[Toshi]

post-replacement windshield has a (thankfully non-harmonic/diffuse frequency range) whistling noise up top, no doubt due to this gap

View attachment 199787

so I got some of this stuff. very plastic in the sense it's infinitely malleable apparently
View attachment 199788

View attachment 199789

View attachment 199790View attachment 199791View attachment 199792

a little lumpy even with pushing it about for 20 minutes. but hopefully it shall do the trick.

so filling that gap atop the windshield did not do the trick. Lots of wind noise from the top of the windshield area from 35 mph on up, particularly noticeable on our drive to the mountains.

(I’d complained here that the Land Cruiser has a fair bit of wind noise from 65 mph on up before, but my wife and kids agree that this is something different)

I thus contacted the original windshield replacement outfit, Van Go Auto Glass, and they’re sending a mobile tech out next week to look into this. Maybe the installation was bad or some sealing layer wasn’t used? They say their windshield should be of equal thickness to OEM so it’s not some acoustic vs normal glass deal.

 

[Toshi]

no flies in the ointment. it's happening. (this is for PV at the mountain house.)

 

[Toshi]

Popped a 54t chainring on instead of the stock 46t on the RadWagon. It makes assist levels 4 and 5 much more useful: with the 46t I'd cruise at 19-20 mph in assist level 3, and this is more like 23-24 mph at assist level 4. Probably should have opted for the 52t given the assist speed limit can't be raised to more than 40 kph/24.9 mph. Oh well. I shall live with it for at least a bit.

Full load of excess recycling to drop off on Friday when out and about for riding.

Shuttled younger two kids to their gymnastics at the Stanley Market. Got to start bringing my clear sunglasses for the ride home at 7:30. 'tis the season for darkness.




edit: returning the 54t and popping a 50t on instead. if I had no assist speed limit 54t + full 750W would be good. but as it is it's a bit too slow of a cadence for 23-24 mph and 350/500W assistance as I'd prefer at that speed.

 

[Toshi]

I do not have a bench, stand/power rack/cage, or plates, though. with good timing, Roller Auctions has picked up a sale from a fitness place up in Fort Lupton:

Colorado Cardio Overstock Equipment Sale

Since 2003 Colorado Cardio has been a leader in Gym Equipment Outlet Online Retailers. They are bursting at the seams with quality refurbished gym equipment and are liquidating excess assets at public online auction.

www.rollerauction.com

pick up Oct 5 or 6, in Fort Lupton. I'd need to rent a box truck with a liftgate for some of this stuff... but it seems a way to potentially get some cheap, quality gear that I'm in the market for. and some that I might bid on on a lark if I'm renting the truck anyway.

(Oct 6 works for my schedule... might move the planned water softener installation date from then for less time pressure, but that's not a big deal.)

as an update, these things all went for much higher than my max bids. so no box truck rental, no driving up to Fort Lupton, and no money spent on this stuff yet (so still no use for my barbells and the like).

 

[Toshi]

We should start taking bets on how many years it takes to finish this remodel.

does it count as finished yet

?

 

[SkaredShtles]

does it count as finished yet

?

Only you can answer that...

 

[Toshi]

in other news/as implied by me quoting Watz's post from May, I skimmed the thread back to that point. I've had quite the hypomanic half year eh

lots earned, lots spent (mostly on productive-towards-house-goals things but for the EQB mishap), lots of things checked off of lists, lots of projects up in the air simultaneously.

many of these projects were researched and then proved to be stillborne (Powerwalls, heat pump water heater, air source heat pump for Denver). but those that have gone through seem to be going ok:

- various bike upgrades: all in good states now. good enough brakes on cargo bike. great XTs on the commuter. cockpits sorted out on all of them. gearing good enough. just racking up the miles on them without outstanding issues to deal with.

- mountain house renovation: over the hoped-for budget (as anticipated and loosely budgeted for) but occurred, looks good, and more or less to original plan. and I'm not going to run out of money outright, I think. which is also good.

- mountain house PV + heat pump upgrades: happening. no flies in ointment, nice low rate 10 year financing through mountain electrical utility lined up.

- Denver lawn revival: coming along nicely after a slow ramp-up. grass much healthier than it was to start the summer, let alone after the Rachio totally killed it off by skipping watering it for two months running.

- Denver hot tub: done and dusted. working just fine, sealed concrete on the walkways and the pad I had built holding up fine, got my $500 credit for the hot tub blemish that I honestly don't even know where it is post-repair lined up for future supplies or a mountain hot tub should that ever come to pass.

- Denver water treatment: have the hot/cold reverse osmosis system. just need to set aside an hour to install it myself. no granite drilling required as it's replacing the existing instant hot. Rheem softener getting professionally installed next week. edit: just ordered a DIY group of PEX tubing/tools/fittings and a catalytic carbon water filter to put in myself upstream of the softener to complete the system

The one potential project still in limbo would be the mountain house deck reinforcement project. Ditched Bryce/engineer 1 after he couldn't produce. Second firm still is to create a formal architectural drawing of the whole thing that I'd need for a permit should it come to that. I've been invoiced for and paid for their initial evaluation including the recommendation of what needs to be done (with the ledger board and 12->16" concrete pilings for the last two posts).

Got at least one and potentially a few other contractor types still to come out to scope out the site and give me an estimate (with my one estimate in hand the outlandish $34k "I don't want this job" one). I thus give the deck + hot tub project a 20% likelihood of happening by next ski season.

But everything else seems to be tucked away and progressing nicely, with my only job to continue working, nursing that sad high-credit-utilization-ratio low credit score along, and paying my various and sundry bills.

 

[Toshi]

Only you can answer that...

I'm not done with the house. But her firm's end of the work is pretty much all wrapped up save for a thermostat here, a bank of light switches there. and the final bill to be tallied still as of yet.

so I'd go with a yes. house will be fully rentable before Thanksgiving, let alone Christmas break.

 

[Toshi]

multimodal HRH commute day. 40 miles ultimately ridden—skipped the A Line leg on the way back and took Rocky Mountain - poop-smelling Platte River - Sand Creek from Colfax/Auraria. 2/10 bars left on the battery after that, which is totally acceptable by me.

much more enjoyable than being traffic on I-225, I-25, and C-470. Shall repeat this in the future.

going to do this next week.

6:27 A Line to Union Station.
7:04 D Line from 18th and Stout.
C-470 Trail reopened after work/detour.

I like not being traffic.

 

[Toshi]

Formal architectural drawing in hand. Either I misunderstood the prior plan or the plan changed. I thought two of the existing piers would be replaced. Instead they'll be new, right underneath the hot tub, with an extra beam atop them. Logically this makes sense. And the ledger board will all be new, but the extra tie-ins to the foundation are only in the area of the hot tub.

For the curious the design loads are 10 psf dead, 40 psf live, 70 psf snow, 100 psf hot tub.

Now just to get a contractor who can do this at a reasonable rate.

 

[Toshi]

following up on Shared Skittles earlier comment and my response re NIMBYs...

Some of my NIMBY neighbors up in the mountains are trying to thwart much-needed multi-family development in our community. I'm speaking up as a YIMBY voice. We need this kind of development, and NIMBYs must be defeated.

 

[Toshi]

Re my earlier explorations pricing out Powerwall installations (CN: doesn’t make sense even with Xcel’s Battery*Connect program):

Anker, as in the company that makes AC adapters and all manner of small lithium battery products, is getting into the big battery business. Like home scale, and not single appliance backup like my Eco Flow River Pro (720 Wh, 600W continuous output).

View attachment 199913

October 9th is apparently the unveil date for this? I signed up for their email list for the promised discount. Of note is that being over 3 kWh will net it the 30% Fed tax credit. I’ll do the math on payback time from time of use pricing arbitrage once they release details.

Competition is good! As are products that apparently need minimal electrician time to implement.

their pricing is out

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/anker/anker-solix-f3800-minimum-effort-maximum-power/rewards

6 kW power, 3.84 kWh capacity for $2,599. no home interconnection kit with this.

6 kW power, 3.84 kWh capacity with a "home power panel", 12 circuit backup load center, transformer, and circuit breaker for $3,349.

6 kW power but now 3.84 x 2 kWh capacity with the home connection kit for $4,979.

12 kW power and 3.84 x 2 kWh capacity with the home connection kit for $5,949.

So the pricing is better than Powerwalls assuming a reasonable electrician fee to hook everything up. But it's not fabulously cheap such that I feel compelled to jump on it.

 

[Toshi]

so filling that gap atop the windshield did not do the trick. Lots of wind noise from the top of the windshield area from 35 mph on up, particularly noticeable on our drive to the mountains.

(I’d complained here that the Land Cruiser has a fair bit of wind noise from 65 mph on up before, but my wife and kids agree that this is something different)

I thus contacted the original windshield replacement outfit, Van Go Auto Glass, and they’re sending a mobile tech out next week to look into this. Maybe the installation was bad or some sealing layer wasn’t used? They say their windshield should be of equal thickness to OEM so it’s not some acoustic vs normal glass deal.

the Van Go tech came out--not the same one who did the original job--and it turns out the windshield is loose and is leaking air and a bit of water, too, as evidenced by a few water streaks running down the inside of the glass in the top right.

video findings are subtle but when I zoom in at the end you can see it moving a few mm with him pushing on it:

Toshi Clark (@toshi.clark) on Threads

So my Land Cruiser has had a lot more wind noise since I got its windshield replaced in March of this year. I tried filling the gap atop it with butyl tape and that didn’t do anything. Next step was to call the original shop. They had a (different than original guy) mobile tech come out and...

www.threads.net

I'm ordering new side trim for the windshield since the current ones are glued on (!) due to the former tech's short sighted decision so these ones can't be salvaged. then he'll come out with a new windshield and pull this one completely off. either this one will get remounted properly or a new piece of glass will go on, but either way it should be taken care of and I should return to having the baseline level of wind noise rather than this new significantly louder experience.

he also recommended I pull out the butyl tape as it'd mess with the adhesive for the re-do job, so I'll do that on a cooler day when it's not so tacky.

 

[Toshi]

I'm headed up to the mountain house on Thursday to do some work and drop off some bulky items that won't fit in the minivan with all seats deployed.

per the forecast it looks like I'll be driving through a bit of a storm. I should make sure to pack the Autosocks, eh (in addition to having the Nokians on it, as I'm having Discount Tire do that very morning: two fresh new ones, and two old but still adequate ones).

 

[Toshi]

following up on Shared Skittles earlier comment and my response re NIMBYs...

View attachment 201721

Some of my NIMBY neighbors up in the mountains are trying to thwart much-needed multi-family development in our community. I'm speaking up as a YIMBY voice. We need this kind of development, and NIMBYs must be defeated.

logged on to the meeting. listened to the NIMBYs. spoke up in support of it. a few other neighbors in support as well, as well as a few local business owners (need workers!) and the local police chief. 90% NIMBYs though.

 

[Toshi]

We are now a Second Washlet type of fancy family, at least here in Denver

(got a knockoff BioBidet to install at the mountain place on Thursday)

 

[Toshi]

got to rebook and rework all of my Japan travel for next week tonight, as my parents aren't going after all. this will be a headache.

 

[Toshi]

another gripe:

had two worn out Nokians on the front of the minivan, two decent (8/32") ones on the rear. this past spring I went to my local Les Schwab and had them swap out to the all seasons.

I asked them to dispose of the two worn out front ones.

fast forward to today, where I find that the two that they left me were one of the worn out ones and one of the decent ones. I therefore can't use either (can't add one tire to an 8/32" one).

many thanks, Les Schwab.

 

[Toshi]

got to rebook and rework all of my Japan travel for next week tonight, as my parents aren't going after all. this will be a headache.

Parents made it to Highlands Ranch today. My sister and I both stopped by to see them, me also being there to discuss with my mom what Japan plans to change.

Anyway, my dad looked like shit. Hasn’t slept much in 10 days. Unsteady. Affect all off.

So we took him to the hospital, and I stuck around with them through intake and seeing the ED doc since I can give a good history being a doctor and all.

Head CT labs, EKG, UA, and then assuming that all comes back clear a telehealth chat with behavioral health and probably a night or two as an inpatient voluntarily. He needs to sleep. And to embrace allopathic medicine to treat his depression.

 

[Toshi]

In other news

there was snurr

I fixed the shoddy workmanship on the deck: panels were popping up because they’d done a half assed job with some of the hidden Trex connectors. Unscrewing them, shoving them over such that they engage the slots on both adjacent boards, and screwing them down anew did the trick.

also did some bunk bed assembly well as moving other boxes, moving extra closet doors and such to the torture chamber area, and unpacking the giant bathroom mirror to make sure it survived unscathed

 

[Toshi]

this actually seems like it'd solve my problems. reverse osmosis undersink, hot, cold all in one unit. just need to reduce the hole to 1", which might not even be an issue if the flange is a bit oversized as it likely is.

Got this installed tonight

old

new, a big boi indeed. Just fits

 

[Toshi]

Toshi Clark (@toshi.clark) on Threads

I do quite like this speedy Thunderbolt 3 SSD I got my employer to buy for me. Seeing the GBs just fly by is satisfying. (loading up more Westworld episodes as I watched quite a few on the plane. finished reading The Silmarillion first, at least.)

www.threads.net

 

[Toshi]

Some Japan photos

 

[Toshi]

high speed rail and density is civilization

Toshi Clark (@toshi.clark) on Threads

Those above videos were from the 110 km/h section shared with the Tohoku Shinkansen. Now we’re on Joetsu Shinkansen tracks and should be doing 240 km/h. We will do 260 ultimately—trains can do 275 but the route is 260, with even a dip to 210 km/h at times in the steeper mountainous sections...

www.threads.net

 

[Toshi]

some photos from today

with others too large for the server

 

[Toshi]

so I didn’t read the schedule right (or at all?) and, uh, missed my own talk. the one for which I am here in japan

on the upside, it doesn’t matter and I’m still here

 

[Toshi]

The one potential project still in limbo would be the mountain house deck reinforcement project. Ditched Bryce/engineer 1 after he couldn't produce. Second firm still is to create a formal architectural drawing of the whole thing that I'd need for a permit should it come to that. I've been invoiced for and paid for their initial evaluation including the recommendation of what needs to be done (with the ledger board and 12->16" concrete pilings for the last two posts).

Got at least one and potentially a few other contractor types still to come out to scope out the site and give me an estimate (with my one estimate in hand the outlandish $34k "I don't want this job" one). I thus give the deck + hot tub project a 20% likelihood of happening by next ski season.

Zack (really Zach) of All Trades is raring for this job.

I need a pricetag first, though. But for now I’ve submitted the building permit application and the design review committee re-review paperwork with Zach listed as the contractor in the interim. So things moving forward there. Assuming the price isn’t outrageous.

 

[Toshi]

as of last night I have developed either COVID or a bad cold. mask donned for what I had to leave to do today (hang my poster, pick up my badge at conference, went back later in the day after napping mid day in my room).

got takeaway food from the "konbini" (convenience store). planning on holing up in here until I leave again on train tomorrow.

Toshi Clark (@toshi.clark) on Threads

Finally showed up at conference this morning. Picked up my badge, hung my poster (again secondary to the 3 minute talk I was supposed to have given… yesterday). Felt increasingly ill—had started coughing last night. I either have COVID or a bad cold, but either way I think all I can do is mask...

www.threads.net

 

[Toshi]

texting with my 10 year old

 

[Toshi]

My coastal sightseeing train adventure was a bit of a bust due to rain. Rain was enough, in fact, that it halted our train. Now on a different tiny train to go back along the line to where we can transfer to a bus to resume the journey towards Akita.

 

[Toshi]

Bus wasn’t big enough. Then they filled the taxis at the stand. Four of us still left, waiting.

 

[Toshi]

$1,299 to upgrade to lie-flat Polaris Business for the 10.5 hour flight? Don’t mind if I do

 

[Toshi]

so filling that gap atop the windshield did not do the trick. Lots of wind noise from the top of the windshield area from 35 mph on up, particularly noticeable on our drive to the mountains.

(I’d complained here that the Land Cruiser has a fair bit of wind noise from 65 mph on up before, but my wife and kids agree that this is something different)

I thus contacted the original windshield replacement outfit, Van Go Auto Glass, and they’re sending a mobile tech out next week to look into this. Maybe the installation was bad or some sealing layer wasn’t used? They say their windshield should be of equal thickness to OEM so it’s not some acoustic vs normal glass deal.

Reinstalled. Hopefully more competently.

 

[Toshi]

New headlight day for the Land Cruiser

 

[Toshi]

The 3rd party lights inexplicably use a different socket and bulb for the turn signals. Awaiting parts to make this work—will wire it up myself basically.

Google Lens FTW for figuring out what this socket type is. Anyway, I have two more such sockets + pigtail wiring coming from Amazon, along with two appropriate bulbs (trying LEDs with a built in resistor—they claim to not have the double time pace faux-bulb-out issue of others). I'll cut the OEM connectors and splice these new ones in.

 

[Toshi]

Reinstalled. Hopefully more competently.

View attachment 202435

first highway speed drive on it was accomplished tonight, on the way home from the eldest child's string ensemble rehearsal. (the way down there was a 0-30 mph slog along Monaco Pkwy.)

and first impressions are good. doesn't seem to have the same whistling/exaggerated wind noise problem of the improperly sealed initial attempt. this is a positive thing, as that was really harshing my vibe, mannnn

 

[Toshi]

my only job to continue working, nursing that sad high-credit-utilization-ratio low credit score along

so I applied anew to PNC for a replacement HELOC, the goal being to get a full $200k in credit line and pay off the $61k-drawn-from-85 limit current one. recall that the current one was at $85k because the appraisal came back on the low side ($1.017 mm iirc) due to the weird-ass layout of the house.

well, I've fixed that. and the new appraisal should reflect it similarly.

anyway, I did it despite the consumer credit reporting sites still reporting my credit score being in the shitter (albeit still prime!) due to my credit utilization ratio. due to fixing the house. circular!

and lo and behold, per what they actually pulled today it's fine

go figure

 

[Toshi]

 

[Nick]

$1,299 to upgrade to lie-flat

JFC...

 

[Toshi]

JFC...

For a Japan length flight that’s a really good deal for business class