My new favorite coaster at Cedar Point.
Supercharging
Made a quick stop in Maumee, OH for some juice on the way to Cedar Point.
Link Dump – 2018/10/25
- A Decade of WordPress Hosting (Or, This Year’s Annual Unsolicited Endorsement)
Check out John’s books if you like science fiction. - Balance Bikes are the best way for anyone to start riding
A friend at work told me about these and I can’t believe I’d never heard of them. Brilliant! - Why you can’t buy a Tesla in some states ⇒
I’ve linked to a similar article before, but this one is a lot more in-depth.One Michigan legislator, Jason Sheppard, put it to Maron this way: “The Michigan dealers do not want you here. The local manufacturers do not want you here. So you’re not going to be here.”
- Introducing Crowdsignal
A very welcome renaming of Polldaddy. - Minesweeper Online
Still a fun brainy game. - The Every Day Calendar by Simone Giertz
I love this idea. I’d snag one if I didn’t do really will with repeating reminders in the Apple Reminders app. - What the Hell Happened to Darius Miles? ⇒
I’ve don’t follow the NBA much, but this was a good read.
One Day with my Tesla Model 3
Almost exactly 2 years (more on that process in an upcoming post) after reserving the Model 3, she arrived yesterday just after 9am. It came in a big delivery truck.
After giving it a thorough inspection (with some great help from a neighbor), I signed and figured out how to move it from the end of the street to my driveway.
As you can see above, it estimated there were 215 miles of range charged in the batteries, which is about 70%.
I’m so glad I changed from black with black to blue with white. The colors are badass. It took me awhile to sort through the papers, put on the temp plate, and configure the car. Then it was time to hit the road, which can’t really be explained. I watched a ton of videos and read so many things about the acceleration, but you have to experience it.
AMAZING!
I’ve never been in anything so smooth, fast, and fun to drive. When you hit the pedal it goes. With all of the weight being across the bottom, the handling is phenomenal and it corners unlike anything I’ve ever ridden in.
Rarely ever having to use the brake takes some getting used to. Within the first 20 miles I was already used to my speed being on the screen off to the side instead of directly in front of me.
I cruised around to get used to it and then headed over to Midland to pick up my buddy Casey for lunch.
After dropping him off I headed down to the Oakley Vault in Birth Run to buy some new sunglasses to keep in the car. The style is different, but very comfortable. The arms (also knowns as temples I learned) of the shades are blue (my favorite color and of course match the car) and can be swapped out for a second set they came with.
After a workout at the gym and taking a few friends for a ride, “Betty Boost” was getting power hungry so I headed home for the day and plugged her in.
The NEMA 6-20 outlet charges as expected, which I think will be fine for my driving habits.
I racked up 138 miles on the day. I plugged in for about a half hour, while getting ready for the gym, which got me 7 miles of range back. So that would bump the estimated range up to 222 for the day. With 32 miles of remaining range my used mileage came up 52 shy of the estimate. Not bad considering she was launched many times today, which drains the batteries a lot, and a bunch of miles were on the freeway.
When I checked the status this morning after 14 hours of charging, the range was up to 232 miles, which averages out to a recharge rate of 14.3 mi/hr.
Tesla Model 3
Mat Storage on a Garage Wall
I’ve slowly been continuing with my garage gym clean-up and reorganization. Originally I was going to get rid of the extra stall mats because I’m not going to park on top of them and I have a much thinner mat that rolls up and easily stores in a corner. As I was looking at the back wall I got an idea to store these two pieces of mat against the wall, so I can quickly pull them down for workouts.
The mats are 3/4 inch and very rigid, so they stand pretty well on their own. I wasn’t going to risk them falling back on a vehicle though, so they needed a seat belt.
On each side I drilled in to a stud and screwed in an eye bolt. Then I could hook in a ratchet strap, tighten it, and the mats will never fall over.
I love when an easy solution works.
DIY Trash Bin Wheel
Back in April, a wheel fell off my trash bin and someone ran it over. Without the wheel, the bin easily tips over and it’s been a pain in the ass getting it out to the road on trash day. So I finally made time to make a new wheel.
I glued and screwed two pieces of 3/4″ plywood together. Then I found the center of the block, center punched it to make drilling easy later, and drew a circle to match the size of the working wheel.
On the band saw I cut close to the line.
Then I took it over to the disc sander and sanded right up to the line.
On the drill press I made a hole the center with a bit slightly larger than the trash bin’s shaft.
Time for a test fit. It was perfect!
Back over to the sander, where I added a chamfer to the edges.
Sprayed a couple of coats of paint.
Then I used epoxy to attach a washer to each side of my wheel, which would sort of act as bearings.
The final step was to find something to hold the wheel on the shaft. In one of my junk boxes I found a plastic piece, which fit on the shaft after using a file to make the hole a little larger. I used more epoxy to attach this to the shaft.
I’m not sure how the plywood will hold up to the rain and snow, but I’m sure I’ll find out over the next few months.
The Keepers
I’ve had The Keepers on my Netflix list for over a year and finally watched it. It’s sort of like Making a Murderer (just started watching season 2) meets Spotlight and it is a really good series.
The story and cover-up was fascinating, but made me sick. Unfortunately it’s another example of white men abusing power, this time led by the Catholic church. I went to a Catholic school for first through eighth grades and I’m so glad I walked away from religion when I went to college.
Fixing Some Health Concerns
I had a physical back in May where my Doctor saw a few things in my blood work. The result for creatinine was 2.0 mg/dL with a Glomerular Filtration Rate of 38. The normal range for creatinine is 0.5-1.5. Bodybuilders can typically be around 2 and I’ve built a lot of muscle through CrossFit, so wasn’t sure what to think. The GFR was pretty low though and can be a sign of kidney failure. Yikes! Also of note is I weighed around 215 pounds at the time.
The Doc wanted me to stop whey protein, BCAAs, and creatine. I didn’t consume much of them, so I figured my diet had a lot more to do with it. I was eating a lot of fast food and maybe it was finally catching up to me. I stopped taking the supplements immediately though. I also started ordering Factor 75 meals. It was right around this time when I finished up some back rehab work and was getting in the gym 4-5 days a week again, which meant a lot more conditioning work.
This week I finally got my blood work retested. Creatinine is down to 1.2 and GFR is > 60, so back to normal ranges. Yay! This morning I weighed 198.7 pounds and I was even lower at 197.1 last month before a work trip with a lot of buffets and desserts.
I’m going to start using protein and BCAAs again and hold off on creatine until after the labs at next year’s physical.
In five and a half months I was able to correct some concerning numbers and dropped over 16 pounds with good old-fashioned discipline. No need for drugs. If I can do it, so can you. You have to want it and commit to changes though, which isn’t easy.
Chewie Candy
Spotted at a candy store in Disney Springs.
Nick Momrik 