Congrats
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Wife just came back from some 4 nights smart people academia convention and me, both kids and the dog are all still alive. house didnt catch fire either. great success.
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I posted the bulk of this in a different thread, but it has come to a conclusion.
Washing machine wasnāt working right. Would hang up at the rinse cycle, just fill with water and stop. But if I turned the load size dial to a different size, I could get it to continue. Did some research and the most likely culprit was a bad pressure sensor. Looked like an easy fix.
The part on Whirlpoolās site was $183. OEM part at a local supplier was $160+. Chinese part on Amazon was $100. So I bought a used part (seller said it was from a 35-year-old Kenmore washer) for $10.
Cleaned it (probably unnecessary, but felt like it), opened the panel, removed the old part, put the ānewā part in.
Have now run successful washes on all three load size settings, so I have decided that it officially works and I saved myself a bunch of money.
This is actually the third time Iāve fixed this machine (weāve had it for almost 25 years). Different problems every time and every time, just had to do an easy part replacement. Fortunately, the other two times, the parts werenāt all that pricey, so I bought OEM.
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My rear windshield wiper had a tendency to turn on randomly and not be able to be turned off.
This was happening increasingly frequently and was mostly associated with activating a turn signal.
Since I never use the rear wiper, I decided the easiest solution was to pull the fuse.
So, with a little help from Gemini, I was able to: find the dedicated fuse-pulling tool in the engine compartment fuse box, find the correct fuse in the passenger compartment fuse box, pull the fuse, and tape it to the inside of the panel for safekeeping.
Maybe not problem solved, but solved enough, at least for now.
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I have an old audio system, a nearly 30 year-old entry-level home theater system, 5 small speakers and a subwoofer. It was in storage for 6 years. I got it out and hooked it up a few years ago but have rarely turned it on. Mostly because Iām lazy and Iād have to get up to turn it on and change inputs/volume.
It doesnāt normally matter because Iām not usually paying close attention either to music or the TV. But Iāve been adding to my media server database and there was a post by @nunnhi that got me thinking I ought to try it out for movies. Trouble was, I wasnāt sure the subwoofer was working. It sounded bad and seemed to sometimes cut out completely.
Iām not an audiophile and I couldnāt remember how to access the receiver settings except on the level of this button is power, this knob is volume, these buttons select inputs. Gemini got me up to speed enough to turn off the surround speakers, which arenāt hooked up, and change the connections on the subwoofer. But that didnāt help. Turned out, it was just in a bad spot. I know enough physics that it didnāt make sense that would happen, at least in one dimension, but I guess 3D is a lot weirder. Anyway, moving it further away from the wall and so the port didnāt face a nearby cabinet seems to fix everything and it sounds fine to my uncritical ear.
I didnāt do any real analysis but did go as far as downloading an app and playing a youtube subwoofer calibration video to check to see if at least responded at a set of frequencies in its range. It did.
I tried it out on Marvelās The Avengers (2012) and it sounded pretty good, although Iām not sure my neighbors agree. It was at least worth the effort. As a bonus, I now better understand this reference:
Win.
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The subwoofer is literally the most difficult speaker to get right and it isnāt right in almost any room, even top studios. We often do guesswork in that stuff and hope itās not too much or too little.
My room basically had one place it could be due to me being afraid Iād kick it, and itās been exceptionally hard to lock in, which may be more due to the sound waves staying under my desk (to me a perfectly tuned subwoofer sounds like youāre only hearing deep bass from the main speakers as opposed to coming from somewhere else). But itās close after I did a room tuning with new software.
All the music stuff Iāve done sounds basically like what I expect in a translation even though itās still not quite correct. I rarely even listen on my monitors anymore anyway, because Iām so āconfidentā about my results Iām getting using headphones, plus the ever changing landscape of how people are listening making big speakers less and less important. That doesnāt mean my stuff doesnāt work on big speakers, it just means I donāt need to listen as often there because I basically know what Iām getting and the kinds of details on lower speakers/phones/etc. I need to hear arenāt as easily reflected when the monitors are away from your head.
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My son and I just demolished and disposed of an old broken down playhouse on our property. Good old fashioned physical labor, which I do very little of these days.
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You are a baller
Nothing more fun to play with than splintered wood, peeling lead paint, loose panes of glass, and hantavirus animal droppings.
You make it sound like LFSās next post will be from the hospital.
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I was actually astonished by the relative lack of evident animal activity. I thought that a bunch of rats might literally run out when I first knocked it over, but nothing. I did see a few black widows but thatās it.
How many bit you?
As a semi-āfunnyā aside, when we bought our house in Palmdale, the construction supervisor showed us something in the final walk-thru. He said to make sure to check under the screed for Black Widows. He took a broom or something and said heād show us. Like 20 Black Widows came out when he scraped under it. We only ever saw one in the house, and we for sure had an exterminator on a normal cycle. Black Widows apparently have to be heavily provoked to bite you but you donāt want that.
I bought a small sledgehammer with a 2.5 pound head for the job and itās probably now the most dangerous weapon I own. Small enough to really swing but heavy enough to do some real damage.
You can now leave your door unlocked and create your own horror movie if provoked.
I have a 2-lb dead blow that I have bashed myself with a bunch of times over the years. Also pounded a metal spike through a rock with it.
Canāt find a pic of a 2 pounder online, but it looks exactly like the picture of the 16-oz model above.
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Could have got about $1,500 a month in Los Feliz
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It would actually be a nice spot for a tiny ADU, but itās on a hill so I think the foundation issue would get pretty complicated. Not to mention water and power.
So $1200?
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Very nice! We will probably end up doing an extremely low-rent version of that with a hammock and a couple chairs.
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