Assorted Stuff #3

The grind is real....

I've struggled to maintain my diet / life changes of late, and so my output has slacked off. But, the grind never has a day off, so here we are...

Dry air

I've given the condensate pump a fleeting mention some time back, and I guess it got bored of waiting for attention.
As the house/basement air goes through the HVAC, moisture condenses due to the temperature difference, and so it has to be directed down to a collection area and gotten rid of. Since the central air unit is at the lowest point in the house, where will that water go? It has a small blue pump with a level switch to push it somewhere.
In my case, it goes up a tube about 2.5 meters, then along 10 meters, down about 2 meters, and into the laundry washer drain.
The effort on the pump to lift the water that first 2ish meters has always bothered me. I've spent a bit of time with zip ties to try to ease the path/resistance of the water along its journey, but finally, it just had enough for some reason.
The pump has been running more and more often as winter deepens. Not enough to bug Freddy, but more than enough to bug me.
Of course, I've not had time to sensor up the HVAC like I still fully plan, so I don't have hard data on its duty cycle, but trust me when I say the hammer fell at 2am one random morning when the consistent (about once per minute with a 40ish second pause) running kept me awake more than usual.
I thought about installing a one-way check valve about 1 meter up the tube, as I suspect the water in that section is back flowing each time the pump turns off and refills the small tank in the pump.
So, the hasty solution that day was a bucket.
To the shock of no one it's been like this for about 2 weeks, and I am both shocked and sick and tired of emptying it once every two days on average.
Shocked? Yeah, it's a 5-gallon (19 liters) bucket. That is a LOT of water that is being pulled out of the house air every two days. No wonder folks run humidifiers here in the winter, and no wonder I am getting static shocks on pretty much everything I touch.
I have some new hose that I plan to run at floor level. Hope to get to doing that job soon, sick of emptying the bucket.
The interesting thing (for me) is seeing the amount of condensate vary based on the weather.

I got a job

Was not keeping it a secret, but for reasons was not making it pubic just yet that I got a job.
Since word has now gotten out and many of you have asked, here is a rough sketch of that journey.
When I said I was moving north, I found out that the official messaging "I don't care where you work from, as long as the work gets done" was not as official as it was proclaimed. So I gave a rough finish date.
A few days later, I was offered the idea that if I started my own company, some of my current workload would be contracted back. It made a lot of sense, so I spent the time and about $1500 setting it up.
A few times during the 2 months I had given notice, I asked for some feedback on the work that might be sent my way, only to be given the usual 'too busy to think about it' brush-off.
15 minutes before I walked out the door for the last time, I flat-out asked for an idea of which tasks might be the first to contract back, so I knew what I needed to set up for as soon as we unpacked the U-Haul... I was told 'After reviewing your tasks, we found nothing that can't be handled in-house'.
So I walked out of the building having had that 35-year chapter of my life closed for me.
It took some time to process, but I came to see that a new house in a different part of the country was a fresh start, and I should treat it that way across the board, and be looking for a job with this in mind.
I applied for 19 jobs. Had one interview and a job offer pretty early on, knocked it back for a few reasons that became clear only during the interview process.
Another small company contracted me for some work, which was cool and very welcome, but too infrequent to consider as reliable income.
One important thing to note is that Freddy and I made the hard but clear decision to NOT apply for unemployment benefits. This really ate into our meager financial 'buffer' because, when you do, you have to submit proof of applying for 5 jobs a week. That means before long, you are applying for just about any job, and you have to take any that are offered - think Walmart greeter or Home Depot sales, for example.
I wanted to apply only for jobs I really, really wanted to do.
It was another 4 months till my next interview, but I got the job, and to say I love it is an understatement.
I'm doing meaningful work for folks who really appreciate me and value what I do.
I'm going to talk to my tax guy about closing down the LLC, and that's that.

Shop space!

I'm not ready to talk about it just yet, but this whole time of clearing space in the shop was to start a really big aircraft message (ACARS) project, and I finally have the space.
The shop is still very much a work in progress. I've tried to label all the tubs and stuff, but I still cant find specific things and I am still shuffling stuff around as I figure what I use most and where it needs to be to fall to hand, which just shuffles where its stored in my tiny brain and so the frustration cycle repeats, but I see a light at the end of the shop that is a big ass folding door.
I hate white as a color, and so it's nice to put up some posters to bring a little color to the shop. It's also nice to have my workspace totally disconnected from the house for the first time in my life, so I can really do what I want out there.
The stereo has won many 'hood audio accolades, and it's nice to feel the beat from time to time.
A stand-up computer desk in a workshop is just awesome. (I also have one at work in one of my two offices, and love it there as well).

Bought a new old car

To better handle the snow and local fire trails, I traded in the Chevy Bolt for a 2023 Subaru Solterra.

We've named it Bluey after the dog in the cartoon, given its color and black eye patch.
Honestly, it was not just about the snow, but also about Freddy, Cole, and me talking about not getting a big road bike. So the money for that went to the car swap.
I will still get either a small adventure bike or perhaps just a good EV bike. See this blog's featured image. I still love bikes, I still want one.... Duno yet, see what the summers bring.
It was not a clear night-and-day difference between the two cars. I'm slowly learning to live with Bluey's shortcomings vs. the happy 7 years with BB.
On the clear upside, Bluey is a lot quieter, is all wheel drive, has better ground clearance, and its adaptive cruise control and auto lane keeping are just awesome.
The main downside is the lack of one-pedal mode. I just loved not having to move my foot back and forth in BB. Driving Bluey has reminded me of just how amazing EV's can be. Shame Subaru / Toyota snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in this case.

Patio and path lights

Freddy has been bugging me to put up some patio lights. The glass ones that were there when we moved in were 110v AC, 36% of them were smashed, and they sucked power like an EV after a long wardrive.
Found 100 feet (30 meters) of plastic LED ones we liked, so put them up.
The reason for the long length is apparent in the above photo. I wanted some soft light for Lee's walkway from the alley to the house.

I've put them on a smart plug and set up routines so they turn on at sunset for a bit, and then a bit before sunrise each day.
And yes, that white stuff on the bark garden is frost. Each day, the high temperature has been below freezing for about 2 weeks, so the ground, though snowless, has been frozen to some depth.
I went to pick up some stuff I had in the backyard, and it shocked me for a second that everything was frozen to the ground and took some effort to break it free.

Ok, this ended up being longer than I planned. Should I have held some of these over for their own shorter posts, or do folks not mind longer blog posts?