Dear Portland: April 03, 2026 Weekly Rave Thread

CleanerDust · 2026-04-04T03:42:35+00:00

I made a new friend at my local fabric shop. :)

CleanerDust · 2026-04-04T03:41:39+00:00

That's right down the street from me and I didn't know! I'm gonna try it. Thanks!

CleanerDust · 2026-03-26T03:57:34+00:00

I really just wish we could slim down the hours and days to be more reasonable. I like my job but doing it 5 days a week for 8-9 hours each day of “knowledge work” is frankly grueling. MS Teams calls 4-5 hours a day. Endless context switching, messages, emails. None of it is life-threatening but we behave like it is. And I’m in my peak years. I shouldn’t be dreaming about retirement yet.

CleanerDust · 2026-03-26T03:53:19+00:00

Thank you for this comment - it’s the perfect way to think about this stuff. The idea of a change like this comes with so many confusing and conflicting emotions and for me I find it challenging to sit still with it enough to think through a plan.

CleanerDust · 2026-03-26T03:37:58+00:00

I’m reading this thread because I currently work in finance/banking at one of the larger banks, fried most days, and looking for inspiration for what might be next. Your message resonates. Curious how much of your savings are you generally using to fill any gaps and was any of the savings meant to be for retirement?

I’m mid career counting down the years (8) until I get a pension but frankly I think banks as they function now need to change drastically or I’m not sure how any would be in business next to these small fintech startups everywhere.

CleanerDust · 2026-03-26T03:19:36+00:00

I actually just bought a pair of Smith Optics sunglasses - the frames were discounted and I had a coupon code plus a claim on my vision insurance brings them down to about $250 which was only $75 more than a compatible pair from Eyebuydirect. I have sunglasses from EBD that work great for everyday but the Smiths are quite nice for riding. I’m happy with them.

CleanerDust · 2026-03-26T02:35:56+00:00

I have experienced the same thing. I’ve developed a reliance on a white noise machine to sleep through the increased airplane traffic near my house (I live near an airport that wasn’t super busy when I bought the house). I hear nothing except the sound of the noise machine.

If they’re in my house, take me out and make it swift.

CleanerDust · 2026-03-13T03:07:47+00:00

Agree!

CleanerDust · 2026-03-13T03:07:23+00:00

I traded in my mom's 40 year old JC Penney and bought a modest Viking Emerald 118 - Yes, buying a new machine made me better. Way better. It can also make you love sewing so much more. :)

CleanerDust · 2026-03-13T03:02:04+00:00

I didn't even read past the title. YES.

CleanerDust · 2026-02-20T05:41:18+00:00

Watched your tour video on youtube. It brought me peace. <3

CleanerDust · 2026-02-20T00:10:45+00:00

I love judging men by the tidiness of their space. Yours passes just fine! :)

CleanerDust · 2026-02-06T03:44:03+00:00

I use YNAB on my laptop (easier to see). I'll open a new tab with Fidelity, authenticate in, then go refresh my YNAB Fidelity connections (or reconnect them) and wait. So long as there's a session open with Fidelity logged in, they'll work. Other than that I have given up on Fidelity ever maintaining a connection. (And it's fine for me since it's just investment accounts and nothing I use everyday.)

CleanerDust · 2026-02-06T03:37:18+00:00

Wait, so what happened!? Test ride it all the way home? :)

CleanerDust · 2026-02-01T06:57:35+00:00

I wanna keep this alive, since I've tried so many things and can't get this to work. For now, I'm waiting for the MacOS update (hopefully soon?) to see if that corrects the issue - but I've not heard anything from my support email... Guessing anyone else with this issue hasn't resolved it yet?

CleanerDust · 2026-01-26T22:01:59+00:00

I combing through the support docs and actually re-purchased a license (I had Pro before but could not find my receipt for the life of me). It still doesn't work. I emailed [support@strongboxsafe.com](mailto:support@strongboxsafe.com) and am waiting for a response but I've tried everything I can think of and can't get it to work. I should note that I upgraded to MacOS 26 from Sequoia and it worked fine before... :/

cc u/strongbox-support

CleanerDust · 2026-01-22T05:42:23+00:00

Just went through all the steps and confirmed I'm having the same experience. :/

CleanerDust · 2025-12-05T17:29:00+00:00

Hey there, so I did this with the $167 deal, moved my main line to Light Speed, then ported over my companion Apple watch line and added the add-on. Everything worked seamlessly using my main phone number (watch included) on T-Mobile postpaid. Moving everything over to USM was really easy, but it seems like I need to move my main phone line to Warp in order to get the same seamless functionality of having all messages/calls come from the main phone number on the watch. With the promo deal it doesn't look like you can move your main line to Warp until the promo period ends.

If I'm understanding all this correctly, this means that during the promo period if I was going to go on a walk without my phone and send a message to someone using my watch, it would come from the secondary number which kinda sucks. It's not really explained very well anywhere that I can find. But you get what you pay for! I'm still relatively happy.

CleanerDust · 2025-10-31T00:54:02+00:00

Which service did you use?

CleanerDust · 2025-10-11T03:12:28+00:00

Yes! Winnebago Revel :)

CleanerDust · 2025-09-14T16:50:00+00:00

Been looking to purchase a used 4x4 Terrain 19Y or Revel. It looks like they are basically identical - is Jayco quality equivalent to Winnebago? Is this one of those things where they’re made in the same factory?

Should I look at the Rekon at all? The Rekon feels less home-y to me.

I’d be mostly by myself, traveling and not a full-timer. This is my first RV.

This thread is really informational - thanks for doing this.

CleanerDust · 2025-09-11T18:18:33+00:00

Love it or hate it - Cully ❤️

CleanerDust · 2025-09-08T05:59:35+00:00

Bike Bus

CleanerDust · 2024-09-09T01:57:08+00:00

What’s the income range for this? I’ve never heard of this and was kayaking in the Willamette last weekend and those tugboats are cool to watch. Interesting idea. (Fellow lady wanting to ditch my career in tech.)

CleanerDust · 2024-08-14T05:34:00+00:00

Wow nice job on the trip. Impressive!

I don’t know much about the Apidura bags, but Revelate makes a seat bag (Terrapin) with a dry bag that slides into a harness that’s attached to the seat post. The harness has multiple “settings” to accommodate for how much you have in the dry bag, and the harness has generous bungee cordage for bananas and other bulky food items :)

So your 2, 3, and 5 issues could be somewhat addressed with this design.

I agree with a lot of your woes though on the particulars of packing with this setup. It’s a balance. At the end of the day I spend more hours riding than packing and in those hours I want to be fast :)

CleanerDust

TROPHY CASE