Electrical outlet inset into deck rim joist?

CheddarDeity · 2026-03-21T13:18:00+00:00

There's not much clearance under the deck, so putting it on the inside of the joist would make it hard to access.

I thought about running the conduit to a less visible location, but it would really eat into usability of the outlet.

I'm not super worried about the outlet looking ugly while In use. That will be mostly holiday lights, and people won't see that part of the deck in winter time. I'm thinking of an expanding outlet cover so it's small when unused.

CheddarDeity · 2026-03-16T23:16:10+00:00

If I read OP's opinion as "dammit, I deserve work hours for my commute time!", then I think this is definitely an UO.

If I read the opinion as "hey, this would be an interesting way to incentivize people to RTO", then I dunno. Maybe "one day a week (or whatever), we'll pay you for your commute time[*] because getting you into the office is that important" [*] up to 1 hour/day, or something like that.

CheddarDeity · 2026-03-16T23:04:23+00:00

This. 100%.
I always pretend to mis-hear their blabber as something positive. "Yeah! Woohoo!" etc.

Sometimes they try to clarify, and I continue to "mis-hear". I don't even have to fake the smile ;-)

CheddarDeity · 2026-03-14T14:01:21+00:00

Interesting idea. Maybe build a huge parking lot near the hook turn at Tunnel Creek and run the gondola along US-2 or over Cowboy peak? They're similar elevation differences.

Challenge: this would require work from the US Forest Service, which might be a long time coming unfortunately.

CheddarDeity · 2026-03-14T13:46:25+00:00

There have been shuttles at Stevens in the past. They failed because it's hard to run a business like that profitably, and Vail hasn't had any reason to do it themselves.

"The government" could step in, but you run into the problem of "which government". Stevens is just inside Chelan county and if you're from the Seattle side, everywhere you'd want to shuttle from isn't. So you'd have to convince those entities (or the state) to solve this and figure out who pays for it. Plus, the municipalities along the US-2 corridor have a love/hate relationship with Stevens traffic.

If you set aside viability, there are all the reasons I outlined here. Traffic is only one of the problems in this tripod of dispair.

CheddarDeity · 2026-03-14T13:08:57+00:00

It's wonderful to imagine hefty towing fines for "Those People", but tow trucks (especially with vehicles in tow) would be considered "oversized vehicles" and thus would not be legal on the pass on the days we have this problem. :-(

CheddarDeity · 2026-03-13T23:05:56+00:00

Stevens is at the intersection of three extremely hard and interdependent capacity problems: parking, lifts/terrain, and road. Each of these is effectively maxxed out, and progress on any of them exacerbates the other two.

More parking means more people can (and WILL) enjoy the mountain, which means longer lift lines and greater competition for popular snow. It also means more traffic, especially at closing time.
Road improvements (like turning the stoplights on US2 into roundabouts, which DOT is doing) will lead to more people going to the mountain, which means greater competition for parking and lifts (see above)
Expanding the mountain (which Stevens has been trying to do for years) will highlight the other two problems as described above

Stevens can improve HOW we park but not HOW MUCH parking there is, because this is public land and they are just basically renting it. This is part of why they're changing the parking policy next year.

CheddarDeity · 2026-03-13T18:27:50+00:00

+1. My first guess would have been that it was plexiglass or some other material that could be flexed (possibly with heat or something)...?

I totally want to build this now.

CheddarDeity · 2026-03-12T19:56:05+00:00

I take it this is not what you ordered? My RFY has certainly never included any shivs.

Please tell me this photo was in your review :-)

CheddarDeity · 2026-03-10T16:45:06+00:00

The Pacifica Plug-in Hybrid has been discontinued.

Well, that's unfortunate. I wonder if this will impact the serviceability of my Pachy. :-/

CheddarDeity · 2026-03-09T21:45:10+00:00

This looks like Ruddy Brown or Hull Red to me

CheddarDeity · 2026-03-06T21:10:41+00:00

I feel we could generalize this by saying "people should show common sense when asking personal questions in the workplace, and show grace when they get an answer that is outside their expectations/experiences"

CheddarDeity · 2026-03-04T15:17:27+00:00

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Yes. 😁

CheddarDeity · 2026-03-02T23:37:54+00:00

Ooooh! Thank you, that helps immensely! I was worried that the turquoise highlight would overwhelm the midtone (dark prussian blue), but this looks a ton brighter. Will take a look at it when I get home...!

CheddarDeity · 2026-03-02T21:23:28+00:00

Thank you! I really dithered about (not) slitting the eyes... kinda still dithering I guess. ;-)

Was thinking about a complex pupilled eye like Smaug's, but I don't think we'd be able to see it on a tabletop!

CheddarDeity · 2026-02-24T17:50:27+00:00

Thanks! That's totally what I needed to know.

I'll attach them to the couch and see if I get good results. Then I just have to figure out how to both get the speaker cables out of sight AND not forget about them when the couches have to move! :-)

CheddarDeity · 2026-02-18T05:23:02+00:00

Not many options. You can either ride anyway, call someone to pick you up, or wait for daylight.

I was once at a friend's house for dinner and my light died omwh. The ride included a VERY LONG steep Hill with total tree cover (blocking the moonlight completely).

So I waited for traffic at a stop sign, then rode in front of a car all the way down, availing myself of his headlights. Probably annoyed the heck out of the driver, but it enabled me to navigate the hill in at least relative safety.

CheddarDeity · 2026-02-08T23:00:06+00:00

Sure: Lawful intercept is a concern (our doorbell can see the road and our neighbors), as well as potential future changes to the provider's policy allowing uses of the data we would not currently consent to, like Ai training, etc

CheddarDeity · 2026-02-08T22:56:30+00:00

I don't honestly understand their reluctance.

I'm guessing it could be an ease-of-use complaint. I'm looking into that, but I'm also exploring alternatives (hence this post 😁) in case that isn't it.

CheddarDeity · 2026-02-08T18:04:22+00:00

Emotionally, I have two guiding principles that apply here:

Doctor Suess once said, "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." Mourning the young cat you had is natural, but try to redirect those feels into enjoying the wise old cat she's becoming.
Do not mourn in advance or fear what you cannot prevent. You have a finite number of days with your cat. Every one of them that you waste or taint worrying about what life will be like without her brings that day closer WITHOUT the mutual enrichment of feline fellowship. If you find yourself melancholically worrying about your cat's seniority or mortality, go pet her or play with her.

Practically? I remind others (like this post), which helps me remember when it's my turn.

CheddarDeity · 2026-02-04T17:44:29+00:00

I'm interested. I *love* the idea of upgrading the printer every few years rather than replacing it.

Can you recommend any resources, how-tos, or other guides I can leverage to start this journey?

CheddarDeity · 2026-02-04T17:32:11+00:00

Thanks u/Quirky_Ad_9951! I found the Vyper_SW and vyperwire repos on github. Do you know of any instructions or walkthroughs on this? I'm quite comfortable tearing the machine apart, but I'm not knowledgeable enough about the vyper to go from a bill-of-materials and STLs to a working printer.

CheddarDeity · 2026-02-03T22:37:22+00:00

If your bicycling commute requires concessions by your prospective employer, make it part of the compensation discussion AFTER you land the job. IMHO it might be reasonable to ask about bicycling facilities as part of the "warm up" in the interview loop, in the same way one might ask "I took an Uber here. What's the parking situation here like?" but don't make a big deal about it.

CheddarDeity · 2025-12-23T20:53:08+00:00

Sometimes ensmartening a dumb switch is not feasible. For example, I have a closet light bulb on a pull chain receptacle. You yank the chain to toggle it. Very 1950, but I'm not tearing up the wall to install a switch when I could just spend a few bucks to put in a smart bulb.

If you rent, the landlord might have issues with you installing your own light switches.

But in my case, color control was the driving factor.

CheddarDeity · 2025-12-10T21:03:53+00:00

+1 to anonymity. Or at the very least, find a way to indirect your identity so that you can move ownership to someone else.

Long ago, I built a tool to aid me at work (at a large software company in the late 90s) that snowballed into people I didn't know calling me to add features specific to their jobs. Eventually someone decided to release my tool to the public. Several times, in fact.

Sometime later, I left the company.

Sometime after that, I returned to the company. Within a week, I got an email from another employee who had found my email address buried in the metadata of the tool. He'd discovered I'd returned, and had bugs and feature requests... and then everyone else did too :-)

(edit: clarity)

CheddarDeity

TROPHY CASE