe rain, forecast as much as 10 inches in some areas. F that, even though it still was off and on raining outside I decided I HAD to get the grass mowed. So while Cindy was out running errands mid-morning I fired up the Craftsman and got busy. I was able to get almost the entire front of the yard mowed before the rain returned. However it returned with a vengeance.
At one point I was mowing in the middle of an absolute deluge. The canopy on the mower kept me sort of dry from the shoulders up and that’s it. I didn’t care, I was going to finish, no matter what. Cindy got back when I was almost done. The tractor was encased in a wet, green organic blanket that I tried to rinse off afterward. Even though I was soaked by the end of the task I felt relief to get it done before potentially horrid rain began. That rain never really came. We had off and on periods of rain all day but it seems we missed the flood level precipitation that was predicted which I am certainly happy about.
We spent the rest of the day around the house attending to mostly indoor things. I told Cindy late in the day that somehow, despite mowing in the rain for two hours earlier, I somehow felt lazy for not doing more. It’s an odd ailment I suffer from.
Last night we watched our Netflix rental, Geostorm. Wow, despite having the star of 300 in it, one of my favorite movies of all time, Gerard Butler, I found this movie to be utterly ridiculous. Pretty much nothing made sense and when Gerard “saves” the planet it seems like it was already too late. This was the opposite experience of Solo as I actually thought I would like this movie. B-
Today we hoped to get out on the wheels for Memorial Day but it again was off an on rain all morning. I may still get a shot to get out there later today but the the constant threat of rain makes it annoying and less than desirable to venture out only to get washed out later. I have a lot of indoor things to keep me busy if need be until the world of work returns tomorrow.
So I decided to take a one week hiatus from running this weekend. Both knees had soreness at the top of them which felt like it would benefit from a short break. The knees already had taken some additional beating from playing racquetball on my lunch hour on Friday.
So without running on the calendar I jumped right into doing the chicken work first thing Saturday. Once that was handled Cindy offered to do the weeding so I could get started on the first of two main projects of the weekend, cleaning the roof eave. Last weekend I completed cleaning one side of the house, handling the other three was no less fun. I used the same technique as before, a spray bottle and rags. In total I spent three to four hours cleaning the eaves one wipe at a time. No, I won’t be looking to do the project anytime again soon.
We also headed to Home Depot during the morning where I plunked down big bucks for a new Samsung washer and dryer. In the last week the LG front loading washer we have started getting VERY loud during spin cycle which sounded like a bearing going bad. A quick search online indicated this is a common failure with these washers. I then started investigating what is involved in replacing the bearing and seal. Although the parts can be obtained for less than $50 the labor required to replace the bearing is massive, requiring a complete tear down of the machine.
Depending on what you find during the tear down there is the possibility that other components will need to be replaced as well. I had been looking to replace the washer/dryer for a couple years so the idea of spending that much time/effort to repair something I want to get rid of just didn’t make sense to me. We actually paid less for the new Samsung set than I did in 2010 when I bought the LG’s. Having a front loading washer just is not as great as I once thought it would be. The new set features a high efficiency top loading washer which will work out better for several reasons.
Saturday evening we made arrangements to go see Deadpool 2 with Katie and Daniel. We got a last minute surprise when Cindy’s niece and her boyfriend showed up as well. We arrived early to grab dinner at the theater. Cindy and I were the only veterans of The Prado theater. Katie was very impressed by the VIP theater accommodations, specifically the reclining leather chairs.
Cindy had worked during the day on making us Deadpool t-shirts for the movies. The one she made for me was absolutely epic and good not have been more appropriate. Of course we wore them.
I absolutely loved the first Deadpool movie and expected the second movie to be great but not as good as the original because hey, that hardly ever happens. Well I feel pretty confident in stating that Deadpool 2 is even better than the original. It had me laughing out loud more than any movie I can recall in the last decade. (Thor Ragnarok was close) It was so damn funny, I loved it. The movie gets a rare A+ in my book. Spoiler, although there are shorts during the credits, if you sit till the VERY end of the credits there is nothing waiting for you.
Sunday morning Cindy and I went out to do a ride around the Dunkin Donuts area. It turned out only I rode because the one tire on her Minipro was very low on air. Cindy wound up doing some grocery shopping while I did a 6 or 7 mile ride on my Monster. My lower body already hurt from being on a ladder so much on Saturday. Riding an EUC only amplified the discomfort.
Sunday afternoon Cindy and I tackled the remaining big weekend project, installing a second automatic chicken coop door. Our original door is one of the highlights of the coop as it automatically opens and closes each day to keep the chickens secure.
We decided we wanted to take it one step further. Often times when we get up all of the chickens are already awake and pacing inside of the run, anxious to be let out so they can roam about doing their chicken things. We thought adding a second door to the run would allow the birds early access to the yard as well as allowing us to make sure they are completed closed up in the evening if we are away for some reason.
I ordered the door a couple weeks ago and it has been sitting by the front door waiting to be installed for over a week. As is the case with the vast majority of my construction projects. I had a loose mental outline of how I wanted to install the door that was fluid and changed as the install was done with suggestions from Cindy.
The end result turned out well with the door feeling very secure but still somewhat protected by the clear roof panels over that section. Some of the chickens went through the door right away, others were cautious. We closed the main door so they HAD to go through the opening to go to bed which they all did. This morning most of the hens did not quite grasp the concept that they didn’t have to wait for us to open the big door to get outside. I am sure they will catch on soon.
Another busy week is awaiting me but the good news is I have a three day weekend waiting at the end of it.
So I eat my lunch at my desk everyday. That lunch is always the same, which Cindy lovingly packs for me each morning. Part of that lunch is a pint of almond milk which I pour into a plastic cup. I normally pour the milk into the cup and sit it on the top portion of my stand up desk.
Another cog in lunch is my cottage cheese mix which has a foil lid. Yesterday after pouring my milk I turned my attention to taking the lid off the cottage cheese. The adhesive was being a bit stubborn so I had to apply extra force to remove it. As my strength finally overcame the glue the foil tore off suddenly, leaving the remaining force to send my hand flying towards the desk, and the full cup of milk.
I have very quick hands, perhaps a byproduct of juggling. Without thinking I quickly grabbed at the cup to hopefully avoid disaster. Unfortunately my hand grabbed low on the cup, the weight of the tipping milk had already set the disaster in motion. I had a tsunami of almond milk spill all over my desk as well as my keyboard and phone which got knocked down in the flurry of movement. I also had milk soaked pants and shoes.
I sat there stunned for a few moments at the mess before I quickly started moving things out of the way of the almond milk waterfall. I was most worried about the phone and keyboard as you can imagine. As I tipped the keyboard upside down a steady stream of milk flowed out of it. Clean up of the area consumed at least a half roll of paper towels, first to absorb the milk, then a second set soaked with water to do a preliminary cleaning, and then a final round, using Windex to make sure the residue was gone.
The keyboard also got blown out with compressed air as further remediation. Surprisingly it still appears to work although the keys definitely have a bit more resistance in their feel than normal. Rest assured I will be much more careful with my milk placement from here on out.
This morning walking up the steps to the back door of the office I had another case of the dropsies. As I was fiddling with the key to the door somehow my lunch box fell out of my left hand and proceeded to roll down 5 stairs, losing it’s lid in the process. Luckily all of the food and almond milk managed to stay sealed and intact. Sure the spoon got ejected into the mulch but I picked it up before 5 seconds expired, meaning it is good to go.
Last night I finally successfully printed a phone case out of flexible filament, something I had been trying to do since very early in my 3D printing hobby. The print turned out well. I need to test fit it on my phone although I don’t plan to use it full time. I paid a lot of money for the Mous case I have on my Iphone 6 and it does a great job. However I still want to verify that what I printed actually works as I hope.
A buddy of mine from high school posted a picture of some farmland with real estate signs lined up in front of it. Evidently the farm has been sold to a developer for houses. When I looked at the picture further it looked very familiar. Then it clicked, this was the farm on Hampshire Road, the road I grew up on.
I immediately felt a sense of remorse and nostalgia sweep over me. This farm was something I rode my bike past countless times as a child during my endless rides to Gouglersville and Colonial Hills bowling alley. It always looked old and somewhat dilapidated but there were always animals in the fenced in field. Seeing that property destined to become another victim of suburban sprawl is sad but not unexpected. The road I grew up on has transformed incredibly over the last four decades but I guess that can be said of just about anywhere. Still, it makes me sad to see this staple of my childhood fade away.
The metal started getting affixed to the roof yesterday. Unlike the rip off which had more than dozen people involved, installing the metal is a much smaller crew of only a handful of guys. They got maybe a third of the roof covered which I documented with a drone flight after work last night. I am hoping to see a lot more covered tonight.
So Friday evening I hung out with Shugs and the dogs at Ali’s place for a few hours. We drank a couple beers, ate pizza, and watched some baseball on the big 73 inch DLP tv that just had a new lamp installed into it by Shugs. It really brightened up the pic on the set. It was nice to just chill and shoot the shit.
Running the next morning was a challenge after drinking a few beers the night before. I wore my new (to me) Forerunner 301 GPS that I bought off Ebay. It has the same bulky form factor as my prior Forerunners but with updated electronics. The GPS seems more accurate and as a result it confirmed I am slower than my old Forerunner said I was. It’s ok.
So Cindy was over on the east coast participating in what was up until this point a secret activity. She was competing in a bikini/fitness competition in Boca Raton. She agreed to do it after encouragement from her friend who had done her first competition in November. She has been working hard for a couple months training, dieting, and doing all of the other unfun stuff required for such an endeavor.
Of course she was apprehensive about getting on a stage to be judged wearing next to nothing but I was confident she would do well as her fitness level is great and her personality shines through. When she sent me a picture after her heavy spray tan was applied and her make up was done it was a pretty shocking transformation, she looked great.
The actual judging occurred Saturday morning but the “show” in front of an audience was not until Saturday night. During the show is when you actually find out how you did. Later in the night I received a text from Cindy with a pic of her holding three trophies. She placed in three different categories which is amazing for a first time participant. I told her I was very proud of her. She couldn’t believe it.
I tried to stay up until she came home. I was up playing WoW until 1:30 AM. She rolled in the door a little after 2 AM. I awoke and gave her sleepy congrats. Of course she was beyond excited, even with being exhausted. It was quite the accomplishment.
Despite going to bed so late my body awoke about 7:15 Sunday morning. I closed the curtains to let Cindy sleep as I went out and tended to the chickens and a few other to do’s. She slept until after nine which is unheard of in Cindy’s world. One of the things I did was undo a smart switch install I did on the pool light. I NEVER use the pool light, I thought if I installed a smart Wemo switch I could put it on a schedule so we get cool pool lighting in the evening for an hour or two.
Well when I wired the switch in I didn’t read the instructions. The old switch had a black wire, a white wire, and a green ground wire. The Wemo had a green, a white and TWO black wires. I made an on the fly decision to simply connect the two black wires to the black house wire and match up the other colors. The switch appeared to have power and I was even able to configure it through the app. I assumed the pool light was working but it was hard to confirm in daylight. After the sun had set I hit the switch and was disappointed to see the pool was dark.
I did some digging and evidently for proper operation the switch needs a second black wire which is how most normal switch circuits are configured. I am not sure why the pool light deviated from this. I read online about people with similar set ups getting around it by wiring the white neutral wire directly to ground which evidently is a big no no. It may get the switch working but it also has ther potential to cause other safety issues elsewhere. So anyway the end result was me putting the old switch back in. Imagine my thrill when I went to test it last night and it still didn’t work…
So for a few weeks I have been gathering intel regarding when Zima was going to be released for another limited production run. They brought back my favorite alcoholic beverage last year over the summer and it sold out very quickly. Evidently I am not alone in my love of this great tasting beverage with a 5% alcohol content, which makes it go down very easily. Anyway, I found out that they were releasing it again this year with an official launch date of today, May 7th.
I am part of Facebook group called Zima Permanent. As the name implies, the desire of the group is to bring back Zima as a full time offering instead of seasonally. I would think the sales would dictate that. On this group I saw that some locations were getting their Zima shipments early. I used a site called brickseek.com to search local Walmarts for Zima. I found ONE location that supposedly had 114 units. It was in Cape Coral, almost an hour drive away but I didn’t care. Cindy was down to take the dogs on a Zima treasure hunting trip.
So after the hour drive I entered the store with a short grocery list in hand that Cindy made which was in addition to Zima. She stayed put with the dogs in the Prius. I grabbed a cart and walked towards the beer and wine aisle with great expectation. As I made my first pass down the refrigerated aisle I saw no Zima. I didn’t panic, it must be on an endcap or perhaps stacked in one of the main aisles. I slowly circled around seeing other alcoholic items on display but no Zima. I went back to the refrigerated aisle, three times, hoping I just didn’t see the distinctive packaging, somehow. Nope, no Zima….
I was dejected as I went around the store and grabbed the handful of other non-Zima items on the list. After doing so I made one more return run towards the beer, but from a different side. I suddenly stopped dead in my tracks. There it was, a full five shelves of Zima 6 packs, in an aisle three our four away from the beer aisle. Why it was there I don’t know but I didn’t care, I had found it.
Now I have seen pictures of people doing ridiculous hoarding of Zima, one guy had 10 CASES in the back of his truck. I was much more conservative, grabbing 12 six packs or three cases. Yes it was a lot, especially when you factor in that each six pack was just under 10 bucks. But again I didn’t care, I found my quest item.
I was a little self conscious as I pushed my shopping cart full of Zima towards check out. The clerk that assisted me in self check out said she used to drink Zima when she lived in New Jersey 20 years ago. She had no idea they brought it back. I told her she better get some while she can.
I returned to the Prius triumphantly. I took up a good portion of normal dog laying real estate in the back as well as putting a couple six packs on the floor. I drove with extra caution on the way home, conscious of the value of the cargo I was carrying. Once we made it home I scattered my Zima around the house making sure I had various sources to pull from. I am hoping three cases is enough to get me through this calendar year as I normally only drink them occasionally. Cindy is a fan as well. I look forward to many good Zima times during the rest of 2018.
On Sunday I had my first ever successful 3D print with TPU which is rubber like, flexible filament. I have tried printing the stuff multiple times on several printers with little to no success. This time I tried on the Ender 2 which has a very short Bowden tube which I thought may work great with TPU. My hunch was right as I printed a flexible cap for the charging port of my EUC. I later printed a flexible Benchy boat which came out very well. I am now thinking about what sort of projects would benefit from being able to print in this new flexible material.
Our roof is supposed to start having the metal installed today which should take a total of no more than three days. Cindy and I are both looking forward to it all being completed. I have one more related task to be contracted out, new gutters all the way around. I hopefully have an estimate for that being done tomorrow.
Last night I shot a video illustrating the EUC stand part that I modeled and created from scratch. It allows you to assemble a stand without using the stainless steel screws and nuts that I normally use. Instead the part I made is a press fit which keeps the sides of the stand in place. It’s easier to demonstrate.
Originally our metal roof was supposed to begin phase two yesterday, where the metal is actually attached to the prepared surface. There was some sort of work they had to complete elsewhere so that start date has been moved to today. Supposedly it will take two to three days to complete. By this time next week Cindy and I should be residing under a durable, hurricane resistant and highly heat reflective roof.
Cindy is over on the east coast tonight and tomorrow for an event she is participating in. We both decided it would logistically make more sense for me to stay home on dog duty. It just so happens that Ali is also out of town this weekend as well. I suggested to Ali’s boyfriend that we hang out a drink a few beers as part of my Sadie pick up trip. I planned to grab Elsa from home first so she isn’t left alone.
It is a bit of an unusual situation where you like your ex-wife’s significant other enough to want to hang out. It should be a different sort of Friday night and just a weird set of circumstances where both females in the picture are out of town at the same time. Cindy has been putting a ton of time, energy and effort into this event. Regardless of the outcome I’m proud of her.
I plan to do my normal thing this weekend, work, play, and whatever else comes to mind.
So my final weekend of my staycation was just like the rest of it, enjoyable. On Friday I got weeding and mowing out of the way, making the weekend as chore free as possible. I had a good time concentrating on doing whatever I felt like working on. Have I mentioned that my staycation made it absolutely clear that I could retire tomorrow and be absolutely content?
Saturday night we finally got to see Infinity Wars, a movie I have been anticipating forever. I was fearful of being let down like the last Star Wars movie where mountains of anticipation is met with a lackluster actual experience. Thankfully, as is most often the case with Marvel movies, they got it right. The movie was epic and exciting with the just the right mix of drama and humor. Until we were ordering our water before the movie, I had no idea that there was a part two to Infinity War. After watching it the reason for a part two was obvious. Despite a MASSIVE cast of heroes, I thought they did an amazing job of making the movie feel balanced where everyone had their moment to shine in different ways. There was only one scene where I thought to myself “This is a really dumb way to accomplish this goal”, otherwise I just held on and enjoyed the ride from start to finish. A+
My last day of staycation on Sunday was just like the rest of it, fun. We went out for an EUC ride, well I rode while Cindy walked with Sadie and Elsa at North Collier Regional park. It was a short but enjoyable time in the beautiful weather.
During the afternoon I spent at least a couple hours digging hardcore into my new 3D printer, something you don’t normally expect to have to do when you buy something. The end result was positive although I went through a lot of negative to get there.
Late in the evening Cindy and I headed out for a quick ride across the street, her on the Segway I2, me on the Msuper. It was cool cruising during a different part of the day. I used to do a lot more late day riding but it has tailed off during the last year.
It was a great week off and I look forward to the time where working becomes an option and not a requirement.
So my second AnyCubic I3 Mega 3D printer arrived yesterday. My first one has become my favorite printer I own and a workhorse, responsible for the majority of my 3D EUC stand production. I figured grabbing a second allows me to double productivity while giving me a back up if one goes down. Since I already had one, setting up the new one took very little time. Within 30 minutes I had it ready to go and it was printing it’s first EUC stand.
