Zero Knievel

1. I'd not try to start a business via a THIRD mortgage when I have one house I'm trying to sell (under a mortgage) and a current house also under a mortgage. 2. I'd not start a business based on 30-year-old market data and ignore current data that says it won't work. 3. I'd not give a total stranger an open power of attorney to "fix" my economic mess then be surprised when the guy takes several loans in my name and skips town. 4. I'd not buy property in a flood zone. I'd not take the property with a derelict mobile home still on the property because I think I can "salvage" parts from it. 5. I'd take care of my vehicles so I'm not having to replace my car every few years because I don't keep up the maintenance. I could list others, but most of us would learn to stop fucking up by this point. I love her, but she doesn't own her mistakes...so she keeps repeating them.

Never mind. My niece talked sense into her, and now she'll just sell the house and property.

You guys don’t have to be assholes about it. My sister lost her “dream home,” her savings, and her husband because she consistently makes bad decisions without doing her due diligence. She’s not living in a “house.” She and her late husband had to buy a flood salvaged double wide installed on a piece of land on a flood plain (hey, the last owner had something there so it must be a good spot). I can only wonder how much $$$ she and her husband would have had if they simply saved their money and focused on paying off their “dream home” instead of running after pipe dream ambitions without regard to the risks. IF it works as advertised (my issue)…yeah, she could make a decent income stream and not have the headache of being a landlord. I want to know what she’s getting into because I can’t trust her to tell me the objective truth. She frequently researches until she gets the answer she wants and stops. I know the management company is going to have the contract written to their benefit, not hers. I know the management company is going to want to be paid every month…regardless of actual income from the property. My nephew wants the land so someday he can move back to Sevierville. Well, I say “fuck that.” It’s not his land until his mom passes, and he would be smart to pick a better piece of land that at least isn’t in a flood plain. It would be less of a headache to sell the property and invest the money. Whenever something sounds too good to be true, it normally is…and my sister is looking for a quick and easy fix rather than the best solution to the problem.

My sister, in my honest opinion, is about to fuck up big time. She wants to move to Charlotte and rent out her Sevierville home. Frankly, she’d be better off selling it, but her son wants it someday because he likes living in the mountains. Thing is, as I understand it, for a rental property to be profitable, you need to do much of the work yourself or at least have a list of people who can do good work on the cheap. Yeah, a rental management company can handle this for you, but I’m certain the contract is written so they always get paid, and any repairs come out of your share of the profits, not theirs. For a single property, my gut tells me this will go badly. If the management company isn’t getting paid, they’ll likely put a lien on the property. I will tell her to have an actual lawyer who deals with this stuff read the contract before she signs anything, but I won’t be surprised if she doesn’t and trusts oral representations of what’s in the document…then whines a year or so later when she’s not making a dime and the house is a wreck. Never mind that everything in the house will have to be packed up and put in storage…including the stuff in the yard.

Maybe you all don’t have a convenient shop in your area, but for $20 it’s cheap peace of mind for a radiator that old to be inspected for damage and pressure tested. Local lawn mower repair shop did this for me. It would suck balls to get it all back together then have it spring a leak from a defect you didn’t catch when you had it apart for service. It’s not my bike…no skin off my nose if you don’t do it. Just a suggestion to check the whole system while you have it apart. Replacing the thermostat was a significant tear down. It’s like going through the work to fix a head gasket but never check the parts you’re taking off to get to it.

If you're going to tear it down, do it once...especially considering the AGE of the bike and IF it has ever been tested previously.

Dismount the radiator and have a local shop pressure test it and inspect for leaks. At this stage, I’d suspect a bad thermostat. My XX had a constant boil over issue I thought was from the system not cooling effectively. Once I flushed the system and put in a new thermostat, it went back to behaving as normal…even though it ran on the hot side when “normal” (something that kept throwing me off).

Might need to borrow a tool. My dad has this mini crowbar thingy. Relatively straight on one end, curved at the other, about 6” in length. Used to pry in tight spaces. Not something I’ve seen in the stores…maybe something he made when working at the airlines.

Without a photo, I don’t know if a thin paint/plaster scraper would help. Does the XX service manual say anything about it? https://app.box.com/s/y2f1pyzez39qln5zikjn

Yikes. I like Givi’s quality, but I won’t run to them as a first option. For my RS, there was only one side case option (V35) when I bought my kit. Smaller than what I had for the XX and odd shaped to fit the mounting frame. Certainly allows for a thinner profile, but I lost a nice chunk of capacity. As if I already had to be judicious in how I packed for long trips…this meant even more frugalness in what got left behind. That is a downside, but I bought the SW-MOTECH ION One QUICK-LOCK Tank Bag which keeps my essentials that I need at every gas stop. I then got the SW-MOTECH ION 7-15L Tail Bag that straps to the rear/passenger seat which has my drinks, snacks, rain gear, hat. I eventually got the Moose Racing ADV 1 Dry Backpack for additional storage if needed. The only time I need to open the top case is if I need to take meds or want my tire pressure gauge.

There’s a joke in there somewhere.

When they come out, they check EVERYTHING. So, fixing it myself, I could miss a lot...especially as I have no HVAC equipment or training.

You're just now catching stuff we knew 20 years ago?

Yeah, but I really needed to vent.

It was just a blown capacitor. Just over $250 to fix.

Yeah, but at least you don’t have computer modules embedded in equipment so that whole sections have to be replaced if they fail. You can try to patch a workaround with analog. With digital, you really can’t unless you can build your own boards and program them to work with the system. The ONLY virtue to variable speed is that it doesn’t blow full blast when it just needs to maintain temperature, and it wouldn’t be such an issue if we could set the “fan only” speed. Indeed, when our fan motor went, the tech just plugged in a cable with a finger trigger on it. It directly activated the fan, telling him the motor itself was fine. Sadly, there was no real way to Jerry rig the fan to run and ignore the burned out module. Both certainly have issues. To me, more can go wrong with digital, and we’re seeing now with “smart” appliances that if something goes wrong, you have to replace the whole appliance because it’s cheaper than fixing it. We have a deep freezer from when we lived in Florida, and it’s never needed service. The only “must have” on an A/C unit is strong surge suppression and a timer that does not engage the compressor for a couple of minutes after it is to turn on. Why? Because if you are prone to brownouts, the strain of the compressor cutting out then back in when the power drops can damage the unit…and yes, we had a compressor get damaged from that. The techs have been good at trying to save us money when repairs were needed, but they had the exact same experience. They only know so much about how the system works. THERE IS NO SHOP MANUAL for the particular unit, so they rely on tech support from Trane, which is about as useful as tits on a bull. Even they told us that the brand has gone downhill since we got our unit and they hardly sell any of them now. Yeah. I know anything electronic can have a motherboard, but the more complicated the features, the more you’re relying on a programmed chip to control the system…which is dead as a doornail if it gets damaged. Basic board with dip switches to determine specific settings…that’s all you really need. Digital is fantastic so long as it works. They really don’t make 220 volt surge suppressors compared to 110 volt…which makes it tricky to protect an appliance. In Florida, we unplugged water heaters (more to save money when nobody was home) and other appliances (washer and dryer) because lightning strikes were a deal…actually had one hit the house and break the clock on the oven. For me, there are two things that grind my gears, and I’m going to ask the techs how they didn’t catch it in the past. 1. When the compressor disengaged, there was a RAT TA TAT noise. I can’t tell if it always did that, but it seemed odd for it to make any noise when running. Silent running means ANY noise is suspect. 2. When it would kick in, the lights would dim for a moment. There is no deficiency in the power supply to the house, but I know extreme drains can cause this, and sometimes when a part it failing, it needs more power to do the job. Incidentally, mom’s been complaining about the electric bill constantly going up, but between the heat and the economy, it’s hard to tell if the A/C failing contributed to this.

This A/C has been a piece of shit since Day One. We always had issues with the fan because it’s all computer controlled. Variable speed when heating or cooling but one set speed when it’s just circulating air…and it’s pathetically slow. No way to adjust it on the model we bought. When the fan failed, it was expensive because it wasn’t the fan motor but a control module…inside the fan motor housing. So, rather than replace a single circuit, the whole assembly had to be replaced. Same deal when the control board failed. Now the compressor seems to have died. This evening I noticed that the house felt warm and checked the thermostat. The outside compressor isn’t running even though there’s no indication of malfunction with the flashing lights on the air exchanger. I tried cutting power and restarting several times with no luck. Hopefully the repair people can get out here tomorrow and check the system. I already told mom that the next system will be entirely analog. No computer boards to burn out, no fancy pants fan speed control. Basic on/off and if we want to change the idle fan speed, we adjust a dip switch on the fan controller. This unit was supposed to be a good one, and it’s only 11 years old. A/C units can run for DECADES if you keep them maintained. I will never buy another Trane unit.

Unless it’s radically different, Pro has features for business use that might not be in the Home version. It used to be simple because Pro had more in it that you likely wouldn’t use, but with Windows 7 they had something like 4 tiers of the OS. I got Ultimate when building my Windows 7 system because I didn’t want limited options by saving a few bucks. I don’t doubt it’s changed yet again, but Carlos can fill us in about Windows 11.

Well, here’s where I’m at. The glasses are about as dark as they can be with the polycarbonate lenses. The tech will try to get them darker. If that’s not good enough, we’d have to change the lens composition (plastic). The problem is that all frames and lenses are made by essentially 3 manufacturers…who are really owned by a sole parent company. Aside from a few expensive boutique brands, everyone gets their supplies from them. In recent years, lenses come pre-coated, and these inclusive features limit how dark the material can be stained. The tech agreed that this is frustrating for people who need dark Rx sunglasses. That said, they showed me another option…. Most people ask for tinted lenses, BUT there are also polarized lenses WITH mirror coating. These are substantially darker by virtue that they reflect light instead of filtering it. So, I made a note about this for future reference.

Mostly a rant. For years, I used Doctor VIsionworks in Bristol, TN for eye exams and glasses. The eye exams are very affordable and with the "buy one get one 50% off," it worked great as I get Rx glasses in clear and tinted for night/day use. My eyes are sensitive to sunlight, so going out without sunglasses is bad enough, but really problematic when wearing corrective lenses. Last time around, I opted for flexible titanium frames. The clear ones I like. The tinted ones I tolerated. For the lens type I selected (for less weight), they could only make the lenses so dark, and at that level, it was barely usable (I really need it darker). The fit of the tinted ones also wasn't done right, but that's on me for waiting past the 100 day guarantee to correct it. They did their best, but actually mangled the arms in the process. Within 100 days, I could have insisted on replacement frames, but live and learn. This time around, I went with new frames and did what I usually do. They didn't offer samples to choose my tint. They eyeballed it and picked a tint. I go to pick them up and the tinted...though similar to what I have now...DOES NOT block the glare from bright light. It needs to be darker. Tech says they can send it out to get the next (and last) step of tint, but that's waiting two weeks to get them back. I initially agree. On the way back to the office, I realize I need better assurance, so I go back and ask to see a sample of what that darker tint will be. If it wasn't sufficient, I would have to select a different lens material which can be tinted darker. They only had a few samples and not in the color I needed. This floored me. The rationale is that hardly anyone wants tinted Rx lenses and usually just go with polarized lenses. More so, the local shop had its lab shut down, so they have to send glasses out to be done elsewhere. Okay, I get closing labs so not every store has one, but WTF is the deal with no longer having samples? How is a customer supposed to make a choice without an idea of what the end product would be? I'm talking to the Kingsport, TN location, which has a lab, to see what they can do as they are part of the same chain.

I don’t recall if there were unusual circumstances in the 2022 lab test. I don’t take supplements prior to a blood draw because I don’t know how much recent consumption will elevate levels in the blood until it’s fully metabolized.

Ah, but if you’re losing weight, there’s a greater chance you aren’t getting all your nutrients. So, you don’t want to stop supplements.

FWIW, last bloodwork had a scale of 78.7. Back in 2022 it was 121, but he wasn’t worried. I didn’t change the amount I’ve been taking, so either i was getting D from something else or we took the blood sample when there was a spike and the result was not representative. It’s why I get my blood drawn in the morning…so it’s pretty much fasting as I maybe have had some coffee and will take my supplements after the blood draw.

I'll trust his many years of practice and medical degree over your opinion, thank you. Hell, he has many patients where his office detected breast cancer in women patients who passed a recent mammogram. Many common medical standards DO NOT promote optimal health.

And, frankly, why worry? Weight loss fast enough to somehow "toxify" your body with all the stored content being dumped into the blood would itself be an issue. Most people lose maybe 3 pounds a week. The body does a great job at purging excess material...especially if you're properly hydrated.