Modernization – Page 2 – Modern Anachronist

The Son of Fessick

So now I need a vehicle to replace the Excursion.

I need something smaller to navigate city streets.

I need something big enough to fit the family. My kids are about to be teenagers, so I need a reasonable back seat. My brother’s boys are older than my kids, and they don’t really fit in the back of his Nissan Titan.

I need something that will tow my utility trailer. It has a weight rating of 3,500 pounds, so I don’t really need a tow monster.

The Ford Maverick actually does most of what I need, but the back seat isn’t big enough for the kids. I actually recommended that my brother buy a Maverick for his boys to share, the oldest just got his license.

I cycled through the midsized trucks and really none of them had a backseat that was useable.

I started looking at the full sized trucks, and the prices for new trucks are just stupid.

But then I stumbled across a dark horse – the Honda Ridgeline.

It’s mocked as NART (Not A Real Truck), but the capabilities of the Ridgeline meet my needs.

Test drive is scheduled.

The internet has everything these days.

Originally I was worried that I was going to have to do this without any guidance at all. I mean, can twenty-first century solutions be applied to nineteenth century hardware.

But the internet has, once again, provided exactly the niche media I need. But this time, I can share that without fear of being judged.

Scratch that. I’m sure you think differently about me now that you know I’m into touching hundred year olds.

Found the operator’s manual.

And a master list of Royal Repair Parts. Dated from March 1960, it still lists parts for the Model 10.

And the Repair manual for Royal machines. It appears to cover more than just the Model 10, but should be a huge help to me.

Free D Printer.

I was gifted a 3D printer by a buddy who upgraded his. This weekend I finally got around to trying it out.

Robo E3 printer. Free to ~~not so~~ good home. *Please ignore the luffa drying behind the printer.

The Power of Iterative Engineering

Or, don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

I’m an over planner. There’s no arguing it.

My very first boss drilled into my head “We never have time to do it right, but we always have time to do it again.”

Where to put the brains?

Back in the analog days, your light was controlled either at the lamp or at the switch. If you were going on vacation, you might plug it into a clock work timer so no one noticed the house was unoccupied. As we move to home automation, you have a lot of flexibility in how to control things. Do you want to control at the wall, the lamp or the bulb?

More smarts for an old house

Or adding physical controls to a virtual system

One of the pain points on our smart home journey has been allowing visitors and children without i-devices to control the lights. So far I’ve installed two different solutions, and one of them actually works. The one that doesn’t work is due to the construction of my home, the device itself seems fine.

Better still, the one that works is easier to install and cheaper to purchase.

It is Finished

Finally, six months behind schedule, my living room wall is finished.

A Modern Tent

As much as we love the ger, it’s too cumbersome for shorter trips or space constrained sites. I decided we needed a modern family tent, because the wee ones are too wee for separate tents.

Living room update (part 2)

Project creep (and my parts still aren’t in the country)

I’m sitting with the wife one evening talking about the wall. She mentions that a friend had a deep red accent wall and it looked great.

The entertainment center is going on the only wall in the room that works as an accent wall, now I have to paint it. Of course, the other walls in the room are a pale yellow and they will look terrible with red, so I have to paint the entire room.

Happy New Year. Happy New Network.

Lots of curse words and money thrown about unexpectedly.

It seems that my wireless router had reached its effective end of life, or at least the end of my fault tolerance.

Whenever my wife and I watched television, the router would go for about five – ten minutes and then require a reboot. This didn’t happen to the kids. It may be because our shows are high def, and theirs are cartoons. It is about six years old and doesn’t support all the latest protocols, so I decided to upgrade.