[Toshi]

Is the plan for this sort of spa to only be hot tub temp in the winter then cool it down for the summer for swimming? Or, are you gonna be doing heated swim workouts ala hot yoga..? Because that sounds awful

That is a fair point and a reason why two compartment monstrosities even bigger yet exist, for two temps.

But it’ll have a cloud control app for Wi-Fi control of the heater (also important so that it sticks to 7 cent/kWh off peak rather than 22 cent/kWh peak rate electricity as much as possible). Per the manual it’ll take 6-12 hours to raise the water temp from the minimum 80F to more normal hot tub temps. I can set it to only heat above 80 on the weekends and perhaps some intermediate 90s temp is tolerable for all activities?

It requires a 240V 50A circuit so the heater is probably a 6 kW unit or so to allow for some power for the pumps and (negligible for the) controls.

edit: from perusing replacement part listings looks like they use 5.5 and 4.0 kW heaters variously. So I was about right.

 

[Toshi]

highly relevant to my current interests: Bullfrog is having a series of events at Costco! Not sure what discounts shall apply via this but I will 100% be there in Littleton. How we ended up in the "San Diego Region" is beyond me but there ya go.

 

[Toshi]

I haven't done Amazon order history reports in two years. Time to fix that:

2022:

1068 item-lines on the orders spreadsheet generated (some may have had more than 1 item apparently? but maybe those only gift cards). $29,018.08 total.

107 item-lines on the refunds spreadsheet generated, $7,201.14. That's 24.8% returned by dollar amount.

To be fair, a bit chunk of the dollar amount for the returns was a treadmill (burning smell, faulty speaker), a snowblower (DOA), and an auto-canceled order when their logistics company apparently ate the box for a level 2 EVSE. Those returns alone were $3,608.35!

So my true figure for the year was a 12.4% return rate by dollar amount. Make Bezos poor I will

 

[6thElement]

Haven't ordered from them since ~2019 iirc.

 

[Toshi]

Somehow got the housing for the rear derailleur wrapped 360 degrees around the chainstay in reassembling everything after the whole flat/Mr. Tuffy saga. Not sure how that's topologically possible, honestly. At some point I probably should just cut off the ferrule (after finding where I've hidden my stash), slide the cable out, and untwist it all.

 

[Toshi]

Lift lines like today’s are yet another reason to get at least a hot tub if not the swim spa monstrosity: would have been a better use of our time to drop off the kids, chill in the hot tub, grab lunch in town, pick them up in street clothes.

 

[Toshi]

non-glamorous mountain house content: shoveling the deck and hacking away at ice is srs bzness. Got half of it done.

Also caved in and bought the proper covers from RST for the Portofino brand patio furniture because ain't nobody sitting on them in the ice and snow. The fabric is holding up well thus far even with the weather abuse.

Still quite a few loose Trex boards. The contractor that took so long to rebuild the deck clearly didn't have his crew swing by and fix 'em as promised. Shall hound him again post snow season.

https://twitter.com/maximumcharacte/status/1622288945957728257

All of them but those by the sliding door have fasteners underneath the deck. Flashing by the door forced the contractor's hand for the board right by the door but that screw clearly didn't hold. I can fix that, but don't know heads from tails with the underside connectors. I probably could figure it out but would like to not be clambering around underneath there on a ladder. Then again, given how long the contractor took to build the thing and get rid of the dumpster I probably should just cave and fix it all myself.

:derp:

 

[Toshi]

One thing I've been forgetting to do is to figure out what size TV I should put at the foot of the bed in the master bedroom at the mountain place for viewing angle parity with my setup downstairs in Denver.

I estimate the viewing distance in Denver is 11' from couch to TV. Going to put an 83" LG C2 down there when I reshuffle everything (old-ass 4K but pre-HDR Vizio 80" there now--to the mountain basement that shall go).

83" diagonal at 16:9, 11' == 30.6 viewing angle. (For THX recommended viewing angle that'd require a 98" screen!)

A regular King sized bed is 84" long iirc. Let's assume heads spaced 6" from the headboard on a pillow, and a TV 2' from the foot for some degree of safety/not knocking it over. That's an 8.5' viewing distance. A 65" diagonal 16:9 TV would yield a 31 degree viewing angle for excellent parity.

:notbadobama:

No non-hideous and non-super expensive TV lift cabinets for 65" TVs appear to exist, but I could certainly bolt a 1000 mm stroke (as she said) $200 lift onto a sturdy, low cabinet base at the foot of the bed to get it to a reasonable neck-craning height while not always being there, I suppose:

https://smile.amazon.com/VEVOR-Motorized-Adjustable-28-74-68-11-Capacity/dp/B08B1MS9SP/ref=sr_1_15?keywords=tv%2Blift%2Bcabinets%2Bfor%2Bflat%2Bscreens&qid=1675742914&sa-no-redirect=1&sr=8-15&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.ac2169a1-b668-44b9-8bd0-5ec63b24bcb5&th=1

Edit: Went and measured it and it's an even 10' from screen to head distance on the couch, not 11' as I'd eyeballed it. So at 83" 16:9 that'd be a 33.5 degree viewing angle. Would need a hypothetical 70" at the foot of a bed for the same angle. 65" will be just fine. Maybe even 55" for being less visually imposing.

 

[Toshi]

 

[Toshi]

looking spicy! was a bit icy this morning but clean and dry by the return trip this afternoon. now this.

shall monitor conditions on Friday to see which vehicle to take.

 

[Toshi]

Invested $1,008 in Class B stock of Aptera. because I am forever an optimist.

(invest $10k and you get a 5% discount--should they ever ship--and one of the first 2,000 made, assuming you're one of the top 2,000 investors. but nah. $1k is enough to throw at it. couldn't invest less than $1k and this was the smallest share-divisible amount.)

 

[Toshi]

I did walk out of there with new poles for my almost normal human sized eldest kid (who likes blue) and new Intuition liners for my existing alpine boots, as its current liners are very packed out by this point. Right now they're too tight but I'll ski a day with them and come back and meet Matt and get these molded some other day.

Not really happy with my Bentgate experience thus far. On my AT attempted bootfitting day with Alex he was stretched too thin, with 3.5 people to take care of simultaneously (the 0.5 being a guy picking up his boots, still not happy with the fit at that point). As per my quote above, at the end of it he did sell me nominal size 26 Intuition Power Wrap liners for my existing alpine boots, 26.5 Tecnica Ten.2 120 HVL to jog the memory.

They weren't molded at that time since I'd already been there a long time unsuccessfully trying on AT boots, he was again busy, and I had to get home to start a work shift. But we discussed this, and he mentioned that heat molding just does what wearing them would do, only quicker. I took this to mean "wear them for a few days and then come back for a mold if necessary".

Well, they were absolutely awful unmolded. You know that pinched feeling when you get a liner molded where they put the extra toe cap in and then stuff you in the shell for 10 minutes, standing on the dowel to get the toes up? Well it felt like that. But all over my foot. All day. Very, very painful, and even got numbness from the pressure alone when riding up Eagle Wind (with 3 delays on the way up as the lift was malfunctioning?).

Anyway, I brought them back to Bentgate this morning to see if I could just return them, but per their store policy since I'd worn them for a day I cannot. And Alex now said he'd never recommend wearing unmolded Intuition liners. Well then why the fuck did he sell unmolded liners to me? Did he think I'd just leave them hanging out in the living room for a few weeks?

He offered a free molding session and said they'd be good after that. I'm dubious, and a bit soured on this whole experience frankly. I think I'll give molding them myself a try at home (in oven + wearing ski socks + a few other layers of socks on top to bulk up my foot a la spacers) since they're now firmly owned by me and are just unusable as it is. Don't feel like devoting 2 hours of another day to drive out there, deal with getting them molded, drive back.

 

[SkaredShtles]

Not really happy with my Bentgate experience thus far. On my AT attempted bootfitting day with Alex he was stretched too thin, with 3.5 people to take care of simultaneously (the 0.5 being a guy picking up his boots, still not happy with the fit at that point). As per my quote above, at the end of it he did sell me nominal size 26 Intuition Power Wrap liners for my existing alpine boots, 26.5 Tecnica Ten.2 120 HVL to jog the memory.

They weren't molded at that time since I'd already been there a long time unsuccessfully trying on AT boots, he was again busy, and I had to get home to start a work shift. But we discussed this, and he mentioned that heat molding just does what wearing them would do, only quicker. I took this to mean "wear them for a few days and then come back for a mold if necessary".

Well, they were absolutely awful unmolded. You know that pinched feeling when you get a liner molded where they put the extra toe cap in and then stuff you in the shell for 10 minutes, standing on the dowel to get the toes up? Well it felt like that. But all over my foot. All day. Very, very painful, and even got numbness from the pressure alone when riding up Eagle Wind (with 3 delays on the way up as the lift was malfunctioning?).

Anyway, I brought them back to Bentgate this morning to see if I could just return them, but per their store policy since I'd worn them for a day I cannot. And Alex now said he'd never recommend wearing unmolded Intuition liners. Well then why the fuck did he sell unmolded liners to me? Did he think I'd just leave them hanging out in the living room for a few weeks?

He offered a free molding session and said they'd be good after that. I'm dubious, and a bit soured on this whole experience frankly. I think I'll give molding them myself a try at home (in oven + wearing ski socks + a few other layers of socks on top to bulk up my foot a la spacers) since they're now firmly owned by me and are just unusable as it is. Don't feel like devoting 2 hours of another day to drive out there, deal with getting them molded, drive back.

Do yourself a favor and mold them via the rice-sock method. Cooking them in the oven *can* work, but getting hot, floppy foam into shells can result in an even worse scenario than you have now, especially since those are wrap liners.

 

[Toshi]

Do yourself a favor and mold them via the rice-sock method. Cooking them in the oven *can* work, but getting hot, floppy foam into shells can result in an even worse scenario than you have now, especially since those are wrap liners.

too late

No folds or floppiness after 15 min at 200F in a convection oven. Now strapped super tightly onto my feet-maws with me wearing normal hiking socks + two layers of ski socks on top of that yet.

 

[Toshi]

Two rounds in. Did the second round at ~25 min at 200F (30 min but with it getting to temp). Heel wanted to fold in a bit at that floppiness but got that fixed and then cranked those buckles as far as physically possible and stood and walked around for 10 min or so until I couldn't tolerate it any more and most of the heat had dissipated.

 

[Toshi]

After this second round and letting them cool down I tried them on with only one pair of ski socks on, like normal. And they're much roomier now. I think I'll actually ski with them on Thursday... but will bring my old, packed out liners to leave in the car in case they hurt.

 

[Nick]

Now strapped super tightly onto my feet-maws with me wearing normal hiking socks + two layers of ski socks on top of that yet

That's kind of the opposite of what you want to do.

 

[Toshi]

That's kind of the opposite of what you want to do.

How so? I needed much more volume. Per Intuition’s “use rice bag” instructions:

If liners felt tight when you first tried them on, buckle extra tight when molding to compress foam and thin it out.

Note bas relief from the molding from the inside profile of the shell.

Now I’ve modded them further by axing the black neoprene down by the heel—need more width. Also put in my heated insole and tunneled the top of that under the black neoprene at top, too.

 

[Toshi]

someone had a bad day on the road

 

[Nick]

How do? I needed much more volume. Per Intuition’s “use rice bag” instructions:

You want to heat-mold them to your feet/ankle/heel not to your feet under 3 squishy layers. If you want more room around your toes pad your toes, need more room on your instep?, pad the instep. Seems like you'll be over tightening the boot to compensate on day one.
I know you have large, funky feet that are difficult to fit, but this sounds likes just accelerating the packing out of a liner.

 

[Toshi]

You want to heat-mold them to your feet/ankle/heel not to your feet under 3 squishy layers. If you want more room around your toes pad your toes, need more room on your instep?, pad the instep. Seems like you'll be over tightening the boot to compensate on day one.
I know you have large, funky feet that are difficult to fit, but this sounds likes just accelerating the packing out of a liner.

I went for this approach because the liner was tight everywhere when unmolded, not just focally in one place or another. Forefoot and heel were especially agonizing. And the instep a bit.

 

[SkaredShtles]

I went for this approach because the liner was tight everywhere when unmolded, not just focally in one place or another. Forefoot and heel were especially agonizing. And the instep a bit.

Maybe the liner was too thick? They make low, medium, and high volume liners in most models...

 

[Toshi]

Maybe the liner was too thick? They make low, medium, and high volume liners in most models...

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I was sold an inappropriate liner from how the initial "fit" was. Alex said "as long as you can get the buckles closed I can make it work", but I could just barely get the buckles to their first notch.

I did fill out Intuition's liner quiz online and we'll see what they say I should have been put in in an ideal world, but I think Bentgate just stocks the standard thickness Power Wrap.

 

[SkaredShtles]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I was sold an inappropriate liner from how the initial "fit" was. Alex said "as long as you can get the buckles closed I can make it work", but I could just barely get the buckles to their first notch.

I did fill out Intuition's liner quiz online and we'll see what they say I should have been put in in an ideal world, but I think Bentgate just stocks the standard thickness Power Wrap.

Man... that sure sounds like the liner was too thick to start.

 

[6thElement]

Try it now.

 

[Toshi]

Good product support from Yakima:

I bought a Yakima FatCat 6 from REI in 2016. One of the two latching mechanisms sometimes likes to slip in the middle position, like the one where you'd latch it when normal thickness skis are in it. It works but you just have to be extra careful with it.

I took a video of it showing provoking it to slip as compared to the other side and emailed Yakima support. They took a few days to respond, but once they did they immediately agreed it looked like a warranteeable issue... and today, 10 days later, a brand spanking new replacement FatCat 6 Evo arrived here.

 

[Toshi]

I could certainly bolt a 1000 mm stroke (as she said) $200 lift onto a sturdy, low cabinet base at the foot of the bed to get it to a reasonable neck-craning height while not always being there, I suppose:

https://smile.amazon.com/VEVOR-Motorized-Adjustable-28-74-68-11-Capacity/dp/B08B1MS9SP/ref=sr_1_15?keywords=tv+lift+cabinets+for+flat+screens&qid=1675742914&sa-no-redirect=1&sr=8-15&ufe=app_do:amzn1.fos.ac2169a1-b668-44b9-8bd0-5ec63b24bcb5&th=1

Edit: Went and measured it and it's an even 10' from screen to head distance on the couch, not 11' as I'd eyeballed it. So at 83" 16:9 that'd be a 33.5 degree viewing angle. Would need a hypothetical 70" at the foot of a bed for the same angle. 65" will be just fine. Maybe even 55" for being less visually imposing.

I'm thinking the 55" option hidden completely in a cabinet would be the classiest option at the expense of a few degrees of viewing angle.

Like this cabinet, the
IVARCabinet with doors, gray-green mesh, 63x11 3/4x32 5/8 "

$260.00

Products

Browse our full range of products from dressing tables to complete modern kitchens. Click here to find the right IKEA product for you. Browse online and in-store today!

www.ikea.com

63" W, 11.75" D, 32.675" H. That should swallow a 55" C2 fine: 48.1" W x 1.8" depth x 27.7" H. Would need this mount for VESA compatibility, too.

The mount itself that I linked above looks to be maybe 4" in depth:

Minimum retracted height is 28.74" and with where the mount is the top of the TV might stick out a small bit from the removed top of the Ikea cabinet. But it'd be mostly out of the way, and at max height just shy of 40" stroke distance further up then the TV's bottom would be about a foot above the bottom of the cabinet by my math.

I think that'd work.

 

[Nick]

I went for this approach because the liner was tight everywhere when unmolded, not just focally in one place or another. Forefoot and heel were especially agonizing. And the instep a bit.

think about it this way... you now insert your foot in a normal ski sock and buckle your boot the same as you did when you molded. you have a ton of slop in the liner because you have 2 layers less. And, after you take up all of that volume by cranking the buckles down even more, the liner STILL isn't molded to your foot it's molded to the layers of socks you were wearing.

 

[SkaredShtles]

think about it this way... you now insert your foot in a normal ski sock and buckle your boot the same as you did when you molded. you have a ton of slop in the liner because you have 2 layers less. And, after you take up all of that volume by cranking the buckles down even more, the liner STILL isn't molded to your foot it's molded to the layers of socks you were wearing.

 

[Toshi]

think about it this way... you now insert your foot in a normal ski sock and buckle your boot the same as you did when you molded. you have a ton of slop in the liner because you have 2 layers less. And, after you take up all of that volume by cranking the buckles down even more, the liner STILL isn't molded to your foot it's molded to the layers of socks you were wearing.

But this is the same reason why we put on the toe caps when molding, right? There's some rebound to the molded liner back to its initial state. Have to go a touch farther and let it rebound back to the goldilocks spot.

 

[Nick]

There's some rebound to the molded liner back to its initial state. Have to go a touch farther and let it rebound back to the goldilocks spot.

I don't agree. but let me know how it worked.

 

[Toshi]

In case anyone is keeping track, I think I’ll keep my front and rear speakers as they are in the Denver setup and instead add actually elevated height channel speakers. Thinking SVS Prime Elevation for this.

View attachment 168991
View attachment 168992

This would be cheaper than the alternative of new fronts and rears with built in up firing Atmos elevation speakers (and the matching center). Still will require an Atmos capable 9.2 receiver for this 5.1.4 setup.

Then at the mountain place, now that I won’t have a whole extra 5.1 setup to repurpose, maybe just an Atmos sound bar for ease of installation and setup.

Pulled the trigger on this same basic plan as above today since some things were on sale:

- two sets of Klipsch bookshelf speakers to use as elevation channels here in Denver
- cheap wall mount brackets for them, as they should be 8’ up or so and angled down towards the couch from the four corners of the virtual soundstage
- Denon 4700 9.2 receiver to have enough channels to drive this resulting 5.1.4 Atmos setup
- two LG S90QY 5.1.3 Atmos soundbars that’ll ultimately go with TVs in the mountain house main floor and master bedroom

To be purchased later (Black Friday? don’t need until renovations done and I don’t even have the final plans for them):

- hack up a hide-away-TV-in-cabinet setup
- LG C2s variously: 83” for Denver, 77” for mountain house main floor, 55” to hide in the cabinet in mountain house at foot of bed in master suite
- IKEA basic media console furniture: wide, low cabinet and use the feet on the TV. Ain’t nobody got time for wall mounting nonsense. Well except for the hideaway setup. I’ll make time for that goofy idea.

The current non-HDR 80” Vizio in our basement will go to the mountain house basement. As we won’t ever use it instead of the main floor setup my wife thinks we should just leave it naked and force people to use only its built in speakers. She’s probably right.

 

[Toshi]

why has K2 made my favorite Mindbender 108 Ti uglier each year?

mine:

current year:

upcoming year:

and my year aren’t anywhere as NOS, of course. hmph

 

[Toshi]

finally got design review committee approval for the deck and railings

which went in last spring/early summer

:lol:

Congratulations! The Pole Creek Valley Owners Association Design Review Committee has approved the submitted plans for the deck and rail project for Lot 30.

If necessary, this letter will serve as notice to the Grand County Planning Department – please provide them with a copy.

and they want approval for the hot tub, hmph:

Since it’s a change to the exterior of the house, the DRC would want to review and provide approval for the project. This should be a simple request. If you could send over a photo and add where it will be, include any dimensions and location on deck.

 

[6thElement]

So you've got to send them deck photos to get their approval?

@rideit's wife might have spares if the cold has you at a disadvantage taking them outside this time of year.

 

[Toshi]

So you've got to send them deck photos to get their approval?

@rideit's wife might have spares if the cold has you at a disadvantage taking them outside this time of year.

"look at mah big near-black deck's girth"

 

[rideit]

Or more like “Sexting While Asian”…

 

[SkaredShtles]

I WAS I THE POOL!!

 

[Toshi]

and they want approval for the hot tub, hmph:

I drew the design review committee an arts

Corner in question, pre collapse

 

[Toshi]

Good product support from Yakima:

I bought a Yakima FatCat 6 from REI in 2016. One of the two latching mechanisms sometimes likes to slip in the middle position, like the one where you'd latch it when normal thickness skis are in it. It works but you just have to be extra careful with it.

I took a video of it showing provoking it to slip as compared to the other side and emailed Yakima support. They took a few days to respond, but once they did they immediately agreed it looked like a warranteeable issue... and today, 10 days later, a brand spanking new replacement FatCat 6 Evo arrived here.

I haz one rack per car now