Category Anything and Everything

Yesterday I tried my first multicolor print on the X1C. Things appeared to be going great until the 50% mark where it had to load black filament for the first time. It failed. I tried to just do an unload and reload manually but the color did not load to the hot end. I am not sure if there is a blockage in the hot end or something else but it was too late at night for me to worry about it. I’ll have to dig deeper this weekend.

Speaking of weekend it will likely be a busy one. I have three projects that I need to get done sometime soonish. The oil in the Tacoma needs to be changed, a task I do far less often than I once did. I also bought leaf guards for my gutters that I want to install at strategic locations. Of course before installing those I need to clean out the gutters first. Finally I need to refresh the mulch in the landscaped areas around the house, a laborious but simple process. It would be nice if I get at least one of those tasks done over the weekend.

Yesterday the shocking news, to me at least, that Elon and Trump are now engaged in all out warfare, was all over the internet. Somehow just now Elon found out just how full of shit the new budget bill is and is angry about it. Things quickly escalated to personal attacks on both sides with Elon claiming credit for Trumps victory as well as accusing him as being prominently mentioned in the Epstein files. I believe this morning I heard he also called for Trump’s impeachment. Trump said Elon was just mad about the EV mandate being revoked and made direct threats to various connections/support Elon’s companies receive from the federal government.

Just last week Elon was in the White House getting his ass kissed left and right by Trump, even being given a golden key to the capital. To have things reverse so quickly is pretty crazy even by today’s standards where insanity is the new norm. Both men are certified egomaniacs and I don’t see either choosing to back down. Where this escalation leads nobody knows. The irony of it all…

I have mostly separated myself from the circus which is now the US political system. It’s corrupted to it’s core and I can do nothing to change it. I try to keep things I have no control over from having a significant impact on my day to day happiness and quality of life.

I had a very productive night, not only working on tasks related to getting back from the trip but a number of other things as well. One of those things was getting the X1C set up in the office. To make room I did a printer shuffle which included moving one of my Prusa’s to the guest bedroom. Setting up and calibrating the X1C took some time.

My first test print messed up so I think I have some more tweaking to do yet. I also set up my Prusa Mini for the first time in over a year just to make sure it still works. The printer has been collecting dust on a shelf for quite awhile. My plan is to sell that printer and possibly two more. If I am not using them, why keep them.

I also unboxed a sand art device that arrived while I was gone. I ordered it over a month ago. I have seen these for years and always wanted one. It utilizes a small metal ball with a magnet underneath to draw patterns in fine white sand. When combined with the RGB lighting it sets a very chill vibe. I really like it.

When I was doing the set up of the X1C I was having an issue seeing well because the lighting in the office is less than fantastic. I remembered another box that came while I was gone, a head mounted light device.

This thing is fantastic. Sure you look a little ridiculous but man does it light up whatever you are working on. No more need to try to awkwardly use your phone light as the head mounted option lights up whatever you are looking at. I’m not quite sure how I have managed to go this long with out one.

When I finally retired to bed it was with a feeling of satisfaction for making my Tuesday evening especially productive.

I returned last evening from a long road trip to Texas to attend my niece’s graduation ceremony. It was a very condensed trip over 5 days which included a total of roughly 48 hours of driving, yes 48 hours. I will get into some details about the drive in a bit.

I had not seen my sister or her family in around two years. In that time period the kids, especially Griffin have grown like crazy. I am pretty sure he has sprung up at least 7 or 8 inches since I last saw him.

I got to see their dog and my good buddy Ozzy who of course was beyond excited. Their house was looking great. Damon had completed a number of projects since I last visited. I have always wished I had the same degree of construction expertise as he has. He has the ability to build an entire house himself, if he wanted to.

Emily’s graduation ceremony was very cool, held in a big ballroom. The event included dinner, the ceremony itself, and music/dancing afterward. It was very well done. Afterward we headed back to their house where the kids kicked my ass in some video games, one of their favorite things to do with Uncle Shawn. We also went out for a dinner and a couple big breakfasts while there, the last of which was Sunday morning, the day I pulled out. It was really nice to see everyone and made me wish that 1400 miles was not always between us.

The drive back was just as long of course but thanks to the Tesla full self driving feature it was way less stressful than it could have been. FSD was nothing short of amazing.

If I were to guess the car drove itself for 95% of the trip and it did so pretty flawlessly. This was not a case of just allowing it to take over in wide open highways. I allowed FSD to navigate crazy busy Dallas rush hour traffic and the car did not flinch. It handled people cutting in and out, squeezing over to get to the correct exit and every other scenario you could imagine without issue. It totally changed the stress level of the journey.

Of course I could drive in that traffic but it requires your head being on a swivel as you are limited to your maybe 145 degree field of vision as opposed to seeing 360 degrees in real time as the car does. Being able to just pick a destination and have the car do the heavy lifting is a real game changer when it comes to being able to tolerate long drives such as this. In addition the seats are so comfortable that even with that amount of saddle time my ass or back was never in significant discomfort.

Charging the car was easy as well as it automatically routes you through superchargers as necessary. Most of the charge stops were 15 minutes or less. People view having to charge more often than filling up your car with gas as a huge hassle. It’s not in reality, at least for me. Each driving segment is normally between one and a half and two and half hours in length. After that period of time getting out to stretch my legs, use the bathroom and grab a drink or snack is welcomed, not annoying. To me the Tesla gets an A+ for it’s performance during this trip.

I am tired today as I did not allow myself an additional day off to get things back in order with this trip but I will survive. It was a good experience in every aspect and I’m glad I did it.

Yesterday I was on Facebook marketplace when an interesting listing popped into my face, a used Bambu Lab X1C printer. Until a few months ago this was the top of the line printer that Bambu produced. A lot of them have been for sale because people are wanting to buy the newer and bigger H2D model. I have been looking to snag one of these deals and last night I did.

I told the guy I really needed to do the transaction last night as tonight I will be busy prepping for my road trip. He was very agreeable and said he needed time to clean the printer up for me. He asked if 10PM was ok. I never have done a transaction at 10PM but I said sure, why not.

I pulled up a little early and got a tour of his 3D printing operation. It was a geek heaven with printers in not one but two rooms. He prints and sells some of his stuff on Etsy. It was such a cool set up which gave me immediate envy, and ideas that I could possibly utilize myself. He was very generous with his time and was happy to tell me about various parts of his process. The printer I was buying looks great. He also threw in a bunch of accessories and spare parts in the deal which I appreciated.

The cherry on top came when he opened his garage door after seeing my Tesla, revealing his Cybertruck. As if we didn’t already have enough stuff to geek out about, we then talked Tesla for quite awhile. It was really a cool experience. Unfortunately I will have no time to dig into the printer until I return next week so it will have to just reside on my Workmate table for now. I am going to have to do some significant reorganizing in my office to come up with a workable lay out.

As mentioned tonight I have to prep for my road trip to Texas. I would like to have things all ready to roll as my plan is to depart very early Thursday morning to try to get a jump on some traffic. I have reenabled FSD on my Tesla which will make the many, many miles much easier to deal with. It’s been two years since I have seen my sister and my family so it will be good to see them. It’s going to be a very brief visit but surely packed with all sorts of memories along the way.

Saturday morning I was up with the alarm to load up Elsa to head 175 miles north in my Tesla. The destination was PEV Connection in Clearwater. I was going up there to drop off and pick up a wheel. I have documented here the discomfort I have been having with riding the the F22 due to the steep dihedral angle on it’s pedals. Well I came up with an unconventional solution, get rid of the barely one month old wheel.

I made arrangements to trade my F22 for a Nosfet Aero, a very cool small form factor suspension wheel that recently came out. In terms of dollars the trade was definitely not in my benefit however in my reality it was. The Aero will fit my needs just fine where as the F22 was basically not being ridden because it caused me pain to ride it.

I met Rob who is one of the owners of the store. Despite being in the hobby for roughly nine years I had never been in a brick and mortar PEV store. He seemed like a real good guy and his shop had a little bit of everything. I got a chance to not only ride the Aero I was picking up but also two different Nosfet Apex which I never rode before. I hung at the store for roughly an hour before reversing direction and heading home with my new wheel in hand. I never had a situation where I got rid of a new wheel after roughly a month. Hopefully I never have to do so again.

Saturday afternoon I worked on getting my A1 printer functional once again. I bought a new filament detection sensor to replace the one I damaged trying to clear a jam. The repair/replacement had some tedious aspects to it but I was able to get the printer functioning once again after a few headaches.

Since I did not get to play Saturday morning I decided to head to the pickleball courts Sunday morning to get some games in. I did not get there until after 9:30 so the heat and humidity was already ramping up. I played seven very sweaty games but managed to win all of them. I feel nervous about jinxing myself but I am playing better because my IT band issue has been feeling much better. Hopefully it continues.

After eating lunch I grabbed the painting supplies the HOA president had dropped off for me the previous day. The two large signs at the entrance to our community needed some attention. The grey trim portions of them was badly faded from the sun. Instead of paying someone to do the work I volunteered to do it to save the HOA a few bucks. The work was hot and sweaty but not awful. I got the first coat on in about 90 minutes. I did the second coat the following day.

Sunday night I did a short live stream where I talked about my F22 for Aero transaction. I then headed for a late night showing of the last Mission Impossible movie at 10PM. As always the movie had tons of action but overall I thought it was sort of dumb and silly. The villain was laughable as his lines and actions were just incredibly corny. The depiction of the Entity was dumb as well. You would think Tom Cruise could kick Superman’s ass by the end of it. I’d give it a B. However the movie itself was almost secondary to the sideshow that was sitting next to me.

In that seat was an old man, an old man that apparently never ever breathes through his nose. He was a mouth breather and a very loud and annoying one at that. Whenever the sound from the movie died down you heard this guy breathing, that is unless he was eating food or sucking on one of the several lollipops he brought. It was unbelievable either the lack of self awareness this man had or the deficit of fcks he had if he annoyed everyone sitting around him.

If all of this wasn’t bad enough he had one more annoying habit. He was one of those people that isn’t able to keep his thoughts in his mind. Instead he was speaking his thoughts as the movie went along, it was just nuts. I should have moved but the theater was rather full, in retrospect I still should have relocated. The movie was long, almost 3 freaking hours so I did not get to bed until the wee hours of the morning.

My Memorial Day was good. I got a bunch of small tasks done around the house. Later in the day I got out for my first substantial ride on the Aero. The 10 miles went by quickly and I enjoyed not being in pain while riding it. I’m happy with my trade.

I have a short week ahead of me as I leave Thursday for a long road trip to Texas for my niece’s high school graduation. I’m sure it will be quite the adventure.

For awhile there has been a need to paint the two signs that are at the entrance of our development. The harsh Florida sun has faded the trim portion pretty badly. It’s one of those things that isn’t hard to do but just doesn’t get done for no particular reason. The HOA president’s wife was going to look into having the guy that does a lot of lawns for us do it. I told her that if I am given the paint I will just do it. I can’t imagine it taking much more than an hour to complete so it’s not a big deal. I am sure I should be able to get it done sometime during this three day weekend.

Tomorrow I am planning a rather lengthy up and back road trip to the Clearwater area to both drop off and pick up something. It’s likely going to be a total of 4-5 hours of driving. I will probably take the Tesla even though it’s also going to be utilized for the long drive to Texas next weekend. The transaction this weekend will not make sense to some people and perfect sense to others.

I messed up my beloved A1 printer last night while trying to clear the first significant filament jam I have ever had in it. While I had it apart I wanted to raise the print head to make it easier to work on. I already had the filament manifold removed and sitting on top of the print head. The printer would not allow me to raise the print head until a “home” function was performed so I brainlessly pushed the YES button to initiate it. As the process started it moved the print head all the way to the left, snagging the filament manifold I had balanced on top of it and in the process pulling out the filament sensor ribbon cable.

I cleared the jam and thought I got the cable back in correctly but the printer now throws an error if it tries to initialize. I think either the cable got disconnected on the system board side or is damaged from the force that was applied to it. Luckily replacement parts are easily available on Amazon. For less than $10 I have a new sensor and cable on the way to be delivered today. To install it will require me to do some more involved disassembly but I guess it’s a good learning experience.

Last night after work I installed a Ring camera on my north property line between my house and the neighbors. I have every other side of the property monitored. Recent history has made this hole in my coverage more apparent so it was good to get that addressed. Installation took all of five minutes. I have installed so many Ring cameras in my lifetime I can practically do them in my sleep.

Despite technically being limited in what I am supposed to be doing activity-wise since I had the procedure last week I have started doing more regular things. At the gym yesterday I did my full stretching/bodyweight routine as well as lifting some light weights. My body at this point is feeling pretty normal which I am happy about. I felt good enough to get a 100 pound plus wheel back into it’s shipping box last night but that is part of a story for another day.

Yesterday FB showed me a “memory” of a picture of the last TV I bought for the old house, a monster 70 inch LG that was in the living room. Having a huge TV was always important to me as I used to watch a lot of it. However since I have moved things have changed. The TV I have in the main living space of my place is only 50 inches and is not viewed often. Nowadays if I am watching anything at length it almost exclusively happens in my bedroom where I actually have a slightly larger 55 inch unit.

I used to DVR all sorts of programming and I felt obligated to make sure I consumed it all. With modern day streaming I can pull whatever shows I want whenever I want so it the urgency to watch shows has faded away. I watch next to no conventional network programming at this point outside of sports. My life has been just fine without it.

It’s one of many changes in behavior, habits, and thinking that have transpired in the last couple years…

Saturday morning I made a very long drive out to the Immokalee gun range. I was going to finally get the opportunity to shoot the two guns I have owned for quite awhile now, the 1911 A-1 and an AR Pistol. I was meeting a friend of mine from the gym that was a sniper in the military. Obviously he has a tremendous amount of gun knowledge so I thought it would be great for him to show me the ropes of shooting.

This was an outdoor range with 11 or 12 “bays”. They are long areas that are enclosed on three sides by huge berms that looked to be 15-20 feet high. They have longer bays used for rifles and shorter ones for hand guns. We were in a rifle bay which is approximately 100 yards in length.

My inexperience with guns was immediately evident when I started trying to load rounds into the magazine for my 1911. It holds 7 or 8 bullets but after putting four in I could not load any more. I asked my buddy what I was doing wrong. He laughed and said I had the bullets facing the wrong direction, duh.

It was a very warm and humid day but my friend wanted me to get a more realistic experience. He asked me if I wanted to put on his tactical/bullet proof vest. I said sure, why not. This thing is heavy, weighing between 40 and 50 lbs. I told him I can’t imagine walking around all day in the vest and all of the other gear in the military. It gave me a greater appreciation of the reality of military action.

I got some very important safety rules that need to be burned into your brain as well as basic operation of the guns. I luckily had decent ear protection along. The first time I fired the gun the level of sound was unexpected as was the force of the kick back. I was not very good with the accuracy with the 1911. I hit the metal target a few times but missed a lot more. Then it was time to try out the AR pistol.

Even though it’s called a pistol it really is a short barrel rifle. My buddy recommended a red dot sight for it which he installed for me when I got there. It did not take long for me to realize I enjoyed shooting the AR more.

The shooting position lends itself to more accuracy, at least for me. It also has a much bigger 30 round magazine which means more shooting before reloading. The red dot sight also made it easier for me to hit the target which resulted in more accuracy.

In addition to my guns I got to shoot a number of my friends guns, he has a huge collection. His equipment was top notch. With his one rifle I hit a target 100 yards away 6 times in a row while seated. Overall my buddy said I did really well for the first time ever shooting a gun. Between the heat and the tactical vest my shirt was drenched with sweat by the end of the roughly two hour session. It was a fun time and I definitely will be doing it more in the future. The only downside is it makes me wish I chose a different handgun than the 1911.

I got out on Saturday night to see The Accountant Two. As homework I watched the original Accountant which came out in 2016. I don’t recall even hearing about the original when it came out with Ben Affleck playing an interesting role as an autistic accountant that just happens to also have incredible combat experience. I liked the original and I liked the sequel as much if not more. I’d give it a solid A- if you like action/revenge movies.

Over the weekend more developments occurred in my local conflict that involves me, the HOA and other individuals. For some reason unknown to me a scorched earth stance seems to now have been established which absolutely will not get this other party the end result they are looking for. This approach makes no sense to me but it is what it is. Everyone has to deal with the consequences of their words and actions in the end.

I took off Wednesday and Thursday to have a procedure done that need not be documented here. It went well and I am feeling pretty normal although I do need to limit what I do for a period of time. It’s good to be on the other side of it as anything medical is never welcomed by me.

I have not ridden my Kingsong F22 Pro much at all in the three+ weeks I have had it. Time limitations have been one thing but desire has been another. The wheel is downright uncomfortable for me to ride because of the steep dihedral angle which puts pressure on my feet and ankles in a bad way. I needed to find a way to fix this issue. I believe I have come up with a way to do so which is unconventional but should be effective none the less. Hopefully by this time next week I will have the issue resolved.

I remember when Alison and I built our house in the estates as opposed to building or buying a place in a community that one of the big advantages in our mind was not having to deal with an HOA. Not only can HOA fees be very expensive, communities that use them can be full of “condo cops” that seemingly exist to ensure every HOA rule is followed to the letter. That was something that was a big negative in my mind.

Fast forward 25 years and here I am living in a HOA governed community. Not only am I living in one, I am on the board of directors for it. Our HOA is very small and very cheap with dues that cost only a few hundred dollars per year. There are only roughly 30 homes in the community. In general the HOA is pretty low key and does not look to be an annoyance in people’s lives although there are established by laws which are supposed to be followed.

Well within the last couple days a dispute has been dropped on my doorstep which took me by surprise. Again, I won’t go into details here but the irony is the HOA is likely going to be the arbiter of this conflict. My knowledge of how things need to go thanks to my membership on the board actually serves me well in this position. The conflict is unfortunate but the way the other party has reacted to it does nothing to make me want to want to reach a constructive solution. Insults never get you far in my world.

This weekend I am finally going to get out to an outdoor gun range with one of my friends from the gym. He is an ex-military sniper with extensive gun knowledge so it will be good to learn the basics from him. I have owned my two guns for months and not fired a single bullet yet. I am curious how/if I will enjoy the experience.

So last week I pushed my body that has been trying to recover from what appears to be chronic IT band pain. I played pickleball, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday with a session of sand volleyball thrown in Thursday evening. This was more or less the athletic schedule I was maintaining before I got hurt.

I got through the four days with out limping afterward but I could tell I was pushing it. I felt some dull pain in the hip that seemed to fade away pretty quickly. I know my body is going to have to go through some discomfort to become acclimated to my asking it to do this once again. I can deal with discomfort, I just need to avoid injury. It’s a thin line to travel at this age.

I have ridden my brand new Kingsong F22 Pro surprisingly little since receiving it a few weeks ago. Yes I have been busy with other things but one of the big reasons behind it is the wheel is painful for me to ride because of the dihedral angle of the pedals. In the picture you can see just how steep that angle is. With the way my body geometry is, having my feet at that angle gets very uncomfortable, very quickly. I’m not sure what my long term resolution is going to be to this issue.

I keep finding myself looking at Silverado EV content. On the FB group dedicated to owners of the truck I keep reading positive feedback that keeps feeding that itch to swap out my current vehicle tandem for one of these long range electric trucks.

One of the cool features that the truck offers is a pass through from the bed to the passenger compartment. In the picture shown there are full 8 foot long pieces of plywood in there. They can fit without the bed cover or tailgate being opened. Of course this cool feature is only available on the higher end versions of the truck. I know the sensible thing for me to do is just stand pat and be content with the vehicle arrangement I currently have. I will do my best to remain sensible.