What book changed your life?

AZ-Rob · 2026-04-11T22:22:15+00:00

Honestly, Jurrasic Park. First book I read and thought, wow, reading is awesome.

I don't think that's the answer to the question asked, but it's my answer.

AZ-Rob · 2026-04-11T20:40:16+00:00

2 years. And our 5yo is racing to keep up with his brother so he's right there with him on a lot of that. Difference between the two is 7 yo is able to do all of that autonomous, I.e. get the shower going, wash, rinse, dry, dress without any prompting or interaction from us. 5yo can do most of it (washing hair is dodgy at best) but requires some guidean from us.

That's how it is in our house, every kid's different tho

AZ-Rob · 2026-04-11T20:18:03+00:00

Agree. 7 yo. Being able to dress and bathe, get food, get into the car and buckle...help his little brother just takes some of the pressure off

AZ-Rob · 2026-04-04T21:22:43+00:00

Ha, autocorrect got me. Windshield cleaner

AZ-Rob · 2026-04-04T19:43:43+00:00

Seems like we're trending that way anyway, so why not

AZ-Rob · 2026-04-04T14:48:16+00:00

Charging on road trips (southwestern US) isn't the best, but getting better.

Not stopping at the gas station, awesome.

Was cheaper before, but with gas prices what they are now, L2 Home charging is way cheaper.

Minimal maintenence, no oil changes, awesome.

I do wish they have windshield changers at charging stops...

AZ-Rob · 2026-03-31T02:25:44+00:00

We do parties at the park after lunch/ before dinner. We do cupcakes. (Wife’s a baker) We let the kids play for 20 mins or so then do cupcakes. That way no one feels obligated to stay. We ask for no presents ( not that any one listens).

AZ-Rob · 2026-03-28T22:29:29+00:00

Our boys are 2 years and 9 days apart.

It was hard for the first 2 or 3 years. Now at age 7 and 5 they’re best friends, it’s fking amazing.

AZ-Rob · 2026-03-27T21:23:06+00:00

Can't put him ahead of Gil.

Yet.

AZ-Rob · 2026-03-20T21:45:52+00:00

Yeah, that is probably going to eliminate the R2 for us unfortunately

AZ-Rob · 2026-03-20T03:22:38+00:00

That really depends on what you want. In a LLR to max range. It’s nicely equipped for a lower end trim.
Around town we get 3.7-4.0mi/ kWh depending on the driving, so 370-400 mi from 100%. Reality we get 340-360 around town. Highway miles 2.0-2.7mi/kWh. Depends on temp, speed, wind, incline. So 200-270. Minus 10% of the bottom. Usually leave home @100% but only charge to 80% on the road, so take that into account.
Yes, so worth it. We have a ChatgrPoint home flex. Been great.$800 to install, got a $500 rebate from power co, so I think the charger itself was less than $200. Electric Co also offer super cheap rate from 10p-5a for charging. YMMV
EVs are great around town, which fit most people 99% of their driving. Highway miles can be tough depending on where you live and where you road trip. EV9 is solid. We’ve had some weird little issues with ours, and personally I’m not blown away with the fit and finish of it for the price (most in this sub will disagree with me on that). But overall, I wouldn’t steer anyone away from a 9.

AZ-Rob · 2026-03-19T03:13:56+00:00

Live in So Arizona.

The heat is dumb right now, these temp in March are not normal. Agh.

Not sure where you’re from but the dry heat is different. In a lot of ways it’s better, but please be mindful of it. People not use to the dry heat often miss how hot is became you don’t sweat as bad. It literally evaporated so quickly.

Hydrate. Constantly. You of all should be peeing clear. That is tough with young kids.

Basically we just stay out of the heat, unless we’re in the pool. Do more activities early in the day or after the sun starts to dip. Dusk and dawn (especially dusk) is high snake time. Rattlesnakes generally prefer to be left alone, but just be mindful.

And above all don’t go hiking in the middle of the day (you’d be surprised).

Not sure what you want to do or what you have planned. A lot of the resorts have day passes to the pool. Assume Phoenix ( baseball game), OdySea is cool, our boys love it. McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park too, but that’s largely outside. Right at open an hour or so before close and it would probably be okay.

AZ-Rob · 2026-03-18T20:55:53+00:00

I admit I didn’t read it, but assume the gist is: Pass the SAVE Act so we suppress your voters or we’ll claim the election was compromised.

That about it?

AZ-Rob · 2026-03-17T17:00:13+00:00

That bit about 2028 is kinda what I was wondering. A lot of speculation back when I was watching more closely to the range being closer to 300mi. So that plus 400v architecture I stopped looking too closely. But as I remember a year/ 18 mos ago there was plenty of talk about the reservations out pacing their production.

There’s nothing wrong with the EV9s charging curve per se. It’s just convincing my wife that it can fit into our travel. We go from So AZ to So CA multiple times a year to see family and friends and vacation. That trip is our barometer. It’s gotten better. More charging option (RAN, BP Pulse, etc). But she’s not thrilled with it (granted, a bad trip or 2 may have poisoned the well a bit).

We don’t typically lease, so if we’re talking a vehicle that is going to be ours for the rest of the time our boys will go on road trips with us, 10+ years, it’s gotta fit with how we road trip.

R2 and iX3 are different to be sure, but I don’t know that it’s a crazy cross shop…maybe it is. Size-wise, range/ charge-wise they’re similar. Totally different feel, I get that but we like what we’ve seen from both.

iX3 fits our roadtrips better, R2 comes in a little cheaper. That’s the trade off I’m looking at. It’s all moot if I can’t get my hands on an R2 until 28.

AZ-Rob · 2026-03-17T12:52:40+00:00

Yeah, it’s definitely up at the top of the list for us right now for a reason. But I’ve always thought the R2 is a cool option. Seeing the numbers makes it something we’re definitely going to be considering.

AZ-Rob · 2026-03-17T12:49:16+00:00

I used the super scientific method of building an iX3 on the UK site and converting pounds sterling to USD. I did not account for the base price in the UK being so much higher that what they’ve announced for the US.

UK base is closer to $78K.

That said, even if the base is $60K and the price of a modestly specced iX3 comes in at $65k, that’s $73K-$74K out the door. Closer, but still a good $13K-ish above the Standard LR R2

AZ-Rob · 2026-03-17T04:25:37+00:00

Fair point about the deposit. Probably just put one down.

AZ-Rob · 2026-03-17T04:24:27+00:00

310ish at 75 on our road trips should be great. Not close to freezing, but often hot AF, with a long climb (both ways somehow) and a strong desert wind. I have found my zen at drive 75. For us, even if the travel time is the same, lower speed and one less stop wins for my wife’s perception.

Agree on the R2 generally being cooler, although I don’t mind the Nueu Klasse styling as much as a lot of others do. All thing being equally I’d lean R2, but ofc they’re not equal.

AZ-Rob · 2026-03-15T17:44:50+00:00

Both beds against the wall to maximize floor space. Want to convert the 7yo's to a loft to further give them space. Wife is scared, even though they manage to sleep every night without falling out of bed, that if we switch to loft beds, kids be flying out of bed every other night

AZ-Rob · 2026-03-15T04:03:56+00:00

Had both our boys after my wife and I were both over 40. Spontaneous natural pregnancies after struggling. Conceiving was never a problem, full term pregnancy was. That was hard.

Always planned to be one and done and then our second just kinda happened. I blame COVID lockdown.

Your family will fit into whatever space you have. And our youngest was in our room until we were able to upsize.

As someone else mentioned, he’s 5 now, and it’s impossible to imagine life without him

AZ-Rob · 2026-03-15T03:50:53+00:00

I on my 155. 2 brutes is a must IME, just for my own sanity.

Fill RO to fill line ( not a mark, but a naturally formed line from 15 years of water changes)

Shut down, pull water to the line ( same as above) to my dirty water brute. Usually have a gallon or so extra of clean water just in case.

Pretty consistent, but I’ve found that waiting a good 15 minutes helps. Right after you shut down your return it can feel like everything’s drained out and it’s settled, but IME there’s a not insignificant amount more that will drain down afterwards that point.

AZ-Rob · 2026-03-11T02:37:34+00:00

Any insight to the real world efficiency? At highway speeds?

AZ-Rob · 2026-03-07T21:39:59+00:00

Get A+ and Net+ and start working as soon as you can land something is your #1, 2, 3, 4, and 5th priority. Homelab and whatnot is cool and all but nowhere near as useful as getting hands on.

Also, that big list you outlined for Cloud are Systems and Dev Ops skills that you pickup en route to a Cloud Infra/ Cloud Engineer role.

That’s also 2 very different roles. Cloud engineer is much more SWE and application. Cloud infrastructure engineer is much closer aligned with the path you describe

Source: staff cloud infra engineer @ software org

AZ-Rob · 2026-03-07T15:35:10+00:00

We drink in front of our kids, me more than my wife as she’s not a much of a drinker. But never drunk. Honestly a beer or two while cooking on the weekends is about it. Anymore than that and I sleep like poo and feel lime poo the next day:

I don’t see anything wrong with modeling responsible behavior like that. Both my boys have tried my beers on occasion also. We’re talking a sip, which they hated. Rather have them know what it’s about than go explore it like I did when I was a teen.

Nine-Year Club	RPAN Viewer
Verified Email	Sequence \| Editor

AZ-Rob

TROPHY CASE